Notes from the 9/24/2007 BOE Meeting

The BOE meeting pretty much followed the agenda, which is available on line at the district’s web site.

A Pasadena parent did a great job bringing up the concern of implementation at Pasadena. He read from the problem-solving strategy sheet given to parents and available on this site (see prior emails for the link). He also mentioned Principal Miller’s statement at the PTA meeting that many found offensive, that the math is Investigations with traditional algorithms for homework so parents can help. He urged that change happen as soon as possible so our children do not fall further behind.

The superintendent responded in a respectful manner.

A NYC elementary teacher, brought up concerns that the workbooks chosen have been rejected by NYC and are out of date. They are actually part of Everyday Math program. That rather than purchase these books, we could have retrieved them from the dumpsters that they ended up in when NYC threw them out and replaced them with the more current version.

Response was that this choice was made by people no longer with the district and that it is just one piece of what is going to be used. It is not necessarily going to be used again.

Dr. Stanton, a math professor from St. John’s, reiterated his strong statement that direct instruction is a proven way to teach math; it is the best way and should be used by this district.

Other interesting comments:
A parent who teaches in Commack spoke about how teachers are available by email and must do their best to return correspondence with parents within 24 hours.

A SEPTA parent did an outstanding job making the case for wiring the classrooms with assistive technology to help children with auditory needs.

SEPTA President spoke about limiting the IEP kids in a collaborative setting to seven as in written in district literature. Currently there are classes with eight IEP kids.

A Project Challenge dad spoke of his concerns that Odyssey of the Mind program is not being offered. The superintendent said they need an advisor.