Oceanside trustees prepare for school year

Before school begins anew in September, the Oceanside School District Board of Trustees met for one last public meeting on Aug. 21 to discuss test results, as well as new policies and creative systems implemented over the summer.

At the meeting the Board of Trustees approved a formal policy on bullying that conforms to New York State requirements. According to the New York State Education Department’s website, the Dignity for All Students Act, which went into effect July 1, was designed to reduce bullying, cyber bullying, intimidation and discrimination in schools by making consistent rules and guidelines for the districts in the state.

The act requires schools to have a policy and a reporting system on bullying, said Dr. Herb Brown, Superintendent of the Oceanside School District.

“The reason the state did it is there are many high profile cases of kids being bullied,” Brown said. “There have been some terrible consequences as a result.”

Brown said that while the district already had policies in place, they had not previously had a formal procedure for each school in order to deal with bullying. He also said that the principals of the schools will now act as dignity act coordinators, a position required by the act.

“Bullying is an issue everywhere and it is a serious issue,” Brown said. “It’s not an Oceanside issue; it is a problem in every community.”

Testing results

High school Regents Exam data for the 2011-12 school year show that a majority of courses had a higher passing percentage and course mastery than the 2010-11 year.

The Regents tests determine course mastery as those students who score 85 or more on the tests.

“It tells me that the teachers at the high school are doing an excellent job in terms of instruction and our students are doing an excellent job in terms of learning,” Brown said. “When a high percentage is getting 85 percent or more, its shows learning at a high level.”

Two courses that drew concern from the board of trustees at first sight were Math 1 - Alegbra, which only had 49 percent of the students taking it pass, and Math 3 - Algebra II/Trigonometry, which had 68 percent pass.

According to Brown, all Oceanside High School students take Math I in middle school. The students who don’t pass it then will take it again in the high school, and those students are the only ones included in the data provided by the superintendent.

Brown said that Math 3 is a difficult third-year math course and that they are considering giving some students more time with a double period every other day. If the plan is used, the students who receive more time would be decided by teacher recommendation.

The Advanced Placement exam data was more varied, though Brown explained that is because the district does not limit who takes the exams.

“We try to give kids an opportunity to try AP if they want to try,” Brown said. “We’re not so concerned about the passing so much as we’d like to give students the chance to take it and succeed.”