New Herricks super Celano prepares plans for district

Christian Araos

Herricks Superintendent of Schools Fino Celano said Monday he will present his plans for continuing the district’s growth this September when the school year starts. 

“My overarching goal will be to provide a well-rounded education for all students,” Celano said. “As a school district, we want to achieve excellence in everything we do in academics, music, art, athletics and all extracurricular activities.”

Celano said he intends to reach his goals by implementing practices for students that are research-based. 

Celano, who replaced longtime school Superintendent John Bierwirth in June, said he has been meeting with the Board of Education, administrators, teachers and parents to determine the district’s strengths and weaknesses. 

He labeled the district’s pre-existing programs innovative and wished to build on its past successes. 

His first initiative, he said, will be the Project Lead the Way STEM program that will be implemented for all students currently in kindergarten and up to the fifth grade. 

The program is the first of its kind on Long Island and will focus around topics such as life science, earth science, computer science, physical science, engineering and robotics, and math.

“I’m very excited about this program,” Celano said. “The curriculum includes an integration of science, math and technology modules and integrates the use of iPads so that they can use the latest educational programs.”

If the program is successful, Celano said, the district plans on looking at the possibility of growing the program to the middle school and high school. 

He said the district must not rest on its laurels and is looking into developing new and different methods of instruction for teachers that integrates are both research-based and in-line with Common Core, an initiative that he believes has been successfully implemented in the district. 

There has been a great deal of staff development programs for faculty that has involved the integration of Common Core’s standard, he said. He said Common Core has deepened students’ understanding of concepts and deepened their critical thinking and problem solving skills. 

“Our students are reading more non-fiction and reading for informational text now which stresses critical-thinking and problem-solving skills that are important for them to prepare for college and for careers,” Celano said.

Celano added that the protests to Common Core and the opt-out movement have not affected the district. 

According to data collected by Newsday, less than 13 percent of students in Herricks opted out of the Common Core state English exam and slightly more than 18 percent of students opted out of the state Math exam, both figures are significantly less than the average for Nassau County. 

The Common Core state tests were implemented as part of the No Child Left Behind Act signed by former president George W. Bush. Celano said he is following Congress’ attempts at reforming No Child Left Behind. However he said it was too early to see how the reforms would impact the school district. 

“It’s too early to say,” Celano said. “The laws that may be implemented at the federal level would then have to be passed onto the states and then we’d have to see what would be affected on a local level.”

Celano said he has an ally in Board of Education President Nancy Feinstein who is also on board with Project Lead the Way. 

Feinstein, who was picked as president of the board in early July, said she has also prioritized the reduction of class sizes as a goal for the Herricks School District. That plan is in line with a four-year plan left behind by Bierwirth. 

Celano echoed Feinstein and Bierwirth’s stance on reducing class size for the upcoming school year.

“The restoration of the district’s class size guidelines continues to be a priority,” Celano said in an email. “Due to sound budgeting by our Board of Education and the settlement of fair and financially prudent labor contracts, the district is now in the financial position to reduce class size levels.  To achieve this goal, we have added 16 FTE teachers district-wide for the 2015-16 school year.  Therefore, I am happy to report that many of our classes will have lower enrollments this year, as compared to the past several years.”

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