At the outset of the last Herricks School Board meeting Ankeet Shah and Neil Patel were sworn in as student representatives for the board and Sanchita Singal and Katie Patestas were sworn in as alternate representatives.

The board then held a brief meeting with the auditors from R. S. Abrams & Company. Robert Abrams, along with Alexandra Battaglia, were on hand and they had nothing but compliments for Assistant Superintendent for Business Helen Costigan and her staff for keeping the books in excellent order.

Battaglia said they have signed off on all journal entries and after a complete audit they found no deficiencies and no weaknesses and declared the district "financially sound."

Denton Avenue fifth grade teachers Lisa Parisi and Christine Southard gave a detailed presentation on how well their students have learned to use the Internet and how they have learned to blog and podcast. It was very informative.

The board was presented with the following Assessment Philosophy draft. It will be circulated and if approved adopted by the board as part of the board policy. The Assessment Philosophy is as follows:

Assessment is an integral part of the teaching and learning process. To the extent possible, assessment within the control of Herricks staff should utilize best practices and be grounded in the most current research. Generally, superior assessment practices share certain characteristics:

• attempt to address all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy-evaluation, synthesis analysis and application, as well as understanding and knowledge.

• are varied in both form and approach over a period of time.

• are based on clear and explicit expectations which are shared with students.

• are appropriate to the level of the class and the students.

• are an integral part of the teaching and learning process for both teachers and students providing accurate and consistent information to all parties in a timely manner.

• encourages critical reflection on the part of both students and teachers.

The board approved a trip for Spanish students to travel on an 8-day trip to Costa Rica from April 18 through April 26 at a cost not to exceed $2,483 per student. No time will be lost as the trip will be during spring break.

The board also approved a 9-day trip to France, Paris, Provence, Cote d'Azur with ACIS (American Council for International Studies) for high school students studying French at a cost not to exceed $2, 819 per student. If students register before Nov. 1 they save up to $300 on the cost of the trip.

The board approved a trip for the Middle School to travel by bus to Boston. Pricing is as follows: $254 for quad occupancy, $272 for triple occupancy and $310 for double occupancy.

The board accepted an additional gift from Mr. and Mrs. Rudy Vecchio to purchase a bubble to cover the Herricks High School tennis courts. Last spring the Vecchios donated funds to resurface the tennis courts at the high school.

Herricks board president Christine Turner reported that the Herricks Homecoming last week was magnificent. She said, "The parade was great and well-attended by all the students and the floats were great and, best of all, the teams won their games including the newly formed Herricks football team, the girls soccer and boys soccer teams were all winners."

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Dr. Deirdre Hayes announced that nine Herricks students were named as National Merit Semi-Finalists. They are: Aimone Agha, Andrew Chen, Christine Chung, Jeremy Cohen, Peter DiMarco, Raghav Goyal, Nicole Noronha, Parth Shah and Alex Yang. Plus, 16 students were named as National Merit Commended students and they are: Arun Ananthamoorthy, Sheila Firoozan, Andrew Lau, Michael Molfetas, Kristin Bevilaqua, Jonathan Ho, Yusung Lim, Stephanie Park, Sarabeth Buckley, Winifred Hwang, Brian Lin, Carolyn Trietsch, Ashley Chang, Melissa Koellner, Kate Mirino and Vincent Zuo.

Further she announced that Sheila Firoozan has been named Valedictorian and Samantha Wong has been named Salutatorian for the Herricks 2008 graduation.

The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be held on November 1 at 7:15 p.m. at the Herricks Community Center. The board will celebrate Board of Education Appreciation Week.