Education

Board of Ed hears auditors and a report on special ed

AMBROSE CLANCY PHOTO Ted Campbell, left, and Christopher Angotta, from the Melvilee-based Nawrocki Smith accounting firm, addressing the Board of Education Monday night. The auditors gave the district the highest classification on all reports.
AMBROSE CLANCY PHOTO
Ted Campbell, left, and Christopher Angotta, from the Melvilee-based Nawrocki Smith accounting firm, addressing the Board of Education Monday night. The auditors gave the district the highest classification on all reports.

The Shelter Island Board of Education got a good report from their auditors Monday night and was briefed on special education trends and teaching English as a new language.

The board also heard from two parents who questioned the new policy of blending pre-school children into a kindergarten class.

Ted Campbell and Christopher Angotta, from the Melvilee-based Nawrocki Smith accounting firm, gave the school district what amounts to a clean bill of financial health with the highest classification given on all auditor’s reports.

More good news was how much the district spent on actually educating students, which came in at 76 percent of the budget.

In conclusion, Mr. Campbell reported that there that were no disagreements with the management of the school or “difficulties encountered in preforming the audit.”

Academic Administrator Jennifer Rylott said that since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) by Congress in 1975, all students ages three to 21 are entitled to a free education along with other children in “the least restrictive environment,” which means that whenever possible disabled children should be educated with other students.

Based on the latest statistics, Shelter Island has about the same number of special ed students as surrounding districts, Ms. Rylott said. She noted that percentages can be misinterpreted, due to the small enrollment on Shelter Island. In a class of 30 for example, if one child is disabled in some way, that’s 3 percent of the class.

In 13 separate categorizes, ranging from autism to traumatic brain injury, the number of special ed students at the school has remained basically the same over the years. For the 2008-2009 school year there were 36 special end students.

For 2014-15, the number of was unchanged from as six years ago. The lowest number of special ed students was in 2012-2013, with 32 students, and the highest was last year with 37 students.

Ms. Rylott said that tracking referrals for students into special ed programs was done by the school’s committee on special education, which recommended five students in 2013-2014, while the “Instructional Support Team,” made up of educators and other personnel, had recommended, with parental consent, three students last year.

English as a Second Language (ESOL) is out, making way for English as a New language (ENL). The terms have changed, Ms. Rylott said, because now many students might be learning English as a third or fourth language.

There are 88 languages other than English spoken by school age children on Long Island, Ms. Rylott said, with the eight out of ten of those students speaking Spanish.

On the Island, Spanish is the predominant foreign language for non-English speakers. But the school has one Hungarian speaker and one French speaker, Ms. Rylott said.

In two years, the number of English language leaners (ELL) at the school has almost doubled, with seven ELL students in 2012-2013 and 12 for this school year.

There have been some changes in state regulations for teaching ELL students, Ms. Rylott said, notably that a home language questionnaire is given, individual interviews with the students are necessary and administration of a English language proficiency test is given.

In the public comment of the meeting, two parents expressed concern about the blending of pre-kindergarten children into a kindergarten class. Robert Waife, who has a son in kindergarten, praised the teacher’s as “fantastic,” but had questions about the effectiveness of bringing in the younger children, who were selected by lottery to be in the kindergarten class. The pre-K children attend a morning session with the regular kindergarten class.

Kathleen Springer, another parent with a child in kindergarten, said there was no communication from the district with the parents. “No one asked us about it” and it “bothers me,” she said.

School Superintendent Leonard Skuggevik said the program was beneficial to kindergarten students, putting them in the role of mentors to the younger children. Data showed children grew emotionally as well as educationally by mentoring the younger children.

Ms. Springer said she was “still not sold” on the idea, and asked if there was data, why weren’t the parents getting it?

Ms. Rylott said a meeting would be set up with concerned parents and school officials to air out the issue.

In other business, James Colligan and James Theinert were appointed as assistant basketball coaches, and John Kaasik was appointed as school play director at a salary of $4,735.