At the last New Hyde Park/Garden City Park School Board Dr. Regina Cohn took the opportunity to recognize and honor outstanding students in the school district.

The first part of the meeting was a musical interlude by the Garden City Park Strings Orchestra, conducted by Steve Siracusa. After that Dr. Cohn announced that Linsey Brooker, of the New Hyde Park Road School, was the winner of the NOW Contest. The winner was not announced until after the school year ended. Brooker was a 6th grader at the time she entered the contest is now a freshman at New Hyde Park Memorial High School. However, she attended the board meeting to receive the Certificate of Recognition and praise presented to her by Dr. Cohn, New Hyde Park Road School principal Joanne Cicero and school board president Louis Zacarese.

The next student to be honored was Stacy Chirayath, who is currently a 5th grader at the New Hyde Park Road School. She wrote a poem entitled, "Being the Youngest" last year and submitted it to The American Literacy Council's Student Poetry Contest. As a result her poem will be published in the book Gifted. She was presented with a Certificate of Recognition by principal Cicero, superintendent Dr. Cohn and board president Zacarese.

Three Boys Scouts were then recognized for the work they did in helping to clean up the Garden City Park School school grounds. The boys honored were Casey Falconer, Matthew Miller and Jordan Buff. All three received Certificates of Recognition from Garden City Park Principal James Svendsen, Superintendent Dr. Cohn and Board President Zacarese.

The Hillside Grade School 1st Grade Class and teacher Brenda Bletsch were also recognized. The class and Mrs. Bletsch were chosen by News 12 TV to be featured in its Channel 12 Head of the Class Highlights and were shown on TV in half-hour segments.

The report from New Hyde Park/Garden City Park by superintendent Cohn included her goals for the 2005/2006 school year. They are:

Assessment Is the Window That Informs Teaching Decisions will be the overreaching theme for all academic work and the accompanying professional development for faculty. Assessment will inform the differentiation of instruction in all subject areas.

Since there is a major change in the New York State Learning Standards for Mathematics this year, the faculty members developed a new curriculum and professional development in math that will take place during the professional development hours.

English language arts instruction will continue to be a focus for professional development and a staff developer will work with kindergarten and grade three teachers on the enhancement of instruction.

Development of parallel tasks to align with the State Standards in all assessed areas will be accomplished to provide for on-going instruction that is aligned with the state tests.

Social studies curriculum development, through work on the modules, will be initiated. And utilizing assessment data, accelerating students, when appropriate, will be accomplished.

Publicity regarding activities and accomplishments of our students and staff will be transmitted to the local newspapers via school committees comprised of faculty and the PTA, with these groups submitting articles and photos on a regular basis. A weekly newspaper article will be written by the superintendent of schools for submission to the local newspapers.

A district newsletter will be published four times during the school year. The accomplishments of our students and faculty will be showcased at Board of Education meetings. Funding will be sought for a lawn sign for Manor Oaks School Administration Offices to advise the community of events.

A community contest will be held for the design of a district logo and strict slogan.

Students will visit senior citizen centers to give performances.

An evening Community University will take place. Parents will be invited to "breakfast with the principal" for both new parents to our schools and for grade level meetings.

Scheduling of lawn, other areas of the grounds and building maintenance will be established and monitored, logging all work completed.

A School Beautification Society will be established involving community members to identify areas of need in our schools. We will reach out to the community organizations such as the Kiwanis, Knights of Columbus, Chamber of Commerce, sports organizations and garden clubs and seek out the assistance of the Girls Scouts, Boy Scouts, Memorial High School Key Club, senior citizen groups, building level teams (BLT) and student council for project implementation.

The administration will work with organizations for the donation of materials and acknowledge such contributions in school programs and publications.

Superintendent Cohn called on community members to participate in the New York State mandated School District Financial Audit Committee. Interested community members are invited to contact the superintendent's office by Nov. 4.

Assistant Superintendent for Business and Administration Bonnie Palker officially submitted her retirement to the board to become effective on Jan. 4, 2006.

Special Education teacher Susan Sparto received tenure to become effective on Nov. 10.

The following teachers were approved for teacher salary reclassification: Tammie Rosa, Sharon Rebecchi, Julie Croschere and Elizabeth McHale.

Patricia Battaglia was appointed as an emergency conditional ESL leave replacement teacher.

Linda Ferrone and Margaret Donovan were appointed as emergency conditional substitutes.

Sixth grade elementary teacher at the New Hyde Park Road School Christine Margro requested and received a request for childbearing/childrearing leave.

The following substitute teachers resigned. They are Jennifer Cleary, Rubina Rahman and Dena Farano.

Ursula Stahl was reappointed as a substitute teacher.

Approval was given so that Kathy Bonta, a long-term substitute teacher for Vanessa Motto, could be paid for attending New Teacher Orientation on Aug. 31.

Deborah Moskovic resigned as a classroom aide at the Hillside Grade School and Donna Mills resigned as a substitute cafeteria monitor.

Doreen O'Donnell has been named a permanent cafeteria monitor/aide to .5 kindergarten at the Garden City Park School based on the 2004-'05 salary schedule.

Pending civil service approval and SED fingerprint clearance Hamit Sengoz has been named a probationary cleaner assigned to the Hillside Grade School.

Diana Suppa and Christine Mooney were named permanent cafeteria monitors. Katrina Kothesakis, Fran Kelnofer and Maria Patane were all named as substitute cafeteria monitors.

The following have been named substitute nurses Joanne Schneider, Patricia Gregory, Jeanne Clark.

It was recommended that an additional school nurse be hired to work 20 hours per week to meet the needs of student IEP requirements and to provide services in the health offices during school session hours. A recommendation will be made at the November school board meeting.

Pending civil service approval Arthur Lewandowski has been named as a probationary bus driver.

Payment for an additional substitute nurse, Rachel Rajan, was approved.

The board meeting adjourned to executive session and the next meeting will be held on Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. at the Manor Oaks School, 1950 Hillside Avenue, New Hyde Park.