By:Jerry Burke
While that's true, every team needs a quarterback. Or a catcher. Or a point guard. Luckily, just when they needed it the most, that's exactly what the 4,200-plus students of Elmont got in Superintendent Palandra.
As the village became more and more diverse in the waning years of the 20th century, Palandra turned out to be the right woman at the right time. Children in the school district were speaking more than 70 languages at home. An immigrant from Italy who herself learned English as a second language, Palandra was in a unique position to fully appreciate the importance of communication.
"Students are expected to apply what they have learned and what they have read to write their responses, so the tasks asked of children are no longer simplistic. They are very involved," said Dr. Palandra, who came to the U.S. knowing only a handful of English phrases. "It's comprehending what one reads, applying it and bringing it into another setting so it goes into a deeper level of understanding."
After working in the district for 17 years, Palandra was named superintendent in March 1998. At the time, Elmont was generally considered a middle-of-the-road district, one from which not much was expected. But instead of just getting by, Palandra embraced the challenge before her.
"We have strived to bring our students a sound, strong academic curriculum," she said, "giving them the skills to increase performance on statewide tests and maintain competency levels while building good character and values."
Despite the fact that Elmont was near the top of the list of districts with the greatest number of students taking English as a Second Language, Palandra would not accept that as a crutch to lean on when going up against districts spending more than twice as much per student on New York state's English Language Assessment (ELA) tests.
In the 1999-2000 school year, the number of fourth-graders who met or exceeded state standards in English at the six district schools languished at or below 60 percent, while the county average was about 77 percent. Four years later, on the 2003-04 fourth-grade ELAs, the district-wide portion of children making the grade shot up to 87 percent, about 8 percent better than the county average.
As Assemblyman Tom Alfano's chief of staff, Scott Cushing, once asked, "How many school districts on Long Island would meet those qualifications and then surpass all standards? There's only one, and it's Elmont."
Getting everyone on the same page in English isn't Palandra's only accomplishment. Math and science scores continue to rise, to the point where Gotham Avenue School was one of only two Long Island schools to receive the Business Council of New York State's Pathfinder Award for most improved overall test scores.
Palandra has also embraced an extensive after-school program and, in an absolute assault on the "conventional" wisdom of the yearly calendar, a voluntary and extremely popular summer-school program.
Last year, Palandra became one of only four New York state recipients of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award, given in recognition of outstanding service to the community. "There is no one on Long Island that I know that deserves this award more than she does," said Elmont Board of Education President Aubrey Phillips.
Early in 2004, Palandra and the board helped facilitate the purchase of the Alva T. Stanford Middle School property from the Sewanhaka Central High School District. While the land is currently the construction site of the new Elmont library, the facilities, including the auditorium, will be a boon to the students in the district.
But for Palandra, who will step down at the end of this school year, none of this would have been possible without an education-minded public that, since a 1999 bond that added room to each of the six schools, has approved every budget by a healthy margin. "The district and its children receive tremendous support from volunteer Board of Education members, parents and the larger Elmont community," she said.
"I leave the district with a sense of pride and fulfillment, knowing that under my tenure the district has flourished," said Palandra. "Our school system has reached high levels of student performance, is in sound fiscal condition and is staffed by some of the most competent and dedicated employees any school district would want."
Whatever plans she has made or programs she has overseen, Palandra's focus has always been on the students she was charged to educate. In a farewell letter to the district, she wrote, "The joy I have been experiencing each day seeing our children learn and setting them on a path that will lead them toward economically and socially productive lives will be with me forever.
"The successful contributions that so many of our former students have been making for years to our state and nation and those that our more recent and current students will undoubtedly make in the future will be forever a great source of pride for me and those with whom I have worked during these years."
The mission of educating Elmont's youth is an ongoing one, but thanks to Palandra, it has one heck of a foundation.
