After a recent security scare, the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District is leading a push to get public election polling moved out of school buildings. The board of education is aiming to pass its resolution at the state level to encompass all New York Schools and address what they see as a broad school security flaw.
“What’s good for our kids should be good for any child in any other public school in the entire state,” Superintendent Robert Katulak said.
The resolution states that current law allows local board of elections to designate school buildings as polling places because they are publicly-funded properties, but the administrators themselves have no say in whether or not they wish for the polling to be conducted there.
The board views this as a major concern because it hampers their ability to control who is in their buildings and when.
“In the age of school shootings, the health and safety of students and the school staff is of paramount concern. Restricting unfettered access during the school day to the public school buildings designated as polling places is vital to enhancing school safety,” the resolution reads.
It suggests fire houses, town halls, libraries, community centers and churches as possible alternatives to school buildings.
The district is hoping to get their resolution to ultimately be made law by Governor Andrew Cuomo. It will need the support of other local school districts, Democratic and Republican party leaders, and legislators in the state senate and assembly.
Copies of the resolution have been sent to school districts in counties in New York State for review, officials said. The Nassau County Board of Elections itself has yet to respond to the resolution. Katulak says the district has sent them at least two copies. The county did not return calls for comment.
The board was first alerted to the issue when the New Hyde Park Road School underwent an emergency lock-down during the primary elections in September. Both members of the public and the board of elections remained unchecked in the building during the lockdown and did not comply with the security protocols the rest of the students and staff were drilled in, officials said.
When the police arrived to search the building, people were discovered roaming the halls. It was unclear at first whether these individuals were the cause of the lock-down or if they were dangerous at all.
“The situation highlighted for our district the inherent problem of having a multitude of strangers in the building whose presence impaired our ability to protect the safety and well-
being of our students and staff,” the resolution read. “Fortunately it turned out that the lock-down was caused by a faulty alarm, but we want for our harrowing experience to be shared with others and to inform what we have now become aware of as a significant flaw in school security.”
The issue is mostly apparent during smaller elections such, as primary days, when the schools are still in session.
“Election Day is not really the problem because it’s the other days when voting takes place while school is open. If school wasn’t open, it’s really a non-issue,” clarified board President Ernest Gentile.
Critics of the resolution are worried that a change in polling locations could discourage voter turnout. One argument posed is that if voters show up to their old polling place and find it closed or that they must travel to a different location, they might simply give up and go home. Both parties would have to support a change polling location to ensure that no one would be disenfranchised.
Board Vice-President David Del Santo indicated that the resolution has support in the Sewanhaka Central High School District and is under consideration by local council members and other state legislators.
The district’s next regularly scheduled board of education meeting will be Monday, Nov. 3 at the Manor Oaks School.
