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.