School Board Takes First Step in Bond Process

By Stephanie Mariel Petrellese

The Garden City Board of Education approved Burton, Behrendt and Smith, a Long Island-based, multi-discipline architectural and engineering firm specializing in educational design, to take the necessary action to initiate a review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act at a regular meeting held on March 17th.

This is the first step toward recommending a bond to the public, explained Superintendent Dr. Robert Feirsen. He emphasized that no decisions have been made to actually put a bond referendum up for a public vote.

The action taken simply allows the district to file the necessary forms and begin a timeline suggested by BBS architect Roger P. Smith at the March 10th school board work session. If the Board continues to follow the proposed schedule, the decision to adopt a bond resolution and set a referendum date will be made on or before August 18th. Actual voting would occur in October, most likely on the 13th.

In other news, the school district has been identified by the New York State Dept. of Education as a "District in Good Standing," and each of the district's seven schools has achieved the designation as a "School in Good Standing," announced Dr. Teresa Prendergast, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, at the March 17th meeting of the Garden City Board of Education.

Dr. Prendergast explained that the State Education Department had just issued a press release regarding the annual District Accountability Status Report. Districts and public schools are held accountable for the performance of their students according to federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and state regulations. Districts and individual schools are assigned a "status" based on their performance. Districts and schools that are high performing or making significant improvements in performance are identified and rewarded, and districts that miss the mark are subject to certain consequences.

Under the accountability system, schools and districts are responsible for the performance of every "disaggregated" group, which includes students with disabilities, limited English proficient students, racial/ethnic groups and low income students.

"This is the highest level of recognition a district or school may receive from the State Education Department," she said. "We congratulate the students, faculty and administration."

Dr. Prendergast also gave a report on the recent focus groups and informational meetings hosted by the International Baccalaureate Committee for parents interested in the IB diploma program. She said 45 parents representing all grade levels attended either the day meeting on Feb. 25th or the evening meeting on March 5th.

She also explained why the program cost was not presented at the meetings. Nanine Cuttitta, high school principal, and David Perrotta, high school assistant principal, who are also members of the IB committee, had attended a level 1 IB training session for administration and coordination. The February meeting of the IB committee, where they were to present and discuss their findings with other members of the committee, was cancelled due to inclement weather. The IB committee therefore did not have all of the data needed in time for the focus groups.

Dr. Prendergast said an announcement was made at the beginning of each meeting stating that funds had not been allocated in the 2009-10 school budget due to the current economic crisis. The program is expensive, with a start-up fee that ranges from $50,000 to $100,000.

The IB committee will meet later this month to review the training session findings, as well as the feedback and questions raised at the parent focus group meetings. She said all questions were recorded and will be shared with the entire IB committee. A summary of the parent focus group meeting will be made available to the community on the district's Web site.

"The members of the committee appreciated the comments and the conversation which took place amongst the groups and the members look forward to updating the Board later this spring with regard to the committee's findings and recommendations," she said.

Superintendent Feirsen reminded parents that school will be in session on Tuesday, May 26th to make up for the snow day needed in early March.

He also said the district recently had a "very productive" meeting with teachers from 15 area preschools to ensure program alignment. Attendees broke up into smaller, informal groups to discuss issues of mutual concern.