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Schools

BOE: Honors Program Sparks Discussion

While talks of the high school concession stand were greatly anticipated, the middle school Honors Program took center stage.

In front of a smattering of Glen Cove residents, the Board of Education and Superintendent Dr. Joseph Laria held a public at Monday night to discuss agenda items, one of which included the construction of the concession stand at Glen Cove High School.

However, it was the middle school Honors Program - an item not listed on the agenda - that incited a prolonged discussion between board members.

After suggesting the Honors Program be added to the next meeting’s agenda, elaborated on his side of the issue: “A year ago, we said we weren’t going to set a percentage of kids in the class that were going to be in honors; we were going to go to objective criteria. The objective criteria showed 12 percent of the kids qualified for honors. Yet, 25 percent of the kids were invited to honors. That was beyond the directive of the school board.”

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BOE President Ida McQuair said the board should have been informed of the actions taken by the Honors task force, which allowed 25 percent to enter the Honors Program for the 2011-12 school year.

“I think what happened - that should not happen again - is that the board should be informed if there’s a task force happening regarding one of the programs that we decided to implement,” she said.

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Resident Debbie Manzione expressed significant disappointment with the board’s extended discussion of the middle school’s Honors Program.

“There are bigger fish to fry,” Manzione said. “We have to talk about high school, and the Regents. Are you folks making a letter to the Board of Regents, saying it’s not fair that they are eliminating our Regents in August and January?”

McQuair replied, saying she is in contact with the State Department of Education.

Before talks of the Honors Program, the Board discussed plans for continuing construction of the high school concession stand, a highly-anticipated discussion topic.

“Because of the economy and the cost of construction materials, including the price of steel, we are now at a point where; they are $20,000 short,” said Laria.

“In my professional opinion, we should follow through with the original drawn-out plan,” said Deputy Superintendent Kevin Wurtz, suggesting that construction continue as it was originally planned by the Booster Club and hired architects.

The BOE voted to go forth with construction, saying it would be worth the expenditure to the District to have the stand built and owned outright by the school.

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