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Schools

Video: Five Days Until Glen Cove School District Adopts Budget

Glen Cove High School's business department and the district's music programs were hot topics at Monday night's budget workshop.

With only one week left to adopt a budget, held a budget workshop on Monday night to keep residents up to speed on the process.

The district must adopt a budget by Monday, April 11.

While Superintendent Dr. Joseph A. Laria announced there would be no cut programs and services, residents still showed up to the workshop at to express concerns over cuts to the high school's business department and the district's extracurricular activities.

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Resident Allison Gasparella – a parent of a sixth grade band student – was specifically concerned with the idea of "zero period" band.

Gasparella noted the burden of having to arrive at school by 7:20 a.m. every morning.

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The Glen Cove mother also said she was disappointed by the district's decision to  remove the sixth grade Frost Valley Trip from the curriculum, as low participation caused the trip to become an economic issue.

"My daughter loved Frost Valley," said Gasparella.  "The students grow up a bit. It's more than just getting away from mom and dad, so much so that it becomes more than an educational trip. We've been told that the new diversity in our schools brings participation in different programs. Do we eliminate programs because of diversity?" 

Laria said that he doesn't recall using diversity as rationale for any cuts.

"I always say that in Glen Cove, we truly educate the children of the world," said Laria. "We consider all factors, numbers, cost, educational impact. 50 percent of students stayed back this year, without full instruction."

Resident Maureen Pappachristou suggested a solution to the policy which would force sixth grade students to choose between band and orchestra. 

"Why not start the strings instruction at fourth grade, take the money from the third grade strings instruction, and put it into the sixth grade?" Pappachristou said. "I'm not against third grade strings instruction; but it doesn't make sense to disrupt the continuation in instruction."

Sixty percent of third graders take up a strings instrument, said board trustee Joel Sunshine. "Music educators know, if you give a kid one instrument to focus on, they'll jump to it."

Another hot subject was the High School's Business Department.

"Students who go to their guidance counselor to schedule business classes are told that classes will not run due to low enrollment, and they are repeatedly turned down; therefore there is quote low enrollment," said Glen Cove senior Andrew Sakhae.

Sunshine said that the phenomenon is not exclusive to the business programs.

Laria said he will look into Sakhae's statement: "If that is the case, that is wrong. It disturbs me, and I hope it isn't true," he said.

The board announced shortly after that there was no plans for reduction in business courses.

"One thing we will do is we'll make everything be known – what will be done as to what the budget includes, and what it does not include," Laria said.

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