The Jan. 28 meeting of the Glen Cove Board of Education began with the introduction by board President Richard Tortorici of Joseph Amendolara of the district's Capital Deficiencies Advisory Committee, who was at the meeting to report on the progress of the committee. According to Mr. Amendolara, the nine-person committee has met five times, covered a lot of topics, and found that the members have a consensus of opinions. He stated the members believe that they can work well together and move forward to catalogue all deficiencies in each school and prioritize them as to severity and as regards safety needs and the wellbeing of the students.

To date, the committee has made site visits to the buildings and grounds of three district schools: Deasy, Gribbin and Landing, said Mr. Amendolara, and has received extensive help from the principals, custodians, teachers and parents of each. The committee looks forward to visiting the three remaining schools, after which it will report again to the board.

The meeting's agenda included a policy regarding the use of the district's email system. A prior policy decreed that all email between teachers and parents be sent through the district's system; Monday night's stated that board members will now have email accounts provided by the school system. The accounts will be used exclusively for the communication of board of education business from and to the public, other board members, the superintendent of schools, other members of the school community and government officials.

Karen Ferguson, Glen Cove resident, teacher in the Glen Cove School District and president of the GCTA (Glen Cove Teachers' Association), questioned the policy, stating that it seemed to her that it would discourage people from communicating through email with an individual board member, as the correspondence would be accessible for all to read. She added that she knows that her emails have been read by persons other than those to whom they were sent. Mr. Tortorici remarked that the board and administration "generally agree" that any email received by an individual should be shared by all. "We do not encourage private email communication," he said, and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Larry Aronstein said that he does not read other people's emails unless there is a reason to do so. He explained that board members, all elected and all volunteers, have been using their own, personal emails, and that it makes sense for there to be one system for all, run through the district. He added that many school districts across the nation have approved such a policy.

Ms. Ferguson stated that the policy, coming on the heels of the previous policy, caused her to feel that "You don't want to hear from us" and would discourage "back and forth" discussions. However, she acknowledged the reasons for the policy were sound.

A discussion ensued regarding the evaluation to approve an implementation of a "child safety zone" in the area of Duck Pond Road. A child safety zone is defined by the New York State Education Department as " a designated area ... within which children who reside at a lesser distance from school than the minimum eligibility distance may be provided transportation on the basis that their most direct walking route to school will traverse a hazardous zone." Students in the Duck Pond Road area need to cross the railroad tracks, and parents have sent a petition to the board of ed requesting inclusion in the transportation policy. The board voted to approve the evaluation.

Public comments included requests by both Ms. Ferguson and teacher Mary Ingoglia that the board of education and the teachers' union "get back to the table" in the teachers' contract negotiations. Currently, the groups are in "factfinding" and Ms. Ingoglia said that she would prefer the board not wait for the report from the factfinder before continuing negotiations. Dr. Aronstein concurred, adding that "we are all very anxious" to settle the contract and said he would work on the suggestion by the teachers.

The next board of education meeting is Monday, Feb. 4. At that meeting, announced Dr. Aronstein, the administration would make a preliminary presentation to the board on the 2008-2009 school year budget. The meeting will be held at the high school and begin at 7:30 p.m.