What’s new in Oceanside, I.P. schools?

Both the Oceanside and Island Park school districts have many programs planned for the 2014-2015 school year.

Oceanside superintendent Dr. Phyllis S. Harrington spoke about the physical changes to the school buildings – the cameras placed in all schools and the roofing projects in schools #3 and #4.

“Internal and external cameras placed in all of the buildings give us the ability to monitor buildings on a 24/7 basis,” Harrington said.

Harrington also spoke of administration changes – since Louis S. Frontario, the assistant superintendent for business and operations retired – Oceanside is welcoming his replacement. “We all look forward to [his] leadership in that area,” Harrington said.

Van Cott comes from a similar position in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich school district.

Harrington also said her staff has been working hard to stay up-to-date with common core standards.

“We have been ahead of the curve in researching and studying it and making changes to our curriculum,” Harrington said. Oceanside schools have had teacher-staff development to keep up with the changes, especially with the new framework for teaching social studies.

“In all these areas, [the] staff worked with social studies to revise and update [the] curriculum,” Harrington said.

Island Park superintendent Dr. Rosmarie Bovino spoke about the new programs for students. First of all, there will be a Lego engineering program for students in grades four through six.

“Students [will] apply real world concepts – engineering, math, architecture, logic and physics – to all different kinds of projects,” Bovino said. “To building and programming bridges, robots, skyscrapers, motorized vehicles.”

Lincoln Orens middle school will have a science program – the WeatherBug program – which pulls live data from weather stations to teach kids about math, science and geography.

Island Park is also starting a character education program to build meaningful relationships among the children. The program is set up on a house system, like in the Harry Potter books. Students in each “house” will earn points for achievements in attendance to activities during Spirit week.