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VOL. 68 NO. 31
JULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2020
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Local schools firm up plans for September “and we’ve been working with various stakeholders, including administrators, teachers, parNew York’s more than 700 ents, students, custodial staff school districts are due to sub- and transportation, to shape mit their state-mandated plans some alternatives.” for September no Adding to the later than Friday, challenge, each disand Seaford and trict will submit an Wantagh schools autonomous plan, have held a series of which means Nasmeetings in the past sau County will have six weeks to ham56 separate proposmer out three broad als, Pecora said. approaches as they She added that seek to comply. the number of variWhether schools ables made the task will open completely, even more daunting. continue with disThe state’s second tance learning or look-back period, adopt a combination when officials are of the two depends allowed to make o n t h e l eve l o f adjustments to the JOHN Covid-19 infections state’s adopted budin the community in McNAMARA get, ended on June the lead-up to open- Superintendent, 30, but, Pecora said, ing day. Even the “We haven’t heard Wantagh Schools official start date from them yet has yet to be definiwhether they will tively set. Superintendents Dr. cut our foundation aid.” Adele Pecora, of Seaford, and As the name implies, foundaJohn McNamara, of Wantagh, tion aid is revenue the state allosaid the date could be as early as cates for basic expenditures. The the end of August. budget the state adopted provid“The [State Education Depart- ed Seaford with $13.8 million in ment] has given us a 145-page foundation aid, while Wantagh document with instructions and was slated to receive $17.9 milprotocols,” McNamara said, CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
By TIMOTHY DENTON tdenton@liherald.com
W
J.D. Freda/Herald-Citizen
ALTHOUGH SEAFORD’S EAST Coast Football Club is only four years old, former Argentine international soccer star Mariano Belen has brought the players to a high standard. James Stavropoulos, left, and Sebastian Cuenca were selected to play in France’s top youth division before the outbreak of the pandemic.
East Coast F.C. makes return to pitch with 70 players By J.D. FREDA jfreda@liherald.com
T he temperature was already almost 90 degrees early Monday morning as families dropped off their sons and daughters at Seaford’s Cuomo Field for a training session with the East Coast Football Club, a soccer organization founded in 2016 and mostly comprising players from Wantagh, Seaford and the surrounding South Shore hamlets.
For information on ECFC, email ecfcny@gmail.com. Sign up for the club at Eastcoastfc.com. All players’ parents or guardians must sign a coronavirus waiver prior to joining the club. This was the first day the club was allowed to have players on the field without masks, according to rules laid out by the Eastern New York
Youth Soccer Association. It was also the first day that programs were allowed to hold intrasquad scrimmages. “Before this, we had to do individual-based training, which we were allowed to start on July 1,” explained ECFC cofounder Jerome Barberio, 48, of Wantagh. “When the pandemic hit, there was a fear, and a huge initial disappointment.” The relatively new Long CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
e still need
some clarification from the state on the transportation issues.