Nurse Mary organizes vision tests for all students

Most took the experience in stride.

But a few second and third graders at Shelter Island School balked at taking eye exams Monday morning in the school conference room.

“I got all of them correct,” Henry Lowell-Liszanckie, 9, said proudly about acing the eye charts doctors from Sound Vision Care used in administering the tests.

One downside was that “after awhile, it gets a little blurry,” friend Hayden Rylott, 9, said.

Eight-year-old Madison Springer thought the idea of having the tests administered so publicly wasn’t a great idea, concerned that everyone would know her results.

Not everyone will know, just the important people. The results were noted on a card and sent home with each student telling parents whether or not further action, such as prescription glasses, is necessary.

“I want to wear glasses,” announced 9-year-old Margaret Schultheis.

Alex Burns, 9, was pretty sure the whole thing wasn’t for her.“I don’t want to have my eyes tested,” Alex said, but went quietly forward to be tested anyway.

The testing was arranged by School Nurse Mary Kanarvogel in conjunction with Dr. Miki D’Angelo, who volunteered her time and that of her staff members to conduct the tests. Sound Vision Care has offices in Southold, Riverhead and Southampton.

Parents received letters giving them the right to opt out of having their children tested, but only a few, mostly those who had already had their children’s eyes tested, exercised the option.

Nurse Mary said she got into a conversation with Dr. D’Angelo during her own eye exam and learned that the doctor and her colleagues would be willing to visit various schools to administer the examinations.

Recognizing that students with poor vision might be handicapped in learning, she jumped on the idea for Island students, who she thinks of as her own nieces and nephews, since she has known most of them since they were toddlers.

“Classroom learning is 80 percent visual,” Nurse Mary said. Sometimes students don’t realize that what’s written on the board isn’t totally clear to them.

During the tests, students were asked to identify letters and numbers on an eye chart, to read from a book and then have their eyes examined with special equipment to ensure there were no other problems.

How many students will the doctors test? Turns out, all of them at the school. Dr. D’Angelo told Nurse Mary that in larger districts, she might have just a fourth grade that was as large as the 213 students who attend classes here, She and her staff began the testing Monday morning and are due back on Friday to finish the job.

The examinations were only step one for Nurse Mary. She reached out to the Lions Club; the organization agreed to pay for any supplies the doctors used during the tests. The National Association of School Nurses’ “Sight for Students” program, to which Nurse Mary belongs, offered to pay for glasses for any student whose family has difficulty with the cost.