Lynbrook school officials to install security vestibule

It has been more than a year since Dr. Paul Lynch, the Lynbrook School District’s assistant superintendent for finance, sent the State Education Department plans to use a nearly $893,000 Smart Schools Bond to fund security updates for the district.

At a Board of Education meeting on March 14, Superintendent Dr. Melissa Burak announced that the district could no longer wait to install a security vestibule at the high school. The vestibules are extra doors to “prevent visitors from entering the building unless they have been cleared for approved access,” Burak told the Herald in an email.

In 2014, New York voters approved a $2 billion Smart School Bond Act, a plan to improve educational technology and security infrastructure in schools across the state.

“What we have decided to do is, we’re not going to wait necessarily for the smart bond money,” Burak said at the meeting. “We have put together a plan in place to harden the high school and to sort of get ahead of the smart bond with the security vestibule, which was part of that, and put more of a holding area in the high school.”

The security vestibule would cost less than $10,000 to build, and the district would not be reimbursed by the state. In her statement, Burak did not address an inquiry as to how it would be funded. She said district officials are unable to fund the other items they requested without the bond, adding that the district decided to prioritize installing the security vestibule at the high school because it is an open campus.

Several parents, however, said they think contingency funds should also be used for security updates to the three elementary schools and two middle schools.

“This last shooting was at a high school, but Sandy Hook was an elementary school, and we have six other schools in the district,” said Candice Dellacona, referencing the February shooting in Florida and the shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012.

Another mother expressed her fears that anyone could be let into the buildings. “I still think I could put on a hoodie, ring the bell and be let in,” Joanna Santoli said.

In response, Burak said that school officials would have to remind students not to leave the door open, and that the PTAs at the elementary schools are working to create boxes outside for parents to drop off forgotten lunches or instruments, rather than allowing anyone to enter the buildings.

Burak and Lynch also urged residents to lobby assembly members to pass legislation that would require Education Department officials to meet more often to review Smart School Bond proposals.

Last month, an Education Department representative told the Herald in an email that the Smart Schools investment plan for Lynbrook was undergoing an “intensive internal review by the staff of the Smart Schools Review Board members,” which works to ensure that plans are reasonable, consistent with the requirements and eligible for tax-exempt financing. There was no timetable for approval.

Lynch expressed frustration that he has yet to receive a phone call about its status.

“There is $892,000 with our name on it that, if we were given the permission, there are plans in my desk ready to go,” Lynch said. “That is a tragedy and if anything should happen in this district, and I said this, and I’m sorry for getting so passionate, there would be blood on their hands that they did not do the right thing by the children of this state.”