Pre-K education expanded significantly throughout Long Island

Long Island Morning Edition

Long Island school districts employed hundreds of retired educators last school year, including seven who eclipsed $400,000 between their district paychecks and pensions. Jim Baumbach reports in NEWSDAY that Districts say a shrinking pool of specialized educators has led them to turn to retirees, and the state made it easier by removing the need for a waiver to employ retirees younger than 65. That rule, initially intended to boost the number of health care workers early in the pandemic, expires in June. Schools employed 51 retired educators who would have required waivers under the previous rules, a significant increase. Previously the State of New York issued an annual average of 13 such waivers to school districts across Nassau and Suffolk. Skeptics say the districts and retirees, while acting within the law, are misusing the state pension system, thus discouraging districts from developing a succession plan and allowing retirees to enrich themselves with simultaneous pay and pension checks — with the long-term cost falling on taxpayers.

The school leaders say hiring challenges for specialized positions such as top administrators and English language learner teachers are significant and adding experienced retirees into the mix benefits students. They also said they prefer to avoid double dipping.

"We’ve heard, ‘They’ve already retired, move over, make room for the next person,’ but sometimes in today’s day and age, there’s a dwindling pool to move on to the next person," said Robert Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. He cited a shortage of specialized educators such as career and trade teachers and special education teachers across Long Island.

Hiring retirees could hurt districts’ stated intentions to diversify an educator pool that Islandwide is overwhelmingly white, said Dafny Irizarry, president of the Long Island Latino Teachers Association. Minorities represented 57% of Long Island's student body and nearly 10% of educators in the most recent state figures.

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Prekindergarten education on Long Island has greatly expanded in the past few years with significantly more students attending Universal Pre-K programs. Some districts have seen their waitlists get longer as such programs grew in popularity. Not all educators believe that every child should be in a pre-K classroom, but most agree that children should have access to quality programs if their parents want it. Dandan Zou reports in NEWSDAY that the Universal Pre-K programs that school districts offer are free, though not every district on Long Island offers UPK.

Parents also can pay tuition to send their children to private programs.

Proponents of early childhood education point to research that showed children who attend pre-K are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college.

“It boosts the early literacy, math and language skills and leads to higher education attainment later in life,” said William Hender, assistant superintendent for Elementary Education K-6 in the South Huntington district.

Early intervention also can also take place if special needs are identified in a student earlier than later, which could mean fewer services required down the road, educators said.

Universal Pre-K consists of state-funded programs offered to children as long as they turn 4 by that December and meet the residency requirement. Prior to 2024-25, there also was federal funding for UPK. The programs are voluntary as the state’s compulsory age to begin attending school is 6.

Over the years, a much higher percentage of eligible children are attending these publicly funded programs offered through local districts.

In New York, about 75% of 4-year-olds took part in UPK programs in 2023-24, according to state data. That percentage came from a state formula that estimated the proxy total of 4-year-olds as 85% of enrolled kindergartners.

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It’s a holiday tradition more than three decades strong and growing every year.

Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that the annual Big Duck Lighting in Flanders is a classic Christmas community event, helping those in the Flanders and Riverhead area and throughout Suffolk County get into the holiday spirit. It all started in 1988, when former Suffolk County Parks Director of Historic Services Lance Mallamo decided to make a community event of lighting the giant wreath that is placed around the neck of the well-known, can’t-miss-it, historic landmark, which sits at 1012 Flanders Road. The duck was built in 1931. The 2024 lighting of The Big Duck is scheduled for this coming Wednesday at 8 p.m. at 1012 Flanders Road in Riverhead. For more information, visit bigduck.org.

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The Southampton Town Housing Authority is making a play to purchase the Easterner Motel, a small former resort motel on Montauk Highway in Shinnecock Hills that has been used as long-term housing for several years. Curtis Highsmith, the executive director of the housing authority, said that he has reached an agreement on a purchase price for the property with the current owner that would allow the property to be permanently transitioned to a rental housing development, upgrade the septics and aesthetics of the property and make it available at affordable housing rates. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the housing authority would not expand the current arrangements of the units according to Highsmith, who told members of the Hampton Bays Civic Association last week that he does not expect that the property would add a significant number of new students to the Hampton Bays School District. The Easterner has six existing structures: three small buildings with two “studio” rooms each, one building with a studio and a one-bedroom unit, and two two-bedroom cottages. An existing swimming pool would be removed if the housing authority takes over the property. Highsmith pledged that a housing authority take-over would only mean the property becomes more attractive than it currently is. The property is listed for sale at $2.95 million, but Highsmith would not say what the purchase price agreed to with the housing authority is. The housing authority expects to tap into funding assistance for various components of purchasing and renovating the property from Southampton Town, New York State and Suffolk County, Highsmith said, with the goal of making sure that the rents that are charged are the lowest the housing authority has ever passed on to tenants. He said the goal is to get the rents that must be charged below the level deemed affordable to people making less than 80 percent of area median income, the state standard for “affordable housing.”

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Democratic Party registration dropped 7% in New York City and 4% across the State of New York between 2020 and 2024 — the latest sign of disaffection with liberal policies that some pundits say is fueling a national push to the right. Carl Campanile reports in THE NY POST that Democrats saw registration decrease 258,612 in New York City from November 2020 to November 2024, when there were 3.4 million voters registered to the Democratic Party, according to Board of Election data.

That accounted for much of the 271,322 statewide decline in party enrollment as the GOP saw a modest gain of 2%, or 67,483 voters, enrolled statewide — bringing Republican Party totals to slightly more than 3 million, according to the numbers. But the biggest development was a 12% rise in registered voters without a party in the state — the so-called “blanks” or independents. Non-affiliated voters surged by 353,792 voters, to more than 3.3 million, outnumbering Republicans statewide. President-elect Donald Trump drew 44% of the vote in New York State to 56% for Vice President Kamala Harris, the highest vote for a Republican candidate in 36 years.

In 2022, Democrat Kathy Hochul won the race for governor by just 6-percentage points — 53%-47% over Republican Lee Zeldin. Zeldin, a former U.S. Congressman from Shirley, Long Island, is now Trump’s nominee for Environmental Protection Agency secretary. Democrats still hold a huge enrollment advantage — 6.54 million — more than the Republicans and independent registered voters combined statewide.

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This coming Thursday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m., the Hampton Bays Alliance, a new civic group for Hampton Bays, will discuss New York State’s Pro-Housing Community Program with Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni and Southampton Housing Authority Director Curtis Highsmith in the Helen Gould Room at the Hampton Bays Public Library, 52 Ponquogue Ave, Hampton Bays. Southampton Town last week agreed to participate in New York State’s Pro-Housing Community Program.

Per New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), “In July 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul signed Executive Order 30 creating the Pro-Housing Community Program – an innovative policy designed to reward local governments that are working hard to address New York’s housing crisis.

Localities must achieve the “Pro-Housing Communities” certification to apply to key discretionary funding programs, including the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI), the NY Forward program, the Regional Council Capital Fund, capital projects from the Market New York program, the New York Main Street program, the Long Island Investment Fund (LIIF), the Mid-Hudson Momentum Fund, and the Public Transportation Modernization Enhancement Program (MEP).