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Community Corner

FASNY: TIME TO STEP UP


Dear White Plains Board of Education members,

EcoNeighbors has heard from a number of sources that, because the City of White Plains has not asked you to take a stand on the construction of FASNY's private educational complex, you feel you can not take any action.
As residents of many different White Plains neighborhoods, parents of students or former students in our public schools, and tax payers, we respectfully disagree with this philosophy.  You are the single body in the City of White Plains whose mandate it is to protect our public schools and our public school children.  You were elected to lead on school issues.  You were not elected to wait to be invited to play a role.  You should be taking leadership in the public discussion of this massive new construction in the immediate area of two of our public schools, informing White Plains families about the impact this new institution may have on their children and speaking up to Common Council about your views. Every other stakeholder group in the City of White Plains has bombarded Common Council with hundreds of letters expressing their constituency's interests in this matter.  Why should only the Board of Education - whose constituency is the heart and soul of any city, and whose mandate is to protect our smallest citizens - hold back from taking a public role in this matter? The White Plains PTA has repeatedly expressed very serious concerns for the safety of our children who walk, bike, and drive to school if huge new amounts of traffic are added to the streets particularly around our high school.  Surely the Board of Ed has some response to this situation?  And some responsibility to do everything it can to prevent danger to our children? Why are White Plains citizens left in the dark about your views on the various impacts of FASNY on our public schools?  Do you not have any thoughts about the planned restructuring of the entrance into the high school?  Additional traffic, whether gas or diesel fueled, will impact the quality of the air our public school children breathe as they walk to school.  Do you have no thoughts on that subject?   Along with Common Council, you are the only other city-wide body elected by the citizens of White Plains to protect our interests. You were elected to lead, not to hang back.  We urge you to act now.

Sincerely,
Marie McCann Barab
for EcoNeighbors

If you are a White Plains resident concerned with the safety of our public school children, please contact the Board of Education with your concerns at:
PETERBASSANO@wpcsd.k12ny.usSherylbrady@wpcsd.k12ny.usRosemarieeller@wpcsd.k12ny.usCharlieNorris@wpcsd.k12ny.usRoselovitch@wpcsd.k12ny.usJameshricay@wpcsd.k12ny.usRandystein@wpcsd.k12ny.usTimconnors@wpcsd.k12ny.usMicheleschoenfeld@wpcsd.k12ny.us

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