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OK I'll admit I'm guilty of bashing Westbury, but I certainly didn't mean for it to come out that way. I only want what's best for the Village & business. Pointing out the problems I would hope would lead to a solution & more action from Village officials.
I want this thread to be about solutions & ideas to improve the Westbury area. Post Avenue could be thriving business district and a good example of smart growth. It all starts with the Village, passing the buck to NCPD for QOL issues is not the way to run a village. Both the Village and NCPD need to put in a combined effort and work together to stop public intoxication & other QOL issues. A "Broken Windows" style theory needs to be put in place, repeat offenders need to be arrested. And when it comes to housing, property owners who break the village code not only need to be fined, but arrested as well, and illegal living conditions should not be tolerated, period. It's not the Village's job to give a safe haven to criminals.
Fix the lighting on Post Avenue by replacing the fixtures (not the entire lampposts) with brighter, white LED ones, which will provide much better lighting and make Post Ave much more attractive at night.
Work with the MTA in putting pressure in to improve train service, there's no reason that there can't be half hourly service like most other stations in Nassau. Westbury is busier than Carle Place & should recieve a higher level of service. Adding a stop at Westbury on all Huntington weekend trains & some other weekday ones would result in a minimal impact to the schedule (we're talking a few minutes here).
This would make Westbury more attractive to commuters, not only those who live here but from other areas as well. It would bring more people downtown as well.
Taking it a step further, something needs to be done with the schools. New Cassel's problems should not be ours. Westbury Village shouldn't be going to the same school district as New Cassel. Westbury Village & Carle Place should merge into one district. Carle Place already uses the Westbury library as it doesn't have it's own, so what's the big deal? There could be a land swap with St.Brigid school, which would move to the site of the current Westbury H.S., and St.Brigid would be the new Westbury H.S. It's much more pedestrian friendly to have the school there, and many Westbury residents already send their kids to St.Brigids. All the school bldgs in New Cassel would be used by New Cassel's school district, and one of those empty bldgs on Prospect could be used for their new High School.
There are benefits in it for New Cassel as well! The struggling Yes We Can center could also house a new school for them, even a new library. Heck I think New Cassel should have a train station as well, I think it would do well!
Better schools, a safer community, and better train service would lure people here & improve our property values.
If only these things were happening in Westbury, I wouldn't consider moving, and I'm sure others wouldn't be either. I'm not looking to make Westbury less diverse, only to get rid of the criminal element and improve the QOL. Westbury has always been diverse, and it's our strength as long as those moving here respect the community & improve the QOL. I'm not looking for Westbury to be a Syosset. But we should be more like a Mineola, which is a diverse, but safe & commuter friendly community, and I have yet to see much loitering & drinking problems there. Mineola is one area I would consider if I couldn't move to a good area on the south shore. Winthrop is also an excellent hospital & pumps alot into Mineola.
Westbury has a tremendous amount of potential if given the right medicine.
Last edited by Johninwestbury; 08-17-2014 at 07:23 PM..
There is an International Baccalaureate program for both middle school and high school that districts have used to attract families looking for quality education.
In coming up with these ideas, be mindful that some towns and villages that are "faring better" than Westbury are beginning to struggle themselves. Westbury is not just competing w/ other towns. It is also competing with whatever it is that is luring more people to stay in the big city and these cannot be compensated by better streetlights or frequent train service.
Why the heck would St Brigids move north of Jericho tpke and make their tuition paying parents haul ass across a busy 6 lane road when the vast majority of them live in Breezy Hill? Not to mention why would a Catholoc grammar school want such a big and most likely crappy building? And where do the sports facilities go at the "new" Westbury HS? And where do you fit all those HS students?
Omg, LMAO, I love coming to this site to see Johns postings. Well lets take it a step further, Lets put up border fences around New Cassel and make it mandatory for its residents to walk around with border papers, restrict their time in the village if they are not working. Arrest them if they cant produce their border papers. I will not go over the history of Westbury regarding New Cassel again, however if New Cassel decides to become incorporated most of the problems would disappear over night. The industrial park in New Cassel have far more businesses than the Village of Westbury and provides almost absolutely nothing to New Cassel. If New Cassel should incorporate these businesses would all pay village taxes similar to other villages.
Westbury School District needs a complete over haul, after viewing the last Newsday report card, I would fire almost everyone. The hardest working personnel within the school district at this point are the janitors. They need to eliminate the superintendents position, put new principals in each schools and hold these principals and teachers accountable for their respective school performance. Enough is enough already, we are paying too much in school taxes for mediocre performances within our schools. 69% graduation rate is horrible, I am sick of the excuse "at least we are not at the bottom of the list", as well as the excuse "well at least we are not 37% like Hempstead, that type of response is absurd. Technically speaking we are ranked among the bottom 4 in terms of High School graduation rate. The school board needs to stop playing kissy face with school officials.
The school board should ask these officials one thing, look at your salaries in comparison to our district performance and say if whether or not you deserve these type of salaries?
Westbury School District Salaries Note the last figure on the line is final salary
2013-2014 Salary
Superintendent of Schools $268,372 $67,091 $2,500$337,963
Assistant Superintendent For Business & Finance $226,600 $62,219 $2,500 $291,319
Assistant Superintendent For Curriculum $174,390 $53,472 $2,500 $230,362
High School Principal $194,762 $0 $0 $194,762
Elementary Principal $189,019 $0 $0 $189,019
Middle School Principal $186,597 $0 $0 $186,597
Elementary Principal $183,661 $0$ 0 $183,661
Elementary Principal $180,986 $0$ 0 $180,986
High School Assistant Principal $172,954 $0 $0 $172,954
Director Athletics, Physical & Health Ed $172,954 $0 $0 $172,954
Director ESL/Bilingual Ed/Abe $170,277 $0 $0 $170,277
Director Of Technology $170,277$0$0
$170,277High School Assistant Principal $166,936$0 $0 $166,936
Middle School Assistant Principal $165,266$0 $0 $165,266
Director Of Guidance $165,266 $0 $0 $165,266
Director Of Special Education & Pps $161,079 $0 $0 $161,079
Elementary Assistant Principal $158,583 $0 $0 $158,583
Middle School Assistant Principal $154,570$0 $0 $154,570
Elementary Principal $149,973 $0 $0 $149,973
Director Of Reading English Lang Arts $145,357 $0 $0 $145,357
Director Of Facilities & Operations $138,190 $0 $0 $138,190
21 administrators seems like a high number but somehow I suspect admin numbers are even more bloated in other districts. Westbury does not seem to have district-wide coordinators (Language, Social Studies, Math, etc) as some schools still do or have full time school deans (according to this list anyway) as some other places do.
(do the top three get some sort of bonus pay each year on top of their salary?)
At the same time, can you pin the relatively poor student performance on the admins and teachers in Westbury?
A town that might be a good example to look at is Farmingdale. In recent years, the Main Street area and housing area closest to the train station have drastically changed for the better. This is due to the new mayor who removed the parking meters from Main Street to draw more people to the area, the addition of trendy bars (not dives) and restaurants, commuter apartments near the RR station and much more. The area was made more affordable for small business owner to open storefronts and FOR SURE it has made a difference. Farmingdale schools started suffering performance-wise due to inclusion of Amityville residents and the expectation now is that if Farmingdale is becoming a more desirable place to live for young adults, once they get here they will stay to start families and the area will be infused with better-performing students and the schools will go up in ratings. I feel like a multi-faceted approach is needed for suffering towns and there's no "one size fits all" solution.
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