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Two Hempstead Village police officers, known as resource officers, are permanently stationed at the high school. Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School has 17 school security guards, and the school board is expected to approve hiring two more at its meeting scheduled for tonight - something that was planned before last week's stabbing, [Nathaniel Clay] said.

While unusual, proposing a budget below contingency is not unprecedented. Last year, slightly less than 10 percent of New York's approximately 700 school districts proposed budgets that were below contingency level for the first budget vote, but nearly all were small, upstate systems. And virtually none proposed budgets so far under contingency level. Depending on retirements, Hempstead's budget plan could require laying off 46 classroom teachers - including many bilingual staffers - 12 security guards and 77 teaching assistants, said Superintendent Nathaniel Clay. He had proposed a $131 million school budget, noting that $124.5 million will threaten the 7,500-student district's ability to meet a host of state-mandated goals. Clay may not have to live with it for very long. Board members are publicly voicing their lack of confidence in Clay's leadership, and [Tim Butler] said the board's evaluation of him last month was \"poor.\"

A HEMPSTEAD SCHOOL official will be indicted today, officials said yesterday as state Controller Alan Hevesi issued a scathing report on the school district's finances. Hevesi's audit of the district's books and practices from July 2002 to September 2004 showed it had squandered $5 million, much of it through \"wasteful spending.\" Among its \"inappropriate expenses,\" the state audit concluded, the board wrongly paid [Nathaniel Clay] $74,347 during his suspension.

Mills' order followed a tumultuous week in which the board fought publicly during a meeting with the commissioner in Albany, and ousted its superintendent, replacing her with Nathaniel Clay, whom it had fired the previous October. Later that night, a teaching assistant was charged with assault for allegedly hitting a board member on the head with a coffee cup. Some school workers were unhappy with the prospect of a pay freeze. \"What bills of mine froze?\" said Sheriva Scott, a clerical worker at the high school. \"I freeze ice cream, I'm not freezing no salary.\" If the proposed pay freeze doesn't materialize, the district would be facing a budget gap for next year. Besides the savings from prospective pay freezes, the single largest budget cut - $525,000 - came from the district's decision, under the previous administration, to cancel summer school.

That soon changed forever. With the rise of the Roosevelt Field Mall, Hempstead became a shortcut to the Garden City shopping mecca. When Green Acres Mall was built near our Valley Stream home, we didn't have to bother with Hempstead at all. Within a few years, the decline in real estate values and tax revenues led to the flight of whites from even the idea of minority neighbors. Little has changed: As Hempstead schools continue their descent into administrative chaos and academic decline, nobody - including state Education Commissioner Richard Mills and the entire Albany establishment - seems ready to do right by these children. Most recently, the board majority defied an order from Mills to reinstate Superintendent Nathaniel Clay, whom they had fired and then replaced with a favored administrator. At a rare Sunday night meeting, in what looked like an attempt to avoid public scrutiny, the board's three-member majority suspended Clay with pay two days after he was reinstated.

There is no question that Prospect School and to a lesser extent Rhodes School need attention. District officials said they have been aware of deteriorating conditions for years, but each year they managed to make enough repairs to keep the Prospect building safe. [Nathaniel Clay] said it would cost $20 million to $25 million to rebuild Prospect School and $36 million to renovate it. The district plans to put forth a bond referendum in December. 1) Newsday Cover Photo / Mia Agotti - [Bessie R. Jackson], a parent, at meeting (Nassau Cover), Newsday Photos / Mia Aigotti - 2 ) Left, the Rev. Dorothy LaPierre questions board members during a meeting yesterday on the closing of Prospect School. 3) Above, Hempstead Board of Education President Regina Lattimore-Gordon addresses the meeting. First vice president Thomas R. Parsley Jr. sits to her right and Superintendent of Schools Nathan Clay is to her left.

About 300 district teachers, administrators and parents gathered in the auditorium of Hempstead High School to celebrate a year of significant academic achievement in the district with music, art, poetry and dance from the children. Hempstead Schools Superintendent Nathaniel Clay said students, teachers and administrators have shown extra effort. And the results have been significant, he said. Newsday Photo/ Dick Yarwood - Hempstead pre-kindergarten pupils sing during festivities celebrating the achievements of district students.

The Hempstead School District is such a mess - educationally, economically and ethically - that state Education Commissioner Richard Mills and Albany lawmakers should seriously consider a state takeover. If the district's chronically poor test scores and fiscal abuses aren't enough, the 3-2 vote Sunday to suspend [Nathaniel Clay] with pay, just two days after [Mills] ordered him back on the job, should give the commissioner ample reason to act against the majority. The board had fired Clay earlier in the month and hired Susan Johnson, who herself had been fired twice before. Enough already.

  Afternoon is the worst. A relentless sun beats on the tiny trailer while her kids cry and Griffin wipes her face, over and over again. She says the manager of the mobile home park promises heating in the winter but can't offer an AC window unit that works. In a home without AC, [Nathaniel Clay] spends the afternoons sitting in the family room with the lights off and rhythm and blues on the radio. He thinks of reasons to climb into his air-conditioned pickup. PHOTO AND NEWS-JOURNAL No air conditioning makes for a hot afternoon for Michaele Griffin and her children Tyler, 2, and Guinevere, 7 months, in their Daytona Beach mobile home Thursday. News-Journal/NIGEL COOK See microfilm for chart with a breakdown of the typical sumer electric bill for a Florida home.

[Grant]'s testimony came a day after Hempstead Superintendent Nathaniel Clay invoked his constitutional right against self- incrimination 15 times to questions accusing him of misusing district money in the bribery trial of former school consultant John Finn of Michigan. School board president Ralph Schneider has said he still supports Clay but admitted he has had questions about Clay's past behavior. Except for an eight-month period, Clay has been Hempstead schools chief since 1995. PHOTOS - 1) The testimony of Grant, left, came the day after Hempstead 2) Superintendent Nathaniel Clay, right, faced accusations.