School Board Changes Phys Ed Grade System
By Stephanie Mariel Petrellese

Besides approving the memorandum of agreement with the Garden City Teachers' Association, the Garden City Board of Education also dealt with the following issues at its May 21st meeting:

As expected, the Board approved a change in physical education grading for next year's high school freshmen from a pass/fail system to a numerical grade. The grade will not be calculated in the overall GPA and will not keep a student off the Honor Roll. Even though a numerical grade will be on report cards, pass/fail will appear on transcripts. Parents will be notified at the Open House in September. The change will also be reflected in a question-and-answer sheet that parents are given by the district at the beginning of the school year.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen announced that the district has placed 174th in Newsweek's recent list of the top 1,000 high schools in the United States. The district ranked 225 last year, and 228 the year before. He explained that the list was based on the number of students who took Advanced Placement (AP) exams.

Garden City only allows students to take AP exams in eleventh and twelfth grades; some districts, however, allow students to take the exams in ninth through twelfth grades. Therefore, there are more students taking and passing the exams, putting those schools higher on the list. Garden City has decided to offer AP European History to sophomores next year. Dr. Feirsen also noted that there are many other ways to measure the rigor of a school district, such as the graduation rate and the colleges students attend. Out of the school districts which are considered to be comparable to Garden City, eight have seen their ranking descend and five have improved.

Garden City was recently cited by Newsday as one of the top high schools on Long Island. The newspaper based its evaluation on the graduation rate and the number of students who scored 3 or higher on AP exams.

Dr. Feirsen said there are a number of people retiring this year, including Stewart School Principal Dr. Marie Bracchia, who has worked in the district for 22 years. This year the school is celebrating its 70th anniversary. Dr. Bracchia is only the third principal at the school. Dr. Feirsen said an advertisement for her position will appear in The New York Times this weekend. Interviews are expected to begin in June and the district hopes to select a new principal by early summer.

In other principal news, Dr. Frank Banta will serve as principal at the high school for another year. He had been hired last year to serve as interim principal after Hank Hardy resigned.