Citron re-elected president of Jericho Board of Education

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Ingerman Smith has represented the district for many years, but Perlman maintained that it would serve the best interests of the district to interview other law firms for a competitive bid. His motion was denied by the Board.

In another matter, rising senior Ethan Brown informed the Board that many high school students are not eating lunch, forgoing lunch to take additional coursework, electives or test preparation. drivers nothing changes in the legality of passing a school bus – everyone is still required to stop whether they are on the side of the road the bus is going in or the opposite direction’s lanes.

Brown said the practice was unhealthy and went against the advice of experts who counsel students to eat to stay healthy.

He urged the board to encourage students to take a daily lunch break. The board said it would address this issue next semester.

“Drivers on both sides of the road must stop – make a full stop and do not proceed until the STOP-sign arm closes and the bus door closes with children aboard loaded safely and those dropped off out of the vicinity of the road. That does not change but if a driver does pull out they are now photographed and through this process, they will receive a ticket by mail for the offense with a fine that was already set by Albany (state lawmakers),” Saladino announced.

Councilman Lou Imbroto pointed out an exception to the state law for roads with a school bus stopping for pickup or drop-off. He referenced four lane roads with a vertical center median made of concrete, similar to some highways.

Councilman Steve Labriola backed up the concern as he said the potential is high for bad accidents, in particular rear-end collisions, for drivers who stop for a school bus STOP-arm on the opposite side of a local highway like Rt. 110 or Sunrise Highway. He said the cameras should not operate on roadways where the speed limit is 35 MPH or higher.

“That part of the VTL should be clear – we as parents want that enforced for local streets and roads with traffic under 40 MPH. But I think there’s a possibility to open up other problems if the agreements with districts do not address this and we don’t exercise our discretion here,” he said.

Town Attorney Scalera said the state statute might be interpreted as strict, but it does allow for discretion of roads where the law should be applicable by the home municipality or adjudicate entity. He hopes for more “crystallization” of the state law concerning road conditions where school buses stop, including roads with medians.

“Some of these questions have come up as there are a couple of towns in Nassau County and Suffolk County where it is questionable. There are officials lobbying New York State to address some of these nuances and incidental issues so we may see a change coming for 1174 and 1174-A,” Scalera said.

Councilman Imbroto wanted to see if the potential changes could be accounted for in the Town’s proposed legislation, and Scalera suggested conversations with districts about how the district cameras aboard buses are programmed for filtering roadway conditions in villages and hamlets.

He said that while the state law needs to be clearer on such issues, to help TOBAY residents the potential for nuances of roadways impacting a driver’s choices of stopping for a school bus would be accounted for in the local law.

“Final review of any reported violation recorded on video or in a photograph would be from the Town, including by our Public Safety Department or the Town Attorney’s office – there is discretion built-in to the program just as with police officers on scene there is discretion involved for the circumstances, such as passing the bus for reasons that have nothing to do with the driver’s making an unsafe maneuver. Possibly an ambulance was trying to go through, for example, and the driver had to move over and accidentally pass by the bus arm,” Scalera explained.

He then summarized the local law’s initiative for the Board and public, “One of the main things we’ve learned through our due diligence is that the implementation of such programs reduces the amount of violations where people pass school buses, so that’s the legislative intent for the safety of our children.”