By Nicole Falco
"This seems to be an issue growing in the community to near crisis levels," said Dr. Ronald Valenti, superintendent of schools for the Valley Stream High School District.
Valenti and district principals, administrators and board members were joined by representatives from districts 13, 24 and 30 as well as Valley Stream Mayor Ed Cahill, Justice Robert Bogle and Town of Hempstead Councilman James Darcy. Residents filed into Central High School's Keller Auditorium to hear from the four districts and the village not only what has been done about the problem so far but also to inquire about a future plan.
Since July, a full-time residency inspector, Nick Luciano, has been working for the high school district and District 13 to screen prospective students' applications for any indication that they might not reside in the district.
According to the district, Luciano's efforts have resulted in the rejection of 130 applicants out of 410 who tried to register. In District 13, 15 applicants were denied admission, 11 took home an application but never returned it and six students already attending school were investigated and found to be attending school illegally.
In the high school district alone, Luciano's investigations have saved almost $1.9 million based on the average cost to educate a student, $14,499. Luciano, a retired police detective, identifies information gaps on students' applications and conducts home surveillance to determine their eligibility. The district also contracted with a security firm to help conduct surveillance.
The amount of money saved is particularly impressive in light of Luciano's salary of approximately $50,000, $40,000 paid by the high school district and $10,000 paid by District 13.
Those figures prompted the questions from residents, "Why do we have only one Nick Luciano?" and "Why isn't he or someone like him working for districts 24 and 30?"
All four districts share information with one another, but districts 24 and 30 have maintained that the presence of illegal students in their districts is not as significant.
"Last summer we re-registered students and found two or three that were questionable," said Dr. Maria Fletcher, a school board trustee for District 30 and the high school district. "The entire process did not show us large numbers [of illegally enrolled students]. We do have a consultant on an as-needed basis. . . . No one wants to educate children that don't live in the district. It is too costly."
In the past, Dr. Edward Fale, superintendent of schools in District 24, has said that because of the small size of his district, students whose residency is questionable tend to become immediately apparent.
Still, Valenti and board members urged residents to bring up the issue at the upcoming budget hearings in each district.
In addition, village officials and Councilman Darcy have been meeting with school officials. The village is concerned with the number of illegal apartments in the community. Families living in illegal apartments, while legally entitled to be educated, are not contributing taxes.
"If there is a homeless student living in a car on a Valley Stream street, we must educate him . . . As long as a child resides within the boundaries of the district, we have the obligation to educate him," said Dr. Lois Colletta, assistant superintendent for administrative and support services for the high school district.
Residents were pleased to hear about the number of students "stopped at the gate," but wanted to know what was being done about students already attending district schools illegally. Parents and residents called for re-registration of students as often as annually.
Luciano explained, "We contracted with New York Security. Through their investigations, just this past week we have sent out five letters to students. Those students are being asked to leave the district.
"Prior to that I sent out 16 letters. Of the 16, three are students who had slipped through [this year] and the rest are students who had been here for a while. We are one by one taking steps to get the students out and sending them letters [stating] that they are no longer welcome in the district."
Residents also wanted to know how the districts could recoup money spent to educate nonresidents and whether parents could be prosecuted for providing false information. In some cases the district has mailed tuition bills, but in most instances they were not acknowledged.
According to David Brodsky, attorney for the high school district, prosecution is at the discretion of the Nassau County district attorney's office, and as for recouping money, collection agencies might view it as "impractical from a costs-benefits analysis."
"If we keep advertising the fact that we are going to make them pay when they catch [students attending illegally], then they'll think twice about registering the kid," said Ike Tress, a resident who frequently attends the high school board meetings.
Residents brought up the neighboring Sewanhaka High School District as an example of a district that actively pursues tuition reimbursement from families of students who attend school illegally. In Sewanhaka's case, the district hired an attorney to handle tuition reimbursement.
Valenti and other school officials welcomed all suggestions from the audience. Valenti said the district plans to continue sharing information, developing a better plan for the summer and exploring the possibilities of recouping tuition and hiring an additional residency inspector.
"It's not a perfect, 100-percent-secure system," Valenti said. "I think that's something we have to acknowledge."
They said it differently, yet many in the audience said the same thing. As one parent, Helen Daly, put it, "I'm glad the steps are positive. Too bad it had to take this long."
High School District Hotline: 872-5677. All callers will remain anonymous
Village Hotline: 825-8242. All callers will remain anonymous
