Franklin Square/Elmont
HERALD F.s. teacher pens horror series
elmont alum dies in NYC crash
Carey alum builds native garden
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Vol. 22 No. 28
JUlY 9 - 15, 2020
Remembering a ‘gem’ of Elmont Carol Hrbek, Sewanhaka PTSA vice president, dies at 55 By Melissa KoeNig mkoenig@liherald.com
Christina Daly/Herald
Jumping into summer The diving board was closed at Rath Park last Friday, but Everly Foy, 4, jumped into her mom’s arms from the side of the pool. Story, more photos, Page 15.
Farewell to Sewanhaka principal Salinas set to take over at New Rochelle High By Melissa KoeNig mkoenig@liherald.com
Nearly a dozen cars circled the Sewanhaka High School parking lot on June 30 to thank Dr. Christopher Salinas for his four years as principal on his last day of work in the district. In February, the Sewanhaka Central High School District Board of Education denied Salinas’s request for tenure, which led nearly 900 parents and stu-
dents to sign a Change.org petition asking the board to reverse its decision. Several others submitted letters to the board, Parent Teacher Student Association President Judy Staiano noted, but when no one received confirmation that the board had received those letters, they prepared to speak to the board about Salinas’s influence on the school. When those parents tried to read their remarks at the Febru-
ary Board of Education meeting, however, they were told that it was against board policy to speak about personnel issues at a public meeting. Then, at the June 2 virtual school board meeting, the board named Assistant Principal Nicole Allen the interim principal. Superintendent James Grossane said he would try to find a tenured principal for the juniorContinued on page 3
Carol Hrbek was “always a presence” in the Elmont comm u n i t y, S e w a n h a k a H i g h School Parent Teacher Association President Judy Staiano said, serving as the organization’s vice president and as a member of the Interschool Council of Parent Teacher Associations. Hrbek was a former president of the Covert Avenue School PTA, and was a teacher’s aide for special-needs students at Elmont Memorial High School until she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January. After six months of battling the disease, Carol died in her sleep on June 30, at age 55. “Her life was cut too short,” neighbor Diane Schenidmuller said, adding that her loss “is a void we won’t be able to fill.” Carol Ann Lester was born in Manhattan on Christmas Eve 1964, and met Frank Hrbek Jr. at Woodmere Lanes’ Back Stage Restaurant in December 1988, when she went bowling with her friends and one of her sisters. Hrbek asked her to marry him on her 25th birthday, and they were married on Sept. 7, 1991. For the first 10 years of their marriage, Frank said, they had no children of their own, so they would take Carol’s nieces and nephew to water parks and her niece Nikkole Atille to nail salons. “She was an amazing
woman,” Atille said, recalling that she would beg her parents to let her stay with the Hrbeks on weekends. “I just loved spending as much time with her as possible.” Carol and Frank had their first child, Samantha, 18 years ago, and their son, Nick, three years later. The children grew up in Elmont, and the Hrbeks and the Schenidmullers would go on road trips and spend the children’s February breaks at the Hrbeks’ second home in Pennsylvania, where Diane Schenidmuller taught them how to ski. Carol would also “spend time sitting in her backyard talking about anything from A to Z,” another neighbor, Brenda Ordonaz, said, describing Carol as very easy to talk to. “She was a gem to the community,” Ordonaz said, “and a gem to her friends.” The Hrbeks were always there when their friends needed them, they said. Staiano recounted how the couple took care of her children when she was dealing with the loss of her sister, and another friend, Maria Testaverde-Mellen, previously told the Herald how Frank — who serves in the Elmont Fire Department — was the first person she called when her mother accidentally left her car in neutral and it ran over her ankles. “They’ll take their shirts off their backs,” Testaverde-Mellen said of the Hrbeks. “You want Continued on page 5