16 OT Dec 27

What you need to know Opinion COUNTESS, AUTHOR, SPY: We PREPAYING TAX WON’T SAVE: EDITORIALS reprise the glamorous and some- For people who thought prepaying This Week: & LETTERS times dangerous life of Aline their property tax bills would buy Out & About Griffith, the Pearl River girl who them immunity from the reduced Pages 15 Pages made dreams of a castle in Spain tax deductions in the new federal 8 & 9 come true, literally, while a mem- regulations, here’s bad news-they Our Town newspaper ISSN 025457. Periodical ber of the jet set. Page 3 won’t be credited for 2017. Page 4 Postage rates paid at Pearl River NY 10965 and at additional mailing offices. School districts IN PRINT & ONLINE FOR ORANGETOWN, CLARKSTOWN, ROCKLAND & N. BERGEN may gain WEDNESDAY flexibility December 27, 2017 in setting Vol. 45, No. 9 Our 46th Year annual calendar Entire contents By Suzanne Daycock Our Town copyrighted STAFF WRITER Changes may be coming to the way that your child’s school district establishes its annual calendar. State Education Orangetown,religiouscommunities Commissioner MaryEllen Elia spoke out this week about a recommendation under consideration could be poles apart on erection of eruvs by the Board of Regents that she claims responses to a request from By Anne Phyllis Pinzow February 6, to prohibit eruvim (plural of was installed by a licensed workman and the state’s public school superin- STAFF WRITER eruv) from being established in that there was proper insurance coverage in tendents for more flexibility when Orangetown. Based on a suggestion made at case of injury. There’s a list six pages long it comes to scheduling – especial- Eruvs have become controversial in a Town Board meeting in September, by of regulations and documentation and pro- ly if families support them. Rockland and northern Bergen communi- then candidate for the office of Town cedural requirements with heavy fines for “One thing superintendents ties as the begin to appear on utility poles. Supervisor, Christopher Day the language noncompliance, ($1,500 for each and every have requested is flexibility on An eruv is a continuous rope clad in white in the law would use a different term in ref- violation per day and imprisonment for no this issue of, ‘Can I start earlier? plastic PVC pipe which marks out a bound- erence to the eruv and expand the term more than 10 days.) ary in which observant Jews can move Come on, let us start earlier. Our “sign,” to include eruvim. A permit obtained from the police is about more freely on the sabbath. families, everybody would be OK Day referenced laws that had been pro- needed to comply with the installation of a with it. But under the law we They appear to be part of the utility infra- posed in New Jersey, most of which have security camera, but what that might entail can’t,’” Commissioner Elia told a structure when attached to poles, but in been struck down by the courts or are being was not included. Noncompliance can mean reporter for the Albany Times effect while not a specific religious symbol challenged. The one proposed in Mahwah a fine of $50,000 and possible imprison- Union this week. are valued by strictly observant Jews, was withdrawn in a vote on December 14 ment of up to one year. whether orthodox, conservative or reform. The possibility of removing a by the Mahwah Township Council as a During the public hearing the attorney barrier to an August start date for The appearance of eruvs in Mahwah and counter move to the State of New Jersey Marzolla reviewed a brief and limited histo- the state’s public school districts Upper Saddle River, both upscale commu- suing Mahwah over the ordinance which it ry of “permeant non-utility devices,” saying comes while state policymakers nities with relatively small populations of states illegally targets Jews. that O&R does not provide for any insur- are considering a proposal to observant Jews has sparked efforts to ban ance protection for the town, or legal pro- begin to count school years in them countered by lawsuits claiming reli- Regulates use of poles rather than eruvs tection, notification of when and where an hours rather than days. New York, gious bias. The proposed, legislation authored by eruv will be established or provide licensing like most states, current requires Orangetown has joined the fray, before outside counsel and presented by Mary E. status of the contractors. She said, “Because that public schools remain open eruvs have appeared on poles. Marzolla of Freerick, Lynch MacCartney & A law was being considered by the Town Nugent PLLC., focused on making sure that SCHOOL CALENDAR: Board on December 19 to be continued on any type of device attached to utility poles ERUVS: Page 6, please Page 2, please Scouting for a project, Eagle candidate restores long-forgotten cemetry Story and photos for the Eagle award in scouting. by Arthur R. Aldrich Every Eagle Scout candidate must plan and complete a community Some folks whistle while they service project as part of the multi- walk past a graveyard to prove they tude of requirements to receive the are not afraid of whatever in that rank. Slattery was scouting for a graveyard they may be afraid of. project. Thousands of people walk or “The first person I thought of drive past a postage-stamp size speaking to was James Cassetta, graveyard in Pearl River every day the historian at the Pearl River without whistling, largely because Library,” Slattery stated at the ded- they are either unaware that the ication Tuesday of his completed graveyard exists, take it for grant- project. “He suggested the little ed, or know nothing about it at all. cemetery.” Sandwiched between a bagel shop and ShopRite supermarket parking But first Slattery had to learn lots on Middletown Road, the tiny about the cemetery and its place in burial plot has been fenced off and Orangetown history. Again Cassetta, who has published one Ryan Slattery, Eagle Scout candidate in Troop 2097 New City, at dedication of his ceme- abandoned for decades. tery restoration project on Tuesday. He rehabilitated the old Bogert burial ground, restored Among the frequent passersby headstones and erected a signboard tracing the history of the long-abandoned graveyard was Ryan Slattery, a seniort at Pearl on Middletown Road. River High School, and a candidate CEMETERY: Page 10, please or your friends & neighbors! Treat Our Town Your Hometown Newspaper Yourself Sign up now, see page 2 In Print... On Line... The Best Source for Over 43 Years! 2....OUR TOWN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2017 School year may be reckoned in hours, not days for flexibility Continued from Page 1 prise this past spring when the approach, districts would be able for 180 days each year, which is state Education Department to schedule half days that they counted as at least five hours of issued a memo reminding them Districts would gain more discretion are not allowed to use to meet the instruction at the elementary of the state’s minimum instruc- 180-day requirement today. They level and five and a half hours at tion requirements. Under the new to manage snow days and other would also have the option to the middle and high school lev- approach, all instructional hours schedule in lengthier lunch and els. spent in a classroom could be scheduling issues without losing recess periods, and parent- This, of course, means half counted toward the state require- teacher conference periods at the days don’t count — something ment and all public schools, apart attendance-based aid discretion of the district school that took some districts by sur- from charter schools, would have board. the option to open “Any change to the instruc- before cials posted on their website as their districts were not comply- tional day or year would require September. Listen to a preview of the stories part of a report on the December ing with the 180-day instruction- revisiting and possibly changing “After five meeting of the state’s Board of al requirements despite reporting teacher contracts,” NYSCOSS in this week’s Our Town every hearings around Regents. compliance to the department’s warned. “Of further note, the the state, the “During meetings with SED, state aid office; districts falling Board and SED will work with Board has pro- Wednesday @ 7:45 am on council staff and our superin- short of the yearly requirement the legislature to amend state law posed new regu- are docked a percentage of their tendent representative, Bob Ike to allow instructional days in the lations governing annual state aid. “The Morning Show with of Palmyra-Macedon, argued last two weeks of August, the the 180 session vociferously for as much flexi- School officials responded that day requirement,” same time frame that conference Steve & Jeff” bility as possible. On first read, it a late-in-the-season Nor’easter days are authorized.” New York State appears that we have gotten pret- that dumped several feet of snow The proposed changes to WRCR AM 1700 and wrcr.com Council of School ty close to that result.” on portions of New York State Superintendent had prompted a statewide snow department regulations require (NYSCOSS) offi- Sets instructional hours day after they had already used that the public be provided with a NYSCOSS notes that the up their allotted days off. Though 45-day comment period before key change under the new the day was made up, the storm they can be acted upon by the proposal would be a school opened a door on the fact that Regents, who currently expect to year calculation that would some districts had counted days consider a final recommendation require that students in where schools started late due to during their March meeting.

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