Schools

Mineola Schools Emphasize Science with Proposed Schedule Shift

Elementary students would see science lab time in 2012-13 year.

Elementary students in the Mineola School District will be getting a new schedule of classes for the 2012-13 school year if a proposal from administrators is adopted.

Over the winter break the central office team worked on schedules and projections for 2012-13 “and what we would recommend to the board to consider for scheduling and curricular initiatives for next year,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said in a presentation at a January 5 meeting of the at the .

While 2011-12 was a “transition year” with new schedules and different programs due to , “there were some things that we didn’t do very well that we need to fix,” the superintendent said, noting that the goal of the schedule changes would is trying to maximize instructional time while reducing and eliminating pullouts.

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“We do have a nasty habit of pulling kids out of class,” Dr. Nagler said. “It’s counterintuitive to pull a child from class and expect them to do the work well that’s going on in class when they’re not there.”

One of the major shifts is an increase in the rigor of science courses, particularly K-7 “because once you hit the high school in the seventh grade, you start to focus very specifically on science for Regents exams and the content is very specific,” Dr. Nagler said.

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Both Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) and Math Science Technology (MST) are the focus of the national and state agendas with “Investing in Innovations” – the first round of Race to the Top grants – recently awarded. The core curriculum would tie in reading, non-fiction with science and science experiments.

“Any elementary teacher, in a very general term, they’re not comfortable with sophisticated content so math and science are not their strong points and they tend to shy away from them or not give the content their due it needs and the time and energy it needs,” the superintendent said.

Another shift would occur in the hour block for lunch in pre-K through grade 2, using it more effectively “and get all the other things we want in.”

The proposal would be to have a 5-day rotation of a 40 minute period with Spanish twice a week, library, music and art. The one-hour block for lunch incorporates lunch, recess and the state-mandated 30-minute per day of gym with rotations. Roughly 100 children per grade eat and cycle through the cafeteria, but that amount is reduced because about 55 go to recess first and some children bring their own lunch, so only about 45-50 children stand in line for lunch.

“That rotation and why are we doing that?” Dr. Nagler asked, noting that children often do not take a full hour to eat. “It goes back to this capturing instructional time. We want to give everything, we want to give the mandated PE, we want to give Spanish, we want to give art, we want to give music... When you do all the things and you want that rich program, it can’t be at the expense of the instructional time in the classroom; so in this scenario we get it all.”

A new science program called “Knowing Science-Kid Knowledge” would be piloted to enhance the science curriculum and stress use of scientific language as children explore content.

Over at a science “special” would be created with the building of a science lab in grades three and four where students would go once per 6-day cycle and have a “hands on” lab experience. Students would spend two days reading about science and one day doing experiment and every student would have the lab experience.

“We really don’t do that in elementary school, we don’t give our kids a lab experience and we don’t give them the same experience,” Dr. Nagler said, referring to the current situation. Syosset and Jericho are reportedly the only districts nearby that have science labs in the younger grades.

There was also a recommendation that every third grader start instrumental music and “if they like,” an instrument as well. Lesson rotations would be during recess hour once per cycle.

“You can accommodate every child in the building doing that and not pull them out of instructional time,” Dr. Nagler said. “I think the expectation is everybody gets an instrument unless they don’t want one for some reason; I think children exposed to music helps their academics.”

The would return to a “secondary schedule” by lengthening the day by 10 minutes to create an eight-period day of 51 minutes each.

“This is a very expensive change,” Dr. Nagler said, explaining that elementary teachers teach the whole day with one hour off for lunch while secondary teach for five periods. “If you only teach five periods a day and you have a double-English and you have a double-math, you’re not getting something; you’re splitting social studies, you’re splitting science and that’s with another person.”

The same science program for Jackson Avenue is being recommended for the middle school, with a lab for fifth and sixth grade students and the reintroduction of a “lunch lab” where students can see their own teacher during lunch.

“As you can see I’m a little science-crazy in this proposal,” Dr. Nagler said, noting that not many districts have science labs in elementary school. “Mineola will be where it should be in the scheme of things, probably a little ahead.”

The district is also proposing to eliminate the academic intervention services “on-target” period, delivering AIS services in a literacy block and feature speech as a lunch pullout. Art will also be in every grade once more.

Dr. Nagler did not have the exact number of what the staffing would be but estimated that it would be about two or three full-time employees and amount to “taking the money we’re saving in the reconfiguration and reinvesting it in the program in the district.” He reiterated that the district would deliver a budget under the 2 percent tax cap.

Dr. Nagler requested input from both teachers and parents on the changes to avoid schedule changes which occurred this year.

“I’m very excited because coming on the year we all went through last year where we were all still sitting here arguing about buildings and things of that nature, we’re now actually talking about education and really strengthening, really getting us where we need to be,” board president Christine Napolitano said.


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