Parents burst into cheers at the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park school board’s Dec. 14 meeting with the announcement of the state Board of Regents’ decision to temporarily halt use of student scores on Common Core tests for teacher evaluations.
District Superintendent Robert Katulak said he was not surprised by parents’ reaction to the news that the Regents adopted an “emergency resolution” Monday recommending a four-year moratorium on the practice.
The full Board of Regents approved the recommendation Tuesday, but it has not actually changed the state law tying test scores to teacher evaluations, he said.
“Your advocacy is needed to flow through on this,” Katulak told parents Monday in a full cafeteria at Manor Oaks School. “Write to your legislators.”
State Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) was already backing the Regents’ moratorium the next day, calling Common Core “deeply flawed” on his website Dec. 15.
State Assemblyman Edward Ra (R-Franklin Square) also told New Yorkers to “join in rejection of Common Core” on his website in November.
Katulak said parents across Long Island have refused to let their children sit for the annual tests, with 26 percent New Hyde Park-Garden City Park families opting out of the latest round of student tests.
Opt-out rates in other districts on Long Island have ranged from 3 percent to more than 70 percent, he said.
Katulak said he didn’t think the Regents would issue recommendations so soon after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Common Core Task Force issued its recommendations last week, adding that the growth of the statewide opt-out movement may have sped up the decision.
“Possibly they felt that if the students and the teachers and the principals were not going to have this instrument used to evaluate teachers, maybe more parents may be willing to have their children sit for the test,” he said.
Also on Monday, the school board announced the district’s sound fiscal management garnered it a “Aa2” rating from the Moody’s bond rating agency, yielding thousands of dollars in savings.
The rating lies two notches below the perfect “Aaa” rating.
Board members unanimously passed all resolutions submitted for approval, including PTA grants and fundraisers, Cultural Arts contracts and the 2016-17 school calendar.
The proposed PTA grants included $1,345 to pay for “music technology with Bret Daniels” at Hillside Grade School, $317 for teacher supplies at Manor Oaks School, and $940 for “Mad Science” at the New Hyde Park Road School, among other programs.
Katulak said contract negotiations with the district’s custodial workers, nurses and clerical workers are continuing.
In an interview Monday, union negotiator Stephanie Teff said the clerical workers put forth a counter-proposal for a new contract on Monday.
The custodians are set to negotiate with district officials Dec. 21, Teff said, and the first mediation meeting with the nurses is scheduled for Jan. 12.
