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Mineola ‘Build Your Own Grade’ video-based education program suspended after parent pushback, board to discuss, review

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Mineola School District suspends the controversial video-based education program after parent pushback.
Mineola Public Schools

Mineola High School suspended its new, video-based eighth-grade education program created by Superintendent Michael Nagler and his 19-year-old son, James, on Monday after facing pushback from parents, teachers, and students through the first month of classes. 

The program, called “Build Your Own Grade,” asks students to learn almost entirely through video-based lessons and tasks in English, science, social students and math courses while limiting the amount of teacher support students can request.

Parents who signed a petition that garnered roughly 600 signatures against the program said it left their children feeling frustrated, confused and anxious, and that they believed Nagler’s involvement in the company was a conflict of interest for the district. 

The website for the Naglers’ company behind the BYOG program, Quave, appeared to be taken offline on Tuesday morning. Nagler and the Mineola School Board deferred all questions and multiple requests for comment over email, phone and text message to the district’s PR firm, Syntax.  

“All eighth-grade students were removed from Build Your Own Grade Learning Management System, and it was not active in the district today,” Beth Izzo, a Syntax communications representative, told Schneps Media LI on Monday. “The [school] board will be discussing this at the board meeting this Thursday and until then there will be no further comment.

The Mineola School Board will meet on Thursday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. in the district’s Synergy building, across the street from the high school, to discuss the program’s future.     

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Quave’s leadership page on its website, before the site was taken down.

The morning after a Wednesday, Oct. 1, parent informational meeting on the BYOG program, High School principal Rory Parnell emailed families to inform them that students would be “removed” from the BYOG program and it would be suspended in the district.

“We hear you on the specific concern around the learning management system,” Parnell wrote in a Thursday email to parents. “To meet you where you are-and to show good faith-we will remove all eighth-grade students from the BYOG Learning Management System” starting on Monday, Oct. 6.

Since receiving that email last week, parents have expressed concern that the district will not truly end the program and that this is only a brief pause.

“Our 8th graders are being pulled from the BYOG Learning Management System—for now,” reads an update on parent Alecia Devins’ online petition against the program. “But not because of struggling students or teacher concerns. It’s about compliance failures, conflicts of interest, and potential legal violations uncovered in recent weeks…This is not over.”

Devins spoke with Schneps Media LI previously about the BYOG program, saying that teachers and students both believed the BYOG was preventing effective learning.  

Parnell’s email to parents does not state whether the BYOG program was terminated permanently. It only refers to a need for changing education in a changing world. 

“Instructional shifts must continue at the high school level,” Parnell’s email to parents said. “The world our children are walking into requires them to be more than passive receivers of knowledge; it requires them to own their learning, which requires us to meet their needs.”

“Let us work in lockstep to refine, adjust and build trust again so that every child receives what they deserve: not just an education, but an education that inspires them…where they can see themselves in their learning,” Parnell’s email reads.

According to Devins’ petition, board President Cheryl Lampazona said the district never entered into a written contract with Quave. According to state filings and published reports, the company was registered in July and its address was listed as Nagler’s Garden City home. 

“If teachers were directed to help build BYOG over two years, this raises concerns that taxpayer-funded, union staff and resources may have been used to create materials for what is essentially a private business venture tied to the superintendent and his son,” Devin’s petition reads. 

Devins’ petition states that Lampazona told her on Sept. 29 that “a written agreement has been signed and will be formally approved at the next board meeting” between Quave and the district. Lampazona could not be reached to confirm this.

Alongside conflict of interest concerns, parents had previously told Schneps Media LI that they were concerned about Nager’s son’s involvement with the program, student data and his management of tech support for the program from his college dorm room, as they said the software experienced frequent glitches that caused students to lose progress in their work.

“[James] is the IT department for this Build Your Grade App,” said a parent, who did not want their name used due to fear of repercussions. “He operates out of his dorm room. He has full access to my child’s information, all the kids’ information. I don’t know anything about this kid. Has there been a vetting process? Have they looked into his background? Who safeguarded this program to make sure that my child’s information, or the information for all of our students, is secure?”

“Without a contract, student iPad data lacks safeguards,” Devins’ petition reads. “The BYOG site contained an incomplete privacy policy, admissions of collecting student personal information, and had no indication of [Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act] compliance. The board was informed of this.”

Parents said they were planning to attend the Thursday, Oct. 9, Board of Education meeting about the program.