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Village Times Herald

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In the wake of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) recent budget address, a cloud of concern shadows our community regarding the proposed budget cuts to our education systems. As citizens invested in the well-being and future of our children, it is crucial to address the potential consequences these cuts could have on the quality of education in our state.

Education is the cornerstone of any thriving society, laying the foundation for the success and prosperity of future generations. Hochul’s proposed budget cuts threaten to undermine this foundation, jeopardizing the resources and support necessary for students to excel.

Hochul’s plan reflects on current school enrollment rather than on decades past. It is imperative to acknowledge the difficult decisions our leaders face in managing the state’s finances, though there should be a better solution than slashing education budgets. 

Our schools need adequate funding to provide students with the tools, resources and opportunities to thrive. A cut in education funding not only impacts the students directly but also has far-reaching consequences for the community.

Several local districts will be affected by reduced state aid. Specifically, Three Village, Cold Spring Harbor, Harborfields, Kings Park, Mount Sinai, Smithtown and Port Jefferson at nearly 30%, are among some of the many districts facing budget consequences. 

Education is not merely an expense but an investment in the future. Our schools hold the power to shape the minds of the next generation, molding them into informed and capable individuals ready to contribute to society. Budget cuts threaten the resources and opportunities available to our students, potentially hindering their academic success and personal growth.

It is important to educate oneself on the specifics of the proposed budget and the potential impacts of it. We can enact real change by reaching out to local representatives and expressing our concerns. We can attend town halls or civic meetings. We can write letters, support petitions and make our voices heard.

Through collective action, we can help to ensure our children’s education is a cause worth fighting for, and together, we can ensure that the future of education in New York remains bright. We cannot afford to be passive observers while the future of our children’s education hangs in the balance. 

Education should be a top investment for a prosperous and thriving New York.

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Assemblyman Ed Flood speaks in front of local politicians, educators and community members at a press conference against Gov. Hochul’s proposed school funding cuts. Photo by Mallie Jane Kim

By Mallie Jane Kim

Local political representatives and school superintendents rallied to Three Village Central School District Jan. 25 for a passionate press conference decrying proposed cuts to state school funding in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) proposed budget. 

Hochul touted an $825 million increase in state funding for schools overall, but some districts — including 34 in Suffolk County and 10 in Nassau — would face decreases. Of these, Three Village would lose the highest dollar amount at nearly $9 million if the governor’s plan stands, and the smaller Port Jefferson School District would be hit by the largest percentage of funding loss on Long Island — over 28%. Mount Sinai, Cold Spring Harbor, Smithtown and Kings Park school districts would also see modest cuts. This marks a break from the “hold harmless” provision in New York, which in the past has guaranteed school districts didn’t receive less state funding than the previous year, a practice that takes some guesswork out of budget planning.

Political opposition

“Governor, stop playing politics with our children — because we will fight you tooth and nail,” New York State Assemblyman Ed Flood (R-Port Jefferson) said at the event. “We need to restore some common sense and do what’s right for the children of our community. Where are our priorities? Let’s put our children first.”

The politicians who spoke — including U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY-1), state Assemblymembers Jodi Giglio (R-Riverhead), Jarett Gandolfo (R-Sayville), Doug Smith (R-Holbrook) and state Sen. Mario Mattera (R-St. James) — were united in considering the cuts as a targeted political attack and a conscious choice by the governor.

LaLota referred to the Jan. 5 Long Island Association’s annual State of the Region breakfast during which, as reported by Newsday, Hochul traded barbs with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman (R), including her quip, “I walked in, I hear somebody doesn’t want New York on Long Island, I was ready to walk off the stage right then. You don’t want me to take all the money with me, though, right?”

LaLota called Hochul a “schoolyard bully” and suggested she is using children as a political pawn against Long Island.

“It is wholly unfair and unjust to take money from our kids because she’s got a political squabble with us,” he said. “Don’t come after our kids because you have a political problem with Long Island. The right thing to do is to fully fund our kids’ education — that’s something we rely upon.”

The governor’s state budget proposal represents a first draft. The state Assembly and Senate will be instrumental in crafting the finalized version, which is due April 1 — but does not often come in on time. If the budget takes until early May to pass, as it did in 2023, school districts will be in a tricky situation since their budgets must be ready and made available for public review between April 30 and May 7.

Superintendents and other groups oppose cuts

“It is important to recognize that these proposed changes will create uncertainty and hardship for our districts,” said Bayport-Blue Point Superintendent Timothy Hearney, who also serves as president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association. His district stands to lose 3.34% of its state funding under the plan.

Even though the budget is a first draft and subject to political bargaining in Albany, any final answer may come too late. School districts spend the early spring ironing out budget plans, so unless there is a change soon, districts will be faced with the option of incorporating the funding loss into the 2024-25 school year budget or risk putting up a budget that could surpass the state’s mandated cap on increases to the tax levy, an unpopular option for Long Island taxpayers, who already face high property taxes. In this instance, budget passage would require approval by a supermajority of voters (60 percent or more).

Hearney pointed out that education costs have increased even as enrollments have decreased over the past decade or so, in a nod toward one of Hochul’s stated reasons why some districts should receive less funding. “It’s crucial to underscore that condensing a decade’s worth of lost enrollment in a single year places an overwhelming burden on all of our districts,” he said.

Other concerned superintendents standing in support were Christine Criscione from Mount Sinai, Jessica Schmettan from Port Jefferson and Kevin Scanlon from Three Village. 

Scanlon spelled out what he thought the “significant challenges” losing $9 million in funds for his district would pose at a Jan. 24 school board meeting, the night before the press conference. He said he hoped for compromise in Albany, but that such sudden cuts would require drastic measures to accommodate. He said the district may have to close a school or discontinue the Three Village Academy high school program, and they may have to make cuts to the pre-K and pre-K enrichment programs, the Intellectually Gifted Program, special education aides, teaching positions, administrative positions, educational and extracurricular programs and even security. 

“Every area of this community will be impacted, so Three Village needs to come together as it has never done before,” he urged at the board meeting. “Parents, students, teachers, administrators, anyone out there — anyone on the street we can get in this community to be part of this conversation — we need for advocacy.”

Those who showed up to advocate at Thursday’s press conference included school board members, staff and teachers union members from Three Village and Mount Sinai, as well as members of parent teacher associations, also civic and community groups, including the local parent group Three Village Dads. 

David Tracy, leader of Three Village Dads, said he isn’t interested in being divisive politically, but couldn’t ignore the air of apparent retribution in the governor’s move. “Long Island was not a huge voting fan of the governor. I hate to believe this cut in the budget is somewhat of a backlash for that,” he said, adding that the disparity in funding changes from district to district is baffling to him. “It’s just tragic that it comes from our kids.”

Three Village Civic Association president Charles Tramontana agrees the issue is bipartisan. “Nobody wants to see that amount of funding cut without some sort of warning. I don’t think it’s controversial,” said Tramontana, who was scheduled to attend the press conference but was stuck home sick. 

“I don’t understand the way the state operates sometimes,” Tramontana said. “They didn’t give any notice that they were dropping that ‘hold harmless’ provision. Basic fairness would dictate that you would give some warning.” He added, “We took some hit— $9 million in one year is definitely going to cause some chaos in our budget.”

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Pixabay photo

By Aramis Khorso

The ongoing struggle between adolescents and suicide problems has become increasingly prominent in recent years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide has been among the top three leading causes of death for children and young adults ages 10 through 34. 

The battle against anxiety and depression, which are the main causes of adolescent suicide, has been surging among young adults. According to the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, such mental health disorders, which are treatable, have increased since 2003 among children aged 6–17. The mental health and suicide epidemic rose to such unignorable heights that the U.S. Surgeon General declared the pediatric mental health crisis a national emergency in 2021.

To many, these statistics are rightly shocking and frightening. For Stony Brook University undergraduate senior Vignesh Subramanian, they were a call for action. He had observed the consequences of untreated anxiety and depression in children throughout his own adolescence. This, as well as the declared national crisis combined, made him decide it was time to take a stance and help out other young adults suffering from mental health problems. 

“We were already aware that this was a new phenomenon,” Subramanian said. “People had not been this stressed before — I was seeing this among my peers. Something had to be done. It was amounting to something of a crisis, and then these official declarations came out.” 

Subramanian recognized that many communities, especially schools and other educational facilities, were unequipped to respond to this mental health crisis adequately. He pointed out that mental health disorders are still “overtly stigmatized,” adding, “Parents and schools alike don’t know how to support students and get the help they need or can’t accommodate them properly.” 

In early 2022, Subramanian established a youth-led organization called One More Option that is dedicated to helping provide as many resources and services as they can to young adults suffering from anxiety, depression or any suicidal-related mental issues. Subramanian emphasized during this interview that “a youth-led, youth-driven response to the crisis was what was needed.”

He decided to take his mission to the state Legislature in Connecticut in 2022. “Our M.O. is to draft legislation on our own, then present it to the state Legislature, then we advance it from there,” he said. 

Working with former Connecticut Sen. Will Haskell (D-Westport), Subramanian was able to successfully draft policies that he wrote himself into the Connecticut General Assembly. He was able to draft two main reforms: The establishment of mental health days in K–12 schools and more accessible outpatient counseling sessions that minors would be able to seek. 

As can be expected, there was some opposition that Subramanian had to face while fighting to get his reforms drafted. However, Haskell was able to provide what Subramanian called a “powerful rebuttal” of the counterarguments made against the reforms. “It was inspiring to see how we were able to surmount that opposition,” Subramanian recalled.

One More Option deservedly enjoyed its victory in Connecticut, but didn’t stop there. Subramanian and his organization hope to have the same success they’ve had in Connecticut in New York. Currently, New York has no policy on student suicide prevention. Since 2019, New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan) and Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell (D-Manhattan) have been repeatedly presenting the Student Suicide Prevention Act to the state Legislature. Unfortunately, the SSPA has been stalled over the past few years due to “disputes over its contents.” 

Using the framework provided by the SSPA and with the support of over 20 collegiate student governments from schools in New York, Subramanian and One More Option hope to see a statewide suicide prevention law enacted. Recently, Subramanian and Hoylman-Sigal’s office have incorporated some reforms Subramanian wrote into the SSPA, which have been approved. 

One of the main reforms that Subramanian made to the SSPA was the inclusion of college students. With these revisions, the SSPA would require K–12 schools, as well as higher educational facilities, to create guidelines and policies on how staff would react to students in suicidal crises. Subramanian spoke about the “optimistic feeling” he has due to the widespread support the act is gathering for this reformed version of the SSPA.

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Photo by Raymond Janis

Still no green light for Port Jeff Branch electrification

You can learn a great deal about the priorities of Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in her State of the State speech, when it comes to any consideration for advancement of the $3.5 billion LIRR Port Jefferson Branch electrification project. 

Only months ago, she participated in the announcement of a $7.7 billion Federal Transit Administration Full Funding Grant Agreement ($3.4 billion federal/$4.3 billion local share) for Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway. Before the shovel is even in the ground, she now wants to extend Second Avenue subway further west along 125th Street in Harlem for another $7 billion.

Hochul also wants funding to be provided for the start of design and engineering in support her pet $5.5 billon Brooklyn to Queens Light Rail Connector project. Hochul continues to be a vocal advocate in support of the $16 billion Gateway Tunnel — two new tunnels connecting New Jersey and Penn Station benefiting Amtrak and NJ Transit — and her own plans for an $8 billion Penn Station upgrade.

This same week, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber published his agency’s proposed 2024 Program of Projects to apply for FTA funding. Included is a request for $2.2 billion toward paying for the $3.1 billion Metro-North Bronx East Penn Station Access project. Hochul, along with Democratic Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand, have been consistent supporters for all of these projects.

There was nothing in Hochul’s State of the State speech or Lieber’s FTA 2024 Program of Projects to include any funding to advance the $3.5 billion LIRR Port Jefferson electrification project. 

In the eyes and lack of action on the part of Hochul, Schumer, Gillibrand and Lieber, they have no interest in providing any significant financial assistance to support advancement of any major transportation improvements that would benefit LIRR Port Jefferson Branch residents, taxpayers and commuters.

Supporters of this project need to continue lobbying Hochul, Schumer, Gillibrand, Lieber and LIRR President Robert Free if you ever want to ride an electric train on the LIRR Port Jefferson Branch in your lifetime.

Larry Penner

Great Neck

Come join us at a Quaker meeting

We are writing to extend New Year’s well wishes and reintroduce ourselves to you. We are the Conscience Bay Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) — a small, but growing community practicing our faith.

The Quaker religious movement began in England in the mid-17th century and emphasizes the belief that “there is that of God in everyone” and that therefore all people can access “the Light within.” Our testimonies about simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship all flow from this core belief. Historically, Quakers have lived these testimonies by participating in movements to end wars, abolish slavery, and bring about racial and gender equality.

While Quakers have lived and worshiped in Suffolk County since around 1650, our own Quaker meeting was established in 1961 and found its home in St. James when William R. Huntington — a local architect and American Friends Service Committee representative to the United Nations — helped to facilitate the purchase of the property and the conversion of a carriage house to our meetinghouse.

Since its formation, our meeting has been moved to participate in a variety of activities driven by our testimonies: counseling conscientious objectors in the 1960s and ’70s; organizing against both the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant in the 1980s and the stockpiling of nuclear materials; and marching against endless wars and social injustices in more recent decades.

In the current moment of international and national violence, our members and visitors have found sustenance in our Sunday practice. Waiting in silence upon the Light is a deep and powerful experience leading to spiritual guidance.

We invite you to join us. We worship every Sunday at 11 a.m. at our meetinghouse, off Moriches Road in St. James. All are welcome. More information at: consciencebayquakers.org. In friendship,

Carolyn Emerson

Clerk of Conscience Bay Meeting

Hardly an example of a great American

The recent letter [“Legal talented scientists are welcomed,” Jan. 18] making the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants listed Wernher von Braun as a great American together with Einstein, Tesla and others. He was an aerospace engineer secretly brought to the United States after World War II with other German scientists to contribute to the American space program.

He was one of the leaders of the Nazi V-2 missile program employing slave laborers at the Dora-Nordhausen concentration camp who were often worked to death or executed for work deficiencies. 

He was an early Nazi Party member appointed as an officer in Heinrich Himmler’s SS that played a key role in the Holocaust and other war crimes. Whether von Braun’s admission that he knew of the horrendous condition of his workers should have led to his prosecution as a war criminal is a matter of legal interpretation, but he is hardly an example of a great American despite his recognition by the U.S. government and engineering societies for his work on the U.S. space program.

Lester G. Paldy

Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus

Stony Brook University

The illegal immigration issue

A few comments about your article addressing Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory President Bruce Stillman’s concerns [“CSHL’s Stillman concerned about the effect of anti-immigrant talk, policies on US science,” Jan. 11].

To begin, please stop hurting your credibility by referencing “anti-immigrant talk” or “toxic talk toward immigrants.” The issue is illegal immigration. I know, and you know, that you know this. Your disingenuous use of “immigration” casts a shadow on everything you say.

Exactly which “immigration policies that exclude a broad swath of people who might otherwise ensure American technological competitiveness” are there? I doubt they truly exist but if they do and you can cite them I will gladly work to change them. Bruce grew up in Australia so, unless he was born here and moved, is an immigrant hopefully ensuring American technological competitiveness and stands as a refutation to the claim about broad swaths.

As for the racist and sexist policy of diversity, equity and inclusion, Stillman appears to be the prototypical elitist, complaining that “now people are emboldened to attack those in leadership positions” and that “many people have an opinion on the way things ought to be.” Imagine that! Bruce seems upset that the peasants are revolting.

Paul Mannix

Wading River

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Do you recognize this man? Photo from SCPD
Do you recognize this man? Photo from SCPD

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Sixth Precinct Crime Section officers are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the man who allegedly stole items from a South Setauket store this month.

A man allegedly stole approximately $530 worth of merchandise from Target, located at 265 Pond
Path, on January 15.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about these incidents can contact Suffolk County Crime Stoppers to submit an anonymous tip by calling 1-800-220-TIPS, utilizing a mobile app which can be downloaded through the App Store or Google Play by searching P3 Tips, or online at www.P3Tips.com. All calls, text messages and emails will be kept confidential.

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Stony Brook University admissions office where about 10,000 students applied through the school’s first early action program. Photo courtesy Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

For Stony Brook University, 2024 will be the year of more, as in more college counselors, more classes, more study abroad opportunities, more artificial intelligence and more faculty.

The downstate flagship university, which is a member of the Association of American Universities and has been climbing the rankings of colleges from US News and World Reports, plans to address several growing needs.

“We have invested heavily in new advisors,” said Carl Lejuez, executive vice president and provost at Stony Brook, in a wide ranging interview. These advisors will be coming on board throughout the semester.

With additional support from the state and a clear focus on providing constructive guidance, the university is working to reduce the number of students each advisor has, enabling counselors to “focus on the students they are serving,” Lejuez said.

Advisors will help students work towards graduation and will hand off those students to an engaged career center.

At the same time, Stony Brook is expanding its global footprint. Lejuez said study abroad options were already “strong” in Europe, while the university is developing additional opportunities in Asia and Africa.

The university prioritizes making study abroad as affordable as possible, offering several scholarships from the office of global affairs and through individual departments.

Students aren’t always aware that “they can study abroad in any SBU-sponsored program for a semester and keep all of their existing federal aid and scholarships and in many cases the full cost of that semester abroad is comparable and sometimes even less expensive” than what the student would spend on Long Island, Lejuez explained in an email.

Stony Brook University Executive Vice President and Provost Carl Lejuez. Photo courtesy Conor Harrigan

As for artificial intelligence, Stony Brook plans to expand on existing work in the realm of teaching, mentoring, research and community outreach.

In efforts sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Learning and the Library, the university is holding multiple training sessions for faculty to discuss how they approach AI in their classrooms.

The library opened an AI Lab that will enable students to experiment, innovate and work on AI projects, Lejuez said. The library plans to hire several new librarians with expertise in AI, machine learning and innovation.

The library is training students on the ethical use of AI and will focus on non-STEM disciplines to help students in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Artificial intelligence “has its strengths and weaknesses,” said Lejuez. “We are not shying away from it.”

As for the community, the hope is that Stony Brook will use the semester to develop plans for kindergarten through 12th grade and then launch the expansion later this spring.

Additional classes

Lejuez acknowledged that class capacity created challenges in the past.

Stony Brook is using predictive analysis to make decisions about where to add classes and sections. At this point, the university has invested in the most in-demand classes in fields such as computer science, biology, chemistry, psychology and business.

The school has also added capacity in writing, math and languages.

Stony Brook is focused on experiential opportunities across four domains: study abroad, internships, research and entrepreneurship.

The school is developing plans for additional makerspaces, which are places where people with shared interests can come together to use equipment and exchange ideas and information.

New hires

Stony Brook is in the middle of a hiring cycle and is likely to “bring the largest group of new faculty we’ve had in many years” on board, the provost said. “This is going to have a big impact on the student experience” including research, climate science, artificial intelligence and healthy aging.

The additional hires will create more research experiences for undergraduates, Lejuez said.

Stony Brook recently created a Center for Healthy Aging, CHA, which combines researchers and clinicians who are focused on enhancing the health and wellness of people as they age.

Amid a host of new opportunities, a rise in the US News and World Report rankings and a victory in the city’s Governors Island contest to create a climate solutions center, Stony Brook has seen an increase in applications from the state, the country and other countries.

This year, about 10,000 students applied to Stony Brook’s first early action admissions process, which Lejuez described as a “great success.”

Amid a world in which regional conflicts have had echoes of tension and disagreement in academic institutions around the country and with an election cycle many expect will be especially contentious, Stony Brook’s Humanities Institute has put together several programs.

This includes a talk on “Muslim and Jewish Relations in the Middle Ages” on February 15th, another on “The Electoral Imagination: Literature, Legitimacy, and Other Rigged Systems” on April 17th and, among others, a talk on April 18th titled “The Problem of Time for Democracies.

True to the core values

Amid all the growth, Stony Brook, led by President Maurie McInnis, plans to continue to focus on its core values.

Lejuez said some people have asked, “are we still going to be the university that really provides social mobility opportunities in ways that are just not available in other places? We will always be that. Everything else happens in the context” of that goal. 

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Julia Dank drives the baseline for the Patriots in a home game against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon
Addison Dellaporta banks two for the Patriots at home against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon
Julia Dank nails a three-pointer for the Patriots in a home game against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon
Sophomore guard Jaclyn Engel drives the lane for the Patriots at home against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melville sophomore Kaitlyn McNeil banks two for the Patriots in a home game against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melville sophomore Kaitlyn McNeil drives the baseline for the Patriots at home against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon
Julia Dank drains a three-pointer for the Patriots at home against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melville senior Grace Balocca hits-for three in a home game against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon
Jaclyn Engel banks two for the Patriots at home against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melville sophomore Jaclyn Engel grabs the rebound at home against Sachem East. Photo by Bill Landon

By Bill Landon

Despite multiple turnovers, Ward Melville girls basketball took a 14-point lead into the halftime break against Sachem East who surged in the third quarter to draw within eight points. The Patriots were able to hold the Arrows at bay the rest of the way to win the League I matchup 42-31 at home Jan. 22.

Sophomore forward Kaitlyn McNeil led the way for the Patriots with five field goals and three free throws for 13 points; Addison Dellaporta netted five from the floor for 10; and Julia Dank sank three triples for nine points.

The win lifts the Patriots to 6-4 in league, 9-5 overall, with six games remaining before postseason play begins.

— Photos by Bill Landon

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Three Village Central School District Superintendent Kevin Scanlon. File photo

Superintendent warns cuts would impact programs, class sizes and staffing

By Mallie Jane Kim

Superintendent of Schools Kevin Scanlon sent a dire warning last week to Three Village Central School District families over proposed state funding cuts, calling for Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to reconsider her calculations for state education aid — which would decrease funding for the district by $8.9 million — and requesting advocacy from district residents.

“At a time when expenditures continue to rise beyond the district’s control and federal COVID funds are set to expire, any loss of school funding poses significant challenges for our district and will have far-reaching implications for students, staff and our entire education system,” Scanlon wrote. 

Hochul’s budget proposal for the 2024-25 school year includes an increase of $825 million in state aid to schools overall – but cuts for some districts, including Three Village, which would lose 17.86% of its aid if the budget passes as is. This pullback in aid would mark an end to the “hold harmless” provision, which had assured districts they would not receive less aid than the previous year, a policy that helps long-term budget planning because districts aren’t left guessing as to how much the state will provide in coming years.

The governor touted her budget proposal during her Jan. 16 presentation as marking “the highest level of education funding in state history,” but acknowledged the jump is far more modest that the past two years, which combined saw a $5 billion increase, according to state data. 

“As much as we may want to, we are not going to be able to replicate the massive increases of the last two years. No one could have expected the extraordinary jumps in aid to occur annually,” she said, adding that it is “common sense” to allot money based on current school enrollment rather than that of past decades.

The cuts for Three Village come despite the state Comptroller’s Office in January 2023 designating the district as “susceptible to fiscal stress,” which district officials have previously said is due to money from district reserves spent to keep schools open during the pandemic.

Scanlon’s email painted a bleak picture of the district’s future under the proposed decrease in funds, suggesting it “could mean catastrophic, long-lasting results for our school system. When schools face funding cuts, it often leads to a reduction in resources, extracurricular programs and support services, as well as the potential for building closures. … Steep reductions such as the one proposed will not only require reductions to staffing, but also increased workloads, larger class sizes and the elimination of essential educational opportunities — all pillars of strength that our district has prided itself on providing.”

The superintendent also urged district residents to use contact details provided at contact.3villagecsd.org to write to the governor and local representatives, though some of those representatives have already taken notice.

Both state Assemblyman Ed Flood (R-Port Jefferson) and state Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) made statements against the funding cuts for some districts. 

Flood suggested the governor was prioritizing the migrant crisis instead of helping schools overcome learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic. “Gov. Hochul claims education for our younger generations is her top priority yet at the same time schools are lowering their testing standards,” he wrote.

For his part, Palumbo indicated that during upcoming budget talks, he plans to “ensure that Long Island receives its fair share of state funding for education, transportation, housing and workforce development.”

A Change.org petition started by the Three Village Parents Alliance, an advocacy group that includes several school board members, calls on Hochul to reconsider. “We cannot overemphasize how disruptive the proposed 18% reduction in state aid to the Three Village school district will be for the education, health and safety of our students. There is no mechanism to manage a cut of this magnitude in a single year that will not be damaging to our students,” the petition states. More than 200 district parents signed on within the first day, Jan. 20, and by Wednesday morning, Jan. 24, the petition had garnered nearly 500 signatures. 

According to Scanlon, administration officials plan to expand on the potential impact of the change in funding at a Jan. 24 school board meeting. He invited parents to attend or watch the livestream on the district’s YouTube channel.

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Wayne Chambers

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced on Jan. 25 that Wayne Chambers, 51, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, after a jury found him guilty of Murder in the Second Degree for the fatal stabbing of his former girlfriend, Sandra McIntosh, 46, of Medford.

“This defendant stabbed his ex-girlfriend in cold blood and without remorse,” said District Attorney Tierney. “My heart continues to go out to Sandra McIntosh’s loved ones. I hope this lengthy sentence provides them with some measure of justice after she was tragically taken from them by this defendant.”

The evidence at trial established that on July 22, 2021, at approximately 7:45 p.m., Chambers picked up McIntosh, a nurse, after her shift ended at Stony Brook University Hospital. Chambers drove the victim to work earlier that day in her 2010 white Lexus RX350. Chambers and McIntosh were in a relationship for approximately six years but had broken up months prior.

At about 8 p.m., a 911 caller reported seeing Chambers in the same Lexus driving erratically and then stopping on Woodland Avenue in Holtsville. Witnesses then saw Chambers outside the Lexus in a physical altercation with McIntosh. At some point during the altercation, Chambers stabbed McIntosh at least 25 times including in her neck and back, puncturing her heart and lung.

When the witnesses heard McIntosh screaming, they came outside and saw Chambers physically assaulting McIntosh, and attempting to drag her by her hair. Once Chambers saw the witnesses, he jumped into McIntosh’s Lexus and sped away. McIntosh died within two hours of the attack.

The Suffolk County Police Department tracked Chambers to a location in the Bronx where they found McIntosh’s 2010 white Lexus RX350. Blood and stains were found on the exterior and interior of the vehicle, some of which contained mixtures of DNA belonging to both Chambers and the victim. Surveillance video footage from across the street where the car was found captured the victim’s car parking at approximately 10:39 p.m. on July 22, 2021, and a man getting out of the driver’s side of the vehicle with a phone in his hand.

Cell site data placed Chambers’ cell phone near the scene of the stabbing immediately after it occurred, and also showed Chambers’ cell phone had connected to a cell site near where McIntosh’s vehicle was discovered in the Bronx, coinciding with the surveillance video.

A female acquaintance of the defendant, whose residence was located approximately one block away from where McIntosh’s vehicle was discovered in the Bronx, testified at trial that Chambers came to her home on the evening of July 22, 2021. She saw that Chambers’ shirt had a bloody spot, and that he had a cut on one of his index fingers that was covered by a Band-Aid.

On July 30, 2021, members of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad, Newburgh City Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, and New York State Police located Chambers at a hotel in Newburgh and placed him under arrest.

On December 7, 2023, Chambers was convicted of Murder in the Second Degree after a jury trial heard before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Richard Ambro.

On January 25, 2024, Chambers was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He was represented by Ian Fitzgerald, Esq.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Eric S. Aboulafia of the Homicide Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Michelle Chiuchiolo of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau, with investigative assistance from Detectives Guido Cirenza and Brendan O’Hara of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad.

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Stony Brook, NY; Stony Brook University: Miguel Garcia-Diaz, Interim Vice President for Research talks with the recipient of an OVPR Seed Grant Department of Geosciences Assistant Professor Marine Frouin in her Luminescence Dating Research Laboratory. Photo by John Griffin/SBU

Proposals for preliminary work may lead to wider national funding for unique research from many academic disciplines

The Office of the Vice President of Research (OVPR) at Stony Brook University has awarded seed grants for 21 projects encompassing research from a wide range of disciplines such as biomedical engineering, pharmacology, computer science, microbiology, astronomy, and linguistics. This funding cycle from fall 2023 totals $1 million to faculty leading these projects. This is only the second time the OVPR has awarded $1 million in a single funding cycle. The first time occurred in summer 2022.

All cycles of the OVPR Seed Grant Program, including special initiative cycles, are managed by staff in the Office of Proposal Development (OPD) in OVPR. Since 2018, the OVPR has invested approximately $6.4 million in promising research by Stony Brook faculty.

The OVPR Seed Grant Program gives Stony Brook University faculty a competitive edge in securing external research funds by offering support for preliminary work that will lead to larger and more impactful research projects. A team of faculty reviewers assess project proposals from faculty to determine a proposals’ likelihood of success in acquiring extramural funding. Typical proposals include projects as proof of concept, feasibility studies, or the development of interdisciplinary collaborative research.

“Research is at the core of Stony Brook University’s identity, and the seed grant program represents an investment in our University’s future,” says Miguel Garcia-Diaz, PhD, Interim VP for Research. “It is a key engine to fuel the progress of our research enterprise and has historically resulted in a return of upwards of seven dollars in external awards for each dollar invested by the University.”

These seed grants provide faculty with the resources they need to transform their ideas into groundbreaking research. Selected by their peers, the awardees must demonstrate exceptional talent, dedication and excellence in their fields. For this cycle, 21 of 66 proposals were selected for funding, resulting in the second highest acceptance rate for proposals for a single cycle (32 percent).

The diverse set of recipients for this seed funding cycle include a chemist developing a new molecular catalyst platform to lessen the environmental impact of both commodity and specialty chemicals, a psychologist exploring how government policies are impacting the health of individuals in the sexual and gender minority, and a paleontology team assessing early dinosaurs and their kin at a Late Triassic Site in Northern New Mexico.

“The OVPR seed grant will represent a crucial milestone in my career, making a substantial contribution to the advancement of luminescence dating methods for application across various disciplines such as geoscience, archeology, paleoanthropology, and evolutionary biology, where chronological accuracy is paramount,” says Marine Frouin, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences, and one of the new recipients.

She reflects other recipients’ thoughts by adding that the “internal seed program not only provides a competitive advantage but also cultivates an environment conducive to innovative scientific research.”

For a list of all 21 funded proposals, the projects, and faculty involved, see this link.

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