Franklin Square/Elmont
HERALD liJ wins surgery awards
Football camps postponed
Remembering a legionnaire
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Vol. 22 No. 32
AUGUST 6 - 12, 2020
$1.00
Districts prep for new year
Saying goodbye to ‘John the barber’
Officials propose plans for reopening the schools
John Gigante retired from A Cut Above, on Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont, after 45 years last Saturday. He celebrated with employees Donna DeGiuli, left, and Kathy Chernow. Story, more photos, Page 14.
ule. “With the size of our school populations, we can’t fit everySchool district officials across one into school every day,” New York have spent recent Superintendent James Grossane months mulling their options to said in a video posted to the disreopen schools, while maintain- trict’s website last Friday, ing social distancexplaining that ing guidelines and classrooms can adhering to other accommodate a coronavirus guidmaximum of only ance from Gov. 15 students with Andrew Cuomo. social-distancing T h e y we re re measures in place. quired to submit A ny s t u d e n t their plans to the enrolled in the State Education Life Skills or speDepartment for cial-education proapproval at the gram, including end of July, and the English LanSewanhaka and guage Lear ners Franklin Square JAMeS GRoSSANe Program, could officials publicized Superintendent, attend school in their plans last every day, Sewanhaka Central High person week. and any parents Elmont School School District who did not feel District officials, comfortable sendhowever, were expected to ing their child to school could release their plan to reopen opt for a full remote program schools on Monday, after the Her- with district teachers. Anyone ald went to press. interested in this option must Under Sewanhaka’s proposal, select it on a questionnaire, half of the district’s more than which district officials sent to 8,000 students would learn in parents, by Aug. 10. school one day and remotely the Remote learning, Grossane next, while the other half would said, would comprise live do the opposite. Siblings would instruction on Google Meets, be assigned to the same schedContinued on page 3
By MeliSSA KoeNiG mkoenig@liherald.com
W
ith the size of our school populations, we can’t fit everyone into school every day.
Melissa Koenig/Herald
Elmont park still in need of repairs Developers ‘remain committed’ to fixing it By MeliSSA KoeNiG and RoNNy ReyeS mkoenig@liherald.com
After years of complaints by residents about the conditions at Elmont Road Park, an online petition asking Town of Hempstead officials to renovate it had garnered more than 1,250 signatures as of Monday. But just last year, developers had agreed to fix up the park as part of the Belmont Park redevelopment proj-
ect. State officials and developers reached an agreement with the Town of Hempstead last May, after they met with residents to discuss how they could renovate the park to make it safer and more accessible to residents. The goal was to make it a family destination, according to Holly Leicht, vice president of real estate and development for Empire State Development, the state agency that promotes devel-
opment in New York. At that meeting, residents recounted how the park was once the center of the Elmont community, with residents of all ages congregating there to use its sports facilities and playgrounds, or walk on a trail with friends and neighbors. In recent years, however, it has fallen into disrepair, with missing swings, cracked pavement and collapsed Continued on page 4