Dozens of people gathered in Sewanhaka High School’s board room Tuesday evening during the district’s second budget meeting, however, many were not there for the budget but rather in response to the continued alleged racist incidents by another school district’s students.
Superintendent Regina Agrusa said that Sewanhaka Central School District would continue playing games against the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District following the most recent in what parents called a long line of racially discriminatory incidents against Sewanhaka students from Bellemore-Merrick students in sporting events.
“I have met and spoken to students, parents, coaches, administrators, members from Section Eight, leaders from Bellmont-Merrick and Nassau County superintendents in ongoing efforts to address the concerns,” Agrusa said. “The Sewanhaka Central High School district does not and will not tolerate any form of hate towards our students. We are committed to ensuring that our students receive access to a public school experience that is hostile, free, inclusive and safe.”
She said measures will be taken to ensure students are safe when they attend away games.
“We have worked and will continue to work to ensure that the goal is met by insisting that the athletic code of conduct is applied and enforced equally for all student-athletes, coaches, officials and spectators,” she said.
The recent incident referred to involves a fight during a girl’s basketball game last month where an Elmont student was hit by a Bellmore-Merrick student.
Section VIII officials, the governing body for Nassau County school sports, have said the dispute was not racial, a decision Elmont parents disagree with.
Sewanhaka is a majority Black district while Bellmore-Merrick is majority white.
At least seven people, including members of the Sewanhaka Dad’s Club, a group of parents and community members who advocate for students, made public comments regarding the board’s decision during the meeting. Some said they wished the board would reconsider the decision to allow games between the two districts, while others asked the board to share publicly the plan they would be putting in place to intervene and prevent racist incidents during games.
Many emphasized that racially charged comments and actions have been a constant on the field for Sewanhaka students, particularly when playing Bellmore-Merrick students. They stressed the importance of ensuring students know how to report those incidents and creating a plan to emotionally and psychologically support students who experience them.
“I’m not very satisfied with their response,” Sheldon Meikle, a member of the Dad’s Club, said of the board. “I think it’s kind of a knee-jerk reaction to try to quell the issue, but it’s a big issue. They’re trying to diminish it, to make it into just one incident that recently occurred, but it’s really ongoing on the field and just not being voiced.”
He said more needs to be done.
“I hope to see more parents getting involved. I hope to see more kids standing up and voicing what’s going on,” Meikle added. “I think there’s more work to be done. We have to make sure our children are safe.”
Agrusa said she believes the decision to continue playing is in the student athletes’ best interest.
The board still used the meeting to review its budget proposal, which remains relatively unchanged from their first budget meeting last month. The district proposed a $264,214,795 budget, up 3.3% from last year’s, primarily funded by a 2.91% tax levy increase and a projected $75,528,638 in state aid.
Notable line items in the budget include implementing a new digital literacy program in all seventh-grade health classrooms, new diagnostic and midterm exams, a new biology, algebra, and chemistry curriculum, and capital improvements at each building.
District residents can vote on the budget’s approval and a proposition asking whether the district should create a new capital reserve, which would hold surplus, unassigned, or unused funds to be spent on capital projects, in the May 20 election.
