East Williston Superintendent of Schools Elaine Kanas said Monday the results of a recently completed survey of district residents shows that school officials and district residents are on the same page when it comes to the needs of the school district.
Kanas said district residents cited mathematics and science curriculum, student enrichment programs and enhanced college placement programs as top priorities in the survey – areas the school district has already begun to address.
Creation of a program for concentration in Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics, known as STEM, she said, was also on both the school board’s and the residents’ minds.
“Those were the areas where the community was interested in growing new programs. They actually correlate with the district growth plan,” Kansas said during a presentation of the survey’s results at Monday night’s school board meeting.
The East Williston School District received 876 responses – a 31 percent response rate – from surveys mailed to 2,748 households, including 278 responses from households with no children in the school system. The other respondents included 302 Wheatley School students, residents with students in district schools and 12 teachers.
Kanas said the board would be identifying new programs next year, including selection of an engineering program to start in the 2014-15 school year.
She said the school board is currently considering an engineering program called “Project Lead the Way” from the National Association of Engineering. She said the program would likely consist of four courses in engineering starting in freshman year with an emphasis on architecture and structural engineering.
She said establishing a STEM program, a state education department initiative, could include courses in robotics.
The Wheatley School currently has a robotics club as an extracurricular activity. The state’s objective with STEM is for high school students to concentrate in specific subject areas during their junior and senior years, she said.
In academic enrichment opportunities Kanas said, the board will consider adding more Advanced Placement classes to the high school curriculum. The board will also consider giving students at all grade levels more opportunities in participating in more competitions and advanced academic opportunities similar to the existing summer genetics program.
She said the board will also consider other programs to offer during year, online, and during the summer.
As co-chair of the curriculum committee for Nassau County school superintendents, Kanas said she is putting together a ‘blended’ model for an AP Art History course to be offered online to students at different high schools. Students’ online course work would be overseen by a qualified instructor and there would be times when students would be online together.
“For smaller districts, you might not be able to offer these specialized courses, but school districts might be able to offer them together,” Kanas said.
She said there also would be times when the students would physically meet, perhaps to take field trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
For college placement, she said, Wheatley will be offering two new elective courses this fall in which they would do essay writing for college applications and receive additional help in math, English for standardized college entry exams, as well as writing.
“We added two SAT seminar courses to our program where kids would have the opportunity to do test prep for juniors and seniors,” Kanas said.
She said the school district also will also offer fee-based SAT “boot camp” courses starting this summer likely to be held for two weeks in August.
In other developments:
• The school board held a public hearing on plans to use $357,000 for various repairs at district schools this summer.
At The Wheatley School, the projects include: repair of concrete sidewalks for an estimated $141,600; repair of the gymnasium floor for and estimated $30,680 and a revamp of the public announcement system for approximately $17,700. Willets Road School repairs includes brick repointing and masonry repair for an estimated $44,840; repair of asphalt parking lot areas and concrete walkways for an estimated $40,102 and upgrading the public announcement system for $9,204.
At the North Side School, repairs to the asphalt parking lot and drywell and patching repairs are expected to cost $73,160.
