Schools

Mineola Board of Ed Notebook: May 3

Other news from the May 3 board of education meeting.

The  held a meeting on Thursday, May 3. Here are some of the things you may have missed.

New High School Softball Field

  • Trustee Terence Hale noted that dog walkers were spotted on the at the , asking that the grounds crew keep the gate shut and locked when the field is not in use. “It’s not very nice to playing the outfield if there was a land mine out there,” he said. “They weren’t carrying a dog bag or anything like that.” He also noted the gate at on Lincoln Avenue should be kept closed to deter overnight parkers.
  • It was also brought to attention that a large drain in the outfield is now covered instead of a cone which was previously in place. The athletic department made the decision not to utilize a homerun fence which would have made the drain out of play. The cover has reportedly been in place for a couple of weeks. “They put the cone there to let them know it’s a different surface,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said. “The cover brings it up to the level of the grass.”

School District Survey

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  • The strategic planning committee has been working hard to get a .
  • “Basically trying to get a better handle on perceptions of the school district in general as well as specifically in different buildings.”
  • The survey launched May 7 to May 21 and was sent to all e-mail addresses on file with the district as well as a link provided on the school website.
  • “We want as many people in the school district to answer this as possible,” Dr. Nagler said.
  • The survey can only be conducted online due to the branching nature of the questions.
  • The survey is not being returned to the district but to the company, which will provide the district with the overall results.
  • For those with e-mail addresses on file, the district will know if a survey was handed in, but will not know the results of that individual survey.

Annual Professional Performance Review

  • The state released a 92 page document on May 1 about (APPR).
  • “They gave me 2 hours to read this,” Dr. Nagler said, “and I need to read it again because the brain starts to get a little off with the jargon in here.”
  • The superintendent explained that the entire APPR process needs to be negotiated with the expectation of how state exams are used.
  • The negotiated document must be filed with the state by July 1 at which time the state will review it for two months and advise the district if it passes by September 1.
  • If the document is not filed and approved by the state by January, the district will lose state aid, which for Mineola amounts to about $50,000.
  • In addition, every single grant that the state has put out ties the APPR to points in the grant.
  • Dr. Nagler gave an example of a management efficiency grant he is working on and 20 points or one-fifth are if the document is approved by September 1.
  • “There is nothing easy about this process. I can tell you I’ve worked on it for about 3 weeks now, I keep sending drafts to the attorneys and they keep sending them back saying ‘no good’,” he said. “I’m trying to get a working document to discuss with the teachers and and I can’t even get a working document that the lawyers are going to accept and it keeps changing.”

Other Board News

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  • Trustee William Hornberger brought up the subject of families with multiple children receiving multiple mailings. “To me it just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Just from the aspect of being green it doesn’t make sense, there has to be a way internally or systemically where we can trigger an event where if it’s going to be a mailing of the same materials that it only goes to a household as opposed to the individuals twice.” Dr. Nagler did state that the district does have a “family feature” that he will remind principals to utilize, noting that it is “a little trickier” when students are in different buildings.
  • A contract with Robert Leder was approved for the term of March 17, 2012 to June 30, 2012. The lone vote against the contract was trustee Irene Parrino.
  • The board’s June 7 meeting was moved to June 6.


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