WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. March 31, 2004, UPDATED 3:00 P.M. E.S.T.: Mack Carter, Executive Director of the White Plains Housing Authority, said today that Operation Early Read, would not end early as theorized in a news article on the Early Read program last Sunday. "I had a pleasant conversation with Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors Tuesday, and the program will continue. The School District is going to work it out. We'll come up with the money ($10,000)." Carter told WPCNR Wednesday morning. "It was just a small blip."

That Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors,  speaking to WPCNR Wednesday afternoon said, "As I told you Monday night, this is a program the Board (of Education) is very supportive of and is very successful. Had Mack and I had a chance to discuss this, we would have all been on the same page."

Connors said the program costs the School District $38,000 to administer, and that it was the Housing Authority decision to bus the students over to Berkeley College at a cost of $10,000. He said that he did not know at this time whether the Housing Authority was going to contribute, but Connors expected to use Federal Dollars in terms of Title I if they were available to assist in paying the extra $10,000. The Superintendent said he is having the School District Business office examine if there is any Title I money still available, but that the funding would be found. "It will go to the end of the year," Connors said.

Connors added that The Journal News should have checked with the School District before reporting the program would end early.

Mack Carter, Executive Director of the Housing Authority, had been reported by The Journal News as saying the Early Read program that tutors over a hundred youngsters on Saturdays would end early.  Asked why he had not discussed this previously with Connors and how the paper could have gotten that impression, Carter said "That was the way they chose to report it."

Superintendent Connors was disturbed Monday evening that a news report had been circulated by the Housing Authority that the Early Read program was ending early, without anyone from the Housing Authority talking to him about it since the School District runs the program and pays for it.

Asked what the money problem was, Carter said, the transportation costs (to Berkeley College in White Plains from the Winbrook complex) were too high. "I said there was the possibility we might have to end it a couple of weeks early," Carter said.

Carter would not say where the money was coming from, the School District or the White Plains Housing Authority, just that "We're going to work it out."