School costs, Billy Joel and Oyster Bay

One way to cut school costs

Newsday has once again touched on the relatively high salaries of Long Island educators [“LI educators among pay leaders,” News, Oct. 23]. They are out of touch and people are getting upset. Back on June 23, 2020, I had a letter published about centralized school districts which would bring costs down.

Back then, I wrote that a centralized education department should be created in both Nassau and Suffolk counties and districts should be consolidated according to certain parameters. It’s outrageous to support 124 superintendents with what was then an average salary of $245,000 — besides other overall high administrative costs.

I also wrote that residents in their early 20s are leaving Long Island because of high real estate taxes and overall cost of living. If this trend continues, Long Island will be left to only rich people and poor people. Even people 75 and older, I wrote, may be forced to either live with their children or move to the South.

Nothing has changed; in fact, it has gotten even worse!

— Heinz Mayer, Garden City

Was it Billy Joel’s first performance?

Reading about Billy Joel having a road in Oyster Bay named after him [“Joel has Oyster Bay street named after him,” News, Oct. 20] brought back a childhood memory. I believe it was the first time Billy sang in public.

We attended Fork Lane Elementary School in Hicksville, and it was probably in fourth grade or so when a teacher held an impromptu talent contest in the gym. Billy jumped up and started singing, “I ain’t nothing but a hound dog.” He started gyrating in his best Elvis Presley impersonation. I remember his face getting all flush and little veins popping out of his forehead. Even then, “it was me they were coming to see.” The rest is history.

— Roy Reynolds, East Moriches