At the last meeting of the Herricks School Board it was announced that the lease with BOCES for the second floor of the administration building located at 99 Shelter Rock Road on Dec. 16 has finally been signed.

The terms of the lease were not available at the time of the board meeting but will be at the next meeting set for Jan. 6 at the high school.

Music Chairman John McNeur was on hand at the meeting to discuss the very successful Herricks music program. For instance, this year a record number of Herricks musicians have been accepted to the county and all-state competitions. Plus gold and silver awards were presented to 750 Herricks students and the district is in line for yet another Grammy Signature Gold Award.

McNeur listed all of the improvements that have been made to the music program including a chorus room, and storage units for band instruments at the Middle School.

He also said that the music program is still involved in a six-year plan to replace the choral risers to new four-step risers.

He said that Herricks owns 533 musical instruments and that 70 percent of those instruments were purchased prior to his arrival, about 18 years ago, in the '50s and the '60s when the program started. McNeur said that most of the students buy or rent their own instruments and that constitutes the flutes, violins, clarinets and saxophones. The district has in its inventory all the percussion instruments including all drum instruments and bells. Also, string instruments such as cellos, bases and violas. He said, "We haven't purchased any new violins that are mainly used in the elementary school for about 20 years. We just have them re-strung. Herricks also has in its inventory low woodwind instruments including base clarinets, tenor and baritone saxophones and bassoon. Plus, the low brass instruments including French horns, trombones and tubas.

"There are 1685 students enrolled in the music program. Of those students 353 students are using school instruments in the school and 171 have instruments at home used primarily at home, but a few of them transport their instruments from home to school and back to home again. However, a student playing a large instrument runs into bus transportation problems so those students usually have an instrument at home and then use the one in school."

McNeur said, "Some of the issues we have is that the life expectancy of an instrument is only about 8 to 10 years and we are dealing with an inventory of about 30 to 40 years. Most of the instruments were neglected until I came. Because we are considering that the life of an instrument is from 8 to 10 years, we should be replacing 10 percent of our inventory every year."

McNeur added, "For three years we have had no budget and have relied completely on state grants. We were particularly fortunate this year because we had $10,000 in the budget and we received a $30,000 piece of the bullet aid received from New York State Senator Michael Balboni and we also received $2,000 in aid from Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli.

"The years in which we have been able to do the most are '98, '99 and '00 and '04. We are able to buy two instruments with $2500. With the $42,000 we had in total this year we were able to buy two tenor saxophones, 11 trombones, seven euphoniums, two bassoons, which are about $3,000 each and are plastic so they are not on a professional level, six cellos and 14 bases of various sizes.

"We would like to continue to replace the aged instruments to fulfil the increased enrollment and for our immediate needs we need more bases, more celli, more tubas, more French horns and more euphoniums, bassoons and tenor saxophones. If we had the money that is what we would buy.

"One thing I am asking the board to consider is a maintenance fee for the use of an instrument by one student or by one family. Other districts have done this for years and we have been hesitant to implement a fee but if we look at the instruments that are used exclusively by one student at a minimal fee of $40 per year it would generate an additional $8550. Naturally, if we charged a little more it would generate more into the program."

Trustee David Goodsell wanted to know why the older instruments were not more valuable and therefore would not need replacement.

McNeur said, "Some of the instruments are more valuable now than when purchased. Primarily cellos and bases and we are very careful to maintain them along with all of the instruments we have. On the other hand the brass and woodwind instruments reach a point where they cannot be repaired anymore and it is hard to play on them. We have had to replace some of them with instruments of not very high quality and they only last two or three years."

McNeur added, "If we do charge a maintenance fee we would have to have some flexibility and have scholarships because if there are students who can't afford a maintenance fee then it would be self-defeating to the program."

Herricks Superintendent Dr. Jack Bierwirth pointed out that the board did not have to make a decision regarding the fee at the meeting, but rather at budget time.

The board approved the proposed STAC European trip. This year the members of STAC will travel to Prague, Vienna and Budapest between April 21 through May 1 at a cost not to exceed $2,200 per student. It was established that the district is not covering any portion of the cost of the trip.

The board appointed the following trained volunteers to serve as parent members of the Committee on Special Education: Janie Bode, Lisa Kalabacas, Lorraine Vecchio, Nina Gonzalez, Tori Peretzman, Elaine Houlroyd, Trudy Strominger and Maria Weynard.

The board approved revised Policy No. 6135 on the Contingency Budget. The revised policy may be obtained at the office of the superintendent at the Herricks Community Center, 999 Herricks Road, New Hyde Park.

The Elmont Board of Education is sponsoring a school finance summit to review and explore alternative means of funding public education. No date has been set as yet, but when one is, the board will send a representative to hear the various proposals. Those proposals will then be brought back to the board table for discussion.

In an addendum to the agenda, Helen Costigan proposed that the board approve the renewal of Xerox contract leases for updated copier machines. The problem, in the past, has been the cost of copy overages in the old machines. A replacement plan to accommodate the district and to stay within the budget constraints is being worked out but must be signed by Dec. 31. The board, after reviewing the contracts, approved the renewals in time to take advantage of the promotion.

The late transportation request was denied.

The next meeting will be held at 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 6 at Herricks High School where the board will meet with the PTA Council. The agenda will also include an outline of the Herricks Community Center plans and a discussion of the '05/'06 calendar.