At the Jan. 22 Westbury Board of Education meeting, Superintendent of Schools Mary A. Lagnado addressed the recent break-in and subsequent theft of school property from one of the district’s elementary schools earlier in January, as well as an act of vandalism at the high school the very same day.
“A robbery occurred Jan. 18 at Powells Lane with 15 desktops stolen. A window was broken at the high school that same morning,” she said. “These incidents were reported to the respective police precincts and an investigation using Crime Stoppers is in progress.The district’s notification sequence has been changed and simplified, and enhanced coordination of all agencies involved has been confirmed.”
Lagnado also spoke briefly on the ongoing process around district’s 2015-2016 budget being crafted; in particular, she focused on the calculation of the district’s tax cap, as well as the potential impact the district’s ever-increasing enrollment rate—estimated byLagnado to be at least three percent a year— could have upon the final budget.
“The office of the State Comptroller issued the Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 1.62 percent. The tax cap formula based on the CPI has been calculated to be less than two percent. State Aid is the other major portion of the revenues is that make up the budget and that amount will drive the expenditure side of the budget,” she said. “The demographic analysis confirms our student enrollment at the high projection levels. The increase in the number of students will necessitate an increase in instructional and support staff for next year.”
The preliminary 2015-2016 budget will be presented at the Feb. 12 board planning meeting. As far as the enrollment issues, Lagnado reiterated that those numbers will indeed serve to drive up costs in next year’s budget.
“The latest enrollment number for the middle school is 1,069 and the latest enrollment number for the high school is 1,384. In total, the in district enrollment is 5,164,” she said. “Approximately 35 of the 125 new registrants since Dec. 1 have come from out of the country. Twenty five of those new registrants have registered for the high school. The impact of the increased enrollment will be reflected in the proposed budget.”
Lagnado said that about 130 students in those figures represented the children of illegal immigrants.
“We’ve had a lot of unaccompanied youth coming across the boarder…[they] are cleared by the Federal Government,” she said. “They’re refugees under the law, and we are obligated to educate them and register them in our school district.”
When asked if the Federal Government was providing additional funding to Westbury to cover the costs of these undocumented students, Lagnado indicated that wasn’t the case.
A PowerPoint presentation at the Jan. 22 Board of Education meeting also focused on the re-configuration of grades 1-5 at the elementary schools and the buildings that they will be situated within.
The re-configuration, which is slated to be implemented come the 2015-2016 school year, will transform all three elementary schools into grades 1-5, keeping students in the same respective building until they are ready to move up to the middle school.
Assistant Superintendent Eudes Budhai said that Westbury did a great amount of research into what characteristics make up a quality school, and noted that breaking up a child’s elementary education into two separate buildings wasn’t necessarily the best thing for their growth into confident, effective learners.
“Most studies suggest that transitioning from one school to another at the elementary level can have a negative impact, which issomething that should be minimized,” he said. “Right now, we have students going from one school to the other. Just as they’re becoming comfortable with the building they’re in, they have to leave to a new environment, teachers and leadership. The longer a student stays in one building, the stronger the bonds they form with their teachers and friends…they form a stronger support system, and a greater likelihood of success.”
The middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) will remain unchanged as a part of this proposal. In addition, Dryden Street will remain the district’s Pre-K school as well.
