A Great Day For a Game...

Ernie Banks, the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame shortstop once said, "It's a great day for a ball game. Let's play two!"

I'm not sure if Banks is a lacrosse fan, but for one warm spring day in West Islip, I bet he would have found a great deal of appreciation in a community gathering at its high school to support a local athletic team.

On Wednesday, May 5, two of the nation's top high school lacrosse teams met at West Islip High School in a game that grabbed the attention of an estimated 1,500 fans; most from West Islip and a few that made the trip west from East Setauket to support the Patriots of Ward Melville. The turnout was more impressive given the mid-week scheduling and the game's 4:30 start time.

The game was a battle between two schools that have been at the pinnacle of high school lacrosse for years. West Islip has won three of the past four New York State Class A Championships and Ward Melville for years in the 80s and 90s was the dominant high school lacrosse program on Long Island.

While the game on the field — a 16-5 West Islip victory — proved not be the epic battle most expected, perhaps the more significant part of the day was the turnout by the community. The high school bleachers were packed with a mix of parents and student of all ages, many adorned in their bright blue little league lacrosse jerseys, on hand to support the boys lacrosse team.

For a day, West Islip was the center of the lacrosse universe on Long Island. There's something exciting about seeing parked cars lining Higbie Lane near the high school; seeing TV cameras rolling; and knowing that our community was the hub of attention for a sport that continues to grow in prominence across the country. These are things our community should celebrate.

It's just a shame they couldn't have played two.

No Good Deed...

I love the Internet.

Maybe that’s an obvious statement coming from someone who runs as web-based news outlet, but the World Wide Web provides people around the world the opportunity to find information and keep up with daily headlines quickly and easily.

But as with anything that has so many positives, there are always a few negatives. A recent conversation with a West Islip resident over a message board drove me to read the handful of posts written anonymously by people that may or may not live in our community about a few people that volunteer their time in various local organizations. Since none of the posters were courageous enough to use their real name, and in some cases not even claim to live in West Islip, it’s a bit of a challenge to tell whom they are or where they really live.

The people mentioned in the posts by the anonymous posters are folks who volunteer their time in various clubs and organizations that serve the youngsters of the hamlet. I know most of those mentioned and even work with a few of them on various endeavors as part of an effort to make our community a better place to live. In the posts on this message board, certain members of the community are accused of essentially running some type of cabal strictly for their benefit.

Covering community journalism over certain parts of my professional career for the past 16 years, I’ve heard similar accusations in the past in other communities on Long Island but have never personally seen an unpaid volunteer (forgive me for the redundancy) personally benefit from donating their time to a certain organization. I guess that’s why someone first uttered the cliché “No good deed goes unpunished.”

As a journalist, I have certain instincts. One, is to listen with an open mind to what people say and, two, is to be cynical and question what they are saying. And it’s also vitally important to know the identity of the person you are talking with. Typically, if someone fails to reveal their identity, then what they are saying has little or no validity. Even Bob Woodward knew Deep Throat's real name.

Which leads me back to the anonymous people posting on the website alluded to earlier. If you’re that confident in what you’re claiming and have proof to back up your accusations, we’d love to speak with you and let the community know of the “wrongs” being committed. But in the spirit of fairness, we would also need to reach out to the party being accused and allow them to present their side of the story as well.

Oh…and we’ll also need to get your properly spelled name (the one given to you by your parents) to publish in our stories. Since you’ve been so willing to besmirch someone else’s name, it’s only fair that we use your name as well. Don’t you think?

A Bit Of Entertainment During Mundane Meetings

I've spent many an evening over the past 16 years as a journalist covering meetings of governmental bodies and boards of education. While these meetings rarely pack the house, they have always been good sources of news and at times good sources of entertainment.

In recent weeks, the West Islip Board of Education has held several public hearings focused on the 2010-11 spending plan that will go before local residents for a vote in May. These meetings attract the usual suspects from the school community: PTA members, administrators, teachers, and some parents interested in staying informed about the budget issues that face the school district.

But as with any public meeting, one can usually find one or two gadflies. Gadfly is word journalists use because calling someone a kook in print (or on-line in our case) would likely lead to a complaint or two. In the three years since launching WestIslipTribune.com, West Islip has been well short on gadflies when compared to other communities I have covered. That's right Long Beach, I'm talking about you.

Lately, however, there have been one or two gadflies that have surfaced. While the name of one particular individual has been omitted here to protect the guilty, the public comments made by this person at recent board meetings has at times led me to look around the room to see if Jay Leno or Jon Stewart have had hidden cameras rolling.

While the comments of this person have contained little in the way of substance and have also shown little understanding of the current financial climate, they have undoubtedly thought outside-the-box when offering budget cutting suggestions to the board of education. It's hard to pick a favorite, but one that jumps to mind was the suggestion to construct new school buildings because they would be more energy efficient and save money long term through energy cost savings. Well, it's a thought.

I'm not sure of the motivation of this person. My first instinct was that this was a individual who was attempting to become informed about the financial workings of the school district. An effort that is admirable. But lately I have felt that the effort bordered on being a demagogue. But I quickly talked myself out of that theory. Too many syllables.

I Heard What You Said...But Can I Have It Anyway

The process of watching a school district and its board of education put together a budget can be fascinating and tedious at the same time. But deciding how to spend $100 million dollars to educate the children of West Islip is undoubtedly the most important job of local educators and board trustees.

Our board of education in West Islip provides local residents the opportunity to sit in and listen to how the school district will spend precious tax dollars. Attending the meetings also provide an education in that school administrators clearly outline how are schools are funded and the unique challenges that face the school district.

But two things continue to amaze me about school budget hearings. One is the continued lack of interest shown by the community as a whole. The fact that the board of education is able to hold their public budget meetings in the library at Beach Street Middle School is maddening and somewhat sad. The school district advertises the meetings on its website and WestIslipTribune.com also promoted the dates. I guess property taxes are not an issue here.

My other point of amazement is how some residents at local meetings can be tone deaf. Through two meetings as of March 2, School Superintendent Dr. Beth Virginia Blau had been quite clear in outlining the financial hurdles facing the school district as it works to develop a spending plan for the 2010-11 school year.

While those challenges are too many to outline here — see article on WestIslipTribune.com — this is not the year to be asking for new programs, Smart Boards in every class room or extra teachers where none are needed. Whether fair or not, this generation of students may have to learn to do more with less, or at least the same. We all want the best for our students. But when looking at the national economy, having the best without the ability to pay is a dangerous proposition.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have two children who attend Manetuck, which is West Islip's largest elementary school in terms of student population.

Many local residents cannot afford a significant increase in their property taxes. Job losses, shrinking home values and other economic factors are squeezing many of our neighbors. In fact, the need for donations to local food pantries remains dire since a growing number of West Islip residents are seeking help in an effort to keep their cupboards from being completely bare.

So while I understand some may want a bit extra for their particular school, it's important to keep in mind that what the school board does for one, it has to do for all. And that leads to spending funds that just aren't available.

Meetings, Meetings And More Meetings

Every now and again, meetings of West Islip's many civic groups overlap and lead to either a difficult choice of which to attend, or in the case of a recent Monday, attend back-to-back meetings.

February 22 was a particularly busy evening: a 6 p.m. West Islip Summit Council meeting at the high school; 7 p.m. at the American Legion Hall for the West Islip Chamber of Commerce meeting and also at 7 p.m. was a presentation on the topic of cyber bullying at the high school.

I'm fortunate to have the services of a freelancer, Ariella Monti, a talented reporter and writer who also provided WestIslipTribune.com's coverage of the West Islip Summit this past October. She was at the high school reporting on the cyber bullying forum.

But this is not about a meeting schedule, but more about what happens at these meetings. With most civic group meetings, a small gathering of well intentioned local residents gather with the admirable goal of improving some portion of life in West Islip.

At any of these meetings, it can be a challenge to stay on topic and that unfortunately leads to these meeting running longer than they should. Personally, the most frustrating part of these meetings are the side conversations that inevitably happen.

At the recent Chamber of Commerce meeting, which featured an informative presentation about the on-going problem of heroin, one member in the audience asked the speaker — a narcotics detective — what progress have we made in the fight against heroin over the past 50 years.

What? Fifty years?

While I won't debate the merits of the question here, this to me was an example of someone awkwardly trying to make a point without really having a point and ultimately wasting valuable meeting time. But that can be the challenge of running and sitting through a civic group meeting. It's important for meeting attendees to bring up issues, and in order to do that, we sometimes have to sit through a question or two that might not be exactly on point.

A Glimpse Inside Miss America

I have to admit I've never been much of a fan of the Miss America pageant. Despite having more than 50 very attractive women on stage in one place, it was not something I ever really cared about.

This year, however, was different. As editor of WestIslipTribune.com, it was easy to pay attention to the national competition because of Jen Corey, a West Islip resident who in the summer of 2009 was crowned Miss D.C. As a student at American University in the nation's capital, Jen was eligible for the Miss D.C. competition.

At the competition held Sunday, January 30, at Planet Hollywood Casino & Resort in Las Vegas, Jen finished in the top-10, a wonderful accomplishment. Although I must admit that I thought given her performance in the talent competition, singing an opera piece, and the fact that is she quite attractive, a top-5 finish was in reach.

But following Jen for the past several months also proved to be an interesting experience for me. In my two decades as a journalist, working for various community newspapers, trade publications and now as owner of WestIslipTribune.com, I've been fortunate to at times attend events, go interesting places and meet some famous people.

Seeing Miss America in person at Planet Hollywood, while the event was aired live to 3.5 million viewers on TLC, was cool. It was interesting to see how well choreographed a live show can be done, the interaction between the show's producers and the live audience, and overall just how smooth the program went.

I was also fortunate to obtain a media pass for the event, which allowed me to sit closer to the stage and share a photographers row with Reuters and AP along with others. Talk about camera envy!

But with Miss America now over, I've returned to our little corner of the world to again focus on what's happening in West Islip. I'm guessing there won't be a swimwear portion at the next board of education meeting.

No More Games of Telephone

There are many reasons I enjoy community journalism. Among my favorites is a classic; the game of telephone. You remember, one person makes a statement to another and then passes it on to someone else. And the message at the end does not resemble what it was at the start.

Well, a recent phone conversation was the latest version of this game. The call I received had to do with the January West Islip Board of Education meeting. The question revolved around a whether there was a discussion about salaries of school district administrators at the board meeting. “There was not,” I replied. “Why?” I then inquired.

It seems as if some in the community are concerned about the salaries of West Islip school district administrators and whether the community can afford them given the current fiscal environment. A legitimate concern, but I asked the caller if those concerned about administrative staff salaries are aware that West Islip’s were among the lowest in the county? I also asked if those concerned were aware that the school district has one of the lowest administrator-to-student- ratios in the county? The answer to both questions was no.

I'm not sure if the conversation about administrative salaries stemmed from a lack of information or mis-information, but which ever, neither is good.

With the board of education about to embark on the budget formation process for the 2010-11 school year, it might behoove more local residents to attend budget hearings to let the trustees know what their concerns are. The meetings are also wonderfully educational, providing a plethora of information about what the school district spends, the burden placed on local homeowners (that homestead rate can be a real…well, it’s tough), and how West Islip ranks in spending compared to surrounding school districts.

No matter what one’s personal views are on school spending, it is important to have the correct information before forming an opinion or speaking publicly on an issue. If not, it only leads to a dissemination of incorrect information. And that helps no one.

The First Meetings Of 2010

The New Year in West Islip has gotten off to a spirited start as the first meetings of the Board of Education and West Islip Association were held recently.

While our local BOE meetings tend to be rather vanilla when compared to other school board meetings I've covered in the past, such as in Long Beach (long story), the meeting on Thursday, January 14, at Kirdahy School at Captree, was a bit lively.

Held in the school's gymnasium, there was a strong turnout at the meeting. While many of the regulars were in attendance, the numbers were inflated at least for one night mainly for two reasons: the school district was honoring its fall season student/athletes, and many members of the custodial staff were out in support of their union as it negotiates a new contract.

In addition, trustee Eliot Bloom was again posing questions and discussing a few issues that focused on how the school district negotiates contracts with its many unions to wanting to know if there was a simpler way for him to receive information from administrators.

While Bloom's repeated questions appear to at times annoy some other trustees who work hard to remain expressionless — as well as some in the audience — there is nothing wrong with seeking answers in an open forum and on the record. It is important to note that like a member of Congress, school board trustees are elected to represent West Islip residents. So while this may make some in the community cringe, we encourage Bloom and other trustees to have more of an open dialogue at meetings and discuss issues that matter to the community and are pertinent to the school district during meetings.

The evening before the January school board meeting, the West Islip Association held its first meeting of 2010 with a presentation from Vision Long Island. While a story on VLI's presentation is on WestIslipTribune.com, the WIA is changing its focus a bit. Joseph DiCarlo, chairman of the association, noted that the group will work to have specific topics at each meeting.

In addition, the meeting at the West Islip Public Library had a good turnout and several local elected officials were in attendance: Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan, Islip Councilman Steve Flotteron, Islip Councilwoman Trish Bergin and Suffolk County Treasurer Angie Carpenter.