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VOL. 68 NO. 37
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Garbarino kicks off campaign, blasts Dems By J.D. FREDA jfreda@liherald.com
Courtesy Canine Companions for Independence
Dragon bowls Luke Tordy, of Wantagh, and his service dog, Dragon, with some of the bowls Luke’s team made as part of his Eagle Scout project for use at Saturday’s virtual DogFest, sponsored by Canine Companions for Independence. Story, more photos coming soon.
With just two months remaining, the race to succeed longtime U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Seaford Republican, in New York’s 2nd Congressional District is heating up. Both Republican candidate Andrew Garbarino and Democrat Jackie Gordon have begun their final push to the Nov. 3 election. On Thursday morning, outside the Nassau County Police Department’s 7th Precinct headquarters in King’s hometown of Seaford, Garbarino reveled in the endorsement of both the Nassau and Suffolk County
Police Benevolent Associations, represented by Presidents James McDermott and Noel DiGerolamo, respectively. A number of Republican elected officials from the district, including King, gathered to show their support for Garbarino, who currently represents the state’s 7th Assembly District. They included his fellow Assemblyman Michael LiPetri, of Suffolk’s 9th District, whom Garbarino defeated in the Republican primary. Hempstead Town Clerk Kate Murray served as emcee, introducing each speaker. She called King “America’s congressman” CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
Schools prepare to spread knowledge, not Covid By J.D. FREDA jfreda@liherald.com
In mid-March, schools across Long Island were faced with a harsh reality: In order to protect their students and faculties, they had to close and quickly convert to a remote learning model. Six months later, many families must decide whether to keep their children home, and continue remote learning, or send them back to school on various hybrid schedules, as outlined on the Wantagh, Seaford and Levittown school district websites. In the three communities, a large majority of students have opted to go back to school. In
Wantagh, roughly 92 percent of students have opted for a hybrid program. Wantagh students in grades 7 to 12 will attend classes on Mondays and Tuesdays or Thursdays a n d F r i d ay s, a l t e r n a t i n g Wednesdays between them. Grades K-5 will attend every day, but in smaller classes; grade 6 will also attend every day, using large spaces like the cafeteria or the auditorium. District employees have prepared school buildings with social distancing and frequent disinfecting of shared surfaces in mind, and students will be sporting this fall’s ubiquitous back-to-school clothing accesso-
ry — a mask. Hallways in all three districts now incorporate arrows that direct one-way traffic as students move from class to class. At MacArthur High School in Levittown, the lanes have specific foot traffic restrictions. Wantagh High School and Middle School followed suit. “Each floor of the building is dissected and split into two lanes,” MacArthur Principal Joseph Sheehan said. “Students have to stay on their side of the hallway, and you can’t cross over into oncoming foot traffic. Once a student leaves the classroom, they must turn right and follow the flow of traffic to where they
need to go next.” In classrooms, students sit six feet apart. At MacArthur, Sheehan said, students will cover their desks with single-use sheets of butcher paper, discarding them after each class. Plastic tri-fold desk shields are intended to halt the virus’s spread. Students will spend most of their time in school in their class
cohorts, while teachers move between classrooms. When students at Seaford High School must go to other classrooms for special instruction, they will be given shields to carry. “We give them their own shield that they can take from class to class to avoid more than one person using the same CONTINUED ON PAGE 10