Mineola Board of Ed Notebook: Sept. 1

The held a workshop session on Thursday, Sept. 1. Here are some of the things you may have missed. 

Opening of School

• Board President Christine Napolitano welcomed everyone back for the , saying that “it’s very exciting to see the entire staff assembled,” and joking that “after a summer of hail and earthquakes and hurricanes and power outages it just doesn’t seem very difficult to open up school buildings.” Napolitano also acknowledged the work the staff had put in over the summer.
• “We’re also very very optimistic, a very positive feeling and we get that this is an exciting time in Mineola’s chapter,” she said. “But I do ask for some patience, I’m sure there will be some bumps along the way, but please be assured that we’re all working very very hard to make this transition as smoothly as we can.”
• Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler also addressed the busing situation at the start of the new school year since a different number of buses will be at some buildings and children are . “We will fix them and we will always have children’s safety in mind. So if things take a little longer than they normally do it’s because we’re being overly cautious about children’s safety, loading buses, unloading buses in particular. We’ll get it, just please be patient.”

SCOPE After-School Program

• The district’s after-school childcare program known as SCOPE “was very interesting this year,” according to the superintendent.
• With the move of the fifth grade into the several parents have expressed an interest in joining the program.
• Nine fifth grade middle school children reportedly want to join, but SCOPE wants 15 to run a dedicated class at the building.
• “Because we don’t have 15 we can accommodate those children at which is a much larger program,” Dr. Nagler said.
• The district does bus students to Jackson for after school programs, but middle school students would start the year with an adult escorting them across the field to Jackson.
• The district also has a similar situation with before-school child care with the change in start times at Jackson.
• The Jackson Avenue School now ends its day at 3:20 p.m. During inclement weather such as snow, a late bus could be provided at about 3:30 p.m. for the program.
• “We should be able to provide a bus at that time,” Dr. Nagler said, “but we are dismissing Jackson which seven buses so we would have to find a bus to do that or they take the late bus and the late bus takes a detour to Jackson.”

High School Art Room

• Conceptual drawings were presented of the new art room at the and the proposed new cafeteria at the Jackson Avenue School.
• For the art room, renovations include knocking a wall down containing the old photography dark room and creating six different classroom areas: ceramics, easels for painting, studio work, still life, drawing and an “instant theater” with stadium seating.
• In the theater, a screen would drop down from the ceiling for teachers to show students slides of examples of artwork and be screened off using the curtains from .
• The art teachers have a few requests for modifications which are being sent to the architects.
• The budget for the project is in the equipment line and will run between $70,000 - $80,000, most of which will be spent on furniture.
• Cabinetry would be installed on perimeter walls which would run from the floor to almost the top of the 14 ft. high ceiling and be accessed from a moveable stair.
• The cabinets would be constructed in student wood shop at the high school, saving money.
• “Mr. Summer has expressed a desire for his advanced students to help design and build these things so we would purchase the materials and do it in the shop and even possibly pay the students as a work program for them after school,” Dr. Nagler said. “It’s a great avenue for them to work on their trade and it would be a heck of a lot cheaper for our students to do it then it would to bid that and try to purchase it professionally.”

Jackson Avenue Cafeteria

• The district does not currently know if it can afford the extensive demolition and renovations for the and plans to go out for bids in the near future.
• The current kitchen has a 6 ft. tile wall that forms a corridor where students come in, get food, go out, pay, go into the hallway and then reenter the cafeteria.
• “They literally walk through the kitchen to get their food when they’re served,” Dr. Nagler said. “It is not a great setup, it is old, the equipment there is old.”
• Demolition would remove the wall, making the space larger and move the serving line outside. Crews would also open up a hole in the wall to make room for a serving tray line.
• “The children are always in the cafeteria, they’re never entering the kitchen in this scenario, which is a lot safer and a lot more productive,” the superintendent said.
• The most expensive items are fire roll gates that trip and close the entire opening if there was ever a fire in the kitchen.
• “Those are pricey, especially if you make a big opening, you’re making it more expensive,” Dr. Nagler said, admitting he didn’t know if they could afford the project with demolition, new equipment and the gates.
• The project would be paid for out of the cafeteria fund, which has a current balance of about $300,000.

The next meeting of the Mineola board of education will be on  at 7 p.m. at the .