State honors District 30 literacy program

Students from District 30’s three elementary schools pose with board members, faculty and administration.

Brian Croce/Herald

District 30 was recognized by the New York State Education Department’s Office of Special Education project for its effective practices in literacy at the Jan. 31 board meeting held at Shaw Avenue School.

The Supporting Successful Strategies to Achieve Improved Results (S3TAIR) project seeks to find schools with effective, evidence-based practices in literacy instruction, positive academic and behavior interventions and supports, and effective special education instruction. The S3TAIR project is supported in part by a federal grant.

Harry Dean, an administrative coordinator with Eastern Suffolk BOCES and regional field facilitator with the S3TAIR project, was on hand to present District 30 with a certificate of recognition and a best practices banner. Dean also gave a presentation on why District 30 was selected.

District 30’s nomination was in the area of literacy for its student monitoring model, which includes regular literacy support team meetings regarding all students on an ongoing basis. After completing a survey for the S3TAIR project, there was an on-site visit by a regional field facilitator.

“Through the conversations that I was able to witness, all of the teachers were able to eloquently and comprehensibly speak, citing specific data pieces, talking about how their students were performing, why they weren’t performing a certain way, and then a team of professionals was really able to dig down, look at the data, use their expertise and say, ‘let’s try this,’” Dean said.

Dean added that District 30 is now considered a statewide resource and is validated in the practice area of literary progress monitoring and intervention. Information about District 30’s program will be added to an online resource so other districts can benefit from District 30’s accomplishments in the field of special education and literacy.

“Thank you to the district for working so hard to really work on school improvement and show that good things are happening in New York State,” Dean said.

The district’s three principals, John Singleton, Jr. of Clear Stream Avenue, Erin Malone of Forest Road and Johane Ligondé of Shaw Avenue, accepted the certificate and banner from the S3TAIR project on behalf of their schools.

Superintendent Dr. Elaine Kanas acknowledged that this recognition was due to a large number of people who make up the District 30 community.

“Thank you to all of the teachers and to all of the staff and all of the families who support the programs and work with their children at home,” Kanas said.

Community service projects

Students from each of the district’s three schools presented their recent community service projects before the board, parents and faculty members at the Jan. 31 meeting. Each school had its own unique way of reaching out to people in need or those who could use a lift in their spirits.

The three schools each had its own presentation where the respective building principals introduced their students and faculty members in attendance to go over their accomplishments.

So far this school year, Shaw Avenue has filled 11 Thanksgiving food boxes, worked with the PTA for Toys for Tots and the Breakfast with Santa. Currently, students are continuing their canned-goods drive to aid local families.

Forest Road students have done a lot this year, including helping the PTA with Operation Gratitude where students collected candy to send to deployed U.S. service members. Some students also wrote letters to the service members.

In November, they sponsored a “pajamas for cans” program where students who donated a Thanksgiving food item were allowed to wear pajamas the day before Thanksgiving break. The event fed 50 families in the District 30 community. Students also wrote holiday stories for kids at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital and helped a clothing drive in December where eight boxes of clothes, hats, mittens and gloves were donated to local families in need and Blessed Sacrament Church.

At Clear Stream Avenue, students raised money through a bake sale to buy presents for children at Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center in Manhattan who attend the John A. Coleman School. Students and faculty members visited the Pediatric Center to hand deliver the gifts. Singleton made a picture montage of the visit.

Kanas expressed her happiness with the student body’s willingness to help those in need. “As much as it’s important for children to learn to read, to do math, it’s also really important for them to become caring citizens,” she said. “That’s a really important element of what the buildings develop and work on.”