Schools

Mineola Board of Ed Notebook: Nov. 18

Other news from the Nov. 18 board of education meeting.

The Mineola Board of Education held a meeting on Thursday, Nov. 18.  Here are some of the things you may have missed.

Retirement Contributions

  • Superintendent Michael Nagler reported that the district's contribution to the teachers' retirement system is scheduled to increase between 11 to 11.5 percent from 8.62 in 2010-11, translating into roughly a $1 million increase. The contribution to the New York state employees' retirement system is set to increase by about $600,000. Benefits in each of the systems are guaranteed and any shortfall must be made up by an increase in contribution from taxpayers. "The hits continue to keep on coming," Nagler said. "It just underlines more and more our plan to control the tax levy going forward by closing buildings and trying to streamline our personnel since pensions and health costs are generated by personnel."

Regents Exams

Find out what's happening in Mineolawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • New York state has decided to administer the English Regents exam on Jan. 11, 2011, a regular day of school.  Regents week does not start until Jan. 18. "They've changed the test from a two-day test to a one-day test," Dr. Nagler said. Mineola typically gives every junior the English regents in January, but the district would have to close the high school, set up for the exam, then reset the next day for a regular day of classes. Together with high school principal Ed Escobar, the district has decided not to give the test to all students, the first time in about 10 years. "The way the state has changed this, I don't think its beneficial for us or our students to jump in now," Nagler said. For the 20-30 students who need to take the test due to graduation requirements, an alternate site would be set up.  Juniors would take the exam in June. "I think this is all part of the piece to eliminate the midyear assessments, the Regents exams," Nagler said.

Student Organization

  • Sean Cha, vice-President of the 's student organization reported that a club fair was held in October in the cafeteria after school "to let people what clubs we have in high school and what we do."
  • The student organization also collected food during homerooms for two weeks and donated them to for needy families for Thanksgiving.

Other News

Find out what's happening in Mineolawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • The board passed two new policies covering use of district equipment and relationships with non-public schools concerning textbook and computer hardware and software loans.

The next meeting of the Mineola board of education will be on at 8 p.m. at the .


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