By Mike Caputo
The proposal, entitled "Pathways to Improved Teaching and Learning," was made by Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons at the Aug. 7 school board meeting, where it was approved. As part of the proposal, Fitzsimons expressed his commitment to establish a long-term strategic plan for implementing "state-of-the-art" facilities in the remaining schools to optimize the educational environment for students, teachers and staff.
Fitzsimons made his pitch in the wake of the board's recent decision to place the $29.2 million in proceeds from the sale of the Number One School property in a tax-reserve account, to be used primarily for repairing district facilities. The superintendent explained that enough time has passed for the board to make decisions on much-needed capital improvements, some of which he described as "emergency repairs."
"I felt compelled to put something on the table and get this board to act," Fitzsimons said. "That was the whole idea."
Both Fitzsimons and board President Murray Forman emphasized that nothing in the proposal, such as the closing of additional schools, has been enacted. They said the board's vote to accept the proposal was merely a move to launch serious discussions and conduct studies in order to achieve the goals outlined in Fitzsimons's plan.
"At this point, none of this is cast in stone, and obviously all the assumptions have to be vetted," said Forman, who described the proposal as a "framework for discussion." "Certainly, when all is said and done, I have full confidence that the board will make informed and rational decisions," he added.
Forman established three committees, two of which would focus primarily on the strategic plan. A facilities committee would be headed by Forman, while an educational excellence committee would be chaired by board Vice President Dr. David Sussman. The third committee, headed by Trustee Nahum Marcus, would focus on special education.
Many members of the public jeered when Forman named the three chairmen. Forman and Marcus are private-school parents, and Sussman is known to sympathize with private-school interests. Trustee Stanley Kopilow, a public-school advocate, said he probably would not be included in most of the discussions.
"I'm not involved with the conversation," Kopilow said. "I haven't been asked or put on [Forman's] committee. There is no public school representation on this board."
Re-shuffling the district
One goal of the superintendent's proposal is to discontinue attendance areas -- geographic areas that determine which public school a child attends -- by integrating students. This idea is based on the "Princeton Plan," which promotes integration by gathering all students in the same grade together in one school. The proposed consolidation measures would lend themselves to such an approach.
As early as September 2008, according to the reconfiguration plan, the Number Five School would be closed; the Number Four School would continue to enroll pre-K and kindergarten students; the Number Two School would be filled with first- and second-grade classes; the Number Six School, third and fourth grades; the Lawrence Middle School, fifth through eighth grades; and the Lawrence High School, ninth through 12th grades.
After the 2008 plans were completed, the consolidation process could continue until 2010 with more changes: The Number Six School could be closed; the Number Four School would continue to enroll pre-K and kindergarten students; the Number Two School would house the first and second grades; the Lawrence Middle School, third through sixth grades; and Lawrence High School, seventh through 12th grades.
Fitzsimons assured residents that these proposed changes may not be required to attain the goals outlined in his presentation, which is what will be decided in future study and discussion. Many different grade configurations in districts across the region have been known to work throughout the years, Fitzsimons said.
Other than the proposal to close schools, the idea that drew the most comments from the audience was the possibility of transforming the high school into a school for seventh- through 12th-graders. Fitzsimons said that idea is not new, and has been discussed by the board in the past. Other schools in the county have a seventh-through-12th format, including the Sewanhaka Central High School District, which serves Elmont, Franklin Square, New Hyde Park and Floral Park.
Geographic impact
At the meeting, Kopilow voiced his displeasure with any plans that would potentially close the Number Five and Number Six schools while centering most of the district in one area. While noting District 15's size -- covering Lawrence, Inwood, Cedarhurst, Atlantic Beach, Meadowmere Park and parts of Woodmere and North Woodmere -- Kopilow described the proposal's plan of dissolving attendance areas and moving most public-school children to one end of the district as a "ghetto-ization."
"If Fitzsimons's plan is carried out to fruition through 2010, every primary school child in the district, from pre-K to either grades two or three, will only go to school in one end of the district -- in Inwood," Kopilow said. "What happened to the rest of the district?"
Kopilow emphasized that "ghetto-ization" was not meant to be derogatory to Inwood, and that he would use similar terminology if one of the other neighborhoods in the Five Towns were involved. "There is nothing wrong with Inwood -- it's a great place," he said.
According to the proposal, studies determining the district's needs based on enrollment and building capacities will be conducted by a qualified consultant firm by Dec. 31. Forman said that the studies and discussions would determine the direction of district consolidation procedures. "The major focus of this plan is the educational excellence -- the long-term educational excellence of the district," Forman said. "To the extent there are excess facilities, sure, there is no reason to spend money on them. Having excess facilities does not help the education of the children."
Although the proposal is supposed to be a discussion piece for the board, Fitzsimons stressed the importance of starting immediate repairs and renovations around the district, which, he said, should be contained in "a referendum to be placed before the voters no later than January 2008."
Until then, Fitzsimons said, he would wait and see how the board responds to the proposal. "Nobody wanted to do anything until the building closed and when [the board] had the money in the bank," he said of the Number One School sale. "Well, we are there. If we don't do anything, it is conceivable that it could dribble back. I don't think that's good for 3,400 kids."
Kopilow also noted the board's inability over the last two years to decide whether to eventually earmark the Number One School sale proceeds for the repair of district buildings, but, he said, he does not agree with Fitzsimons's approach. "I believe that the only thing anyone is ever going to take out of the report is that Fitzsimons is now in favor of closing schools," Kopilow said. "He now legitimizes the argument to close schools, while at the same time not requiring some blueprint for the renovation for those schools."
Comments about this story? MCaputo@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
