Riverhead board OKs task force to address issues facing school district

A newly created task force in Riverhead will try to help bridge the communication gap between the town and the Riverhead Central School District and seek solutions to rising enrollment and other problems facing the district.

The Town Board voted 5-0 at its Feb. 4 meeting to authorize creation of the Town of Riverhead and Riverhead Central School District Task Force.

The panel will be charged with examining and exchanging ideas and solutions that would help both the town and school district address “goals and issues that are of paramount importance to the health, safety and welfare of our community,” according to the resolution.

Its members — who will include representatives from the Riverhead Police Department, the Recreation Department, the Community Development Agency, the school district and the community — are still being selected by town and school district officials. Once the selections are complete, the task force will set dates to meet.

Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said the task force would “hopefully, for the first time in many, many years, open the lines of communication” between the town and the school district. She added that communication between both entities had largely been almost “nonexistent.”

Mary Maki, a Baiting Hollow resident and president of the Riverhead High School Parent Teacher Student Organization, said parents had noticed that lack of interaction.

“I think if the town has policies and the school district has policies and they’re each not understanding why they do what they do, when you get in a room and you sit around a table, you can really get a better idea of why they each do what they do,” said Maki, whose two sons are 11th-graders in the district.

Councilwoman Catherine Kent, who taught in the district for 33 years and will be a town board liaison for the task force, said the group will address multiple concerns, including recreation programs, sharing services, advocating for more state aid and bettering public safety at schools. An issue that is expected to come up is rising school enrollment, which parents and residents say has caused overcrowding.

“In that area, there are things that the town can do and there are things the school district can do,” Kent said. “Maybe not the same thing, but we can each address it.”

In addition to getting more parents involved in the task force, Maki said she was hoping the group would focus on resolving high enrollment, including discussing zoning laws to potentially reduce overcrowding.

Aguiar said that she spoke about the task force with school district Superintendent Dr. Aurelia L. Henriquez and that she had been receptive to it.  

“This is going to be collaborative and include a mix of different people, from taxpayers, parents and whoever the superintendent designates . . . and we’re going to make it work,” Aguiar said.

In a statement Feb. 10, Henriquez said the school district has an open-door policy with the town and “looks forward in cooperating with them in the best interest of our students and the community.”