JANUARY
Blaze guts Lawrence home
A space heater may have been responsible for a Jan. 11 fire that ripped through a Hards Lane home in Lawrence, leaving a family of five homeless, officials said.
The heater, which was being used to warm up the home at 123 Hards Lane during frigid single-digit weather, may have tipped over at about 12:30 a.m., setting fire to the upstairs study of the two-story, single-family home, officials said.
Although the blaze was not believed to be suspicious, the cause of the fire was still under investigation, authorities said.
Basha Mindell and her husband, Zalman, who were downstairs, awakened their three children, Malka, 6, Bracha, 4, and Chaya Sara, 7 months, in their downstairs bedroom shortly after the fire broke out. All five escaped unharmed. The blaze destroyed the second floor of the house and half of the first floor, making the building uninhabitable, officials said.
Crime tumbles in 5T
Led by an appreciable decrease in felonious assault, serious crime in the Five Towns plummeted more than 23 percent from 2002 to 2003.
The number of major crimes fell from 313, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2002, to 240 for the same 12-month span last year, according to statistics released by Fourth Precinct police.
The number of assaults registered the most noticeable drop, from 73 to 24, a whopping 67 percent decline.
Baco Boys saluted
Braving near zero-degree temperatures, more than 1,000 spectators and more than 100 swimmers arrived at the Hewlett High School pool on Saturday night, Jan. 10, to take part in a fitting memorial tribute to Jordan Satin, Jonah Richman and Adam Cohen.
The three 2002 Hewlett High School graduates drowned in a river in the Adirondacks on Aug. 12, 2003, as they tried to rescue a fellow camp counselor, David Altschuler, who accidentally slipped and fell into the raging waters. All four, who were spending the summer as counselors at Camp Baco in Minerva, N.Y., died. They were known as the Baco Boys for their summers spent at the camp.
The swimmers arrived from Florida, Maine and California to pay tribute to the Baco Boys.
Are fire escapes safe?
The poor condition of the Number Five School fire escapes was a disaster in the making, according to Sam Donato, interim assistant superintendent for business.
During the Jan. 13 school board meeting at Lawrence Middle School, Donato stressed the need to immediately replace or repair the fire escapes at the Cedarhurst school, after a recent inspection showed them to be very dangerous. Donato said it would cost $550,000 to replace the fire escapes.
Annual visual-inspection reports were completed by an architect, a code-enforcement officer and a fire inspector last fall and the school was given a Certificate of Occupancy, but the fire marshal said the fire escapes were in less than satisfactory condition, have a maximum three-year life span and must be taken care of soon, according to Donato.
Residents deal
with brutal winter
Snow accumulations combined with bitterly cold temperatures over two weeks in mid-January kept village officials busy clearing roads and preventing streets from icing over.
More than six inches of snow that fell on Thursday, Jan. 15 forced the cancellation of school across Nassau County, including in the Lawrence and Hewlett-Woodmere school districts.
School officials said they wanted to err on the side of caution, since forcing students to make their way to school would put their safety in jeopardy.
In addition, temperatures hovered just above zero on the night before the snow and the next night, with a wind chill dipping at times to 25 below zero.
Village officials said they realized that if they did not act quickly, their roads would turn into ice ponds by Friday morning.
4 make Intel cut
Four area students were among 300 named Intel semifinalists on Jan. 14. A total of 1,627 applicants from 527 high schools nationwide entered the competition, informally known as the junior Nobel Prize.
The local semifinalists were Michelle Forman, 17, a student at Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls in Hewlett Bay Park; Marisa Mann, 17, from Hewlett High School; Gene Sussman, 17, from Lawrence High School; and Jonathan Hefter, 18, from Davis Renov Stahler High School for Boys in Woodmere. Each received $1,000 in scholarship money and a matching amount for their schools.
Forty finalists were announced on Jan. 29, competing for $530,000 in prizes, including a $100,000 scholarship for the first-place winner and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in mid-March.
It marked the first time in the 10-year history of the school that SKA could claim an Intel semifinalist, after having many Siemens Westinghouse winners during the past few years.
It was the 10th straight year that Lawrence had an Intel semi-finalist.
Super named at H-W
Months after Dr. Charles Fowler announced that he would step down as superintendent of the Hewlett-Woodmere School District, the school board went to Iowa to find the district's next leader.
At the Jan. 21 Hewlett-Woodmere school board meeting, the board unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Les Omotani, superintendent of the West Des Moines Community Schools for the past eight years, as the district's new superintendent. He assumed the post on July 1.
Omotani's contract is for five years, at an annual salary of $230,000, an increase of $72,545 over the $157,455 he earned in Iowa. The new salary is the same as Fowler's.
Omotani, 51, said that despite the fact that the West Des Moines district has more than twice as many students as Hewlett-Woodmere, there are many similarities between the two suburban school systems.
Omotani was selected from among four finalists after the board had narrowed the field down from more than 30 applicants.
FEBRUARY
LPS super pitches
consolidation plan
Lawrence Public Schools Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons announced details of a proposal to consolidate the district from seven schools to six in a letter to faculty and staff on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
The original plan involved converting the Number One, Two and Five schools from the current grades 1 through 5 to 1 through 6, turning the Number Six School in Woodmere into a middle school and converting the current middle school into the high school. The current high school building, on Reilly Road in Cedarhurst, could be used for district administrative offices, Fitzsimons said at the time.
The preliminary plan called for the reassignment of the roughly 200 students at the Number Six School in Woodmere to the remaining three elementary school buildings in September 2005, completing the conversion of the Number One, Two and Five schools into grades 1 through 6. During that time, the Number Six School would undergo the repairs and renovations necessary for it to become the new middle school. Once the renovations are completed, around January 2006, students in grades 7 and 8 would move into the Number Six School.
From January to September 2006, there would be a complete renovation of the present middle school building to prepare it to house grades 9 through 12 as the new high school. Once that move is completed, the central administrative offices would move into the current Lawrence High School in Cedarhurst
Residents: Halt 878 land sale
Fearing overdevelopment of Route 878, residents attempted to block the Feb. 18 public auction of a nearly 17,000-square-foot vacant plot of state-owned land in Lawrence.
More than 100 residents signed a petition to force the cancellation of the auction of the state Department of Transportation site, a vacant parcel on the northeast corner of Doughty Boulevard and Central Avenue, running alongside Route 878. Signatures were obtained from residents in the Five Towns, across Nassau County and Far Rockaway. The petition urged state elected officials, including Gov. George Pataki, Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach), to stop the Feb. 18 auction of the surplus land. The bidding on the property would start at $257,000.
Residents said they want to keep the property as open space or put it to use as a commuter parking lot for Long Island Rail Road riders, since it is so close to the Inwood train station. The state should also keep the property for possible use for future highway improvements, they said.
LPS OKs consolidation study
The first step in possibly consolidating the Lawrence Public Schools from seven to six was taken on Tuesday, Feb. 10, when the school board unanimously approved an authorization by superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons to conduct a feasibility study that will not cost more than $10,000.
The study would explore the possibility of a phased-in plan that would convert the Number One, Two and Five Schools from the current grades 1-5 into grades 1-6, turn the Number Six School in Woodmere into the new middle school and use the current middle school as the site for the high school. The high school would then be used for administrative offices and possibly leased space.
Some Number Six School parents showed up at the meeting to express concern over Fitzsimons' possible consolidation plan, even though it was only in the preliminary stages, and they agreed that some sort of consolidation was needed in the district.
Inwood development blasted
Inwood residents fought a proposal by the county to build an affordable-housing development on Harris Avenue, saying it would pose a danger to the children who attend the nearby Number Four School and that the area is already congested by similar housing.
The county-owned parcel is a vacant triangular site on the northwest corner of Harris and Redwood avenues, bordering an undeveloped portion of the Nassau Expressway, also known as Route 878. The land measures 22,230 square feet and is zoned Residential B. County officials said three homes could be built on the land, each on a 6,000-square-foot lot, with two of the homes needing variances for minor setback requirements.
County officials said they are trying to expand home-ownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income households in Inwood and the surrounding communities, and to provide grants and loans to subsidize the renovation, construction and purchase of the homes. The county's office of Real Estate, Planning and Development requested suitable developers to apply for qualifications and proposals, which were due March 5.
But at a Inwood Civic Association meeting, members said they opposed the construction project.
Hewlett yeshiva proposal debated
Neighbors and fire department officials voiced strong opposition during a hearing over a proposal to convert a storage facility at 1199 Railroad Ave. in Hewlett into the new home for the Reenas Bais Yaakov School for Girls.
During the continuation of a hearing before the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals on Feb. 11, several residents expressed concern that opening a school in the congested area and next to the Hewlett firehouse on Franklin Avenue would pose safety risks for residents and children.
The yeshiva was seeking a waiver of the necessary parking requirements before the building could be converted.
If the proposal for the new yeshiva site were approved, the all-girls high school would have increased enrollment to 200 from the 50 students who attended classes at Young Israel of Hewlett, at 1 Piermont Ave.
Representatives of the yeshiva have argued that as a religious and educational institution, they have a legal right to operate at that site. The hearing ended after the zoning board heard a total of nearly 12 hours of testimony stretching over two days in an 11-month period.
HAFTR gymnasium approved
After a nearly four-year legal battle, Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) High School was given approval to build a new 500-seat basketball gymnasium, spelled out in a written decision by the Village of Cedarhurst Board of Zoning Appeals.
The approval also gave HAFTR the go-ahead to build six new classrooms and new administrative offices.
Many of the school's neighbors voiced objections to the planned gym during the hearing process.
The approval given to the Cedarhurst yeshiva is for a third modified plan, which was presented to the zoning board at a Sept. 25, 2003, hearing. The only change to the plan presented at that hearing was the village's request that the expanded school is set back 20 feet from Central Avenue, instead of 15. The plan, which was designed by the Manhattan firm of Caon Design, locates the gym in front of the school, and would involve knocking down a rental house on Grove Avenue, which HAFTR owns. That would create 25 new parking spaces, helping to alleviate some of the parking and traffic concerns raised by neighbors.
Tackling oil mess
The site of the former Eagle Oil Co. in Inwood, a business that spurred the state to assess one of its highest penalties ever for environmental violations, was being cleaned up after a neighborhood company took over the property. South Island Industries Inc., a construction and debris recycling plant that operated at 2 Rason Road in Inwood, bought the barge-accessible waterfront property at 1 Sheridan Blvd. The new owners went right to work, preparing to clean up the environmental mess left behind by Eagle Oil, which was fined a record $3.5 million in July 1998 after the company racked up 97 major violations in a four-year period. Eagle Oil was ranked the sixth-worst polluter in New York and New Jersey from 1995 to 1998, and the state ordered the facility to shut down.
MARCH
Hewlett native
wins Oscar
Hewlett native Errol Morris, a movie producer and director, captured an Oscar at the 76th annual Academy Awards held on Sunday, Feb. 29.
Morris's film, "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara," is a documentary on the former secretary of defense, who served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and subsequently became president of the World Bank. The film combines an interview with McNamara, in which he discusses some of the tragedies and glories of the 20th century. It features an original score by Philip Glass.
This was the first Academy Award nomination for the 56-year-old Morris, a nonfiction director. Prior to the McNamara profile, Morris was best known for his controversial 1988 feature, "The Thin Blue Line," an investigation of the 1976 murder of a Dallas policeman, which Morris helped solve by using unorthodox film techniques to help dramatize the facts.
Fighting it out at HHS
Hewlett High School senior Alisha Patrick, 16, was charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, after she was accused of assaulting fellow student Evan Kagan, 16, with a ballpoint pen. Patrick's father claims the incident followed two months of harassment directed at her in a case rife with racial overtones. Charges against Patrick were eventually dropped in November.
The girl was arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead on Feb. 25 and pleaded not guilty to the charge. She was released on her own recognizance. If convicted, she could have faced up to a year in jail.
Police said Kagan was stabbed with the pen on the top of his head and in his chest, and a witness said he was also punched in the head and kicked in the groin. The boy's mother said the pen was thrust into his chest with such force that it pierced a heavy down jacket and two shirts he was wearing. He was taken to a private physician for treatment of his wounds.
Defense attorney Kevin Palmeri said the girl was protecting herself against the boy, whom, he said, was the aggressor.
LPS consolidation
plan questioned
A large crowd attended the Lawrence school board meeting on Feb. 24, including many parents and teachers who voiced displeasure over superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons' feasibility study, which explored the possible consolidation of the district from seven schools to six.
The meeting drew such a huge turnout that when some 100 people tried to crowd into the 72-seat Lawrence Middle School boardroom, the school board was forced to move the meeting to the school's auditorium.
Number Six School parents Lisa Manuel, Flora Chen and Number Six School Co-PTA president Marguerite Engleman all voiced concerns over the proposal to close the Number Six School. Teachers also raised educational concerns at the meeting. They wondered how the possible changes would affect the curriculum for the elementary-school students.
Regents' scores rise
Students at both Lawrence High School and Hewlett High School showed vast improvement on the English and Math A Regents exams, which were administered in January, according to results released by school officials. Lawrence recorded a 12 percentage-point increase in English and 8 percentage-point jump in Math A, while Hewlett students registered a 98 percent passing rate in both Math A and English.
In Lawrence, 93 percent of the 335 students who took the English Regents received a passing mark of 65 or better, a 12 percentage-point increase from the 2003 results, when 81 percent of the 258 students who took the test passed.
On the Math A Regents, 94 percent of the 129 Lawrence students who took the test passed. Last June, the test was the subject of controversy and was criticized by many for having defects and being too difficult, producing poor results statewide.
Hewlett's 98 percent passing rate in Math A, which was taken by 244 students this January, is a 6 percentage-point jump from January 2003, when 92 percent scored 65 or better on the high-stakes exam.
Lawrence battle brews
In an unprecedented move, the Nominations Committee of the Lawrence Association unanimously decided and planned to endorse Lawrence Village Trustee Simon Felder for mayor over incumbent Dr. Jack Levenbrown at the association's March 17 meeting, according to the organization's newsletter.
In a phone interview, Felder named a diverse group of people who supported his mayoral candidacy, including present and former village officials.
Felder said that if Levenbrown were to be re-elected, Village Administrator Peter Overs and other village workers would retire. However, Overs said that whoever was elected mayor on July 1 would not affect his decision about whether to retire. Levenbrown reacted angrily to reports that Overs and other village workers would leave if he were re-elected.
Lawrence Village
slate rejected
In a surprise move, the Lawrence Association's Board of Governors rejected the slate of candidates for the Village of Lawrence, which had been hand-picked by the group's Nominations Committee, sending the association back to the drawing board after a long and drawn-out process.
The board voted down the slate in a secret vote at the association's March 17 meeting, held at Lawrence Village Country Club before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 in the club's ballroom.
Lawrence Association President Rabbi Rafael Saffra would not reveal the exact results of the voting, but indicated that it was very close. The vote wiped out the work of the Nominations Committee, which had endorsed village Trustee Simon Felder for mayor over incumbent Dr. Jack Levenbrown in the June election.
The March 17 vote was taken in secret after Saffra made a controversial decision right before the vote, yielding to pressure from many association members to bypass the article of the group's constitution that called for open voting.
Throughout the meeting, support was expressed for Levenbrown, including a strong endorsement in a letter from renowned defense attorney Benjamin Brafman.
Three principals to retire
Three longtime Lawrence principals announced plans to retire after the 2003-2004 school year. Dr. Steven Kussin, principal of Lawrence High School; Gerald Goldsmith, principal of the Number Five School in Cedarhurst; and Yvonne Nicholas, principal of the Number Four School in Inwood, all announced their retirements, effective July 1.
Kussin's retirement will come after a total of 21 years as principal, the last 10 at Lawrence. Number Four School Principal Yvonne Nicholas, retiring after 34 years in education, came aboard in District 15 in 1994, the same year as Kussin.
Goldsmith has been principal of the Cedarhurst school since 1996. Under his leadership, the school boasted higher test scores, ranking first among the district's elementary schools on the 2003 fourth-grade English Language Arts and math exams.
Tenants fight eviction
More than 60 residents of the Bayview Terrace Gardens apartment complex in Inwood showed up at the Five Towns Community Center in North Lawrence on March 23, for a meeting hosted by Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside), to express concerns over their uncertain futures after they received a letter recently saying their leases would not be renewed when they expire in August.
David Shemano purchased the building from Goodstein Reality on Nov. 18, 2003.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development administers Section 8 rent subsidization for the many low-income tenants in the complex. These tenants spend about 30 percent of their income on rent.
It was explained to the residents that if the owner eliminates Section 8 housing from the building, those tenants will be provided with vouchers from the county, which they may use in other Section 8 housing elsewhere, or they may remain in the building and pay higher rents. The residents who receive the vouchers will not be put on a waiting list for other Section 8 housing, officials said.
Lawrence scraps
consolidation plan
Less than two months after a feasibility study was launched to explore consolidating the Lawrence Public Schools from seven buildings to six, the plan was suddenly dropped.
Lawrence Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons announced the decision to quash his plan at the March 23 school board meeting, which drew loud applause from the nearly packed Lawrence Middle School auditorium. Since the consolidation plan was made public in February, parents and district staff members voiced strong opposition to it. Teachers feared losing their jobs and parents expressed concern about the proposal to close the Number Six School in Woodmere.
According to Fitzsimons, after a number of meetings and a walk-through of the Number Six School, it was determined that seventh- and eighth-graders could not be accommodated in the building.
However, the feasibility study would continue and explore which of the five elementary schools would make the most sense to close, according to Fitzsimons. Fitzsimons also said that he eliminated the idea of having the high school enroll grades 7 through 12. That idea, he said, was not met with much support by the stakeholders involved with the feasibility study, which includes parents, teachers and administrators.
APRIL
Teacher arrested
A 24-year old Hewlett man who worked as a music teacher in Brooklyn was arrested for the second time in four days in early April, charged with endangering the welfare of two children in his class after he allegedly tried to hang them by the loops of their clothing on a metal hook in a coat closet, officials said.
Jason Schoenberger of Peninsula Boulevard, was re-arrested on Thursday, April 1, for the first of two incidents that occurred on March 25, police said. Authorities called the incident, in which Schoenberger tried to hang up 5-year old Taysir Mack in the closet, an "impractical" joke on another teacher.
Schoenberger was first arrested where he works at PS. 279 on east 104th Street in Canarsie, Brooklyn, shortly after 10 a.m. on March 29, after he pulled the stunt on another 5-year old student, Imhotep Lubin, police said.
Schoenberger pled guilty to disorderly conduct on July 30 and received a conditional discharge for a one-year probation, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. If Schoenberger fulfills his requirements for the one year, the case will be dropped, officials said.
Dog-napper sought
Someone stole a 10-week-old Yorkshire Terrier from its cage at PetWorks, on Rockaway Turnpike in North Lawrence, on April 9, and the managers were so concerned about the animal's health that they said they would not press charges if it were safely returned.
A manager, who did not want to be identified, stressed that since the animal is so young, it needs to be fed a high-calorie vitamin supplement every three hours or it could develop a low blood-sugar condition, hypoglycemia, and slip into a coma. It could have a seizure or go into shock, the PetWorks manager said.
The store also offered a reward for the safe return of the terrier, but the amount of the reward was not disclosed. The puppy is worth about $1,800, the manager said.
No. 4 School targeted for closing
Only weeks after abandoning a proposal to close the Number Six School in Woodmere, Lawrence Schools Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons proposed a new consolidation plan, which would close the Number Four School in Inwood.
More than 100 District 15 residents gathered for a consolidation forum in the Lawrence Middle School auditorium April 14 to complain about the new plan.
Dr. Fitzsimons said the administration was leaning toward closing the early-childhood center and moving the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students into the remaining elementary schools. Several parents expressed concerns about the possibility of kindergartners taking the same buses as fifth-graders. They said they were worried about the safety of their 5- and 6-year-old children if they attend the same school with students four to five years older. Fitzsimons also said the existing early-childhood program, which has been a model for other districts, would be maintained despite the proposed school closing.
Double tragedy hits LPS
A standing-room-only crowd of more than 500 mourners gathered at a Far Rockaway church on Sunday evening, April 18 to say a sad farewell to Inwood residents Elizabeth Naves, a fourth-grader at the Number Two School, and her father, Manuel, a custodian at the Lawrence Middle School.
The Lawrence school district was hit with a double tragedy over the spring break vacation when, on April 8, the father and daughter were killed in a car accident while visiting family in San Salvador, El Salvador, where they lived before emigrating to the U.S. The tragedy came as a shock to District 15 students and employees when they came back to school after the break, on April 14. Both the Number Two School and the middle school made arrangements to help the students and staff deal with the tragedy.
Fitzsimons: Say 'yes' to budget
Asserting that the Lawrence school district could not withstand another budget defeat which would plunge the district into a real crisis, schools superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons appealed to voters to vote for the 2004-05 proposed $87.3 million package on Tuesday, May 18.
The school board unanimously adopted the 2004-05 proposed budget at a workshop on Tuesday, April 20. Using a slide show, Dr. Fitzsimons spelled out how crucial it is for the budget to be passed.
By being forced onto austerity for the 2003-04 school year, the district had to deplete its reserve account, which is earmarked for workers' compensation and unemployment costs. The austerity, or contingency, budget resulted in the loss of elementary school library programs and high school elective course offerings, district administrators said. No new equipment was purchased, and the ability to upgrade computers and software was hampered. The district was also forced to spend $1.7 million to replace fire escapes and the Lawrence Middle School roof, since a $20 million bond was defeated twice last year.
Officials said the district would be forced to eliminate the use of school buildings and fields after school hours and on weekends for all groups. Students would be directly affected, since textbooks, library books and computer software would be cut, as well as health and welfare services for all public and non-public school students, district officials said.
Candidates file for May elections
Hewlett-Woodmere and Lawrence school board candidates filed papers for the May 18 election.
In Lawrence, Penny Schuster, Shlomo Huttler and Stanley Kopilow filed papers challenging incumbents Dr. David Sussman, Pam Greenbaum and Dr. Asher Mansdorf, respectively. In Hewlett-Woodmere incumbent Stephanie Gould and newcomers Harold Kislik and Steven Arons announced runs for two available seats in at-large election system. One of the two seats was open because Board of Education President Richard Braverman, who has held the position since 1991, announced he was retiring in July after serving 21 years on the board.
Ex-PLO terrorist speaks at yeshiva
A former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization told students at Rambam Mesivta High School in Lawrence that he grew up brainwashed into believing Jews were converts of monkeys and prophet-killers.
Walid Shoebat addressed the yeshiva students during a visit to the school on April 30 where he was invited to speak. The 43-year-old Shoebat, who lives in northern California, is a PLO militant-turned-peacemaker who was touring the country on speaking engagements, saying he has grown to love the Jewish people and Israel and that the Arabs and Muslims are wrong.
Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, dean of Rambam Mesivta, said that inviting Shoebat to speak at the school is by no means the school's way of condoning Shoebat's behavior as a member of the PLO. He said the aim of the visit was to shed light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and hopefully save lives.
Trustee under attack
Three weeks before the Lawrence school board elections, conflict of interest allegations were leveled against a long-time board member who was up for re-election on May 18.
During the April 27 school board meeting, incumbent Trustee Dr. David Sussman and his family were accused of accepting a $40,000 athletic scholarship for Sussman's son, Adam, a 2003 Lawrence High School graduate who at the time was finishing his freshman year at Yale. Annette Robbins of North Woodmere said Sussman did not deserve to be awarded the Francis Levett Varsity Athletic Scholarship last year, even though he was on the track team. Coincidentally, Robbins said, the school board awarded a new contract to Independent Coach - which hands out the athletic award - to service the school district before the scholarship was awarded to Sussman's son.
Lawrence Athletic Director Patrick Pizzarelli, who was in charge of handing out and sending in the applications for the scholarship, said he was very upset about what was said at the meeting. Pizzarelli said he tried to approach Robbins after the meeting to explain why the scholarship was awarded to Sussman, and she allegedly responded, "Get out of my face."
Dr. Sussman responded angrily to Robbins' remarks after she spoke, saying that all contracts given to Independent Coach were voted on unanimously and that no money was spent on illegal busing. He also said that his son did participate in athletics and has varsity letters to prove it. He also explained that the scholarship was awarded to students who participated in sports and excelled academically, and was not only based on athletic ability.
