'Safety First, Logistics Later' Say Huntington Parents Regarding Crime Around Abrams School

Should Huntington remove and relocate  students from the Jack Abrams Intermediate School or would that be 'gving in to the gangs?' Would leaving the Abrams building be equivalent to abandoning the community or is it more important to keep the kids safe now? These are the issues plaguing Huntington School District parents, Board of Education members administrators in the quest to keep the children safe.

At the Huntington Board of Education's March 15 meeting, a frustrated board fed up with crime in the area around the Jack Abrams Intermediate School following two shootings in a weeklong period, directed administrators to investigate relocating the more than 500 Abrams' students to another district school using a split-session schedule.

At this Monday's meeting, March 22, Superintendent John Finello not only gave the board details regarding how a split-session would work with the students from both schools attending Woodhull Intermediate School, but also provided it with information about several other options as well, including leasing a parochial school or a public school in another district or space at a public facility such as Coindre Hall; swapping facilities with Huntington Town Hall, which was built as a school building; an offices-for-offices exchange that would put district administrators in Town Hall and executive town staff at Abrams; leasing a commercial property, such as the vacant Huntington Chevrolet building on Oakwood Road; purchasing modular units; and securing an immediate lease at the former Robert Toaz Junior High School, formerly the Touro law school and currently owned by the Good News Church.

Each option has hurdles to overcome and none provides for the immediate removal of the students, an option that many parents advocated for during the board meeting's public session. Some took the town to task, others the Suffolk County Police Department. District administrators and the Board of Education appear to have the support of the parents, with at least one thanking each of them. The Board of Education do not receive a monetary stipend and administrators are in the midst of preparing a budget in one of the toughest economic years in decades.

Michelle Kustera said removal of the children from the midst of the dangerous environment around the school has taken too long already."I don't currently have a child at Jack Abrams but I have a kid at Flower hill and a two-year-old. It's clear that the town does not have a handle on what is going on. I've heard time and time again that this is a wonderful school. It's wonderful because of the students, teachers and parents, not because of its physical location."

Abrams parent Michael Tracy agreed. "Have your blue-ribbon panel, your task force, your coalition. Great. Keep doing it. Just get the kids out first," he said indicating he supported an immediate, even if temporary, move to Town Hall for the students. "It was originally built as a school. It can be a school again.

He also commented that it had been noted previously by Supervisor Petrone that Town Hall has no playing fields for the children if they were to move there. "Every time I drive by the YMCA I see empty fields. I contacted YMCA Executive Director Eileen Knauer and she was absolutely thrilled with te idea of our students using those fields. Not only that she went to the corporate division and they are on board 100 percent and will do whatever they can to help us. She also said, 'While we're talking about it, wouldn't it be nice when the kids get here to give them a swimming program?'" The YMCA of Huntington's property is adjacent to Town Hall.

"[Supervisor Frank] Petrone and the Town Board is the void in our leadership," said parent Adam Spector, who introduced the 'offices for offices' idea. "And I am really bummed out that our community has become divided over something we all realize needs to be addressed. I don't care about the mechanics of how it gets solved. I was discouraged to hear how much work and effort  would be involved in moving our kids to a safe environment more quickly. I have two kids in this school and I have plenty of friends in this school. I am going to leave it to you guys and the school you guys are faced with having to clean up someone else's mess."

So, we have an administration that works in t his building. Frank has a small staff unrelated to teh full operation of the town. Why can't they move in to this school while the students are here and move district administrators to town hall. Offices for offices. They say, 'Well, then those staffers will have to walk around at night. We say, 'Good. That's the point.' I think we could switch town hall and shcool administartors then Frank has his feet to the fire and there will be no more, "I'll get back to it when i get back from vacation."

Abrams employee and parent of former students there Laura Assaro said she doesn't want to be forced out of the area because of gangs and crime and thinks Suffolk police need either to do more or to get some assistance in the possible form of the Guardian Angels, the National Guard or the U.S. Army Reserve. "This is a wonderful school. If we abandon it, we're saying 'you guys win, we lose.' No disrespect to the second precinct, but you could use some help," she said to Suffolk County Police Second Precinct Inspector Edward Brady, who attended the meeting. "If we don't do something now, they're going to take on Huntington Village and then walk right on to the bay. There are four gangs here all fighting for this territory, and they all want it. If I know where they are and who they are, why don't you?"

Inspector Brady did not respond to that exact question but said that his precinct is making much effort to specifically patrol and protect the school.

"We do have a police officer assigned to Jack Abrams every school day," he said. "A DWi team is going to be in the Huntington Station area and they'll start work here this week. There will be a redeployment of HQ personnel. That usually only happens in the summer but will be earlier this year. The Suffolk County Police Department has been working in cooperation with the FBI. We will also have access to Huntington Business Improvement District cameras and probably this week. we will be getting access to laptop computers that will give us greater mobility in viewing them and they will be able to see them when we're out on the road. We also will be working with the Huntington Town Code enforcment personnel in instituting administrative search warrants in some dwellings within the Huntington Station area where there is illegal housing or suspected code enforcement violations, which gives us the opportunity to get in to certain buildings and in the past we have come across some criminal activity in that manner."

Ed Dumas, County Executive Steve Levy's as Chief Deputy County Executive for Policy and Communications, said that Levy is "acutely aware" of what is happening in the area around Abrams.
"As many of you know we've been able to deploy many additional resources to assist the inspector here. We do have a 21-officer plain-clothes undercover special operations team that has been operating in this area for about a year now. There are members of the street crime gangs team at all hours. We've also got detectives from our narcotics team here as we look to curb the acts of violent crime. We have officers from the marine bureau patrolling the grounds of this facility during the day. We are doing everything we can to increase the police presence here in order to let these aspects of this community know we are not going anywhere. And. the additional resources we've deployed will be in place in full-force effort until we've been able to quiet and calm these streets, and thats a commitment I can make to you on behalf of the county executive.

"You'll also begin to see around town our vehicle traffic checkpoints that will be set up in the vicinity around this school and other parts of this town. During the day it will be sort of a rolling checkpoint and officers will be inspecting registration and inspection tickets as they make their way through our neighborhoods here. Also DWI checkpoints that will be talking place at night and I can assure you these will be done within Constitutinoal parameters and if you are inconvenienced by any of these checkopoints we ask you to bear with us because we believe it's a necessary presence right now and that it will be a very goo deterrent to criminal activity here in our communities."

The Board of Education directed administrators to investigate further the possibility of a long- or short-term lease with the town. Superintendent Finello asked whether it should seek a waiver from the New York State Department of Education that would allow the district to go in to a leasing agreement with the town.

"I think we should have every option available when we sit down with them," School Board Trustee John Paci, III, said. The Board of Education has a meeting scheduled with the Town Board Monday, April 19.

Board attorney John Sweeney said that while the district could swap leases with the town without approval from voters but could not purchase it without voter approval.

The next Huntington Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m.  The next Town Board meeting is scheduled for April 13 at 7pm.

Although no one expected members of the Town Board to appear at Monday's Board of Education meeting, as Board President Bill Dwyer and Vice President Emily Rogan asked them to wait until after the budget proposal was approved April 19, Councilman Mark Mayoka was there at the 7:30 p.m. start.

"I am a newly elected Town Board member. I was asked by the community to be here when I met the hundreds of concerned mothers and children who marched on Friday. I happen to be the only election official who is not part of this multi-year problem but I promise I will be part of the solution. We need to do something now, not tomorrow. The Town Board convened a special meeting to sue Bill Naughton. I see no reason why we can't have a special meeting to deal with this," Mayoka said, referring to the lawsuit initiated by the town against its highway superintendent for what it calls 'improper hiring.' The Board subsequently dropped the lawsuit against Naughton. "The Town board used to meet 24 times per year, now it convenes 14 times a year. We spent $1 million over ten years  to pay for the day laborer site. Let's redirect our resources. Let's close that site. Action can be taken and should be taken."

Later in the meeting, Councilwoman Susan Berland arrived at the meeting from her child's sporting event, she said. She said that she hadn't come earlier because of Dwyer's and Rogan's request.
Berland said that

 "So now I am not here for any other reason than that some people asked me to come, so I am here," she said. "I have a couple of updates, as well. There was a lot of discussion Friday about clearing the wooded area by Academy Place and New York Avenue. I understand that seven parcels make up that area. Town owns four, the state owns one and two are private owners. My understanding after speaking to our Department of General Services is that we are waiting SEQRA approval. In the interim, we filed for a permit for clearing this area, at least our four parcels. We also found out that the state is amenable to giving us its parcel but the state has a law that you can't land lock a property owner and that is what would happen. We approached the individuals about the property and my understanding is that they want significantly more than they've been valued at. So we asked the state if we can still clear the property even if we don't own it. I hate to give you a date of when this will happen because every time you give a date, it never works out. But the Department of General Services aid it should be within the next two weeks."

Board of Education Trustee Kim Brown asked if the town could pursue eminent domain to aquire the two pieces of property held by private owners. Berland said it is trying, "But it's hard to do."

Board of Education Trustee Elizabeth Black said she was "surprised" to hear that the councilwoman had asked to attend the meeting.

"I said I am available to come but I was led to believe this was going to be a budget presentation and was asked not to come and it was not the time,' she said. "It's  not my meeting. It's your meeting and the reason i am here now is that i thought all of my colleagues were going to stick with the ageement but thats not what happened because Mark Mayoka is here, with all due respect," she said to Mayoka, who was still in the audience. "I didn't want it to be construed as anything more than the fact that we were asked not to come. But one came, so I am here."

Rogan confirmed that what the councilwoman said was true.  "I want to go on the record to say that we did ask them to wait because we do have a lot of work to do on the budget," she said.

Mayoka said that he was "unaware of any agreement" that Town Board members would not attend the meeting. "You should not need an invitation to come to a school board meeting when there's a crisis," he said.

A bit later after Berland's entrance, Councilwoman Glenda Jackson arrived, as well. "Yes, there is a crissi and, yes, it needs to be addressed. Whatever we can do and whatever is in the perview of the town to do to try to get this resolved. I walked [the vacant land] today and want to make sure that gets cleaned up sooner rather than later because we know it's an issue."

Video to come soon.