Debra Strell, supervisor of counseling services for the Oyster Bay-East Norwich School District, updated the board of education and the public about the counseling services offered at Oyster Bay High School at last Tuesday night’s school board meeting. Strell, who is in her second year at the school, said that she has made many changes to counseling services that are currently offered to students.
“Some significant changes to the counseling center include increased communication with parents in the district and the addition of many new college information nights reaching out to some of our younger students, Spanish speaking families and special needs students,” said Strell.
Strell has a good amount of experience in her current position, as she previously worked in the West Hempstead School District as the director of guidance and before that held a position at Lindenhurst High School as a guidance counselor.
Other News:
In a follow up to last month’s board meeting, Oyster Bay Health, Physical Education and Athletics Director Kevin Trentkowski addressed the board on the safety issues concerning the school’s football teams and the implications of running a football program with too few players.
At the Dec. 16 board meeting, Trentkowski informed the board that there had been a small drop-off in the number of players on both the high school and middle school programs over the last four seasons.
“Currently, schools are grouped by total high school enrollment,” said Trentkowski. “However, that does not reflect how many students actually sign up to play football.”
The board and Trentkowski agreed to approach Section 8 Athletics about the idea of considering the size of the team and not the size of the whole school when creating different conferences.
There is a county-wide coaches meeting scheduled later this month where coaches will discuss several different options in conference alignment.
The next board of education meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
