Summer, with few evening obligations and a couple of weeks away from the office, gave me the opportunity to read a book or two. I'm now halfway through an absorbing and relatively quick read, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, its quippy name subtitled "a brain surgeon exposes life on the inside." The author, Katrina Firlik, one of only 100 or so female neurosurgeons in the country, takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the human brain and all it comprises, from the surgeon/medical vantage point. As I read this book, I can't help but see a correlation between a brain and a school district! Of course, my narrow vision of this likely analogy stems (no pun here) from my position as a school superintendent. I'm sure that those who are immersed in other complex organizations will see similar parallels to their particular worlds. Firlik's picture of the brain at once both reinforces the conventional wisdom many of us have of the brain, and shatters it. The brain stem and lower brain areas are crucial supports for life itself; an injury here can stop breathing or circulation. The upper brain is responsible for higher thinking, and within limits, can more easily sustain injury. Firlik describes such an injury, an unfortunate accident involving a construction worker and a nail gun, with the happy end result that the nail was removed and no harm was done.

Back to the analogy: As Firlik describes the complexities of each other part of the brain, I keep seeing parts of our school district, our schools, and our children. The brain stem, medulla and related structures parallel our school district infrastructure: our buildings, grounds, telecommunications systems, safety and security arrangements, transportation systems, school lunch services, back office systems and the like. Conversely, the upper brain, the cortex, represents the totality of our instructional program: complex, always growing and changing, needing to respond to diverse stimuli, able to be creative, abstract or concrete as warranted, and responsible for "personality." Our core mission is, of course, embedded in our programs for our children and adults; we call this our instructional program. For our district to function effectively, we need constantly to attend to both the infrastructure as well as the instructional program, plus a great deal that sits on a gray line between these. We need to do this in ways that are responsive to the community and the needs of students as we determine them by a multitude of measures, some objective and some subjective. The brain needs to attend to routine, not consciously noticed body functions but also to myriad suddenly changing and consciously noticed individual needs of the human organism, e.g., the sudden pain of a burn or a cut; seeing a car speeding through a stop sign; a shout; and other endless stimuli detected by the five senses, as well as thoughts, worries, ideas, and so on, that we conjure up in the part of the brain that we call "the mind." For our schools, we demand no less: We need to respond to global issues, e.g., the No Child Left Behind Act, fiscal soundness, and a host of mandates and requirements that aren't part of the daily consciousness of the schools and children, all the while remembering what is most important: support for the individual and his/her specific, idiosyncratic needs. Indeed, if the district's core mission rests in our programs, then we must say that the essence of good programs is that they, and the people who make them work, can and do respond effectively to individual, very varied and quickly changing needs of our children, families and adults. Or, succinctly: Our teachers and what they teach are equipped to and do seek out, learn about and meet the needs of the individual learners we serve.

Let's leave the brain analogy and look at our own community and school district. We serve children and adults from the tip of Kings Point on the water, to Hillside Avenue in North New Hyde Park. What diversity! We enroll about 6,200 children in our public schools, serve another 1,300 or more children of our community who attend private schools, and have several thousand enrolled in our adult programs. Our board of education and I, with conviction, embrace all of the children and adults in our community as "part of us," the "us" being the youngsters and adults we serve. We're a mix of ethnicities, races, religions, and economic means. Sometimes, we get lumped, by those who don't know our community, into a "Gold Coast" stereotype.

Factually, we're significantly more heterogeneous than many school districts to which we're often compared. In any diverse community, that reality can be either embraced or shunned. We choose to embrace and celebrate our diversity, understanding that diversity enriches the lives of everyone in the community. As I mentioned, the district's leadership sets this tone, the five members of our board of education and me. It is part of the philosophy that, in turn, guides our leadership staff, faculty and support staff. We also realize that our diversity creates the weighty responsibility of working harder to be responsible to the varied needs of those we serve. I'll choose to extend the concept of diversity to the level of the individual. Each person we serve is unique, and our commitment is to meet the specific and distinctive needs of the individual children we work with, as completely as possible with the resources we are fortunate to have available.

Do we need to "jump through hoops" to accomplish this end? Nowhere more than in our school district is the old aphorism, "if you're not going forward, you're going backwards" more true. Each year, we make improvements and changes to our infrastructure as well as our instructional program, so that we can proceed forward in doing what I've been talking about: meeting as best as we can the varied, idiosyncratic individual needs of the children that are entrusted to us, in the context of a diverse and always-changing community and world.

Okay, in the context of all I've said so far, it's appropriate now to ask "what does this all mean, specifically, last year, this year, and beyond, for the Great Neck Public Schools? How are we 'going forward and not backwards' to meet the diverse individual needs of our diverse total population?" I'm going to divide the specifics into two broad groups, the medulla/infrastructure/support area, and the cortex/instructional realm (yes, I know, the brain analogy sneaked into my writing; sorry!)*

Our "cortex" of course is the instructional program, and all teaching and learning activities that surround and support what we do that directly relates to people. The district's "infrastructure," as I call it, comprises several areas. Invariably, first in one's mind are buildings and all their parts: windows, roofs, masonry, heating/cooling systems, electrical, plumbing, lighting, and so on. But infrastructure also extends to telecommunications, safety and security systems and staff, grounds (fields, roads, sidewalks, outdoor lighting), and a sort of "crossover" area, IT (Information Technology), which comprises all our business, administrative and student information systems.

I'm-how shall I say this?-really excited and enthused about all we are doing in the teaching/learning realm. I fully recognize that if this article is going to be read by more than three people, I'd best keep it reasonably short, and if I started to expound on the details of all that we've done in the past year and plan this year, you'd all (and rightfully so) stop reading and go for a walk or have dinner or something. So, at the risk of leaving things out but in the spirit of brevity, I'll summarize the main stuff we've worked on, are doing, and plan to do in this 2007-08 school year. If you recall last year's "Back to School" article, I spoke of the "child in the middle," and the need to do more for our average kid. Remember, while we all like to think that our children are way above average, that's a statistical impossibility. Sorry, but the reality is that on any objective measure, "the middle" comprises 68 percent of all that's being measured. In other words, more than two-thirds of our students are in the middle. Admittedly, the middle in the Great Neck schools is considerably above the middle in other school districts, using various valid measures.

So, yes, you can say that our kids are mostly "above average," if you compare our kids to a similar group in most other school districts in the world. But who cares? To adopt that as a guiding philosophy is to provide a laurel-resting bench. We need to worry about our middle kids, not where our kids would be if they were somewhere else. They aren't. For our middle kids, our guiding principle is "raising the bar," finding ways for our children to reach higher, and to do so successfully in ways that are rewarding and useful to them personally. The kid in the middle who embraces learning, succeeds at some new challenges, if not all, and feels good about what he or she has accomplished, does not know about being "in the middle," but is empowered with the tools to challenge life and be successful beyond high school and college. That's what education is really all about, if you reflect for a moment.

At our high schools for the coming year, we're offering many more new courses and expanded programs than in the past several years. South High's "Facing History" program, for example, was expanded, and the enrollment doubled. This course brings history to life, which is the best way to ensure student interest. It has wonderful research and internship components. This year, new electives are happening in music technology, guitar, and robotics. Our Math B and Foreign Language Regents exams in the past were stumbling blocks for some students wishing to earn an Advanced Regents Diploma. Fifteen of 17 students who needed to repeat the Regents exam in Math B in January at SHS passed it.

At North High, the arts-related departments have been reorganized, now under one "Fine and Performing Arts" umbrella. Spanish 10 and Spanish IV were integrated into one course, successfully. And a major initiative at North High this year is the integration of ninth-and tenth-grade social studies, with the main goal of giving teachers the tools to better meet the needs of each individual student. At the middle school level, both middle schools are participating in an ongoing partnership with other middle schools called "The Middle School Network," helping to share the best in ideas and practices for middle-level education. The concepts of Teaming and Advisory, which provide strong support to all children and especially the "middle kid," are becoming reality in both South and North Middle School.

For all students, we're now embarking on the state's version of "new math," which is actually a return to the old Algebra/Geometry/Advanced Algebra-Trig with which many of us are familiar. Gone will be Math A and Math B, just as Sequential Math was abandoned by the state some years ago. Finally, the state is listening to math educators and realizing that the structures of Algebra and Geometry and Trig really did work. We're ahead of the curve, adopting Algebra this year. At the elementary level, we're piloting two new math textbooks, in a very broad pilot initiative we've been able to convince the publishers to allow us to do at their expense. We will choose from these two texts, customizing and possibly using some of each.

Again touching on the middle child but really for all, we're expanding the very successful Wilson Reading System program we began two years ago. Wilson is a cutting-edge, research-based reading and writing program that supplements (does not replace!) our existing programs. It's a complete, phonetically based curriculum for teaching decoding and encoding (spelling). Wilson directly teaches the structure of words in the English language so that students master the coding system for reading and spelling. If this sounds like "back to basics," in some ways it is, but it's turbocharged basics with research-proven techniques that work. We've had so much success in introducing Wilson in the past two years that we are expanding it to all levels, elementary through high school.

For all of our children at the elementary level, we are very excited that our introductory partnership with Teachers College last year, introducing the Teachers College Writing Program in two of our elementary schools, was so successful in advancing both the technical and creative quality of student writing. Normally, Teachers College, if they accept a district for partnership, will allow one new school a year to join. We got them to take two of our four schools last year, and this year, all four elementary schools will be on board.

For all children of all ability levels in all schools, we are rapidly increasing the use of Smart Boards. Actually, these are better-labeled "Interactive Whiteboards." Interactive whiteboards are used as replacements for traditional whiteboards, chalkboards or flipcharts. They provide ways to show students anything that can be presented on a computer's desktop (educational software, websites, and other items). Projectors, which are used with the interactive whiteboards, can also be connected to a video recorder, a DVD player or utilize a school network digital video distribution system. That's all I'll say --- you have to see them in action in a classroom to really appreciate how they transform learning.

For our most capable children at all levels, we're trying to say, within the limits of practicality and fiscal resources, "the sky's the limit." Last year, for example, we expanded the science rersearch program at North High. Between North and South High, we had more Intel semifinalists than any other school district on Long Island, and the quality of the research, not only that done by the winners, but by all the students involved, was superb. We have added to our Advanced Placement programs, with new AP Italian and Chinese classes offered at South High last year.

The Siemens Corporation selected South High as having the best math and science AP programs in New York State. The AP results at North High are equally good, and offerings are expanding this year and next, as well. At North High this year, we are excited about a new integrated two-year Global Studies program that is designed to prepare all students for the Global Studies Regents and also prepares students who self-select and who demonstrate appropriate ability, to take the Global AP exam. This program begins with our incoming ninth grade. While more students are participating in AP exams, the scores are going up, not down, which is unusual. Generally, when you expand participation, the scores drop. Not so with us. And finally, while describing secondary programs, please know that our Village School is absolutely thriving, with full enrollments and young adults who are becoming independent learners, doers, and going on to college and advanced study.

Back to our diverse population, more than ever we need to enhance the integration of non-English speaking students into our community and country. At North High, we're excited about a new ESL Academy that is designed to better meet this goal. At South High, this year we will be expanding our introduction of ESL in the regular (content area) classrooms. At all levels, elementary/middle/high school, our goal is to comfortably and effectively bring our non-English speaking students, and we have many of them, up to speed in a world that is new and very different in many cases from the world from which they've come. ESL needs differ on the north versus the south side of town, but both areas require the same high level of support.

As you may know, we have some very intensive and thorough summer remedial, advanced, and recreation programs. However, until this past summer, we did not offer actual makeup courses for students who needed them to be promoted or graduate. For such students, the options have traditionally been to take the courses elsewhere during the summer, or repeat them over the next school year. This past summer, we piloted several makeup courses. The pilot was successful and we are considering an expansion for next summer.

Also, for our more needy students, we are embarking on a totally new program, dubbed the "SEAL Program" (Supportive Education for All Learners). This intensive small-class program will be based at our Clover Drive Learning Center, under the auspices of Errin Hatwood, our adult basic education director. Students will come from North, South, and Village schools, and will represent either students who othewise would have gone to special out-of-district schools, or who have specific and specialized needs we cannot meet in our more conprehensive high schools. The program's costs are anticipated to be totally offset after year one by savings on tuition and transportation costs we have been paying to place these students elsewhere.

Each year, about 10 percent to 12 percent of our youngsters are those who require Special Education Services because they are students with disabilities. Special Education, as it is called, has evolved considerably in the past five years. More and more, we are educating our children with disabilities in our own district, rather than in specialized schools elsewhere. Moreover, wherever possible, such youngsters are included in regular classes with appropriate support being provided to them. I could write pages on this whole exciting area, and about the individual successes of these very special children. Suffice it to say, it's the support from the top, from our community and board of education, that allows us to do what is right for our youngsters with disabilities.

Last year, a major district theme was "Bullying and Cyberbullying." Bullying is a broad term. Bullying exists across society, and it's not surprising to see it in schools. How schools respond, however, varies considerably. We have renewed and redoubled our efforts to identify and thwart bullying in the schools, or on the Internet among our own students, when we learn about it. Cyberbullying has increased, as children's primary mode of communication has evolved from telephone to the Internet. It's pretty insidious when it occurs online, since what is written, as opposed to what is said to one person on a telephone, can stay in place and be read for days or weeks, be forwarded, and be seen by many people over time. MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook, the so-called "social networking sites," exacerbate the problem. But the old-fashioned bullying, comprising name-calling, clique and isolation circumstances, and the like, still exists. The problem is greatest in the middle grades, from around grade four to grade eight. Solutions we have been using involve multiple programs for children, sensitizing staff so that we're all able to detect when it's happening, and providing the training so staff have intervention tools to use. Parent outreach and education is an important component as well.

Believe it or not, I've only touched on some of the "going forward, not backward" things we've put in place or are working on, in the teaching-learning realm, last year and into the new year. A full retrospective and look forward would create a multichapter report, not a newspaper article! I'd like to briefly talk about infrastructure, since without the brain stem in fine shape, the higher-order thinking will cease.

First, our buildings are aging. If they've not had their 50th anniversary yet, it's fast approaching. Think of what you need to do around your own home to keep it in shape; it's not much different in schools. Our largest project now is our energy-efficiency project in cooperation with the Honeywell Corporation. It began this past summer, after a year of negotiations and working out details. We negotiated hard, thanks to several of our fiscallyastute board members and a top-notch attorney, and we worked out a very favorable contract. We could've started the project six months earlier and spent three-quarters of a million dollars more. Patience in negotiations paid off. Energy Performance Contracts, as they're called by the state, are approved by the State Education Department, which certifies that the entire cost of the project will be paid for from energy savings over a specified number of years. The vendor (Honeywell Corporation) guarantees it. Our project, totalling around $11 million, replaces most of the boilers and burners in all of our schools, provides for computerized controls for energy efficiency, adds solar power, and replaces lighting in a number of areas as well with brighter, more energy-efficient lighting. The entire cost will be offset by greatly improved energy efficiency - meaning oil, gas, and electricity.

Safety and security is another major infrastructure area we are aggressively pursuing. Again, this could be the subject of a full report, or an article in its own right. Some highlights are in order, since so much is being done in this realm. Last year, we installed a new, fiber-optic Wide Area Network (WAN) linking all of our schools and buildings. This fiber network provides for instructional and telecommunications needs. This year, we will be installing video monitoring cameras at all schools, for outside area and entranceway surveillance, and all are linked and controlled via the WAN. The cameras are called IP cameras, and are light years ahead of traditional cabled cameras in how they work and what they can do.

We are piloting a security entryway kiosk (called "LobbyGuard") in North Middle School, as a prelude to more standardized, technologically enabled security stations at all schools. Photo ID badge protocols are being put into place in all schools this year, with visitors being given badges to wear. All staff will be wearing photo ID's as well. Additional security personnel have and will continue to be employed, both during the day and after-hours when our schools are still being used. Written protocols for all security personnel and administrators have been and are continuing to be devleloped, since nothing is more important than plans and training to implement them. And practice, practice, practice!

We have quite a few safety drills, all of which get practiced among staff and with students in each school. This summer, we were among the first districts on Long Island to work directly with the Nassau County and local police to do "what-if" simulations in our schools. On Monday, Aug. 13, North High had its second "real-time" simulation, with the county's SWAT team and other forces (aviation, for example) present and participating in a simulated school-shooter scenario. We learned a great deal, including much that we can do, but we also learned from the experts the reality that there isn't any real instruction book for such scenarios. This year, we will implement the long-awaited parent notification system, which will allow messages to be sent to all parents via methods of their choosing (phone, email, text message) in emergencies or other agreed-upon circumstances. Other safety work involves our sidewalks and roads. One example is the widening, this month, of the driveway leading to South Middle School to provide for safer auto and bus traffic, as well as better access for emergency vehicles. The sidewalk along that road, which was really an old blacktop path, was also replaced by a real concrete sidewalk.

Other infrastructure projects last year included: installing air conditioning in many more rooms and large spaces (ongoing this summer and beyond), adding classrooms in a number of schools, removal and replacement of flooring, installing new lockers at North High, adding additional lighting at North Middle along Polo Road, and the beginning of a major door-lock project in all schools, for safety and security reasons. Planned work this year and into next includes science lab replacement and other major reconstruction of instructional space (high schools), roof replacements at several schools and buildings, and the total replacement of our antiquated telephone system. We'll be installing electronic door locks on selected outside doors, to allow staff with permission to have their ID cards, which contain computer chips, coded to allow access into the school. This will eliminate the all too-familiar propping open of doors that should be shut during the day or beyond.

Again, I've provided just the highlights of what is a series of multiple front, short-and long-term initiatives in the entire spectre of infrastructure, safety and security.

Two final words. First, much of what I've described above will not work without adequate preparation and training. Our board of education and I are not particularly impressed by, or wish to make, "big splashes" with announcements and little follow-through. Many of the instructional initiatives, as well as safety protocols, involve ongoing staff training and education, with follow-up and nurturing and monitoring. This isn't splashy, it doesn't make headlines, it costs money - but it's necessary if we're to succeed at what we've planned. We have no corner on the market of perfection. Excellence does not happen by chance, or luck. It requires "grunt work," careful monitoring, and changes to make things work better and to correct mistakes. That's reality.

And finally, I'll conclude as I did a year ago. We can do all we do, only because in our schools we have a great deal of support from our wonderful community. To our parents, please accept our thanks for all you do to support our efforts on behalf of your children. To those of you without students in the schools, we thank you especially for your support and encouragement. We thank all of the citizens in our school community, with or without school students, for making our community a vibrant, thriving place in which to live, learn, grow and enjoy. And last but assuredly not least, I thank our board of education for its devotion, guidance and unwavering strength to always do what's right and just. As this new school year begins, my wish for all who live in our fine community, extending from North New Hyde Park to Kings Point, from the City Line to our east boundaries, is for a healthy, productive and happy school year!

(Footnote: * The word "snuck" is not one I like to use, preferring the traditional "sneaked." The Merriam-Webster dictionary tells us: "From its earliest appearance in print in the late 19th century as a dialectal and probably uneducated form, the past and past participle snuck has risen to the status of standard and to approximate equality with sneaked. Indications are that it is continuing to grow in frequency. It is most common in the United States and Canada, but has also been spotted in British and Australian English.")