The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District quietly wrapped up the calendar year at an informative but sparsely attended Board of Education meeting on Dec. 15. Assistant Superintendent for Business Michael Frank gave a financial report and some concerned parents inquired on the status of the district’s resolution to remove polling from school grounds.
Early in the meeting, trustee David Del Santo gave an update on some changes coming to the Sewanhaka Central High School District. Mostly relevant to parents of students in fourth, fifth and sixth grade, the high school district will effectively be “de-tracking” seventh-and eighth grade math and science classes next year.
“It’s going to allow students at every level to have the opportunity to succeed,” Del Santo explained.
The change, which won’t affect any students currently in seventh or eighth grades, means that students entering those grades next year will no longer be locked in advanced or advanced placement tracks. They will be in general classrooms and then be allowed to progress to more rigorous classes each year as needed. Del Santo says this is a more flexible arrangement, where a student could potentially be in a regular math class, advanced science class and AP social studies class.
“This allows the high school district to evaluate and place their students in the appropriate learning environment. It’s got an unbelievable amount of support,” he added of the measure, which should result in roughly 60 percent more classroom support for each student.
The de-tracking is being propelled by Dr. Cheryl Champ, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at the high school.
Corrective Action Plan
Back in August, the NHP-GCP District set out to create a corrective action plan following a state audit report. The plan was originally estimated to be finished in June of 2015, but Frank was able to present a completed version at the December meeting.
“The intention is to make corrections for improvements that pertain to the recommendations that the state had made,” Frank said.
The plan is basically a way to show how the district intends to continue to save money and utilize finances responsibly.
The NHP-GCP district favors focusing on capital reserve funds instead of debt services for borrowing money. Debt service practices involve borrowing against a bond.
Frank says the corrective action plan is about transparency, describing it as a “living, breathing document that we could utilize for budgeting purposes and for the board to be able to review the reserves and for the community to see where everything is.”
Refinancing
The week before the board meeting, the district refinanced one of its few pieces of outstanding debt, the library. Frank reported that the refinancing was a great success and that the district saved about $700,000 by doing so.
More Polling Place Talk
Closing out the meeting, the board heard public comments, most of which dealt with the ongoing resolution to remove polling from public school grounds (see last week’s page one story “Schools, County To Talk Polling Places”). The NHP-GCP District introduced this concept earlier in the year, and it has since gained some traction among neighboring districts. Their goal is statewide change, but the Nassau County Board of Elections has yet to set a meeting date with them.
Danielle Messina, the New Hyde Park Road School PTA president, put pressure on the board to continue fighting for the measure.
“I think that we’re dragging our feet with this,” she said.
The parents who spoke out at the meeting urged the board to reach out to other districts, although the board maintained that they have been and will again once Nassau County sets a meeting date.
Messina was also concerned that the school district’s attorney was not taking a strong enough hand in the resolution’s progress.
“We passed the resolution as a district, therefore giving us the right to have our attorney represent us, and I really don’t understand why the attorney to date, at least to my knowledge, is not involved in writing the letters and advocating for us.”
Board President Ernest Gentile assured Messina that counsel had been actively involved in the process thus far and that she had penned the initial referendum.
