Mineola Board of Ed Notebook: Sept. 15

The  held a meeting on Thursday, Sept. 15. Here are some of the things you may have missed.

Willis Avenue Rental Update

• The district will conduct a rental appraisal study of the from the firm of Rogers and Taylor for $2,500.
• “We’re going to have an appraisal of this building because it was built in 2003 to get an idea of what the fair market rent would be for the type of building it is and the location,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said, referring to the school.
• Following the study the district would solicit potential renters.
• Rental proposals would either be for the first floor only or for the entire building.
• The district is targeting not-for-profits entities to rent the building since the bond on the building is still being paid off and the building is specifically designed for pre-K and kindergarten, which limits the renters.
• “With those parameters we’re going to try to structure a RFP to see what kind of interest we have,” Dr. Nagler said, adding that they have “begun conversations with one entity.”

Solomon Schechter Buses

• Dr. Nagler said he spoke with Solomon Schechter principal Dr. Cindy Dolgin about the bus/ van situation.
• The current dismissal fleet consists of one large bus and numerous small buses which may be increased to 26 as well as four to eight vans depending on teams traveling for sports.
• The total school enrollment is 226. “So it’s a little less than we originally anticipated at 250,” Dr. Nagler said. “The bus situation is right where it was last year when they were still up in Glen Cove; roughly the same numbers.”
• All were being adhered to according to the superintendent.
• “I think I was surprised at how minimal the interruption was to the neighborhood,” board president Christine Napolitano said. “Far less traffic, far less people when we had ; it’s such a quiet kind of dismissal.”
• Additional visits to the school would be made by VHB Engineering for further traffic study.

Opening of School

• “By and large we’ve been very pleased with the opening across the district and how smooth it’s been,” Dr. Nagler said.
• Napolitano stated that she drove around to the various buildings at the beginning of the school year to observe dismissals, commenting that they went “relatively smoothly.”

High School Mentoring Program

• This school year the upperclassmen at the  will be offering the a team leadership course.
• The program was originally founded to deal with bullying problems but turned into a mentoring program.
• A total of 13 seniors were chosen to help out during gym class and mentor 10-12 eighth graders once per month.
• “There’s a lot more clubs, there’s a lot more extracurricular activities that they can get involved in,” senior Matthew Morro said, explaining the differences between the and high schools. “That’s what the high school has always stressed to everybody; for the eighth graders they’re really stressing that, getting comfortable, get to know more people because they can be in a club with people from five grades now.”

State Testing Dates

• State testing dates for the 2011-12 school year were released as follows:
  1. ELA for grades three through eight are April 17-18
  2. Math for grades three through eight are April 23-24.
• “This is a radical departure from the way they’ve done it in the past,” Dr. Nagler said, explaining the state officials are citing “test safety” and are trying to model the tests after SAT exams as reasons for the change.
• The scoring dates for the exams “are very very tight as well” and teachers may not be allowed to grade their own exams.
• “I’m not optimistic that this is going to bode well for administering these tests smoothly, doing the make ups in the time allotted and grading them efficiently,” the superintendent said, adding that claims about cheating “has not been substantiated in New York State.”