By JOSEPH KELLARD
Gaynor, a mother of four, was among the 495 village residents who gave the measure a thumbs-up, while 137 voters opposed it.
"If we voted every year, then people might begin to sway to Long Beach," said Gaynor, who had favored keeping Island Park students at West Hempstead High.
If the residents who voted no at Lincoln Orens Middle School on March 18 had prevailed, state law would have automatically required a one-year contract with both Long Beach and West Hempstead, to be revisited by voters again next year.
With last week's vote, Island Park became the only Nassau County school district to offer parents and students an option to choose between high schools. The district - which has an elementary and middle school but no high school - has an average of 300 high school students each year. Since 1967 Island Park has sent them to West Hempstead, seven miles away, but in September the current eighth-graders will be the first to divide up between Long Beach and West Hempstead. Some 27 of them are expected to start their high school careers at Long Beach, while 41 will attend West Hempstead, and 12 will opt for private schools.
Last Tuesday's vote followed a series of heated board and committee meetings held last year in Island Park, Long Beach and West Hempstead, focusing on whether to send Island Park students to West Hempstead or Long Beach High. Island Park and West Hempstead's latest five-year contract will expire in June, and each time the expiration date has approached, Island Park has sent letters to more than a dozen surrounding school districts to see if they would consider taking its high school students. Usually, West Hempstead and Long Beach express interest, and they were the only districts to do so last year.
As each contract has neared expiration and Island Park has received responses, it formed a high school study committee to consider the options. Last year, when the Board of Education received emotionally charged feedback from both pro-Long Beach and pro-West Hempstead parents, trustees decided that the best solution was to propose dual contracts, giving parents the option to choose between the two high schools. In December, the board voted 5-0 in favor of two contracts.
"I think we made a good decision in choosing choice," said board President Diana Caracciolo after the election results were announced last week. "And I think the vote numbers indicate that the people decided it was a good idea, too."
Chris Fabris, who plans to send his children - a 2-year-old and a newborn expected in June - to Long Beach High School someday, said, "I'm thrilled that we have an opportunity for five years that we haven't had in 40."
Fabris said he believes he and other like-minded Island Parkers "worked the margin of vote" in the weeks and days leading up to March 18, doing everything from sending out mass e-mails to posting fliers and stuffing mailboxes around town, encouraging people to vote, and to cast theirs for a five-year contract.
While the district is unable to break down how pro-Long Beach and pro-West Hempstead parents voted on the proposition, Fabris speculated that among those who wanted the five-year contract, the majority favored Long Beach. "The other side knows that they have West Hempstead basically forever," he said. "We know that no matter what, if Long Beach failed, West Hempstead is there, they need us. So those people would not take the time to run out and vote objectively, because it's a no-brainer. So the people who really got out were out for change, and that's Long Beach."
Gaynor, however, is among the pro-West Hempstead parents who thought the vote for a five-year contract was the only way to continue at West Hempstead, and she said that most parents on both sides favored dual contracts. "Some of the school board members wanted to change that," Gaynor said, "and that's not what the people wanted. And the people really talked to themselves today, and that was good."
While the Herald was unable to persuade residents who voted against the five-year contract to speak publicly, even anonymously, Fabris believes most of them are older residents or parents whose children graduated from high school long ago. "They're probably people who believe that, somehow and some way, it's going to hurt us in taxes," Fabris said. "But it's not going to raise taxes."
Island Park School Superintendent Ed Price confirmed that the decision to go with dual contracts would not raise taxes for Island Park residents, and Steve Foster, the school board's senior member, said that the five-year contract would provide "good planning" for student programs, something a one-year contract would have made more difficult. "We have choice now, and hopefully everybody is happy," Foster said. "That's the main thing."
Looking ahead, Caracciolo said she hopes that the board and district will continue to have support for their decision to allow school choice. "I hope ... that everybody that was in favor, or just want to see [the five-year contract] go on, are still there when we need them, [and] support it - and our kids - wherever they are," she said.
Due to the Easter recess, Long Beach school administrators and board members were unavailable for comment.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
