Memo for Board of Education 22nd October 2009 Final Version

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    URGENT Response Requested

    23 October 2009

    Ms. Jean Goldstein Quinn, President, Wantagh District Board of EducationMr. William Russack, Trustee, Wantagh District Board of EducationMichael Cucci, Trustee, Wantagh District Board of EducationRobert Leuchtmann, Trustee, Wantagh District Board of EducationAnn-Marie Sturniolo, Trustee, Wantagh District Board of Education

    Dear Board Members,

    As members of the organizing committee for the Wantagh Multi-Year Reunion, we havebeen asked to correspond with you and present the latest outline for this event which isscheduled to take place on the 7th August 2010. We believe that these changes representwhat the Board of Education suggested during a private meeting on the 8th October 2009with Mr. Glenn Strachan, Mr. Charles Blatt, Ms. Elise Axelrad and Mr. Joseph Donohue.

    Attendance and Establishment of Scholarship

    There is a clear relationship between the number of people who might attend the eventand the resources which would then need to be dedicated to manage that event from theperspective of the Board of Education. The Board has made it clear that the maximum

    capacity for the entire property is 1741 people. The concept of event stratification wasbrought up wherein the event would be cut into three equal time segments allowing, forinstance, classes from the 1990s through 2010 (this is the group most likely to bringsmall children with them) could enter the school grounds between 12:00p and 2:00p andthen leave for a predetermined site where they could continue to meet with friends. Upontheir departure, the next group would enter the school grounds for the second sessionafter which a third and final session would take place.

    In order to keep costs down, and maximize the fund raising opportunities of this event,the organizers feel that they must be able to attract 4,500 attendees. The organizingcommittee recommends the following configuration:

    06:00p 08:00p Initial Setup07:00a 12:00p Final Setup12:00p 02:00p Group A (not to exceed 1700)02:00p 03:00p Transition Period03:00p 05:00p Group B (not to exceed 1700)05:00p 06:00p Transition Period06:00p 08:00p Group C (not to exceed 1700)

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    08:00p 10:00p Cleanup

    The pricing metrics for this event will be as follows:

    Alumni - $25

    Adult Family Members - $15Children under 18 - $5

    Additional bequests for donations in the name of deceased classmates, former teachers

    and family members will be made on the event website, the Wantagh Virtual Memorial

    website and on return ticket conformations.

    The proceeds from this event, minus expenses, would go to establish a Wantagh AlumniMemorial Scholarship. The Reunion Committee will work with the PTA, the high schooladministration and the Board to establish guidelines for the ongoing distribution of thesefunds, but one of the purposes of this event will be to help establish this scholarship fund.

    A variable pricing model versus a one price model makes it a little more difficult toestimate the amount of money which this event would generate. Given an attendanceallowance for 4,500 we estimate that alumni tickets sales would bring in $76,500, adultfamily members another $8,400, and childrens tickets $2,400 for a total gross of$87,300. To be safe, given this pricing structure, we can safely estimate that the grosstotal income for this event would fall between $65,475 and $109,125. This income modelis based on ticket sales and does not yet take into account the expenses associated withunderwriting the cost of this event. Once we receive a list of requirements from theWantagh School District we may have to increase the price of each ticket in order toassure that the event remains profitable.

    The Reunion Committee will cap ticket purchases at an agreed upon number and will

    also encourage attendees to register by a certain date or risk paying more per ticket.

    While the Reunion Committee presently is an all volunteer event, because of theunforeseen delay in the approval process, we may need to ask an individual, or severalindividuals, to serve as part-time event coordinators. These coordinator(s) would receivea stipend for their services from the operational budget. The stipend would be tied tooverall ticket sales. The Reunion Committee still hopes to rely extensively on volunteersupport wherever possible.

    Please note that because this event has now been reduced to 2 hrs per attendee we have

    also had to severely reduce the ticket price. We will now encourage donations, fromthose who can afford them, rather than require them at the door.

    Costs

    We respectfully request that room fees be waived, or reduced, due to this being a

    fundraising event for the Wantagh High School and future graduates who will be

    attending University. This is a common practice at events where the venue will benefit

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    from the event itself. Please note that we did not pay by the room or space for thereunion in 2000

    If the board deems that these charges cannot be waived, The Reunion Committee needsto know the associated charges for the use of the school, and all other items which were

    enumerated by various board members during the private session on the 8th

    of October,2009.

    The Reunion Committee foresees a need for the following locations in the High

    School:

    Foyer This will be the single point of entry for the event and the location whereAlumni will receive a color coded wrist band to determine which session they areattending. Alumni will also receive a give away bag filled with swag includingdiscount tickets for shops in Wantagh and greater Long Island. Within each session aSwag Bag will contain a prize such as free airline tickets, hotel stays and other sponsor

    related give-aways. By using this approach it will obviate a need to hold a grandceremony.

    We do want access to the restrooms adjacent to the Auditorium.

    Second Floor - We would like to be able to allow Alumni to visit the second floor. Whilewe understand that this may present a challenge to the school which may be in theprocess of painting or have hallways completely inaccessible due to the storage of desksoutside the classroom we would like to see how this can be accomplished with theaddition of hall monitors.

    Auditorium We would like to know the costs associated with reserving the auditoriumin case we need to use it due to inclement weather. We may decide to utilize theauditorium and stage, but we have not finalized our event planning.

    Hallway We need the Alumni to be able to egress to the event through the mainhallway leading to the main gymnasium.

    Arboretum We would like to know the cost associated with allowing people to accessthe Arboretum.

    Study Hall Rooms We would like to know the costs associated with be able to utilizethe two rooms adjacent to the lunch room.

    Lunch Room We would like to know the costs associated with the use of the LunchRoom to allow people to eat, meet and greet in case of inclement weather.

    Main Gymnasium We do want to utilize the gymnasium as was done at the previousevent. We would like to use one side with the bleachers pulled out and the other sidewithout bleachers pulled out. We foresee placing the names of deceased students which

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    have been collected for the past ten years at the Wantagh Virtual Memorial on a longscroll which would look very similar to the Viet Nam War Memorial broken down byyear of graduation. We will make certain that people who attend the event realize that ascholarship fund would be created in the memory of the people on that wall. We will givepeople an opportunity to add names.

    Secondary Gymnasium We would like to know the costs associated with using thisfacility in case of inclement weather.

    Back Field We would like to know all the costs associated with the use of the fieldEXCLUDING the new football field. It would be our intention to place placards on thefield with each school year adjacent to the next. This same thing was done at the event in2000. We foresee an arc rather than a straight line on the field which further encouragespeople to gather in yearly and multi-year clusters.

    Macadam We would like to know the costs associated with using some of the parking

    spaces behind the school to allow fund raising opportunities for local groups such assports related parent groups. These groups could sell food items to the attendees. Wewould also like to know whether we can allow licensed food trucks to also sell food at theevent. We will explain to people that there will be sales of food but we will minimallyprovide water juices and soft drinks as we did in 2000.

    Other Associated Costs

    Parking/Traffic Flow/Security We would like to know the associated costs for usingyour security firm to manage the security aspects for this event. We already presented aplan to manage the parking. We do recommend that parking in front of the school bepermitted for retired teachers who will be allowed to attend this event gratis. We alsowant to permit cars to be able to deliver people with disabilities to the event and if theyhave a handicap license or permit, allow them to park at the school parking lot. We willhelp coordinate parking & traffic issues. We plan to hire additional traffic guards and hirebuses to move people from larger parking lots i.e.: Wantagh train station/WantaghPark/Forest Lake Parking Lots to this event. We will also inform the community thoughnotices and neighborhood business sponsorship.

    Portable Potties We would like to know how many units would be required to meetthe demands of this crowd. There are at least three rest rooms sites within the school towhich the group would have access, but we also recognize that there would be a need forunits on the field. Given that we will break out this event into three 2-hour sessions, wedo not believe that there is a great need for portable potties.

    Garbage Cans and Custodial crews Please let us know the costs associated withplacing garbage cans on the field and through the usable area plus the associated costs ofthe custodial crew which would clean up after the event. We will cover any additionalstaff needed to clean up the facility after the event.

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    EMS We will organize an EMS team to be at the event should the need arise whereemergency medics were required. The same was done during the event in 2000.

    Radio Coverage We expect that a local radio station will broadcast from the event asthey did in 2000 and we want to make certain with the board that this is acceptable.

    Board Response

    The Reunion Committee respectfully asks that the Board of Education provide an

    official response within 7 business days of receipt of this letter. The event planninghas been delayed and we must now move forward with selling tickets for the event andsecuring both national and local sponsorships to help underwrite the costs associated withthis event. Please note that the stratification of the event will depend on tickets sales topeople within each graduating year. We do not foresee high tickets sales to people whohave been out of school less than 15 years. This means that we are really looking atselling tickets to people who graduated in 1958 to 1995. We expect the biggest

    concentration of people to come from significant periods such as 20

    th

    , 25

    th

    , 30

    th

    , 35

    th

    , 40

    th

    ,45th and 50th anniversary years.

    The Reunion Committee wants you to know that it will work very closely with the Boardof Education, the PTA and other Wantagh related associations to make certain thateveryone is not only aware of this event, but is, in some way, an active participant. Theeconomic effect of this event will be quite substantial for restaurants and businessesduring that entire weekend as we will be recommending individual class years and/ordecade groups to continue their reunion at a local restaurant.

    We look forward to your timely response. As of this date we have 285 days until theevents are scheduled to begin.

    Respectfully,

    Donna A Napolitano, Esq. (Class of 75) ________________________________Deputy Bureau Chief -- General LitigationOffice of the Nassau County AttorneyOne West StreetMineola, New York 11501

    Robert J. Berg, Esq. (Class of 75) ______________________________________The Law Office of Robert J. BergRobert J. Berg PLLC32 Tisdale RoadScarsdale, New York 10583