OCTOBER 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 11
HEMPSTEAD
SCHOOL
CRISIS
IN THE NEWS
TAYLOR RAYNOR:
HEMPSTEAD STUDENTS’ SAVIOR?
BY ALAN KRAWITZ
Political newcomer Taylor Raynor’s
stunning Democratic primary
upset over 30-year incumbent
Deputy Assembly Speaker Earlene
Hooper (D-Hempstead) may have implications
from Albany to Hempstead
schools if Raynor unseats Hooper on
Election Day.
Although Hooper — who has not
conceded the primary — will still be
on ballots on minor-party lines, Raynor
likes her chances Nov. 6 against
the incumbent and Republican rival
James Lamarre in the heavily Democratic
18th Assembly District.
“Stranger things have happened,”
Raynor says.
If she unseats Hooper, Raynor
says she feels like she “has a huge
task ahead,” including helping
clean up Hempstead’s troubled
school district, besieged by decades
of problems including financial
mismanagement, corruption, violence,
and one of the nation’s lowest
graduation rates.
“I do feel that I can really bring
about changes in Hempstead,” Raynor
says. “Community activism and
change…that’s what we need right
now.”
Raynor is meeting with community
leaders and organizers — including
former Hempstead School Board
members Melissa Figueroa and
Gwendolyn Jackson — who are eager
to see change. She believes a good
starting point in the Hempstead
district is bus transportation, so
students will not have to cross busy
streets and walk through dangerous
areas that have been rife with gang
violence.
“We are going to tackle the busing
issue first,” says Sydney Daniel, Raynor’s
sister, a registered nurse who
grew up in Hempstead and attended
its schools.
Daniel, who will be assisting Raynor
with community projects, says
the district utilizes the New York
State public school bus protocol, but
has never met the needs of students
because the protocol says students
must live farther than three miles
from their school to get a bus, and
Taylor Raynor appears poised to unseat Deputy Assembly Speaker Earlene Hooper on Election Day
(Noticia photo).
most in the district fall outside the
radius.
“Many parents leave for work earlier
than the students leave for school
and it’s risky enough knowing your
child is waiting at a bus stop, but to
know your child has to walk upwards
of three miles to school regardless of
the weather is quite sad,” Daniel says.
Figueroa agreed busing is a major
concern.
“As winter is fast approaching, I
think Taylor is being very wise to
target public school bussing as a first
order of business, as any student who
currently walks to school would say
unequivocally, busing is indeed one
of the greatest areas in need.”
Asked if Hooper was helpful in
providing funding for Hempstead
schools, Figueroa was blunt.
“Not once did Hooper offer to
assist us with funding for projects,”
Figueroa says. “Rather, Hooper was
actually responsible for fostering and
sustaining much of the governmental
wrongdoing in the Hempstead school
district and in the village over her 30
years in office. That’s the unfortunate,
straight political truth.”
Raynor notes that many of the issues
related to Hempstead schools are
questions of reallocating funding to
make sure that the needs of students
are being met as well as financial
transparency.
“I want to make sure we have a firm
understanding of where all the money
in the district is going,” she says.
Raynor also encourages leaders
from different communities to share
information and work together by
employing community action meetings,
where leaders from diverse
communities and districts from
surrounding areas such as Baldwin,
Freeport, Bellmore and even Jericho
can come together and compare best
practices.
“Currently, information sharing is
not being done consistently,” Raynor
says.
She also plans to make certain that
resources are available districtwide,
such as nutritious food and adequate
teachers, including translators, if
necessary for non-native English
speakers.
As a former Hempstead school
board member and audit committee
chairperson, Gwendolyn Jackson
says she is ready to be the “eyes and
ears” for the community.
“Right now the board is unified and
that is because all the troublemakers
are either on the board or have their
candidates on the board,” Jackson says.
But, she says, that doesn’t mean that
they are doing the right thing.
“In fact, they are not! I will make
sure that the BOE follows its own
policies,” adds Jackson, pointing to
utilizing the district’s website to disseminate
information to the community
and televising board meetings.
Of course, there are other issues in
District 18.
“The schools, the streets, the taxes,”
Daniels says. “The taxes are a problem
everywhere in the district.”
For Raynor’s part, she believes that
knowledge and community are of the
utmost importance.
“Applied knowledge…it’s the greatest
power we have,” says Raynor. “We
have a village, a community. There is
too much to do to be divided.”