With 96 percent of Sewanhaka Central High School’s 8,449 students going on to two and four-year college institutions, the district is ahead of both local and state averages according to Sewanhaka Central High School District Chief Information’s Officer Richard Zwycewicz.
At last weeks Sewanhaka Board of Education meeting, Zwycewicz highlighted the findings of the district’s 2009-2010 New York State District Report Card, including the graduation rate.
“According to the study, 97 percent of our students graduated last year,” Zwycewicz said.
Zwycewicz said the state mandates that the district “track” students who have attended the Sewanhaka School district, but left for another school before graduating.
“In the past it only applied to students who have been in the district for five months,” Zwycewicz said. “But as of July 1, even if that student only spent one day at a school in our district, it is our responsibility to track that student when they enroll in another school, and record whether they graduated or not.”
According to Zwycewicz the mandate came about more than 10 years ago when the state was only looking at the number of kids who graduated from the high schools.
“It was better for schools to get rid of students who weren’t going to graduate, to make them look better,” said Zwycewicz. “Once the state started noticing students disappearing, they put a new rule in place where the school was responsible for tracking their students who left. Every kid has a unique I.D., and if they leave the state it becomes more difficult, but its our job to track them. As long as we show they enrolled in another school, it’s okay for us.”
As part of making sure students are college ready, the state Education Department has also started collecting statistics for school districts to help assure graduating students have “stronger college and career readiness” rather than just being proficient, according to Zwycewicz.
“They created the system thinking the schools will be better,” Zwycewicz said. “It’s all good because you are pushing the kids to learn more, but we’re still dealing with the same amount of money and are expected to produce more with less.” It’s frustrating to any educator who wants to make kids college ready, when you exhaust your resources.”
Last week’s meeting was the final one for Sewanhaka Central High School District Superintendent Warren Meierdiercks, as School Board President Jean Fichtl offered her thanks for his service to the community.
“It’s sad to see you go,” Fichtl said. “Everyone will miss you.”
Fichtl also presented a plaque to Meierdiercks on behalf of the board for all the work he has done for the district over the years.
Meierdiercks also received a plaque from Sewanhaka High School’s Chairperson of the Special Education Department and GED site supervisor Fran Sinobio, for his approval and support of the GED program when it was first started five years ago.
“I want to thank publicly the board of education for all its support over the last five years as superintendent,” Meierdiercks said. “It truly has been a great run and I’m going to miss everyone.”
New Hyde Park resident Kurt Langjahr said that Meierdiercks had created a legacy at Sewanhaka.
“I think that it’s a great legacy you leave the district and the board. Langjahr said. “I hope you don’t go to far and come back to check on your educational legend.”
