School Board report: Student, faculty presentations on agenda
Drivers Ed instructor Ian Karnarvogel on Monday night showed the School Board the State Farm Driver Feedback app he uses to provide students with objective data after practice sessions about their acceleration, braking and cornering; it also maps each driver’s session indicating where on the route problems occurred.
From the importance of respectful debate to preventing summer academic slippage to an app that rates student driving, the Shelter Island Board of Education heard wide-ranging reports at its meeting Monday. It also bailed out the yearbook, which has come up about $5,000 short of funds for recent issues.
First up were Emmett Cummings, Taylor McNemar and David Neese of the debate club, which in its second year has about 12 members who meet as their schedules permit with advisors James Bocca and Deborah Sears.
“We learn how to use proper debate format to engage in formal arguments,” Taylor told the board.
Asked if the experience had influenced other aspects of his education, he responded, “I would argue so. It does educate us how to speak to people without offending them.”
An obstacle for the club is a lack of consistent participation by enough members at the same time, Mr. Bocca said.
“The debate club does intertwine with other activities such as sports and other clubs and drama productions,” David said.
A goal for this year is to hold a public debate in the school auditorium, Emmett said, “open to the entire school community — Students, parents, teachers, and anyone else interested in the ideas and in intellectual debate.”
A potential topic is “where do you draw the line between artform and something that is simply constructed,” Taylor said. It is “a topic that wasn’t as controversial as some other topics are but could still engage a lot of thought.”
“Learning how to debate in this way is very important these days and is lacking,” Mr. Bocca told the board.
Next up, guidance counselor Martha Tuthill outlined a robust schedule of activities for exploring students’ post-graduation aspirations. In addition to visits to colleges and visits from admissions counselors and military and career recruiters, on the guidance docket are: the extension of a job shadowing program that places juniors in Island and East End businesses; an in-school college awareness week featuring contests for college-sponsored prizes like mugs and T-shirts; a senior mentor breakfast at Peconic Landing; and expanded membership for the school’s DECA team.
Student government rep Nicolette Frasco left her seat at the board’s table to join fellow National Honor Society members Julia Labrozzi, Olivia Yeaman amd Will Garrison in delivering a slide presentation about the rigorous academic and leadership standards required to become and stay a member of the organization. They agreed the group’s recent Cardboard Campout, an event that raised $1,940 for Habitat for Humanity, was cold but fun.
Summer school director Jennifer Gullusico and academic administrator Jennifer Rylott reported that data collected at the start and end of the district’s summer program support the common sense notion that continuing academic engagement can reduce summer slippage. Their message: the summer school program is not remedial and can help all students avoid slippage over the break.
Ian Karnarvogel described a free app that allows him to provide his drivers ed students and their parents with instant data about their practice sessions. The State Farm Driver Feedback app rates student driver performance on three key elements: acceleration, braking and cornering. The app maps out the route taken during practice drives and inserts exclamation marks at places where the student had difficulty, so they know which elements need the most attention.
Among numerous items of business approved on Monday, the board agreed to pay from its general fund up to $5,000 to fund unmet expenses of the student-run yearbook. “Pogatticut” — published since 1940 — saw a second year of slack sales of ads and books, board president Thomas V. Graffagnino said. Of the $8,917.92 it cost to produced the book through the vendor, Jostens Inc. of Chicago, just $4,434 was raised by ad sales and book purchases.
School finance director Tim Laube told the Reporter in a phone interview Tuesday the deficit built up over two years because some of the ad revenue for the 2015/16 book had been put toward paying off debt due to poor sales of the 2014/15 book.
A new team of advisers is now running the yearbook club, which has a larger membership than in the recent past, with 25 students, he said.
