Last year, as these and other problems plagued the only high school in the 35,000-person town of Riverhead on Long Island’s east end, the town diverted $2.7 million from the school district’s budget, forking it over to business owners and developers in the form of property tax exemptions. And the school desperately needs new copy machines. Buses are a debacle - drivers are leaving for private companies because the district can’t pay them enough. The football team needs a regulation-size field. Teachers need training on new technology. “ shut down,” said Garrett Moore, 44, who has taught social studies at the school for 20 years. The school placed fans in the slick hallways to dry them out. A quarter of the classrooms don’t have AC. During an August heatwave, temperatures in the school reached the high 80s. So were the tile floors and the teachers and the students. The walls were sweating at Riverhead High School.
