Students offer ideas to Herricks board

Richard Tedesco

Resigned to future program cutbacks, Herricks High School seniors offered on Thursday a series of practical suggestions to help the district make the best of a bad situation.

The suggestions, which were presented to the Herricks school board during its annual session with students, ranged from turning courses into after-school clubs and popular classes such as sociology into college-like lecture courses for up to 60 students.

“More people could take it,” Herricks High senior Mumtakena Hannan said of her idea to create college-like lecture courses.

Hannan said she hoped her suggestions would allow the district to preserve the existing nine-period schedule high school students now follow.

“I think there should be nine periods if the budget can afford it,” Hannan said.

Senior Linda Mule asked whether some high school courses might be saved by turning them into after-school clubs.  

“That’s a possibility,” said Herricks board President Christine Turner.

Herricks High senior Dmitri Grammatilopoulos said standards for admission to Advanced Placement courses should be revisited to preserve the quality of the courses. He said of the 30 students who enrolled in his AP calculus class dropped out of it.

Hannan, Mule and Grammatilopoulos were three of several students who represented the student senate’s executive board at the meeting. Other student senate members were also present along with students who aren’t student senators, but had something to say.

Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth recently presented a bleak picture of the 2013-14 district budget, saying the school district faced cuts of $2 million or more. 

Bierwirth has said that $3 million in budget cuts could translate into the loss of 25 to 28 staff positions districtwide. The school district eliminated 85 staff positions over the past two years – including 47 teaching positions.

Herricks High principal Jane Modoono advised the students 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that there is a “delicate balance” to be struck as more students are encouraged to take AP classes, and seniors are increasingly interested in AP classes. 

On the issue of preserving courses, Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth said the district might seek to save curriculum by merging smaller classes of two related subjects.

Herricks school board Vice President Jim Gounaris said student interest largely determined which courses would be offered each year or on alternate years.

“Your enrollments in these programs determine the courses we offer,” Gounaris said.

Gounaris encouraged students seeking to preserve clubs by preparing documentation to support the activity, “with I’s dotted and T’s crossed.”

Board Trustee Dr. Sanjay Jain said there “flexibility” in what courses high school students can take, but said the state-mandated tax cap “almost” make some choices  “black and white.”    

“We have to be careful as a board. We’re determining our cost structure,” Jain said.

“The real problem is the farmers who lived here needed to buy the land in Lake Success,” said Bierwirth when someone raised the issue of the district’s lack of a commercial tax base. 

Gounaris said budget cuts are inevitable, but a downgrade in the district’s quality of education isn’t a given.

“It’s going to be difficult. It is not necessarily going to be worse,” Gounaris said.

Board Trustee Brian Hassan said he hoped students would keep communicating their ideas about the future of the school district.

“I think it’s important for you guys to continue to suggest changes. Our goal is to not change anything,” Hassan said. “But we do not have all the answers.” 

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