One of Roslyn Superintendent of Schools Dan Brenner’s proudest accomplishments in his decade with the district hangs on a wall in the corner of his office.
It’s a framed New York Times article clipped right out of the newspaper that describes the implementation of the district’s iPad initiative, in which the Apple tablet was woven into the Roslyn High School curriculum and others across Long Island.
The national publicity is not what Brenner is most proud of, he said, but rather the journey his administration – and the Roslyn community – took to achieving it.
“It didn’t feel good to live in Roslyn if you were in education, either as a provider or consumer,” Brenner said of the district’s 2005 embezzlement scandal, in which former Superintendent of Schools Frank Tassone and three others siphoned $11.2 million in district funds.
Brenner at the time was the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction and later served the administrations of superintendents Gerard Dempsey and John A. Richman. He was installed as district superintendent in 2009.
Prior to arriving in Roslyn, Brenner spent 16 years in the Great Neck School District as a school psychologist and principal at the Village School, as well as a five-year stint as principal at Yorktown High School in Westchester County.
But he said in the wake of the scandal, Roslyn administrators had to heal an “injured community,” one with distrust for its educators and “garbage lining the hallways [and] buckets on the floor to catch water from leaky roofs.”
“I had no idea what I was walking into,” Brenner said. “We knew no good work could be done unless we rebuilt the trust between the educators and the community.”
“A lot of great things were going on that people couldn’t see through the smoke of the stolen money,” Brenner said. “We had to show the public that we weren’t the same as that group.”
The administration adopted a policy of “oversharing and overcommunicating where we could,” Brenner said, meeting with Roslyn parents, teachers, village and civic officials and “reiterating the primary mission was to take care of their kids.”
Brenner continued the policy after he was named Richman’s successor, as his new administration and board of education immediately tackled a controversial issue – changing the district’s grading system from letters to numbers.
“This came to the surface just prior to my arrival, and I don’t think the community felt it was being listened to,” Brenner said. “But it had a lot of support, and frankly it made a lot of sense for us to do.”
The next year, the board took up another issue – starting first period at Roslyn High School later in the day while giving the district’s elementary school students an earlier start in the morning.
“There’s research all over to suggest that the older the child is, the more sleep they need to function better, and that’s controversial because it doesn’t just impact the students,” Brenner said. “You’re also talking about parents going to work and being able to drop them off. There’s a lot that goes into a decision like that.”
The greatest challenge for Brenner and the administration came next, as it sought to modernize the Roslyn classroom for ever-changing technologies and learning systems.
Smartboard technology, which invaded Long Island classrooms in the 2000s, were no longer enough.
“We’re always looking for ways to innovate, improve and be more creative,” Brenner said. “We want to be at the forefront of it.”
By September 2013, each of Roslyn High School’s students were using iPads in the classroom.
In May, Roslyn voters approved a stipulation as part of the district’s 2014-15 budget to continue the iPad initiative by passing along the ones used by graduating seniors to elementary school students.
So what’s next for Roslyn under Brenner’s watch?
Directing the start of the district’s capital plan and $41.3 million bond?
Further developing Roslyn’s foreign exchange program with China?
To an extent, Brenner said, he doesn’t really know.
“I always love challenges. I’m a problem-solver by nature. I’ve had an unbelievable opportunity to be in a great place,” Brenner said. I approach everything I do optimistically. I like it here. I’m treated well. I feel I’m respected, and that we’ve earned the trust of the community.”
“Our job is to teach kids to be creative and to be curious, and if we do that, the rest will take care of itself,” he added. “We have to teach them to read and write and do math, but none of that matters if they don’t love learning. That’s our job, that’s why we do it.”
