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.
