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UNIONDALE _____________
HERALD BEACON
Housing debate divides neighbors
The Ryder Cup is on L.I.
1,000 bookbags distributed
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SEpTEMBER 4 - 10, 2025
Youngest students get a warm welcome ed about the year,” Milerbin Genao, the district’s director of early childhood education said. The Uniondale School Dis- “Our goal is to ensure that famtrict welcomed its youngest ilies feel supported, that their learners with games, crafts, children feel excited about the music and dancing at the Pre-K school year, that there’s a familiar face when they and Kindergarten get into the school Jamboree Aug. 22, year, because in anticipation of that’s just going to the 2025-26 school set the child up for year. success, and that’s Held at Corneour goal.” lius Court ElemenThe district tary School, the prides itself in its event brought diversity and its together district commitment to staff, Parent Teachbilingual educaer Association tion. The dual-lanmembers and comguage program, munity partners now in its third including the year, is open to all Uniondale Public students, regardLibrary, Precision less of their first Boxing School, language. Prodigy School of “Anyone that the Arts, the wants to be bilinSCOPE aftergual is welcome,” school program Genao explained. and the EPIC agen- MONIquE “We have monolincies to help pre-K DARRISAW-AKIL gual English and kindergarten Superintendent speakers, students students and their who speak Haitian families meet their teachers, learn about programs Creole or Spanish at home, and and connect with peers before even some who will become trilingual. Our goal is for students classes began. “We want our children to be Continued on page 10 set up for success and be excit-
By ALEXIA CROLL
Intern
W
Stu Goldman/Herald photos
Now come the books that fill them Emely Iglesia, Alisson Rosa, Karla Gonzalez, Kalerin Rosa and Maria and Valeria Mendez, all of Uniondale, showed off their new backpacks during the community back-to-school fair at Cornelius Court Elementary. Story, Page 3.
Remembering ‘Mama Del’
Delmira McFarlane, who hosted immigrant families, dies By STACY DRIKS sdriks@liherald.com
When immigrants come to America, they often find that the American Dream — the oftenrepeated idea that anyone can achieve success — doesn’t always reflect reality. But in Delmira McFarlane’s home, people were given that opportunity. Delmira, known affectionately as “Mama Del” by the many she nurtured, died on July 14 from a stroke and other health complications. She was 92. Her death left a profound void in her commu-
nity, but her legacy lives on in the lives she transformed — one family at a time. “She brought over several people from Jamaica, sponsored them to come into the country, let them live in her home until they got on their feet and they could get jobs,” Nicolle McFarlane, said Delmira’s youngest daughter. Beginning in the 1960s and lasting about a decade, Delmira welcomed relatives in her home, beginning in her Queens home in Cambria Heights where she lived with her husband, Noel McFarlane. In 1976, when Nicolle was 5, the famiContinued on page 7
e have ambitious plans, but it’s really about every last child meeting their potential and being prepared for the future they want, whether it’s college, careers entrepreneurship.