Three Village Schools to Remain Open on Election Day

Regular classes will be in session throughout the Three Village Central School District on Election Day, with school officials saying previous concerns over security have been addressed.

Interim superintendent Neil Lederer said the district has reassigned additional security guards to the seven schools serving as polling sites for Tuesday's midterm elections.

He also said the district worked with the Suffolk County Board of Elections to re-evaluate the specific rooms in which voting would take place at two of the sites, Arrowhead Elementary and W.S. Mount Elementary. Voting in those two schools will now take place in the mini-gyms, which are closer to the main entrances. As a result, voters will not have to walk through the length of the school in order to reach the election site, a previous source of concern during September's primary elections.

"I got some calls from the PTA, but it wasn't a lot," Lederer said. "Our principals did express concern, so I said OK. We met with representatives of the Board of Elections and adjusted the site."

Lederer said the district did consider closing school on Election Day, as it has been done in the past and as recently as last school year. The district last week posted a letter on its website informing parents that school would remain open on Nov. 2.

"When the calendar was made up last year in the spring, it was considered," said Lederer, who added that he plans to recommend to the school board closing on Election Day next year. "The thing was that you start having days off almost every week in November. That just becomes, from an instructional standpoint, a little choppy."

Responding to the news, many parents thought the district should have closed for Election Day.

"The safety of the students and faculty should not be compromised," said Natalie Cavallo, a mother of two elementary students. "If schools cannot be closed, then voting should take place after school hours or at another location."

Liz Specht, a mother of three elementary students, agreed.

"Chances are nothing will happen, but what if?" she said. "Hindsight is 20/20 and I don't think we should put children at risk. Having the schools open gives many people access to a place they normally would not have access to and anything could happen."

This election's atmosphere worried Anna Flack, a mother of a Three Village junior high student.

"I don't like mixing students with strangers," she said. "This Election Day has the potential to be very crowded, charged even, given the current political climate."

Finding Your Local Polling Site

Seven of Three Village's eight public schools and the administration center will be used as polling sites, with only Ward Melville High School exempt from the voting action. To locate your specific polling site, you can visit http://www.vote411.org/pollfinder.php.