District to Publicize Safety Alerts

After a second Half Hollow Hills student was near the school buildings, Gail Jospa, a grandparent of six, said that she nor her grandchildren received a safety notice from the district.

On Nov. 22, a man in a white van near Oxford Avenue and Bennington Street attempted to lure a student into his vehicle by offering candy. A similar incident occurred just a month earlier when police alerted the district on Oct. 28 that an unknown male followed a  student home.

While both news alerts were posted on the front page of the school website, Jospa voiced her concern that anyone who does not regularly check the Internet page or does not know where to find the alerts, would be unaware of the potential danger.

At the Board of Education meeting Monday night at , Jospa said that after reading about the incidents on , she changed her living habits by picking her grandson up at Candlewood Middle School, rather than having him walk or take the bus.

"I get daily alerts from Chicos and every other store notifying me of sales. Why wouldn't I be notified of something this important?" she asked the board.

Patrick Harrigan, assistant superintendent for districtwide administration, and Jeanine Bottenus, president of the board of education, said that administrators recently discussed how to make the alerts more known to residents.

"There is a option where people can sign up for news alerts to be emailed, but it is a feature we need to publicize more. It's a feature we have and we need to get it rolling," Harrigan said.

To subscribe for the school news alerts, residents can visit http://www.hhh.k12.ny.us/cf_enotify/subscribe.cfm. From there, the user is able to register an email addresses, along with a username and password. Once registered, the user is brought to another webpage where he or she can check off a box requesting the news alerts.