Gas Odor Forces Evacuation at School Board Meeting

A routine meeting of the Glen Cove Board of Education was interrupted at about 9:30 p.m. Monday at Glen Cove High School when attendees smelled an odor of natural gas.

The Board was alerted to the problem when a teacher in the audience was hurried out of the room by another. Someone who had been sitting nearby said the teacher's eyes had become irritated.

As she left, others in the room remarked that they smelled the gas. Board president Joel Sunshine suggested that those present exit through a door in the rear of the room.

Sunshine gathered with Board members and district administrators at the room's entrance and decided to save the remaining agenda items for the next meeting on Oct. 15.

The Board had been discussing how to approach improvement of the district's test scores to bring them up to or above the Nassau County average. Percentages of passing students in Glen Cove have been, on the whole, lower than the County averages recorded since 2010, according to a data chart provided at the meeting.

Board members expressed concern that target passing percentages through 2015 remained well below the projected County averages for some grades.

As attendees headed to their cars, deputy superintendent Kevin Wurtz said that National Grid had been at the school earlier in the day and had determined that a minor piece of hardware was needed.

"They're on their way," he said.