The state has placed John F. Kennedy Elementary School on a watch list of schools requiring Local Assistance Plans, based on poor 2012 test results from special education students.
The Great Neck Public School District independently identified and made public the score disparities last summer, Superintendent Tom Dolan said at Monday night’s school board meeting, and has dedicated extra resources over the last year to address the issue.
But, according to Dolan, the state based its assessment of JFK Elementary solely on the 2012 tests, and did not account for last year’s remediation efforts.
“Believe it or not, JFK is being asked to do what is called a Local Assistance Plan based on those tests that were taken in April 2012. The state cycle is such that it only recognizes schools or, in this case, adds schools to the remedy [list] a year after the data is reported,” Dolan said. “We’re better than that. In fact, the Local Assistance Plan was done last year and very very early indicators are that it was met with great success.”
The district, which Dolan said learned that JFK Elementary was being considered for the watch list in June, will have to file its remediation plan with the state. Dolan said preliminary indications are that its efforts, which included the hiring of two additional staff members for special education students and working with outside consultants, have already helped to close the performance gap.
Dolan portrayed the state’s targeting of JFK Elementary as emblematic of overreach by the state education bureaucracy – a common complaint by Dolan and Great Neck school board members, who have protested the state’s emphasis on standardized testing and what they describe as costly state mandates.
“It does seem kind of typical that the state would jump in a year later and tell us what to do when in fact we’ve already done it,” Dolan said.
Also at the meeting, the school board held a second reading of a proposed update to the district’s emergency management plan.
“The issue of being prepared for an emergency is very important for each and every one of us,” school board Vice President Lawrence Gross said.
The new policy would establish districtwide and building-level safety teams, consisting of administrators, teachers, parents, students and other stakeholders, that would be responsible for developing and reviewing emergency response plans.
The plans would be confidential and not subject to freedom of information law requests, and would be reviewed annually.
