Mineola Board of Ed Notebook: Oct. 6

The  held a meeting on Thursday, Oct. 6. Here’s a look at some of the things you may have missed.

Epilogue

• Mineola superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler expressed his thanks to Robin Bischoff and Phyllis Badinger for involving him in the Golden Rule Project and to the devastated Binghamton-Owego area.
• “I’m not often embarrassed and at all humbled, but this occasion made me both,” he said. “I want to thank you two because you got me involved in something that I had no idea. I kept saying ‘I’m just going along for the ride’ both literally and figuratively and it really has turned into an unbelievable experience for me personally.”
• The superintendent added that the Binghamton-Owego area was “blown away” by the donation and that he had received a ‘thank you’ card from all the superintendents in the area as well as an old mailbox from one of the SUNY Binghamton residence halls that were converted into banks.
• “I am receiving accolades for really doing nothing but driving; you deserve all of the credit and my thanks as well for involving me in this. It really was a parent initiative,” he said to Bischoff and Badinger.

New Bi-Lingual Kindergarten Section

• The district will open a new kindergarten section after it was learned that 22 children who are non-native English speakers were part of the class.
• According to New York State regulations if a district has more than 20 children that are non-English native language speakers and they speak the same language, the district is required by the state to start a bilingual class.
• The new bilingual Spanish class section opened on October 17 placing all of those children who fall under the regulation into a single class. The remaining classes will be balanced in terms of the number of students.
• “In essence we’re opening another section but we’re not opening because of a spill number, we’re opening because of a need,” Dr. Nagler said. “There’s no way for us to anticipate in kindergarten who’s going to come in and if we’re going to have more than 20 students of a same language.”
• The superintendent also mentioned that the district has about and a new enrollee the day of the October 6 board meeting brought the overall total to 231 students. Typically the district top out at 220 students and averages 205 per class across all grade levels.
• “We are a much more mobile district than people realize,” Dr. Nagler said, explaining that Mineola usually loses 30-40 students each summer and receives an equal amount in transfers/ enrollments.
• Some students may also leave the district for a year and then return. He added that the district is “lucky” to have 80 or 90 students in a graduating class who stay from kindergarten through the 12th grade.

Other Board News

• The board readopted two resolution accepting the resignations of two employees, Steven Oliveri and Paul Krumholz, effective October 31 regarding a disciplinary matter. The board had previously adopted the resolution on September 1, but Dr. Nagler said that some paperwork was not in hand at that time and the resolution that night was a reaffirmation of the original vote. A third settlement was reached for the resignation of Thomas Hickey effective September 12.
• Dr. Nagler reported that the delinquent lunch fund is down to an outstanding amount of $1,700 district wide, of which $500 are from children who owe more than $10. “The policy that you put in place has worked,” the superintendent said. There are 19 students who owe more than $10, equaling $545 and all the rest are “a few dollars per child.” The last total outstanding amount reported was over $4,000, “so we’ve cut it by more than half,” Dr. Nagler said.
• The district is “still working” on drawings and working out the pricing of equipment for the . “As soon as we know what the total cost of the new equipment will be in the new design we can put a whole figure together,” Dr. Nagler said. The superintendent also revealed a long term recommendation to have a bus loop at the “if we’re able to keep our capital money in” the budget for 2012-13.
• Architects overseeing the construction of the have rejected the top coat of asphalt after observing numerous puddles and visible seems. The district is instructing the contractor to rip up the top layer and repave the parking lot. The contractor, A&R Contracting, would conduct the work over a weekend. No payment would be made until the work is done to the district’s satisfaction. The district is also waiting on some lighting and trees to come in as well.
• The iPads for the new school year were reportedly distributed to fifth grade students on September 28. were delivered to the district which is waiting on cases, half of which were delivered.