Updates from the July 12 Island Park BOE meeting
At the July 12 Island Park Board of Education meeting, Superintendent of Schools Vincent Randazzo began his report by paying tribute to former Island Park Board President, Vice President and Trustee Steven L. Foster who recently passed away. Mr. Foster served Island Park families for 31 years from 1981 to 2012 with great pride. As Mr. Randazzo stated, Mr. Foster will be missed and remembered for his caring and loving disposition and as someone who always put others before himself.
Following the tribute to Mr. Foster, Mr. Randazzo welcomed the following newly appointed members of the Island Park team:
- Michelle Cronolly
- Diana DiLorenzo
- Brittany Gallipani
- Nicholas Giovanelli
- Kacy Kaiser
- Michael McDermott
- Alyssa Petry
- Melissa Williams
Additionally, Mr. Randazzo welcomed the Interim School Business Administrator Salvatore Carambia.
Next, Mr. Randazzo shared that the district currently has 84 students from grades K-7 enrolled in the Star Summer Enrichment program that kicked off on July 5. Participants are enjoying free play, academic fun and science-based STEM activities throughout the day. He also added that 215 campers are enrolled in the Summer Recreation program which is an increase in the number of participants from last year.
Superintendent Randazzo went on to share that on July 6, Assistant Superintendent Offerman-Celentano and he met with members of the Equinor team. Equinor is an international company working with New York State to build wind farms off the coast of Long Island. They provided an overview of the project and an update on the community collaboration. This was an opportunity to discuss the fact that the board opted out of the New York State Real Property Tax Law 487 which means that any PILOT agreement will have to include the district at the negotiation table. At this point in time, Mr. Randazzo noted that the district is not ready to discuss numbers because Equinor representatives informed the district that the windfarm will not be operational until 2027/2028 at the earliest. Equinor is cognizant of the LIPA agreement and its impact on the district and the community and said that some of the substation payments would backfill some of the hole left by LIPA but at this point we are not sure how much. Equinor seemed to want to help and listened to the district’s concerns as well as the concerns of the community. Additionally, they are very interested in starting a collaboration now as they are keenly aware of all the district’s STEM initiatives and looking for opportunities to open career paths in the areas of STEM and are happy to support the district’s educational initiatives. Another meeting will be planned in August to discuss collaborative issues further.
Upon the conclusion of Mr. Randazzo’s report, there was a UPK waitlist lottery that took place.
