School Board Notebook - Sept. 14, 2010

The Mineola school board held a meeting on September 14.  Take a look at what you missed.

New York State test scores:

• Superintendent Michael Nagler reported that New York has not released the individual student reports on the English Language Arts (ELA) exams for any child in the state.  In July, the New York State Board of Regents implemented higher standards for both the ELA and math tests by raising the "cut scores" - the grade which determines whether students receive a score of 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest) on the exam.  Consequently, test scores dropped dramatically Statewide.
• Nagler stated that there is a targeted date of September 23 for scores to be released. When the reports are released, the district has a contract with BOCES to print the report and mail them home. Nagler said he was "confident" that within one week or the week of October 3, the reports would be at each student's home. "This is all part of the state trying to grapple with the ramifications of changing cut scores," Nagler said.

Contracts:

• Special education contracts were approved with the Levittown Union Free School District for one special education student to attend Levittown's Basic Career & Technical Program for the 2010-11 school year at a cost of $12,693.
• A second special education contract was approved with the Hicksville Union Free School District for students parentally placed for the 2010-11 school year.
• A contract was approved with Gale E. Kligman Therapeutic Resources to provide speech therapy, physical therapy, resource room, counseling, parent training, consultant teacher, behavior consultants, applied behavior analysis services (ABA), ABA 1:1 aides, and/ or transition planning consultations to the district for the 2010-11 school year.

Donation:

• A donation of athletic bags was made to the girls' varsity soccer team.  "Mineola Soccer" will be embroidered on each bag at a cost of $15 each.  The estimated total of the donation is $300.

Homecoming will be held on October 16; the theme for this year is "heroes."  The next meeting of the Mineola board of education will be on at 7:00 p.m. at the Willis Avenue School.