By:Joseph Kellard with Jonann Brady
At Lincoln Orens Middle School on April 1, Superintendent Dr. Ed Price and the Island Park school board hosted a preliminary, information-gathering meeting focused on creating a high school. Since the late 1960s, Island Park students have traveled to West Hempstead High School for their education. After the Island Park and West Hempstead school districts renewed their five-year contract last year, several Island Park residents approached Price in September about bringing a high school to the village.
Currently, 300 Island Park students attend West Hempstead High School, accounting for a third of the total high school enrollment and $4 million in tuition for the district. While Island Park residents have debated sending their students to other districts, the community only recently begun considering building its own high school.
Price told the residents in attendance that creating a high school would require, in part, a consensus agreement from the community and approval by the state education department. If approved, the high school would have about 300 students in grades 9 to 12, and would take about five years to create (including possibly restructuring the district's existing two schools).
He initiated the discussion by asking what he believes is the primary question in this process: "Is this going to be good for the kids of Island Park?" To help answer it, he brought in four professors from Dowling College -- former teachers, principals and assistant superintendents -- to share what they'd learned while working in both large and small schools, mostly on Long Island.
In an interview earlier this week, West Hempstead Superintendent Carol Eisenberg answered that question with a resounding 'no,' saying that creating a separate high school would be devastating to both communities, saying students in both districts would suffer by losing programs, extra-curricular activities and funding.
"Island Park and West Hempstead has been in existence as one high school for 30 years, which has worked well and has benefited students in both districts," said Eisenberg.
She said that the West Hempstead School District works closely with Island Park residents and its school board to address concerns. She added that teachers and staff at West Hempstead make no distinction between West Hempstead and Island Park students, pointing out that this year's valedictorian is from West Hempstead and the salutatorian from Island Park.
"There has always been this feeling of family and kinship," said Eisenberg.
At the April 1 forum, professors Dr. Lloyd Bishop, Dr. James Brucia, Dr. Albert Inserra and Dr. Robert Manley of Dowling College offered information about their experiences, after which members of the Board of Education and residents questioned them. Resident who favored a hometown high school reasoned that it would bring a greater sense of community spirit to the village, that they would feel more at ease having their children attend school nearby instead of 7 miles away, and that it would attract more residents to the area.
"Build it and they will come," said one resident, who argued that a high school would make more people want to live in Island Park and encourage current residents who send their children to private schools to enroll them in the high school.
Steve Foster, president of the school board, pointed out that some residents may not move into the community or enroll their kids in the high school because they may find that the "district cannot provide a viable program."
This was one of the problems that Inserra, a former superintendent in the relatively small district of Carle Place, said he finds in undersized schools. While he said they generate a close-knit, family-like atmosphere, Inserra also argued that, in terms of curriculum, small high schools provide little beyond the basics. "The short side was that [smaller schools] don't have the richness of programs and didn't have a lot of the electives that you find at larger high schools," Inserra said.
Bishop, who has worked as a teacher and administrator in districts throughout the nation, stressed that the smaller a school is, the more difficult it was to maintain, explaining that master scheduling is "almost an impossible task" and that "a small high school is a much more expensive operation than a larger school," particularly in regard to maintaining ratios of kids to staff.
Board members asked the professors how colleges evaluate students from small high schools, how well the social environment at these schools prepares them for college and the value of their sports and scholarship programs. "[Colleges] want to make sure that the students are taking the best available to them," said Inserra. "So they understand small schools, but if we got a kid into an Ivy League school it was a celebration. ... There are many factors in their evaluation; size isn't the only issue that [figures] into a decision like that."
Manley concurred that colleges consider more than just a high school's size when they evaluate their admissions. "They look for the quality of the advanced placement program," he said. "You get credit for that and how many advanced science courses you take. You get credit for your activities and leadership roles."
Regarding athletic programs, Brucia, a former assistant superintendent of Carl Place (preceding Inserra), said that if given years to develop and quality coaches, schools with small student bodies can field good, competitive teams.
Manley, once an assistant superintendent at Babylon Village and a soccer coach, said that smaller schools can have "very effective programs in a few sports," explaining that it took seven years to build a lacrosse program that hurt the school's baseball program. Manley emphasized, however, that high school sports "are all about winning ... and when the kids cannot compete when they keep losing, it's not good either. ... I found when we couldn't do that, kids gave up."
During the question-and-answer period, one resident told the panel of professors they hadn't provided enough positive information about small high schools. An Island Parker who graduated from West Hempstead High School, he claimed he spoke for several others in attendance when he said, "The disconnect was very, very harsh for us."
Taking the opposite stand, one parent said that she found with her children and others, that traveling to West Hempstead High School opened up new horizons for them, particularly to meet new peers.
Another resident said his four children graduated and were well educated in West Hempstead, and he didn't want his taxes being raised for what he sees as a needless high school.
The Island Park Board of Education plans to discuss its findings from the meeting in the near future, after which it will announce whether or not it will take the next step in the process.
