Mineola School Board Close to Adopting 2012-13 Calendar

“We are very late with this,” Dr. Michael Nagler said to the during a March 1 meeting at the .

The Mineola school superintendent was referring to the adoption of , whose adoption has been due to a lack of information regarding the exact dates of Regents week in June 2013.

“There has been some movement from the state,” Dr. Nagler reported, adding he would like to finalize the calendar by the board’s March 15 meeting.

The Regents Board had informed school districts that they were going to move the testing days, prior to a settlement regarding the .

“In the APPR settlement, it was decided that teacher data did not need to be filed until September 1, giving the summer months to grade exams and rate teachers,” Dr. Nagler said. “So this urgency to get exams back prior to the end of June isn’t there anymore.”

The superintendent noted that while he did not have official notification, the tentative information from the education commissioner is that Regents week will end on June 21 next year. This year school ends on June 22.

“That leaves us with a decision, the same decision we’ve had all along, of do we want to open school before Labor Day or after Labor Day,” Dr. Nagler said.

The state requires 180 days of school be held between Labor Day and the last day of Regents week, but Mineola has 182 due to a stipulation in its teachers’ contract.

Recalling a presentation , Dr. Nagler reviewed the two primary options of constructing the 2012-13 calendar, one of which begins school before Labor Day, the other after.

The option which has classes begin before labor day has two days of school in August, an off day on May 24 which is also designated as one snow makeup day and has classes on April 2, the last day of Passover.

“We will work to make those two days, get some of the business of school out of the way such as NWEA testing. It is not the reason we would start school early,” Dr. Nagler said of the August dates. “It’s something we could do that would be a productive use of that time if the kids aren’t in that could be made up.”

There is also the option to move the extra two days in August to after Regents exams are over, but the superintendent could not see them as having a clear reason why, especially for the older grades. The district could potentially take the off day on the Friday before Memorial Day and move it to April 2, thus rectifying the Passover holiday.

“I think this is a better calendar because it gives you a snow day, it gives you days you can use, it recognizes the holidays and it’s not as tight as (the other) calendar,” Dr. Nagler said.

If classes were to begin after Labor Day there would be no day off on the Friday before Memorial Day and no snow make up days.

The superintendent was reluctant to take days from the February break, saying “I think if other districts are doing it, then its not a big deal, if we’re the only district that does it, it could be problematic for parents.”

Jericho and Roslyn are reportedly beginning their school year before Labor Day.

“We have to have 180 so you could conceivably have two snow days and still be in compliance,” the superintendent said, noting that the district could make election day a half-day for elementary students or leave election day alone and add a day after Regents exams are over.

“If you want to give the elementary kids a half-day, I don’t really have a problem with it,” trustee John McGrath said.

“I don’t really like strangers in the buildings while kids are in class,” board president Christine Napolitano said.