THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR

WPCNR GUEST EDITORIAL. By George Latimer. County Legislator, 7th District. March 24, 2004:  After extensive debate during our 2004 County Budget season, many County Legislators decried the proliferation of unfunded mandates from the State and Federal governments: Medicaid, Services to Children with Special Needs, State Retirement Benefits, etc. So two weeks later, the State Legislature now considers the next big new mandate ahead – HAVA – Help America Vote Act. Here we go again!

 HAVA purports to avoid the 2000 Florida debate by mandating electronic voting machines.  HAVA seeks the laudable goal of making polling places handicapped-accessible.  But who is going to pick up the bulk of the tab?  The County property taxpayers, that’s who.

New Voting Machines

 Westchester would need to buy 1,200 new electronic voting machines, at $6,000 per machine.  Total cost: $7.2 million.  Federal support expected – at best, $4 million.  State support expect – unsure, maybe zero.  County budget impact: $3 million at least.

Centralized Storage of Machines

 NY State Board of Elections is expected to require that the County Board of Elections take over costs and administration for all elections.  Good news for city, town and village budgets, which will drop such costs – but an incalculable expense on County taxes.  This takeover – unwanted by the County – means creation of a new central storage facility for electronic machines (which may require air conditioning and temperature control), and added transportation costs to ferry these machines to and from polling places.  No funding yet planned to offset these mandated County costs.

Polling Place Accessibility

 The costs of bringing every polling place into ADA – compliance is hard to estimate.  In many locations, a new polling place will be required; capital projects to correct these deficiencies in many places could trigger a massive expense.  No funding yet planned to offset these potential costs to the County.

Legislation has been passed by Congress to implement HAVA with hard deadlines – but minimal money ($200 million spread all across New York State).  So get ready; when the 2005 County budget comes around, remember the seeds were sown for a new round of mandated expenses under the umbrella of the much bally-hooed “Help America Vote Act”. 

 It is one more example of decisions forced on local governments during the course of the year, which voters only appreciate when the budget comes out at year’s end.

George Latimer

County Legislator, 7th District

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. March 23, 2004: Mario Scarano, Athletic Director for the White Plains City School Distric, Mario Scarano, proposed creating a new position, that of Coordinator of Health and Physical Education, giving up responsibilities for devising Health and Physical Education curriculum he has been handling for the District, last night.

A.D. MAKES CASE: Mario Scarano, Director of Athletics, second from right, making A.D. Split Play to Board of Education Monday night. Photo by WPCNR News

Harriet Ketover has been aiding Mr. Scarano in overseeing curriculum consistency in physical education and health in Grades 6 to 12,  since the deparature of Lyn Kahn from the district. However, now that New York State is imposing physical education & health Assessment Tests, Mr. Scarano said, the task of running both the athletic programs and the health curriculum across the district was going to be demanding and needed its own full-time coordinator.  He said the new position would cost the District $100,000. He stated he has not been handling the curriculum coordination piece, that Ketover had been handling it on a parttime basis, and only for the 6 through 12 grades.

Scarano said that dividing the position would enable him to concentrate on making improvements to the athletic program across the district. He counted down the following benefits:

1.) Closer supervision of coaches, developing their skills and effectiveness.

2.) More time to devote to improving District Modified Programs (Grades 7-8).

3.) More opportunity to develop “Outreach Programs” to Parents, whose children participate in sports. Scarano said he felt more interaction with parents would “eliminate some of the communication problems between coaches and parents.” Scarano said he had spent 3 hours on Monday afternoon with parents on phones discussing team issues.

4.) Increased liaison work with the YM and YWCA’s, and the Youth Bureau .

5.) More time to recruit new coaches

6.) Time to develop the final push to fund the new Loucks Field reconstruction (a $7 Million project) that he felt could begain within the next two years.

7.) Development of a new indoor field house.

8.) Establishment of a Coaches Advisory Council where staff coaches could contribute their collective experience to discuss coach issues, help new coaches, examine situations.

9.) Formation of an Athletic Member Council of Team Captains. Scarano said, “They (athletes) should have their say in what they already do.”

Scarano told Connors,  in calling for the splitting of duties between Athletic Directing and Currculum Coordinating, “I think I’m not doing either job the way it should be done,”

“What you have now is special,” Scarano said. “In health and physical education, in terms of athletics, what are the things we have to respond to and make happen. I want every child in the program to have a very enjoyable experience. Now, not every one is.”

Expand Middle School Teams.

He said he wanted to expand the Middle School Programs because of the positive affect participation in athletics has on student athletic performance. He said students who play on teams have 10 to 15 points better grades than children who do not.

He said he wanted to create more Middle School Teams, saying last year some 70 kids tried out for baseball, 60 children for soccer, and 40 for Lacrosse, and most had to be cut because there was only one team in each of the sports.

This hurt baseball, Scarano said, because the high school could not field a freshman team this year because only 7 tried out, since many had tried out for middle school and not made the team.

Comments from Board

Connors asked him what were the budget implications of equipment and new coaches, and Scarano said he would have to work that out. Connors cautioned “that (middle school team expansion) will not happen without expanding the budget.”

Donna McLaughlin, President of the Board of Education, told Scarano that one item missing from his list of things to do to improve the athletic program was evaluation of coaches, beyond that of “self-evaluation.”  Scarano defended his evaluation of coaches because he said he does discuss with the coaches their performance. McLaughlin was persistent, asking Scarano to develop a more exacting process. He said he would.

Ms. McLaughlin added that any new Coordinator of Health & Physical Education Curriculum, and Mr. Scarano, should develop better drug and substance abuse programs at the Middle School Level. (In the public comment period, a citizen asked Superintendent of Schools Connors about the WPHS Rochester drinking incident, and Mr. Connors declined to spell out details, because federal law prohibited describing penalties.)