IMPORTANT DATES

REGISTER FOR NYS STAR
POSTED 10/5/13

     All New York homeowners receiving a Basic STAR property tax exemption must register with the New York State Tax Department In order to receive the STAR exemption in 2014 and subsequent years.
     All Basic STAR recipients will receive registration instructions by mall.
     Visit the Web site at www.tax.ny.gov to register now. The registration deadline Is: December 31,2013
     This is part of an initiative to protect New Yorkers against the costs of Inappropriate or fraudulent STAR exemptions.
     Seniors receiving Enhanced STAR benefits are not affected by the new registration requirement.
      In order to continue to receive Enhanced STAR, seniors must continue to:
• apply annually, or
• participate in the Income Verification
Program
     If you have questions, call 518-457-2036

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This article appeared in NYSUT United: A Union of Professionals, September/October 2013, p.22

Social Justice Efforts Critical to Union's Mission
By Liza Frenette

     Social justice. It stands proud and tall — and involves you. Your family. Your union. Your neighbors. Every year, NYSUT members across the state spend time, energy and resources to focus on social justice causes, for both long-standing concerns and newer issues that clamor for attention, for causes near and far.
     "Our overarching approach to social justice is to really engage our students, our members and our communities," said NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer Lee Cutler, who oversees the union's social justice mission. "We are very active. Social justice is one of NYSUT's five frameworks, and it's always been an integral part of what a union does."

     Educators can tap into social justice lessons on www.sharemylesson.org, an online lesson-sharing site created by the AFT and TES Connect. Educators have also uploaded lessons on human rights defenders, including a Common Core lesson on Malala Yousafzai, a 16-year-old education activist from Pakistan who survived an assassination attempt. As co-partner of the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State, NYSUT is taking action and working with students throughout the state to support workers' rights and improve conditions in garment factories.    
More.......... Read entire article

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month– To find shelters, visit www.ocfs.state.ny.us. Emergency hotlines: National, 800-799-7233 (SAFE); New York State: 800-942-6906; Spanish, 800-942-6908. Post the numbers in your workplace.

October 16 - World Food Day. Resources and fact sheets at www.worldhunger.org.

Why did we do it?
     What was our purpose in taking on such an open ended “History Project”; for which we evolved a script of questions and got answers from over 150 subjects for two decades?
     We couldn’t answer the question in 1994 when people would ask “What are you going to do with the interviews?” All we could say was that for educational purposes we had to document our record now or lose the chance to preserve so many poignant accounts, funny stories and touching tales told by exemplary educators. We knew these dedicated public servants might shortly, for reasons yet unknown, be leaving Brentwood for good.
     So, we decided to let time sort out the details. We began scheduling appointments. We asked questions and listened saving for generations the essence of what it meant to have been an educator or employed, in this large public school system during the second half of the 20th century. Brentwood remains an exemplar to all others; a diverse microcosm of America reflecting 124 districts on Long Island while simultaneously resembling thousands across the U.S. We’ve accomplished something here to be proud of. Whether we were interviewed or not, ours is a claim of service that few professionals in the State of New York or elsewhere have positioned themselves to share in the way we have.
     INITIALLY the practice of sitting with a subject for an hour and giving them a hundred percent focused attention seemed somewhat daunting to a number of friends and colleagues. So much so in fact that many declined our repeated invitations to speak with us as they left careers or retired from full employment. Despite all assurances that we were not about investigative journalism or invading privacy, they deferred. Now, twenty years after we began, some are saying they may be ready. “Better late than never” we say. However, to all among you who were willing to share not only your classroom experiences and personal stories, but precious memories from your lives along with your fondest hopes for the future, we say “Thanks”. Thanks for allowing us to continue the process by paying it forward as we share these interviews with the Brentwood community and countless professionals and researchers near and far. Through an acceptance of ROBS offer of collaboration with Archivist Dr. Geri Solomon and The Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University our History Project lives on in academia as well as in the collection of the Brentwood Public Library, thanks to Director, Thomas A. Tarantowicz.
   Enjoy unlimited visits to www.robsny.org where you can watch and listen to segments from featured Interviews in the ROBS History Project Section on our Announcements Page each month. Return here to listen and learn again and again.

THIS MONTH'S FEATURED HISTORY PROJECT
INTERVIEW:

William Lane
Social Studies

    William Lane was born in 1924 in a small town in Maine with a population of under eight thousand. Located about fifteen miles from Portland, he lived there up until the time he moved to Bay Shore to teach school in Brentwood. An only child, Bill met and married his wife Polly (a Home Economics teacher), at the end of their Junior year in college. Their two sons were born in Maine but attended Brentwood Schools throughout once they moved to their new community.
     Dr. Eugene Hoyt met Bill on one of his many trips to New England recruiting staff for the Brentwood School District during its greatest period of growth during the 1950’s. By agreeing to move Bill’s income more than doubled. He taught 8th Grade the first year and then progressed through grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 in Ross and Sonderling Buildings.
     He taught in Maine for 7 years before coming to Long Island. It was here that he taught Social Studies in the High School for 28 years.  He’d also taught the use of audio-visual aids at the University of Maine as part of his student teaching.
     Bill spoke of his active duty experience in WW II where he narrowly escaped death in one of the greatest tragedies of the war, the sinking of the Leopold in the English Channel with the loss of 8,000 men. He was spared again from being assigned to Patten’s 8th Army that suffered 8,000 losses, when he was assigned instead to spend the balance of the war on the French Coast.
     As a former member of the Civil Air Patrol in Maine, once in Brentwood he was given an opportunity by the Science Department, to teach a course in aeronautics which didn’t last a long time. He’d taken flying lessons but couldn’t afford to continue with them. 
     Although he had early experience playing basketball and baseball (“not well”, according to Bill ), his educational career included officiating basketball for 25 years and baseball for 19 years. “It paid better than coaching”, he said. He worked as members of the same team with Stan Yankowski and Fred Weaver.
     At the time of the interview in 1996, Bill proudly announced that he had been blessed with three granddaughters and two great grandsons.  He retired in 1985 and was known by his friends as as Brentwood’s “poet laureate”, always ready to brighten the corner in which he stood with a humorous rhyme penned in his own whimsical, light hearted manner.

You can also view any of these past interviews by visiting History Project Interview Archives :

Baker Bazata, Eleanor
Baker Bernhardt, Ruth
Balinski, Wally
Brooks, Ronda
Carey, Dick
Carpenter, Beverly
Cerullo, Peter
Corkery, Florence
Cuneen, Ray
Curio, Rich
DeBellis, Claudia
DeBellis, Helen
DeBellis, Michael
DePlaza, Marilyn
Desoto, Edward
DiMento, Peter
Edwards, Richard
Efron, Martin
Fasullo, Mike
Felicio, Anthony
Filosa, Edith
Fiore, Marcy
Hannan, Edward
Helman, Harriet
Hodges, Shirley
Kirschner, Marge
Koehler, Florence
Lane, William
Lange, Joan
Laub, Dr. Herb
Martz, David
Mascaro, Barbara
McNicholas, Barbara
Monsen, Pattie
Moss, Ken
Mundy, Rick
Murray, Alma
Nanos, Jim
O'Conner, Thomas
Pace, Ron
Purcell, Joseph
Rosenthal, Ivy
Rosenthal, Ruth
Salerno, Hank
Scharf, Karen
Sekac, Evelyn
Sheele, Raymond
Sopp, Lorraine
Spencer, Franklin
Stuhler, Patricia
Sustrin, Letty and Sheila
Vannoy, Evelyn
Veech, Chris
Walker Lloyd, Shirley
Wolfe, Jeffrey
Zuckerman, Dorothy
Zuckerman, Jack

The Town Crier" was set up a number of years ago so that the retirees of the Brentwood School District could have an email center to stay in touch. Since I began to send out all sorts of information, retirees from all over the country have sent me their email addresses. Some have asked, "Do you have any idea where so and so is?" Others have sent proud news of their accomplishments, their family news, photos,etc. and sadly, we often get bad news. Many retirees whom I have never met write me to thank me for keeping this connection going, as everyone remembers the Brentwood years with warm feelings.

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