The Wheatley School’s boys varsity and girls varsity indoor track, fencing, basketball and boys varsity wrestling have been recognized by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association for academic excellence in its Scholar/Athlete Recognition Award Program.

This program, which was initiated by athletic association 20 years ago, recognizes athletic teams from across New York State for the exemplary academic performance of its team members. Based upon a composite of the grade point averages among team members, team champions are selected for each varsity sport from those high schools across New York State that enter the competition.

The teams have demonstrated athletic excellence on their fields of play and academic excellence in the classroom. Each team is vying for the crown of New York Scholar/Athlete State Champion in their respective sport. The Wheatley School has received this prestigious recognition for fifteen state championships since entering the program in 2000-2001.

The girls’ varsity basketball team, coached by Brian McConaghy and lead by captains Megan Murphy and Olivia McCracken, had a grade point average of 94.451.

The boys’ varsity wrestling team, coached by Joe Cerulli and lead by captains Matt DeBenedittis and Kyle Castoria, had an average of 91.057.

The boys’ varsity basketball team, coached by Jim Curcio and lead by captains Chris Gould and Bryan Wilson, had an average of 94.883.

The boys’ indoor track team coached by Dan Walsh and lead by captains William Schiela and Joe Giunta, had an average of 93.588.

The girls’ indoor track team coached by Joe Kelly and lead by captains Jackie Stagnari, Sofia Mancini, Jamie Forrest, Michelle Kalish, Stephanie Cheung and Ariana Beague, had an average of 95.748.

The girls’ fencing team, coached by Terry Grace and Aerin Hohensee and lead by captain Amy Lessoff, had a near perfect average of 99.016.

The boys’ fencing team, coached by Terry Grace and Aerin Hohensee and lead by captain David Skwiersky, had an average of 98.589.

The Wheatley School is proud of the recognition the team members have earned and offers its congratulations to the members of the teams and their parents. This remarkable accomplishment is a credit to the athletes who have had to balance the demands of a rigorous academic schedule with long hours of practice and competition required to successfully compete in interscholastic athletics at the varsity level.

Citing health and safety concerns, the East Williston School Board approved installation of new hall lockers at The Wheatley School during current school year at a cost of $87,000

“A good number of children walk around with heavy backpacks way above the health recommendations.” Board member Barbara Slone said at Monday night’s business meeting. “I’ve heard many complaints of back problems.”

Slone, who is a health professional, also noted that the school’s lockers don’t accommodate the size of students’ backpacks.

The Wheatley School has had the same nine-inch wide lockers in place for several decades.

“I graduated here 30 years ago and had the same lockers.” Trustee Robert Freier said. “These lockers are just not accommodating to the students.”

The school will be installing 410 double tier lockers for a total of 820 spaces, according to Assistant Superintendent of Business Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, who said the new lockers will be 18 inches wide. Fitzpatrick said the district will realize a savings of $56,000 on the cost of the lockers by making the purchase through BOCES.

The goal is to start installing the lockers during the April break, Fitzpatrick said, with the objective to complete installation by the end of the school year.

The resolution to approve the new lockers passed by a 3-2 vote, with board members David Keefe and Robert Fallorino registering their opposition to the move.

Keefe said his granddaughter, who attends the school, has told him the lockers are underused because students “find it a pain” to go to their lockers between classes.

“I don’t think the answer to the problem is to buy new lockers,” Keefe said. “I don’t think you’ll change behavior by changing lockers. If Dr. Feeney could guarantee me this will fix the problem then I’d vote in favor of it. I think it’s a waste of money and we have better projects we could spend our money on.”

In other developments, the school board presented the first reading of a new tutoring policy was discussed during the business meeting.

School board attorney John Sheahan recommended that the board excise a sentence which read:

“Therefore, the district makes every effort to provide each child with the support he or she needs within the structure of the school day.”

When district resident Mike Guglielmo asked the board what risk the sentence represented, Board President Mark Kamberg said,

“The sentence was an open ended promise, and we wanted to clean up the language of that open ended promise.”

Guglielmo expressed his misgiving at the omission, saying, “I’m only hesitant because I never want to limit any child’s ability to learn.”

The tutoring policy is still under review and no official action has been taken on it, according to Kamberg. A copy of the tutoring policy is available on the East Williston School District’s Web site.

“The whole point is, I want kids to have every opportunity to seek help behind the walls of our schools.” Guglielmo said after the meeting.

Following their first-round victory, the academic team from Herricks High School is moving on to Round 2 of “The Challenge,” an academic quiz show designed to test students’ knowledge in a “Jeopardy”-style format.

Herricks is represented by five seniors, including its team captain, Akhil Sharma, James Bhadias, Julie Chang, Neil Pathak, and Edward Vargas. Chang, Pathak and Vargas were semi-finalists in the Intel Talent Search this year.

This is the second straight year that this Herricks team has competed in the student quiz show. Last year, they fell short of making the second round.

Jeremy Cohen, the team’s faculty advisor and a mathematics teacher at Herricks, said the team did more preparation before the competition this year.

“We went over a lot of questions and talked over certain strategies,” Cohen said.

He said the win was a team effort, but singled out Vargas as the star of the first round.

“They all helped out but the one contributed the most was Edward Vargas. He’s very good in these situations,” Cohen said.

This season the students are competing in front of a live audience.

The second round match-up between all-star student scholars from Herricks High School and Syosset High School will air in high definition on Sunday, April 3, at 5:30 p.m. on MSG Varsity (Cablevision’s iO TV – Channel 14). MSG Varsity features new episodes of “The Challenge” every Sunday through Friday at 5:30 p.m.

Subjects on the quiz show include history, arts and literature, current events, math, and science. An initial round of questions is posed with multiple choice answers, subsequent rounds are short answer, including the lightning round, when response speed is a key factor and the ‘180′ round, when a team answering one question correctly earns the right to answer the next question as the point values spiral. Answering the second question in a ‘180′ sequence incorrectly throws the question to the other team.

Jared Cotter, former FUSE TV host and a popular semi-finalist from “American Idol,” serves as moderator of “The Challenge,” quizzing competing high school teams on their knowledge of history, arts and literature, current events, math, and science.

“These students are extremely bright and determined to win,” said Theresa Chillianis, General Manager, MSG Varsity. “We wish Herricks High School and Syosset High School good luck in their upcoming match.”

“The Challenge” began as a Long Island effort 14 years ago and now includes 184 high schools from the entire tri-state area – Long Island (with Nassau and Suffolk as two distinct regions), the Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester/Lower Hudson Valley, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Schools advance in the tournament through a series of elimination rounds. After months of competition, one school in each region is crowned regional champion, winning $2500 for their school. The final winning teams from each region go on to “The Challenge Championship” where they square off against on another in a tri-state showdown. The school crowned tri-state champion will receive $10,000 in prize money and each student participating in the final Challenge Championship game will receive $500.

The show has received a Beacon Award – the industry’s highest award for public affairs excellence – as well as a New England Cable and Telecommunications Award for Public Service and Excellence in Cable Television.

A complete listing of schools participating in “The Challenge” is available at HYPERLINK “https://www.msgvarsity.com/” www.msgvarsity.com.

I would like to express myself officially through this letter.

My name is Allen Honig; my family has owned and operated Poultry Mart Inc. in the Village of Great Neck Plaza since 1950.

My business and I have participated in every Street Festival/AutoFest since the beginning. I was a member of the first board of directors at the inception of the Business Improvement District in the Village of Great Neck Plaza.

I want it officially known that I have never been, nor ever will be, in favor of the elimination of the Great Neck AutoFest. I am, however, open for suggestions, to consider an alternative to the event, provided it can attract and draw as large a crowd, 20,000 to 30,000 people, from outside of Great Neck.

Allen Honig

Poultry Mart

I was a loss for words when I read the comment of Great Neck Plaza merchant at a business improvement meeting featuring the upcoming Auto Fest and street festival.

Especially, Steven Dann, who owns a shoe store and restaurant, calling 20,000 attendees ” a bunch of hicks,” from G_d knows where and should not set foot in our town, as we are high end “upper class” and they can’t afford his prices.

It might come as a surprise to you Dann, but we have hicks living in Great Neck, me being one.

G-d put hicks in GN because he couldn’t stand snobs.

Good job, Dann, and the other opposing merchants didn’t live or work here in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Horrors!!! We had a 5 & 10, dime store, a cheap coffee shop to meet up with out of towners, a great place for hicks.

It was fortunate for me when the Claremont Hotel in Roslyn, who hosted the Mary W. Newburger, Women Roll of Honor Awards last week, that they didn’t expel me from the door.

I didn’t wear an expensive outfit. I wore a $20 top and Thom Mcann shoes.

Guess where I bought them. Yet I received lovely comments from town officials, not bad for a Kmart hick.

It’s not how expensive ones clothes or shoes are, that makes a person, a lesson you need to learn.

Auto Fest is not put on by BID just to attract customers for one day for boutique shopping, but maybe another day they will say, that was a nice town, I would like to see more of it.

The Old Village of Great Neck, has a fair each May.

Thousands of people from out of town attend.

They crowd the street, it is a noisy, chaotic day, but we don’t put a label on who attends.

We uptowners continue to do it, because it is a festive day.

For a few short hours, people get together and have fun.

Heaven knows in today’s world, we can all use it.

Jean Pierce

Great Neck

It is significant that the most remarkable moment at the recent inquisition staged by Long Island Congressman Peter King came when a fellow congressman from Minnesota testified in tears about a police cadet from Queens whose body was found in the twisted steel of the World Trade Center.

As chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, on March 10 King held what he said would be the first of a series of hearings on the “radicalization of the American Muslim community.” The congressman maintained that the hearings were “absolutely essential” to the nation’s security.

Even if something of value had come out of that first hearing – and nothing did – there was no information, no testimony, no insight that justified insulting the millions of Americans who practice the Islamic faith.

At the hearing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) spoke in tears about Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a young police cadet who died trying to rescue people on 9/11. Until the young man’s body was found, he said, some people suggested that Salman was part of the conspiracy to destroy the buildings solely because of his faith.

“Some people,” he said, “spread false rumors and speculated that he was in league with the attackers only because he was Muslim. It was only when his remains were identified that these lies were fully exposed.”

At best this hearing was unnecessary. If there is credible evidence of a terrorist threat from radical Muslims or any other organization, it should be investigated by Homeland Security, the FBI or the CIA. This can be done without insulting millions of Americans.

We are not implying that radical Islam is not a serious threat. The State Department Office of Counter Terrorism maintains that the al-Quaeda network poses the greatest threat to national security. But this does not justify insulting every Muslim in America.

The King hearings bring to mind the Army-McCarthy Hearings of the 1950s in which Sen. Joseph McCarthy used the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to accuse Americans of being enemies of the state. The televised hearings that capitalized on the nation’s fear of communism lost their thunder when an attorney hired by the US Army found the courage to take on the senator. “Have you no sense of decency?” he asked.

The same might be asked of Peter King. For 30 years the congressman supported the Irish Republican Army even when its bombings killed innocent civilians. Following a bombing in 1982, when he was still serving as the Nassau County comptroller, King reportedly said, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the IRA for it.”

The members of Congress should be careful not to abuse their powers. King should have realized how hurtful his hearings on Islam are and how little there is to be gained from them.

Blank Slate Media Editorial

In his bid to satisfy requirements set by the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano presented a financial plan for fiscal year 2011 on Wednesday that would institute across the board cuts to reduce county spending by $181.9 million.

“Since the last thing Nassau families need in these tough economic times is a double-digit property tax increase, I have cut government spending,” Mangano said. “This first round of cuts will affect every area of the county and the services we provide.”

NIFA took control of the county’s finances in January after it determined that the county budget would result in a $176 million deficit. Under state law, NIFA must certify that Nassau County’s budget is balanced and assume control over county finances if they believe it is running a deficit of more than 1 percent.

Mangano said his plan, which would be implemented by July 1, would save homeowners and employers from a 21.5 percent increase in county property taxes.

“This is what it would take for Nassau County to meet the high bar set by NIFA,” Mangano said. “Should dollars appear for unfunded mandates, we will continue those programs.”

He said he would save $50 million with the elimination of 213 county jobs, 307 vacant positions and reduce seasonal and part-time employees. He said he would also require 13 unpaid vacation days for county personnel.

Mangano also said hundreds of contract positions would be eliminated for savings of $17.7 million.

This would include $5.59 million from the Department of Social Services, $2.37 million from the Department of Information Technology, $2.21 million from the health department, $1.94 million from public works and $1.3 million from the department of chemical dependency.

Mangano said an additional $10.5 million in savings would come from freezing wages and longevity pay.

At the same time, he called on NIFA to freeze wages.

While Mangano said further concessions from labor unions could lessen the severity of cuts, PBA President James Carver said that the union has already offered concessions.

“They got their concessions,” he said. “Now that they got their concessions, they don’t want to live up to their end of the bargain.”

Nassau County Deputy Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead) said Mangano is partly to blame for the severity of the cuts due to his defiance of NIFA.

“Many of these proposals could have been implemented a year ago,” he said.

Calling the cuts draconian, Abrahams said some will do more harm than good, driving people into the criminal justice system.

“We don’t have those gang prevention programs, we don’t have those chemical dependency programs, we don’t have those mental health programs,” he said. “We’re going to pay for it one way or another.”

At the same time, Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) questioned Mangano’s commitment to cutting the county workforce.

Since instituting a hiring freeze, Mangano hired 125 new people, Wink said.

“One hundred and twenty five new people in Nassau County is not a hiring freeze in my opinion,” he said.

“We don’t support the health and human services cuts because we do not believe he has cut deep enough in the outside counsel,” Abrahams said.

In 2010, Mangano spend $10 million on outside counsel, including those connected to his former law firm of Rivkin Radler, according to Wink and Abrahams.

The plan includes $15 million in savings by restructuring the police department to reduce mandatory overtime.

Although Mangano provided few details, the restructure calls for redeploying 142 sworn officers and up to 41 civilian posts.

“There is no question that we have the safest county in the country and we intend to keep it that way,” he said.

Carver said the Nassau County Police Department does not have 142 police officers to redeploy.

“I think he is going down the wrong path and affecting public safety,” he said, promising to challenge Mangano in court.

Mineola school administrators presented a revised 2011-2012 budget at last week’s school board meeting that increased spending $1.8 million more than the district’s first plan but kept the increase in tax levy to 2.5 percent.

“We said when we started this whole thing with closing schools, we said we could get five years of 2.5 percent levy and we’re completely on track to do that,” said Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler. “And I’d also like to add we haven’t cut any programs.”

The revised budget, which calls for $84 million in school spending, would represent a 4.86 percent increase over this year and would result in a 2.44 percent in the increase in the tax levy.

Mineola Assistant School Superintendent Jack Waters said changes from the original proposal included the transfer of $2.6 million to the capital budget as part of the $2.2 million Hampton School improvement project, and $500,000 to upgrade the Meadow School library. The money for the Hampton Street School would come from reserved; the Meadow School improvements would be paid by the tax levy. Waters also included in the proposal $1.1 million in revenue from the lease of the Cross Street School.

The budget also showed $809,000 in savings from the elimination of teachers that will accompany the closing of the Cross Street School.

The Mineola school district staff total salary budget for 2010-11 is $47.9 million.

“Typically in a rollover budget when we have the same staff year to year we have in increase in salaries from 4 to 5 percent,” said Waters. “This would project a next year total at $49.9 million, however we’re budgeting $47.6 million with a difference of $2.2 million, by closing schools and reducing staff.”

The difference of $2.2 million has been one of the focal points in the savings that has been discussed during the entire re-configuration process, according to Nagler. The 2011-2012 budget reflects 15.2 full time equivalent teacher positions without a loss in program .

“We talked about how closing schools will save us money. Right there that’s certainty the reflection of how we save money,” Waters said.

Should the budget fail, the board will enact a contingency budget, which will require the Hampton and Meadow projects to be cut, along with proposed new equipment. The new equipment includes renovation of the high school art room, musical equipment, fitness equipment, and the science Intel research equipment.

The Hampton Project could still move forward according to Nagler. The $2.2 million would be transferred to the capital reserve fund prior to June 30 and a vote to spend the money will take place sometime in the 2011-12 school year.

“We structured this budget to again not lose any program even if the budget fails,” Nagler said. “The main thing in this budget is obviously the Hampton and Meadow projects, this will be the last opportunity to right size these buildings before some kind of cap goes in.”

Reach reporter Timothy Meyer by e-mail at meyerj.tim@gmail.com.

Hildebrandt’s, the iconic Wiliston Park eatery, is about to put the village on the map – or least in the consciousness of cable TV viewers – when it’s featured on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” on Monday night.

The restaurant will make its prime time debut during the opening segment of the show at 9 p.m. The episode is entitled “Mozzarella to Motzah Balls,” so co-owner Susan Strano Acosta is pretty certain that the restaurant’s Mozzarella sticks will be one of the items highlighted from Hildebrandt’s menu.

Hildebrandt’s is trumpeting its imminent appearance on the show with a sign in its Hillside Avenue window. An autographed picture of Guy Fieri, the spike-haired host of the show, hangs on the back wall of the restaurant.

Asked how she felt about the restaurant being featured on the prime time show, Acosta said, “It’s nerve-wracking and exciting. We have no idea how they’re going to feature us or what they’re going to feature food-wise.”

The show spent a total of 34 hours shooting material for what will probably be a 15-minute segment for the show, including two 14 hour shoots on consecutive days last fall.

And after the extreme weather of a winter that dampened its business, Acosta said she’s looking forward to a bump in business after the segment airs.

I’m hoping for it. It would be nice to have people in who haven’t been here in awhile,” she said, adding that the TV time prompts people who’ve never eaten at Hildebrandt’s to sample the show.

But she also hope the publicity helps to draw people to sample the stores and the ambience of Williston Park.

“I hope everybody gets to see what homey town this is. A lot of people who grew up here still live here,” Acosta said.

Hildebrandt’s is emblematic of that home town atmosphere as a business that has been in the Strano family for 36 years. She and her husband Bryan have been co-owners for the past five years.

Her mother, Joanne Strano, who works in the restaurant’s kitchen putting her personal touch on her own recipes, is also certain to be featured on the show.

She said she’s “very excited, happy and all those good things” about being in the prime time spotlight. She said she’s also glad that people who visit the restaurant as a result of the show might also check out other businesses in the village.

“It was interesting,” she said of the Food Network shoot in the eatery. “They watch everything and they keep changing their minds.”

When her daughter suggested featuring the restaurant’s Chicken Dakota dish on the show, the director of the shoot initially shot the idea down. Acosta reasoned it was a good choice because it’s a particularly colorful dish – and ultimately the director agreed.

The Acostas invited a select group of regular diners to populate the counter during the shoot. But to find out who made the final cut, everyone will just have to tune in to the Food Network on Monday night.

When Mayor Nancy Zolezzi first ran for office 12 years ago, she never expected to have such a long-running incumbency.

“I expected to this for four years, possibly eight,” she said, sitting in the vestibule of the new East Williston Village Hall that became the reason for her seeking a third term in office.

Planning for the new structure that now houses a host of activities, from classes for yoga, zumba and knitting to reading clubs and arts and crafts workshops for children through the East Williston Public

Library, began six years ago. And Zolezzi wanted to help finish the job.

The previous building lacked handicapped access entrances and was so small that most documents were stored off-site, and the library needed to be unpgraded.

“I was not going to run for election four years ago, but we had this in the works and I wanted to see it through,” she said. ” Now we have a center that is used and being used by the community. Every day of the week, there’s something going on here.”

Zolezzi said she will leave office this month with a sense of completion with the new municipal building and the upgraded streets around the village as her legacy.

The reconstruction and expansion of the village hall was a complex project that required a great deal of planning and preparation, including the relocation of gas pipes by National Grid that ran through what is now the center of the building.

The village board made a point to use local contractors for the job, including Colonial Crafters as the primary contractor. National Carpet did the carpeting, Nassau window and Door did the windows and Framing Mantis framed the pictures – many of them vintage historical paintings and photos of East Williston locales – that adorn the walls.

“We were proud to use local contractors first,” Zolezzi said.

Village building inspector Robert Campagna executed the design of the building, which expanded the available space considerably. The project also included development of a master plan for the village which entailed interviews with East Williston public officials and residents, according to Zolezzi.

“It was a process,” she said. “I’m proud of it and I’m proud of the board.

Zolezzi credits the previous deputy mayor Frank Cashen for his part and Trustee Michael Braito who, she said, “pushed along this project.”

Zolezzi gives full credit to the village board members she’s had around her since taking office more than a decade ago.

“I think I’ve probably been one of the luckiest mayors on Long Island because our board is so smart,” she said.

Zolezzi praised outgoing Deputy Mayor James Daw, Jr., an attorney, for his legal acumen and Trustee David Tanner – who ran on a ticket opposing Zolezzi’s independent candidacy – as a “real gentleman” who has helped upgrade the ratings of the village bonds.

It’s apparent from Zolezzi’s involvement in other community organizations that he she hasn’t held the mayor’s job for the $2,500 annual stipend she’s received. She remains president of the Rotary Club and a member of the Chamber of Commerce who started the annual street fair with her long-time friend, Dr. Nancy Breitbart.

“I kind of did it on a dare,” said Zolezzi, who ran the show on alternate years with Breitbart for 20 years.

She is also active in her church parish at St. Aidan as a eucharistic minister.

Married for 33 years to her husband Joe, them originally lived in Williston Park and moved to East Williston 25 years ago.

There are more than a few East Williston residents who are grateful for the time she served and the legacy she built.

“Some mayors of a small village sweep the streets and leave the future problems to others,” said Bobby Shannon, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Willistons, who is currently running for a seat on the village board. “Nancy leaves East Williston with a bright future, a more beautiful, safer and economically secure community.”

For the second straight year, five young members of the East Williston Community Church spent their winter break helping to build houses as part of Habitat for Humanity in the deep south, and the experience is one they won’t forget.

“The kids really had a chance to see what rural poverty looks like. It’s hard on the heart and it’s good to see it while you’re building something,” said Forrest Parkinson, pastor of the East Williston Community Church.

The trip was part of the five church members’ service to the community, which includes raising the money through a play and a dinner the church puts on as well as car washes and the church’s annual pumpkin patch sale.

The point is to work for the opportunity to act on their principles as followers of Christ, Parkinson said.

Parkinson accompanied them on the trip to work on the project, along with Doris Marcisak, who oversees the church’s youth group. The Williston Park Rotary Club also played a key role in funding the trip, Parkinson said.

“It’s all about discipleship,” Parkinson said. “It’s all about training in discipleship.”

This year’s work took place outside Biloxi, Mississippi, in Gulfport.

Having had an introduction to the work from a similar project in Homestead, FL last winter, the three Wheatley School seniors in the group, Kelsey Eckhoff, Michael Marcisak and Jennifer Che, were better equipped to handle a diverse range of construction tasks. Each of them was teamed with a local resident of the area, so they developed friendships with their fellow workers.

“We shared work with them on the site,” Marcisak said.

“They were also very close in age with us so it was easy to relate to them,” Eckhoff said.

Confronting a landscape of hand-to-mouth living, the students gained a new perspective on their own community and the work they were doing.

“Obviously you feel good because of what we did,” said Che. “We kind of live in a bubble in this town. We don’t realize how much poverty there is.”

Realizing that some of the people who would eventually reside in the houses they were helping to build made the young volunteers realize the significance of the work they were doing.

“When you see the homeowners working, you can see the joy,” Marcisak said. “You can see how important it is to work with them.”

He said he plans to organize a Habitat club at Hunter College when he starts his college studies there next year.

The bonus for the young workers was a side trip to New Orleans to see a Mardi Gras parade at the end of the week before they flew home the following day.

“None of them had ever been in the gulf region, so it was a new experience for all of them,” Parkinson said. “Seeing a Mardi Gras parade is a memorable experience.”

Next year, Parkinson hopes to continue the church’s special program of hands-on discipleship with a new group of young parishioners.