At the last school board meeting parents voiced complaints to the board regarding the new policy adopted to notify students of their teachers for the coming semester in August instead of at report card time as in the past.

One parent said she thought it was awful for the children since they always look forward to getting their report cards and having their teacher posted on it. Further, the same parent felt it was a waste of district money to mail out notifications, when they could receive that information on their report cards. Plus, she said that there was no discussion regarding this policy with the PTAs or the Building Level Teams (BLTs) or the public.

Superintendent Joseph Rudaitis said that he felt the new policy would give the district greater flexibility in placing students in classrooms and in some cases avoid having to form a new class. The prior method locked the administration into specific assignments and if there was an increase or decrease in enrollment it was difficult to move the students when they were preassigned to classrooms so early on in the planning stages of the next semester.

One parent said she didn't feel the new policy would have any impact on the students as they are very resilient. She said it's the parents who grab the report cards to see what classroom and what teacher their children would have in the coming year.

Another parent wanted to know if the petitions that had been signed would help the board to change its decision. Rudaitis indicated that nothing presented to the board regarding the decision proved to be harmful to the children.

Trustee Lawrence Montreuil said that he would make sure that the topic would be revisited next year to see what, if any effects, it had on the children.

Then Trustee Curtis Axelsen apologized to the audience for not having discussed the decision beforehand with the community. He said, "It seemed like a good decision and some are very much in favor of it and some very much against it. But, I assure you no decision like this will ever be made again without community input, that I will promise you!"

One parent said that the "rumor mill" has it that the district is going to discontinue the traditional Halloween Parades in each school.

Superintendent Rudaitis said, "It's not really a rumor because last year we discussed this at various PTAs. My position on the subject is that if it is in the interests of the schools to have it, fine, but if not that will be determined by principals and teachers together. If they feel it takes away from instructional time then I am all in favor of them dropping the parade. I will support the decision of that principal and those teachers."

Rudaitis continued, "My concern has been, and I've been pretty consistent on this, if we are going to have Halloween Parades, and it's fine if we do, then we should make some curriculum connections. I would like to do away with Freddie Kruger and that type of character walking outside of GCP or Manor Oaks Schools. I strongly feel we need to have a curriculum theme. That's my only issue. I am not restricting Halloween parades and I am not endorsing them. That is a decision to be made at the school level. I would also ask parents to please cooperate with the school principals. Right now the principals have indicated to me that they intend to hold Halloween parades next year and if that's what they choose, that's fine with me. The only thing I have encouraged they do is to try to make some curriculum and educational connections. I feel we have to send a message to children as to what's appropriate and what's not."

An audience member suggested that the children write an essay or story about the character they are portraying and the superintendent said that would be entirely up to the building principal and the teachers at that building.

The meeting also included an overview of "Study Skills" given by study skills specialist Judy Dodge.

There was no School Report Card update since it has not been received by the New York State Board of Education.

Patrick Casey was changed from custodian to head custodian at the New Hyde Park Road School.

The next board meeting will be the conclusion of the budget hearing on March 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Manor Oaks School.