Baby Sitting
A parent made a request to offer baby sitting services at business meetings of the Board of Education. They believe more people might attend if this was available. SO- for the next meeting, March 16, we will try it and see what happens.
The meeting will be held at Willis Avenue cafeteria.
The following presentations will be made:
- Final Budget presentation
- Sexual Harassment and bullying policy presentation by Ms. Patterson
- Preview of new programs and schedules for 2011
Posted in Around the District 13 years, 8 months ago at 12:46 pm. 12 comments
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Seeking to ascertain truth is not bullying. Sending out correspondence whose validity and authorship cannot be checked is cowardice. People who have confidence in their beliefs are more than happy to have their names attached to their statements. A short look at the Declaration of Independence will attest to that. I challenge the authors of the anonymous correspondence to come foward and substantiate their claims. Put up or shut up boys and girls.
ET, I support people’s right to remain anonymous also. I reserve the right to attempt to seek them out to clarify items I feel are inaccurate. If they choose to answer, all the better. That’s not bullying, it’s clarity.
Attend the bullying workshop tonight at Willis, that will help you.
I’m sorry to hear you were omitted from the flyer mailing list. Be sure to add it to the next mailing.
John, I wholeheartedly agree with you.
As for no votes:First of all, not everyone who votes “no” is misinformed, etc.
I for one voted no on both bonds. I never received any fliers in the mail, nor would it have made a difference. I have spent quite a bit of time since last year attending BOE meetings, and discussing the issues, as well as getting up to speak. I never expect everyone to agree with me, and that is fine.
My decision to vote MY way, was based on several reasons, including past district history. Closing buildings, floating bonds to expand others, and then reopening buildings, or building new ones (Willis, which I voted YES).
As of now, the debate is over, although I wish it weren’t. I will always support people’s rights to remain anonymous, and the attempted bullying of them should also now come to an end.
Linda, I find your statement “The no votes came from misinformed and misled residents.” very insulting. I’m sure many people actually read the many articles in The Mineola American, The Williston Times and The Outreach to get the facts. They may have even attended a few BOE and/or civic association meetings. Evidently, the majority of voters don’t mind having 8th Grade in the HS and 5th Grade in the MS, and maybe they just don’t want to spend $4.4 million to keep the status quo. The BOE clearly gave the entire community the opportunity to vote, just as they did on October 6th, and we all know the outcome of that bond vote. Just because some people disagree with you does not make them misinformed or misled.
Agreed Mary. The no votes came from misinformed and misled residents. From what I have heard, many of them regret listening to a mailing from anonymous people, although those people are becoming less and less anonymous as time goes by and connections are being made. While the no votes out numbered the yes votes, they were still not representative of the Whole community, and my request was simply to not attach the whole community to personal opinions. The No votes may not want any more money wasted, but the Yes votes don’t want to see anymore time wasted, and time is money.
With all due respect, I do not think that you can make a claim that the “No votes” for the most recent bond mean the community as a whole does not want to go ahead with this plan. Yes, I feel that claim can be made about the first bond (closing three buildings, rooftop playground, full clustering) That bond overwhelmingly failed. However, there were many things that I believe led to the second bond failing. Parent apathy is one. Time and time again we have heard parents say they did not want 8th in the High School. Did they come out and vote? I tend to think many did not and woke up the next morning surprised to hear the results. Also, the misinformation and anonymous flyers led some to believe that voting down the bond would lead to a reversal of the reconfiguration plan. This was incorrect and now many feel they were misled and lost their only opportunity to keep 5th and 8th where they are. The time for these discussions has passed. It is time to look ahead. The District has just put out it’s 4th consecutive budget at 2.5% or under while not cutting (and actually enhancing) program. This is below the average for Nassau County for the past few years. As a parent and a private citizen I encourage everyone to support it and help the District move in a forward direction for the benefit of all of the children of our District.
Linda, the overwhelming NO votes speak for themselves. The NO votes are the ones that by a large number said NO to this plan. The No votes do not want any more money wasted .
In response to P. Whitlock, please do not make a statement that includes “The Community” as a whole. Speak for yourself and the section of the community that you choose to represent, the whole community does not feel the way you do.
Thank you.
I am glad you called the state and they confirmed exactly what I stated.
Children need down time that is not instructional time. Even PE is instructional time, and the state mandate section 135.4 says K-3 Pe. daily and Gr 4-6 not less than 3 x’s per week for 120 min per week. you may contact Tricia Kocialski at NYSED for any questions. She was very informative when I spoke with her. During instructional time children have a set curriculum to follow. They need down time daily to interact with peers, socialize and even “create” games on their own. You are trying to impliment high school initiatives into an early childhood program. Early childhood needs to be nurtured in a different way. For example block scheduling is not good practice in the early grades. All children need to be exposed to the arts as well as PE and pulling out of those subjects is not what is best for them. do some research on how the arts helps boost childrens performance. I understand you are set to do “YOUR” plan come hell or high water even if its not what the community wants, even if its not in the best interest of our children, even if its not what is best for early childhood but you need to consider more options. We want neighborhood schools, less transitions and a well rounded education for our children. You are turing our nice suburban schools into inner city schools. What a shame to see what you are trying to do.
It would be a lot more productive to ask about the plan for schedules next year. Who ever you heard “the plan” from is mistaken. The state mandate for physical education is a minimum of120 minutes a week on a DAILY basis for grades K-2. We currently do not meet the intent of this mandate. We are investigating ways to meet that mandate using time traditionally set aside for recess. If you leave recess then you either remove time from classroom instruction or eliminate other ’specials’.
In your plan I heard you are taking away recess for our children and replacing it with instructional time. Was this at all levels K-12? For what ever level it is a HORRIBLE thing to do to children. They need that time. You are obviously not aware of the needs and best educational practices for children. I am saddened to see what you are doing to our district.