With the Herricks 2014-15 school year underway, Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Bierwirth—who previously announced his retirement, is beginning his final year as a professional educator.
“I’ve worked in several communities and complimented those schools on smooth openings, but this district I can only describe as bizarre,” he said. “One day in, and it’s as though school has been in session for a month or two. Other districts seem to take a few weeks, but it’s just extraordinary how everyone in Herricks comes back and it just…starts.”
Board of Education President James Gounaris said the superintendent search is still being conducted by outside firm District Wise Search Consultants to find a replacement for the outgoing Bierwirth, as well as Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Dr. Deirdre Hayes, who had also recently tendered her resignation. Bierwirth will remain until the end of the 2014-15 school year, and Hayes until Dec. 31.
“Interviews have been taking place for both positions, and resumes are still being collected and scrutinized,” Gounaris said. “The search continues to move forward, as I’m asking everyone in attendance here tonight to keep an eye out for our next community forum, which will be held on Sept. 29 at the community center. Everyone is welcome to come…the search consultants will be here, and we’ve told them that we’d like to get as much community input as possible.”
Gounaris noted that separate forums would be held for both students and staff to express their opinions on the superintendent search.
Enrollment Up, New Teachers In
Gounaris announced due to increased enrollment, two new teachers had been hired to head up additional kindergarten classes in the district. These hires join the new first and second grade teachers at Center Street School revealed at a previous school board meeting.
“We are adding two new Kindergarten classes—one at Center Street, and one at Searingtown—to bring the class numbers down,” he said. “They have grown recently…we had a lot of people come in the last week or two to register.”
PISA Discussion
Bierwirth also discussed the results of the recent round of Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) testing. PISA is an international assessment that measures 15-year-old students’ reading, mathematics and science literacy. Bierwirth noted that the testing had put the spotlight on the many strengths of Herricks’ students, as well as uncovering a few areas for improvement.
“In reading, 20 percent of our students are in the lowest category, 65 percent demonstrated competence, and 14 percent demonstrated high levels in their ability to read and make critical judgments about what they were reading,” he said. “The challenge over time is how do we reduce the number of students in the lower category and increase the number of students reading at higher levels.”
In the PISA math assessment, Bierwirth said one out of every three students in Herricks are demonstrating a high level in their ability to apply mathematical knowledge they’ve learned—very high rating, he noted—but that the results when it came to science literacy testing were a bit lower than the national average.
“We’re in the right ballpark,” he said. “The question is, again, how do we lower the low numbers and increase the higher numbers?”
The next meeting of the Herricks Board of Education is scheduled for Sept.18 at 7:30 p.m.
