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HALF HOLLOW HILLS Copyright © 2010 Long Islander Newspapers, LLC.
Online at www.LongIslanderNews.com VOLUME THIRTEEN, ISSUE 25
TOWN OF HUNTINGTON
LONG ISLANDER NEWSPAPERS TELECOMMUNICATIONS/MEDIA BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
N E W S P A P E R
24 PAGES
THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2010
TOWN OF HUNTINGTON Half Hollow Hills photo/Amanda Lindner
$93 Mil Up For Grabs By Amanda Lindner
alindner@longislandernews.com
Governor David Paterson has a multi-milliondollar decision to make, and it’s about your children’s education. After huge state budget cuts for Long Island schools, the federal government is stepping in to help save teaching jobs. Congress went into session earlier this month to pass a measure that would give states $10 billion in federal aid from unspent stimulus funds and closed tax loops on foreign companies. New York State will receive more than $600 million. A portion of that money will go to help Long Island schools keep their teaching positions after $172 million was cut from state school aid two weeks ago. The formula Paterson and Albany lawmakers choose to use will decide exactly how much cushion Nassau and Suffolk schools will get. “This fall, Long Island kids could show up at schools with fewer teachers and larger class sizes,” Rep. Steve Israel (D – Dix Hills) said. “The repercussions of cuts at schools would be felt for years to come by the schoolchildren shortchanged on a good education. The passage of this legislation protects our teachers, our taxpayers and our kids." Albany has two choices on how to spend the money. It could follow the Title I Federal formula or use its own state plan. Under the Title I plan, which is part of the No Child Left Behind Act, Long Island could get as little as $7 million in federal aid, since most will benefit New York City schools and larger urban areas that fall within the federal specifications. A state plan however, would give suburban districts a stronger share of the pot – up to $100 million. “I’m hoping we go with the state plan. If it ends up being Title I, we wouldn’t get anything for our schools,” Assemblyman Andrew Raia (RNorthport) said. “Enough is enough.” Even with the full amount, the stimulus would be $72 million short of what was cut, but it may help school districts like Harborfields, for example, which had to cut two librarians and two computer teachers last year. “If we get the money that we’re expecting, it will go to employment,” said Superintendent Frank Carasiti. State applications for the federal funds are due by Sept. 9. The Department of Education plans to distribute the money two weeks after the application is received. Despite the rush, the extra money may still come too late. “The whole point of the money is to help teachers from being laid off, but it’s already so far past the budget planning process, that the districts have already made their cuts for the budget they had available,” Assemblyman Jim Conte (RHuntington Station) said.
Anne Smith with her son, Kevin, who is now seven months sober after battling a four-year heroin addiciton.
Heroin Taking Its Hold Clinical director says opiate overdose kills at least one a day By Amanda Lindner alindner@longislandernews.com
Another high school student walked into Steve Chassman’s office last week. This time, the teenage girl from Huntington lifted up the sleeve on her college sweatshirt, revealing the bruises her heroin injections have left behind. The sight is no surprise to Chassman, a Northport resident and clinical director at the Long Island Council for Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD). He said his calls are up by 400 percent since last year, but he is happy she is in his office, standing, breathing and alive. Anne Smith, who worked at a Melville dental practice for 32 years, said she watched her son, Kevin Smith, 21, “die twice” in one week from heroin overdoses. It was after his second cardiac arrest that she just couldn’t take it anymore, she said. If he wouldn’t give up heroin to save his own life, maybe he would to save hers. “I found needles in his room after he told me he had stopped. When he was home, I stormed into his room with the needles in my hand and yelled for him to shoot me up too,” Anne said. “I told him that if he died, I’d die too, so
let’s just do it together – that this drug is killing the both of us.” In an emotional outburst, Kevin grabbed back the syringes and crushed them in his hand, she said. It was the first time in four years he said goodbye to heroin, and actually meant it. “It was hell. He stole anything worth any value to sell for heroin,” Anne said. “It was destroying us both.” Using up to 35 bags a day at his worst point, Kevin had stolen his mother’s engagement rings and car. Anne swapped her son’s wooden door for a steel one at their Oakdale home because she found herself having to constantly repair the holes caused by Kevin’s fist punching the door. She even quit her job to stay home and monitor him, but nothing was going to change “unless he wanted to make the change,” she said. “I hated myself. Heroin ruined my life,” Kevin said. “It turned me into a thief, it made me do grimy things. I was hanging out with gang members. It was just bad and I don’t ever (Continued on page A19)
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