‘A meeting among friends’

The West Hempstead Board of Education hosted a joint meeting with Island Park’s Board of Education on June 12 to discuss the renewal of the contract between both school districts.

Island Park students have attended West Hempstead High School since 1969, and have been a staple of the school for more than 40 years. In 2008, though, the Long Beach School District started accepting Island Park students. Since then, Island Park high school students have had a choice between attending WHHS or Long Beach High School.

The contract, according to West Hempstead School District Superintendent John Hogan, establishes that Island Park can continue to send students to WHHS, and that the West Hempstead school district will accept them on a tuition basis.

If the contract was renewed, Hogan explained, it would start at the end of the 2013 school year, and be in effect until 2018.

“Generally, they work on five-year contracts,” Hogan said, noting that the current contract started in September 2008, and will end June 2013. “Island Park and West Hempstead really have been educational partners since 1969. Both districts would like to see the collaboration continue.”

Hogan, who described the meeting — held at West Hempstead High School library — as positive and cordial, said that both boards made good progress. “It was a meeting among friends,” he said. “They said, ‘We’re coming up to the last year, can we meet to have a conversation?’ They wanted to put things on the table.”

Hogan said that there were two main topics discussed at the meeting surrounding the contract. The first, he said, focused on the date in which students have to choose their high school.

The current contract reads that students must do so by February 1. The new agreement, however, would allow Island Park students to make their selection sooner, by mid-January.

The second point of interest focused on student transfers, Hogan said. Island Park students have the option of transferring either to WHHS or LBHS. For the new contract, that option would remain, he said. The only change would be that Island Park students would have to let their district, as well as the high school of their choice, know of a transfer by March 31. The date in the current contract is June 30.

“That would help both of us in terms of transportation planning and budgeting,” Hogan said.

Hogan said that both districts have always maintained a strong rapport with one another, and said that both boards will meet again sometime in the fall to discuss the upcoming contract. He remains confident, he said, that both parties will be able to move forward with the agreement.

“It’s an important, long-standing relationship to us,” Hogan said. “They’ve been part of what we do — they’re a part of West Hempstead. It’s something we want to continue for many years.”