Wheatley School Principal Dr. Sean Feeney announced that a record 157 students from the 2017-18 school year earned recognition as AP Scholars.
“This is an extraordinary achievement,” Feeney said at an East Williston Board of Education meeting last Wednesday. He presented data from last year’s Advance Placement exams and the New York State Regents Exams.
“These kinds of numbers are exemplary of our teaching and program we have moved towards,” Feeney said.
The Wheatley School has an open enrollment policy for advanced placement classes. Many schools only allow students in the top percentile of their class to qualify and register for AP classes. Wheatley’s policy has encouraged all students to challenge themselves and enroll, Feeney said.
The College Board recognizes scholars based on several levels of achievement based on students’ exam performance.
Overall, 829 AP exams were given at Wheatley last year. Eighty percent of students scored a three or higher on a five-point scale. Additionally, 22 students qualified for the National AP Scholar Award by earning an average grade of four or higher on a five-point scale on all AP exams taken.
Improvements came on the calculus AB, calculus BC, statistics and chemistry exams among others. Dips in scores compared with last year’s exams came on the psychology, physics 1 and 12th grade English literature exams.
Board President Mark Kamberg expressed gratitude to Feeney, and gave a shoutout to the math teachers in the school, but also said there is room for improvement in areas where scores fell off.
“We have made great adjustments over the year through what I consider a great leadership team,” Kamberg said. “Obviously there’s going to be some dips in there.”
“I think it’s clear that some of the areas do still need work,” he said. “Targeted professional development has been mentioned and I don’t know if this is something of use in these areas, but I think the board would appreciate some sort of action plan back in that particular area because we’ve seen the results from others.”
Alan Yu, CPA, a partner at Cullen & Danowski LLP, the board’s independent external auditor, presented findings from the audit of the school’s finances.
“I have always said this and it remains to be true,” Yu said. “Your district has one of the most robust audit committees that I have ever dealt with, and I have been doing school district auditing since 1990.”
Yu reported the issuing of an unmodified auditor’s opinion to the board, the best assurance an auditor can give, he said.
“The district’s financial statements have been prepared in accordance with general accepted accounting principles and they are free of material misstatements,” Yu said.
“Unlike other school districts where they were heavily criticized by the state comptroller’s office for having too much fund balance, too much reserves and unreasonably budgeting this district did not have any of those findings,” he said. “It is a testament to the direction this board has always taken.”
The board also approved a resolution to apply $1.2 million in revenue from the 2017-18 end of year unreserved fund into the Capital Reserve Fund.
