EAST ROCKAWAY UNION FREE
East Rockaway,
Regular Meeting of the
Board of Education
7:30 P.M., May 10, 2011
– East Rockaway Jr./
Preceded by a Curriculum
Presentation – Business, Business Skills
for the 21st Century and a Public Forum
Present: Members of the Board of Education: Linda
Schmidt; Neil Schloth; Michaelene Abbott-Cooper; Patti Nicoletti; Kristin
Ochtera; Superintendent, Dr.
1. The meeting was called
to order by Linda Schmidt at 8:05 pm and the Pledge of Allegiance
was led by Kristin Ochtera.
1. Upon motion by Neil
Schloth, seconded by Michaelene Abbott-Cooper the minutes of the April 12, 2011
and the April 27, 2011 meetings were unanimously approved.
2. Acknowledge Receipt of
Financial Reports – March 2011
3. Correspondence – One
4. Action Agenda
A. Personnel
Upon
motion by Patti Nicoletti, seconded by Michaelene Abbott-Cooper, the following
item #1
was
unanimously approved:
1.
Upon
the recommendation of the Superintendent, grant tenure to the following staff
members on the effective date indicated and subject to satisfactory evaluation:
Staff Member Position Tenure Date
Susan Glickman........... Elementary Teacher......................................... October
1, 2011
Susan Periera.............. Teaching Assistant........................................... October
15, 2011
Upon motion by Michaelene Abbott-Cooper, seconded by Kristen Ochtera the
following items #2 – 6 were unanimously approved:
2. Upon the recommendation
of the Superintendent, accept the resignation of
3. Upon the recommendation
of the Superintendent, approve the probationary appointment of Mona Hecht to
the position of Director of Guidance (tenure area: Director of Guidance;
certification status: Permanent), effective July 1, 2011, through June 30,
2014, at the annual salary established by the East Rockaway Board of Education
for the 2011-2012 school year.
5.
Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, approve
the following temporary assignments at the salary approved by the East Rockaway
Board of Education on the Non-Contractual Salary Schedule for the 2010-2011
school year:
a. Christie Marrone, substitute teacher aide, effective April 12, 2011
b. Francesca DeVivo, substitute clerical, effective May 11, 2011
c.
Wendy Crocco, substitute food service worker, effective
May 11, 2011
6.
Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, approve
the continuation of the “emergency, conditional” personnel appointments for the
following individuals pending receipt of notification of their fingerprint clearance
from the State of
None
B.
Other Items
Upon motion by Kristin Ochtera, seconded by Neil Schloth the following items #1 – 8
were unanimously approved:
1.
Approve the agreement with Textbook Central, a division
of Tel/Logic Inc. d/b/a Central Ed with East Rockaway UFSD for textbook
information and management services for 2011-2012 school year and authorize the
Director of Finance and Operations to execute the Letter of Intent and
agreement for said services on behalf of the East Rockaway Board of
Education.
2.
Approve the Special Education Services Contract for a
Parentally-Placed Non-Public School Student with Malverne UFSD for special
education services for the 2010-2011 school year and authorize the President of
the Board of Education to execute the contracts on behalf of the Board of
Education.
3.
Approve the award of the contracts to First Student,
Inc., as the lowest responsible bidder, for transportation services for one
student attending St. Martin of Tours School and one student attending Martin
de Porres Academic High School, effective May 4, 2011, through June 30, 2011,
and authorize the President of the Board of Education to execute the resulting
contracts.
4.
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Board of Education of the East
Rockaway Union Free School District approves the terms of the Memorandum of
Agreement dated May 5, 2011, between the Board of Education and the East
Rockaway Teachers Association, with respect to the terms and conditions of
employment for the members of the teachers bargaining unit for the period July
1, 2011 through June 30, 2014.
5.
Accept a donation of a musical instrument (drums)
valued at One Hundred Fifty ($150.00) Dollars from Rosanna Licitra for the
music class at the
6.
BE IT RESOVLED,
that the Board of Education
of the
7. BE IT RESOLVED that the
Board of Education authorizes the District Clerk to be available for the purpose of registering
qualified voters of the District at the following times and locations:
Wednesday, May 11, 2011: 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 12, 2011: 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
8. BE IT RESOLVED that the
Board of Education of the East Rockaway Union Free School District approves the
terms of the Letter Agreement dated May 10, 2011, between the Board of
Education and the East Rockaway
C. Budget Transfers
1. Upon motion by
Michaelene Abbott-Cooper, seconded by Kristin Ochtera the following budget
transfer was unanimously approved:
a. Transaction No. 11-0026
Upon motion by Neil Schloth,
seconded by Michaelene Abbott-Cooper, the following items
D&E
were unanimously approved:
D. Approval of CSE
Recommendations
E. Approval of CPSE
Recommendations
6.
Policy
Matters:
1.
Upon
motion by Michaelene Abbott Cooper, seconded by Patti Nicoletti the following
items a, b & c were unanimously adopted:
a.
ER
004.6 Investment Policy
b.
ER
007.24 Homeless Children
c.
ER
007.24-R Homeless Children Regulation
2.
For
Review
a.
ER
003.1 Goals and Objectives
Administrators
b.
ER
003.2 Superintendent of Schools
c.
ER
003.21 Duties of the Superintendent
d.
ER
003.7 Administrative Reports
7. Superintendent’s Report
Here’s what’s happening in our
schools:
Last week was the first
administration of the new and revised New York State ELA Assessments. This week we are administering the new
assessments in mathematics.
At the secondary school
we are also in the midst of Advanced Placement testing. Thank you to the administrators and teachers
who coordinated all of these schedules and created appropriate test taking
conditions.
Here’s what our student
at Rhame are reading: Grade 2—Ibi, Humphrey the Whale, and The Whipping Boy; Gr. 3 is reading
Before spring break our
6th grade students from both Rhame and Centre participated in the
annual outdoor environmental program at Greenkill. A good time was had by all. We thank Mr. Silk and the teachers for
continuing to give their time to attend this event.
In celebration of Earth
Week, the high school science department held its 5th annual poster
and bumper sticker contest. The projects
can be viewed in the science wing (hallway near rooms 213 and 215). The winners of the competition are:
Posters--1st place ~~Extinction by
Casey Gioe; 2nd place ~~It’s Not Trashy Unless you Trash It –
Miranda Balan; 3rd place How Many Things Can you Recycle by Jack
Capetola
Bumper Stickers-1st place~~ Save the
Planet by Jennifer Weinrib; 2nd place~~ Water Pollution by Erin
Sweeny; 3rd place~~ Find the Solution to Water Pollution by Jake
Caraccioli.
East Rockaway HS has
also done great job with recycling. Our
environmental science class facilitates the recycling of paper in all ERHS
classrooms. Also, the students in the
environmental science class will visit Cedar Creek Sewage Treatment Plant on
May 18th.
On Wednesday, May 25th,
we will host our Senior Seminar Fair; thirty-two of our students will be
displaying their internship projects in the small gym. Invitations will be sent next week to all the
sponsors, parents administrators and BOE members.
The annual Poetry
Madness Contest concluded in April. The
winning poems and pictures will soon be posted in the English Wing. Brendon Mitchell once again won first place. 2nd place Stefanos Drakopolous; 3rd
place Jenee Eady; 4th place Amara Yahya
Also from the English
Department, here are the titles our students are reading this month: the 7th
grade is beginning the study of The House on Mango Street; 8th grade is working
on a Shakespearean Unit on The Tempest; 9th grade students are beginning Romeo
and Juliet; English 11R students are concluding the study of Othello; 12th
grade concluding Hamlet and starting the senior thesis process.
From the Social Studies
Department, 7th grade is critically evaluating causes and effects of War of
1812 and beyond. 8th grade studying post
WWII US History, 9th grade students are learning about post-Reformation Age,
10th graders are analyzing Post Cold-War Era and gearing up for the Regents,
11th graders are studying post WWII US History/Nixon/Vietnam/Watergate as well
as gearing up for Regents, and PIG and ECO students considering contemporary
issues.
The Boys Baseball and
Girls Softball are heading into the playoffs as the regular season comes to a
close next week.
Lacrosse Day 2011 was
held this past weekend at Malverne. The
junior high programs were given an instructional program by the varsity teams
before playing in their game.
Varsity Boys/Girls track
will conduct an afternoon of activities for students in our life skill classes
at the request of Maureen Schutta.
JH Baseball did a
community service project at the recreation department Easter Egg Hunt.
Students in the Life
skills program will participate in the
Boys Varsity Baseball
and Girls Varsity Badminton won the New York State Team Scholar Athlete Award
for the spring!
In Health classes, a
Sexting presentation was conducted by the
Centre Avenue students
are completing a unit on Square Dancing.
On April 27 the Rhame
Avenue Mileage Club resumed. Students in
grades 1-6 have the opportunity to run, jog, or walk laps around the grass
field at recess. Each time a student
completes a lap they receive a sticker on a card. After a student receives 20 stickers they
earn a sneaker charm that they can wear on a necklace or shoelaces to display
their accomplishment. 20 laps is
equivalent to 3.3 miles. All completed
cards will also be displayed on a bulletin board outside the gymnasium at
At Rhame, this school
year, Mrs. Brody started a small group art enrichment program during her extra
help time for third and fourth graders who have shown a special interest in
art.
At Centre Avenue Grade 5
students will be taking a field trip to the
The Junior/Senior High
School Concert will take place on May 17 at 7:30pm. The district art exhibit will be on display
on May 17 from 6:30am until 9:30 pm.
Broadway by the Bay will be on Friday, May 20 at 7:00pm
One hundred eighty of
our students participated in this year’s NYSSMA Festival, and the results were
very positive. Six of our students’
NYSSMA auditions were at the All-State Festival with 5 of them scoring an A+
and the other receiving an A rating.
Felicia Schwarzman earned a perfect score of 100 on her cello audition.
Congratulations to all of our students who
participated.
Our SEDL words of the month are:
Centre Avenue Grade 6 -
Anxiety and self-esteem
SEL at Rhame this month for grade 3 addressed
the topic of being excluded or seeing someone excluded. In Grade 4 students discussed different
feeling words. Students were asked to
consider what are the facial expressions, body language, and vocal cues that
they display when they feel and experience several different emotions; such as
joy, sadness, disgust, and fear to name a few.
Grade 5’s word of the month is determined.
At
the Junior/Senior High the 7th grade students discussed the
words: terror, ambivalent, and
devastated. Grade 8 completed their
vocabulary words for this year.
Here is an example of
SEL in action. We received a lovely note
from a teacher in
In other news around the
district,
At
Mr. O'Driscoll has been
visiting 6th graders to discuss career goals and the transition to the ERHS.
Follow-up From Prior
Meeting
The Rock Rivalry
schedule is reviewed each year and Mr. Fortgang and Mr. Cimorelli continue to
try to make it better each year. It is
also often discussed at site based.
Modifications have been made through the years and will continue to be
made to address areas of concern.
Academic Events on the
calendar—Since outside organization dates may change from year to year and are
not always ready when the calendar is developed we will not be trying to
include them on our school calendar.
SAT Prep Course-SAT
vocabulary is taught as a unit in English 12 and also incorporated into the
curriculum in English 11. Vocabulary development is included at all
grade-levels and next year, we are looking to develop inter-department
vocabulary in English and social studies at each grade level to make the
vocabulary relevant and further bolster what students know.
Science Research—Mr. Cangemi is looking into ways to
increase science research into the curriculum.
Thank you to the members
of the community who attended the Budget Hearing last week. There is still time to register to vote. We noticed that out of 815 families in the
district approximately 51% are registered to vote. Please encourage neighbors and friends to
call the business office and register to vote.
They can register until Thursday of this week.
Please check our website for budget information.
That concludes my report.
8. Privilege of the Floor
·
Kindergarten
class size at Centre.
·
Available
space at
·
Coalition
for Youth – dates on calendar.
·
Difference
in class size between Rhame and
·
Summer
camp and basketball camp
9. Board Member Comments
Patti
Nicoletti
– Thank you all for coming out tonight and I would like to encourage the
students who are here tonight to continue to take part in your community even
when you are not required to! Don’t forget to come out on May 17th
to vote on the school budget and bring a friend. Thank you to Mr. Pager and
Thea for the informative curriculum presentation. Congratualtions to Mrs.
Glickman and Ms. Periera on their tenure and again to Mrs. Rodriguez.
Kristin
Ochtera
– We are encouraged by your willingness to get involved. We value your input. Thank you very much.
Michaelene
Abbott-Cooper
– Thank you for coming. Mr. Pager was
great. Thank you for joining us. Please
come out and vote on May 17th.
Linda
Schmidt
– Thank you for coming. Congratulations to the tenured teachers. Welcome Ms. Hecht.
10. Adjournment – Upon motion
by Neil Schloth, seconded by Michaelene Abbott-Cooper and unanimously passed,
the meeting was adjourned at 8:56 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Denise
Lobascio
District
Clerk