The Port Washington School District’s Board of Education considered a policy change during last week’s meeting that would disallow local residents who do not attend the district from participating in PWSD extracurricular activities.
“In most local districts, students who are homeschooled or attend private school can’t participate in extracurricular activities,” board President Karen Sloan said. “So the school board is proposing a policy that reflects that.”
Currently, students who do not attend one of the district’s schools but live in its coverage area are allowed to participate in some of the school’s extracurricular activities (sports were not included). This would affect students who live in Port Washington but are homeschooled or attend private school.
The board held a reading of the proposed change during the meeting and Sloan said the members would vote on the policy change during the next meeting in December.
The board also announced that it was bringing in an outside consultant to review the district’s guidance department. Sloan said this would not be a review of the guidance counselors themselves, but more so the policies that the guidance department follows.
“We’ve done that in the past for other departments,” Sloan said. “We did it with enrichment, math… it’s good to have someone come in and look at the way we structure things.”
She said that the district was open to changes such as dedicating more resources toward college admissions at the high school.
“The needs of children have changed and we should we be doing things to accommodate that,” Sloan said. “I think its a great opportunity for us to see what we can do better, and things we’re doing great.”
The board also approved items concerning personnel, curriculum and finances. Most notable among these items were the acceptance $8,000 in donations toward dancing programs at the South Salem and Manorhaven Elementary schools and the approval of salary increases for for 53 members of the instructional staff.
There was no new information about a matter discussed at October’s meeting concern an administrative error. On that occasion, Sloan announced that the error could be “significant” and affect the state aid that the district receives for transportation.
“The administration was told we wont hear back until sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” she said.
