The Glen Cove Board of Education reviewed its goals for the current school year and discussed its public comment regulations at its Wednesday, Oct. 8, meeting.
Superintendent Alexa Doescher said the district’s five priorities in the classroom this year are literacy, diversity, attendance, assessment data, and student participation in conversation.
“We want to make sure that everyone who walks into our buildings feels welcomed and supported,” she said.
Doeschner said the district aims to improve literacy programming because reading is a foundational skill that helps students across all subject areas. She said the district will also use assessment data to influence curriculum, as it is “vital” to instruction.
“We need to assess our students — whether it be data assessment or anecdotal assessment — to really understand where they are and where they need to go,” she said.
Doeschner said that in the years following Covid, school districts nationwide have seen an increase in “chronic absenteeism,” which Glen Cove hopes to curb this year.
“We need to make sure that as a school district we are paying attention to this and trying to help students and families as we address chronic absenteeism,” she said.
Doeschner said the district also hopes to increase student participation in discourse and dialogue by creating a space where they feel free to express themselves.
“The better communicators they are, the better they will be at anything they do in their life,” she said.
Doeschner said supporting the staff’s well-being is also a priority to ensure that “they can provide the best education.” In terms of finance, Doeschner said the district’s goals include fiscal responsibility, maintaining revenues, and exploring additional funding sources.
Doeschner said the district also hopes to increase community outreach by creating a Parent Center and providing online resources to new families. She said the “aspirational goal” is to eventually have a physical center that parents can visit.
During the public comment period, resident Janet Blatt, who had asked at a previous meeting whether she could name individuals in a positive way, said the rule is unfair and “silences” the community.
Doeschner said the New York School Board Association recommends that the board not allow comments that name specific individuals in a positive or negative light.
“We want to protect everyone and keep things fair,” she said.
Doeschner said that if the board allowed positive comments but not negative ones, it could be considered “viewpoint discrimination.”
Blatt said all public comment participants should be able to name individuals in positive or negative ways. She said the community has conversations among themselves which name individual staff members and by not having a space to share those conversations at public meetings, the district is “keeping it secret.”
“You are not teaching through example… Consider allowing students in the district to see democracy in action rather than dictatorship in action,” Blatt said.
Blatt had previously voiced concern about the public comment regulations when the board said the comment period was “limited” to residents. Since then the board changed the regulation’s language to indicate the comment period is “intended for Glen Cove community members.”
Angela Riamo, the school board president, said “mentioning individuals has never been something that the board has allowed as long as I have been on the board.”
