Potential New NYS Law Would Set Maximum Classroom Temperature

Long Island Morning Edition

Facing the potential of a new state law that would set a maximum classroom temperature for public schools, districts statewide and across Long Island will have to choose whether to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to add air conditioning to their aging buildings. Districts that don’t could be forced to send students home and turn to remote learning as heat waves become increasingly common in September and June because of climate change. By law, schools are required to have 180 days of instruction or risk losing state aid. The measure would take effect in 2025, if signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Hochul’s office has said she will review the legislation.

Health experts say increased heat cannot only adversely affect the physical health of students, but also their mental health and ability to learn. Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that less than 10% of public-school buildings in New York State are fully air-conditioned, largely because on average most buildings are more than 60 years old, according to the New York State School Facilities Association Energy Committee. Installing air conditioning can cost tens of thousands to millions of dollars depending on the scale.

Younger children are much more susceptible to extreme heat because they have smaller bodies and less developed sweating mechanisms, said Adrienne Wald, an associate professor of nursing at Mercy University in Westchester County. Elementary school students may have difficulty communicating if they are feeling nauseous or dizzy — the early signs of heat exhaustion, she said.

The New York State Legislature in June approved a bill that would require public schools to take action such as turning on fans and pulling down blinds if room temperatures reach 82 degrees.

If temperatures hit 88 degrees, students and staff would not be allowed to occupy the space and in extreme cases would be sent home, according to the bill.

There is no district-by-district state data on how many schools are fully air-conditioned and no designated state funding source for installing air conditioning in New York schools.

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Eleven Long Island school districts have sued Facebook and other leading social media companies this week, alleging the “addictive and dangerous” platforms have sparked an increase in mental health problems among students.

The school districts also allege the platforms have caused the districts “serious financial and resource disruptions.”

Jim Baumbach reports in NEWSDAY that more than two dozen other districts across Long Island also intend to file similar lawsuits, according to William Shinoff, a San Diego, Calif.-based attorney who represents 37 Long Island districts and about 1,000 districts nationwide.

School officials are seeking money for added costs of employing mental health professionals, adapting lesson plans to educate children on alleged harm caused by social media and investigating online threats to the school communities.

The 11 districts each filed nearly identical five-page complaints that accuse the social media companies of negligence and being a public nuisance. The lawsuits, filed in federal court in California, also name Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube as defendants.

The districts’ social media lawsuits are part of a consolidated multidistrict federal lawsuit in which parents, school districts and state governments are suing the companies for similar reasons.

Letitia James, New York state attorney general, and attorneys general from 32 other states filed similar suits in October 2023, alleging the companies created addictive features that have negatively affected young people’s mental health.

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The Southold Town Planning Board meets this evening at 5 p.m. (this is a time change from the originally scheduled 6 p.m. meeting). Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the board can vote this evening on a final determination on the Strong’s Yacht Center yacht storage building proposal, though attorneys for the applicant have asked the board to hold off on the determination while they prepare a scaled back plan for one building instead of two. The public can attend in person at Southold Town Hall or via Zoom.

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Embattled President Joe Biden could jeopardize Democrats running for House races even in blue New York if he remains on the ballot – with high-ranking Democrats from the Empire State saying he should step down and not seek re-election, it was revealed yesterday.

Manhattan Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Joe Morelle of Rochester, the top Democrat on the House Committee on House Administration, were among Democrats who said the party is better off with Biden off the ticket, media outlets including Politico, the NY Times and NBC reported.

But Biden’s weakness as a candidate in New York was known before his debate debacle.

Carl Campanile reports in THE NY POST that a Siena College Poll released a week before the June 27 debate found Biden leading former Republican Donald Trump by just 8 points – 47% to 39% – largely on the strength of being 25 points ahead in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City.

Yet right now, “If the election were held today and I’m a Democrat running in a marginal seat in New York, I’d be nervous,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.

“The findings should be very concerning to Democrats running for U.S. Congress and the NYS Legislature in swing districts,” added Greenberg.

Political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who worked on ex-President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, said Biden could make it difficult for Democrats to win the suburbs of the Big Apple.

“It’s called crime, chaos, the migrant crisis and Biden,” he said. “His disastrous debate performance will increase Republican turnout and hurt Democrats even in New York.”

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2023 was Long Island’s deadliest since at least 2013 for young people behind the wheel, with 32 fatal crashes, according to preliminary statistics. A top contributing factor to those crashes: speeding. ‘Flexibilities’ for driver’s ed — announced by the state starting in 2020 during the pandemic and continuing until June 30, 2023 — allowed parents, instead of professional instructors, to oversee and certify student drivers’ practice hours behind the wheel.

Motor vehicle crashes long have been the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Matthew Chayes and Jacqueline Cole report in NEWSDAY that

The latest surge comes after NY State adopted an honor system of sorts starting during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed teens’ families, instead of instructors, to certify that in-vehicle practice hours had been completed. The surge also comes amid a broad spike in speeding that started during the pandemic and became an “epidemic” of its own, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

The 32 crashes last year involving young drivers caused 33 deaths, including 8 young drivers. Since 2013, there have been 251 fatal crashes in Nassau and Suffolk involving young drivers that have killed 288 people, the statistics show.

“You are giving kids keys to a rocket ship,” said Syosset High’s driver’s ed program director, Richard Faber, who’s taught Long Island teens for over three decades. He added: “You’re asking a 17-year-old whose brain is not entirely developed to multitask at the highest level.”

DMV records show there are roughly 86,000 young drivers 16 to 20 on Long Island with a valid license.

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Like any place where random groups gather, the dog park in Southampton Village is not immune to occasional issues. There might be a little growling from time to time, maybe some baring of teeth, occasionally even a small scuffle.

And that’s just among the people.

Lisa Daffy reports on 27east.com that in the 10 years since the Southampton Village Dog Park at the Lola Prentice Memorial Park first opened its gates, it has become a mainstay of the community, providing a welcoming space where furry visitors and their people come to socialize. 75 dogs and their humans showed up on Southampton Village Dog Park’s opening day ten years ago - June 8, 2014.

The identifying symbol for the park is an iconic big red dog, which was designed and contributed by Southampton artist Robert Lohman.

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It seems all weekend long local folks have been complaining about traffic and the drivers causing it. Even before the 4th of July, at 5:45 a.m. on Friday, June 28, eastbound traffic on Montauk Highway leading into Water Mill was a bumper-to-bumper trade parade crawl.

Nearly 15 hours later, at 8:35 p.m., Hill Street’s westbound lanes were in the same condition, and the two westbound lanes on County Road 39 in Southampton were inching along only slightly quicker.

In the hours in between, the small talk in the hallways of Southampton Town Hall, at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, at schools and on sidewalks was all about the traffic. The word “crazy” is uttered frequently.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the traffic on the South Fork has indeed become crazy — a seemingly hopeless morass beset by problems of both gridlock and unsafe speeding, at the same time, with few options for alleviating the condition that does not elicit either scoffs or eyerolls at the likelihood to either make a difference or be financially and logistically possible.

But two new efforts are currently underway to tackle those entangled challenges. Suffolk County has begun what will likely be a yearslong examination of the County Road 39 corridor, an effort to detail the problems, the hurdles to “fixing” them and the possibilities for real solutions that will at least ease some of the problems.

Locally, a traffic task force was empaneled by Southampton Town earlier this year. The group held the third of the six meetings it is scheduled to hold before submitting a report this fall cataloging what it sees as both short-term and long-term steps that could be taken to ease some of the worst impacts of the traffic on the region and on specific locations in its midst.

“We can’t say there is nothing we can do — that is defeatist,” said Southampton Town Councilman Michael Iasilli, who sits on the task force and, in fact, called for its creation shortly after taking office in January. “I don’t know what the solution is going to be, but we’re collecting information and data and trying to be as proactive as possible on the short-term stuff while we work out the long-term issues.”