By Jacky Gerzema
At last Wednesday's Board of Education meeting, Deputy Superintendent for Administration Dr. Lee Chapman announced that the district's assessment tax base -- the total taxable assessed value of real property within the school district -- decreased by over $600,000 from last year.
Board of Education President Mary Jo O'Hagan said that this decrease will not affect the school's budget but will impact the individual homeowner by adding 68 cents on the tax rate for next year, which means that the new projected tax will increase by $8.76 per $100 of the assessed property value.
O'Hagan speculated that in a worst-case scenario, voters might be less likely to approve a tentative $77,831,065 school budget which has a potential tax hike of over 11 percent, because of their increased tax rates.
Cyclical reviews, done every five years for the home and careers
education department and special education, were also presented at the meeting.
Baldwin Senior High School Assistant Principal Richard Miskiewicz and Baldwin Middle School Assistant Principal Howard Landman have reviewed the career education curriculum in grades 6 to 12 and made recommendations based on their current findings.
Landman said that at the beginning of the 2000-2001 school year, a new program called Renaissance was put into place for middle school students to develop home, computer and career skills. Students have a class period where they take 10-week mini courses in the areas of art, computer education, health, and home and careers. In home and careers classes, Landman said the district was able to align classed and standards with those set by the state.
The cyclical review committee said that they will continue to work on ways to improve communication between grades 6 through 12, so teachers in the different grade levels will know where each stands in terms of instruction and curriculum.
Dr. Waverlyn Peters, director of the special education program, presented the special education cyclical review.
In past years, special education students were only required to pass Regents competency tests in the past, but the Board of Regents now mandates that special education students should be challenged to take the more difficult state Regents exams. Special education students do have a "safety net" in case they fail the Regents exams and are allowed to graduate high school by passing the easier Regents Competency tests, but the state mandates that they attempt the Regents exams first.
Because of this, Peters said that special education teachers will have to align their teaching with the main subject departments including English, science, social studies and math, to help their students pass Regents examinations.
The committee recommended that special education instructors join regular instructors on a regular basis to discuss teaching and educational methods of main subjects.
The committee also recommended that special education staff should carefully monitor the progress of students in meeting graduation requirements and recommend appropriate adjustments when needed.
Parents ask about hiring practices
In the public comment period of the meeting, some parents complained about what they said was a lack of parental involvement in the district's hiring practices.
Ronald Oriani read a letter he had written to the board about the process of hiring a new principal at Lenox Elementary School.
"As very involved parents, we want to be more involved..." Oriani read aloud from his letter. "Since we work with Gary
Griggs [Lenox's retiring principal] we belive that parents should be involved at the outset [of the hiring process.]"
As the school district narrows down the list of prospective employees, three committees are formed of parents, teachers and administrators each. A chosen member of each committee then goes on a site visit to the top candidates' school districts, where they talk with colleagues, teachers and students. The three committees meet to share information and the Superintendent eventually makes the final recommendation for a new school principal.
"This is a process that has been in place for seven years," Chapman said in a March 21 Herald article about the hiring process for a new principal.
Oriani asked the board when he would receive a response to his letter, and Board President Mary Jo O'Hagan answered that they would send a reply soon.
As the district decides on classes for students next year, Baldwin parent Ronnie Schwartz argued for a second physics class to be
offered. While more students requested the advanced placement physics B class to follow physics A, the district chose not to provide the second class and is offering an advanced placement chemistry class instead, Schwartz said.
"There was a loaded question," Schwartz told the board. "Kids were asked if they would take chemistry, but no kids who requested chemistry were asked if they would take physics."
Hollman replied that the guidance department studied the two classes to determine which one would be more advantageous for students and chemistry came out on top.
"Students would have two years of physics and no chemistry," Hollman explained. "Chemistry is also an important subject for
students who will study medicine or biology. It's not something we want to do, [cutting a class,] but we have to."
