Mineola Board of Ed Notebook: April 7

The Mineola Board of Education held a workshop session on Thursday, April 7. Here are some of the things you may have missed.

District Calendar

• The board approved the 2011-12 district calendar, with a total of 182 instructional days, two superintendent conference days and 28 holiday/ vacation days.
• Snow make-up days were marked for April 12  and 13.
• Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said he was “a little disappointed” that he was not able to come up with an alternative solution for snow days other than marking the last two days of the post-Easter break.
• “I’m not happy about the way it fell out but there is no other place to put these snow days,” he said, hoping to move them until after June but not being permitted to do so by union contract.

Policies

• The board modified the transportation eligibility policy by increasing the minimum distance for bus transportation eligibility for students in fifth grade from the existing half mile limit to a one mile limit and for the eighth grade from the existing one mile limit to 1.5 miles. “Basically this is trying to get everybody in the same building the same mileage,” Dr. Nagler said. “Primarily because it can conceivably happen where you have two children in the same house – one gets the bus, one doesn’t if one is in the fifth grade and one is in the seventh grade or the eighth.” The change is effective as of the 2011-12 school year and will not result in any increase in the school budget amount or the tax levy. The superintendent added that it may actually save some money but the effect would be “negligible.”
• The board held a first reading of a new policy entitled “Harassment and Bullying.” According to Superintendent Nagler, the policy applies to all teachers, staff and students.
• A first reading was also held on a board policy entitled “School Board Member Authority.” The policy specifically deals with board members speaking as individuals as opposed to on behalf of the body. When asked, school attorney Jacob Feldman said that while the board does have the authority to bring a member up on charges and seek their removal, “its not something that is often seen or easy to uphold.”
• A regulation on “” was adopted.

Cooperative Bid

• The district will participate in a BOCES cooperative bid for bus transportation along with 28 other districts.
• The districts involved are seeking to try to get better pricing on out-of-district bus runs. For example, Mineola may run a bus to a particular location and pass three other schools and drop off one child at each location and then bill those districts for the transportation.
• “Most of the districts in Nassau will take part of the bid,” Dr. Nagler said. “We don’t have to use the bid, but we’re not part of the bid and we can’t use the bid.”

Other Board News

• Out-of-state field trips to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ for seventh graders on June 3, 2011 and to the Winter Guard Competition in Somerville, NJ on April 2, 2011 were approved.
• The following full time positions were abolished by the board: home & careers: 1; art: 1; elementary: 3; special education: 1. 
• 29 summer cleaners were approved by the board to work at the schools from July 5 through August 19 at an hourly rate of $8. The break down is as follows: district-wide 3; middle school: 5; Jackson Avenue: 3; Cross Street: 2; high school: 8; Meadow Drive: 2; Hampton Street: 2; Willis Avenue: 2.
• Dr. Nagler reminded parents that April 25 is a school snow day make-up day.

The next meeting of the Mineola Board of Education will be on  at 8 p.m. at the .