Two Nassau County Police officers revved up the motor on a device not much larger than a lawnmower engine. As the machine roared last Wednesday afternoon, the officers used its cutters to slowly peel off the driver’s side door of a badly damaged minivan. No one was inside the van, but students at Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville watched quietly and anxiously as the “Jaws of Life” crushed the car’s metal. more

With three bright, capable people running for one seat on the Board of Education, we almost wish this were a school board expansion rather than an election. But our choice is the incumbent trustee, Anne Hannon. more

The financial challenges facing Baldwin schools in the next few years are imposing, to say the least. The budget proposal offered by the Board of Education is the best way to approach a situation fraught with pitfalls. We urge voters to approve it next Tuesday. more

The three candidates vying for a single open seat on the Baldwin school board at a PTA sponsored candidate forum May 4 were cordial, clever and well prepared. The forum, held at the district office on Hastings Street, was energetically moderated by Marion Fleming, a volunteer from a non-Baldwin chapter of the League of Women Voters, and was structured to include opening and closing statements from each candidate as well as questions from the audience. The questions, delivered on index cards to Fleming, were addressed to each candidate in turn, and the 40 or so community members who came up with them also heard remarks from Carl Williams, an unopposed candidate for library board. “No matter what the results of this election are, we’re lucky to have three such capable candidates for school board,” said one observer of the proceedings, and indeed the evening had a spirit of community rather than contention. more

Eight Hofstra University graduate journalism students from Professor Scott Brinton’s Current Issues in Science Reporting class recently participated in and are reporting on an Envirothon that took place in the woodlands around the Meadowbrook Parkway in North Merrick, Roosevelt and Freeport on April 30. Brinton, of Merrick, is a senior editor and op-ed columnist with Herald Community Newspapers. The Nassau County Unprotected Woodlands Taskforce, headed by county Legislators David Denenberg and Norma Gonsalves, organized the event. more

Second of two parts. Last time I introduced the ups and downs in the teacher job market. Not long ago, I warned that a dangerous teacher shortage was on the horizon; now, we’re talking about cutbacks, layoffs, and the difficulty of getting a teaching job.  What’s the story? more

Call it a tale of two forests. On the west side of the Meadowbrook Parkway, on the outskirts of Freeport and Roosevelt, there is the 73-acre Roosevelt Preserve, owned and maintained by Nassau County. There, the wide paths are clear of fallen trees and shrubbery and virtually trash-free. There is no evidence of campfires having burned down swaths of the woods, nor is there graffiti marring the abundant oaks and maples. more

The Nassau County Unprotected Woodlands Task Force is preparing for an “Envirothon,” which is scheduled to take place at the Brookside School on Meadowbrook Road in North Merrick on Saturday, April 30, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. more

The student, all of 12 or 13 years old, slammed my already broken left hand against the cinder-block wall. Pain shot down my plastered skin. The boy then ran out of the suspension room, pursuing another student with whom he had gotten into a fistfight. more

The Baldwin Foundation for Education, a non-profit organization of alumni and friends of the Baldwin public schools, will honor Jerry Brown and Mary Jo O’Hagan at its Spring Celebration on Saturday, April 9, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Baldwin High School. This is an opportunity for family and friends of Jerry and Mary Jo and the residents of our town to acknowledge their outstanding contributions to the community and students of the Baldwin School District. more