At the end of the regular Herricks School Board meeting the board reassembled in circular seating as a large number of high school students filed into the cafeteria to take a seat and have an opportunity to chat with the school board and to express to the board their feelings on a variety of topics.

At the beginning of the high school student meeting, board president Christine Turner introduced the members of the board and then turned the meeting over to the Herricks High School Student Council President Michael Han, who introduced his board.

Han started off. He said, "One of the major things we're discussing is graduation rehearsal and the prom. We want to know exactly when is the graduation rehearsal in relationship to the prom."

One of the teachers in the audience said that graduation rehearsal will be held on the morning of the prom. He said it usually runs for about an hour or an hour and a half that morning and then the seniors are released and those giving speeches will stay behind with principal Dr. Jane Modoono to rehearse their speeches. He added, "Everyone else goes to the school, picks up their caps and gowns and then you can go get your nails done."

Board President Turner asked Han if they had a concern about the timing of the rehearsal. Han said, "Well, we thought it was going to be held the morning after the prom and that might be a problem."

Another board member wanted to know the details of the proposed bond and would taxes be raised as a result of the bond being presented.

Board Vice-President Rich Buckley addressed the questions. He said, "What happened was we had a bond that will be paid off next year. So, we will go out for a bond that will be exactly the same as the last bond, so it will be cost neutral. What we are getting is a lot. We will be getting a new track, lots of windows, boilers, doors, new heating systems, locker rooms are being redone and air-conditioning is going into large facilities such as the gyms. And that will cost $7.8 million, which is separate from the budget. Plus, New York State will actually match 48 percent of the funds in a plan they call the Excel Grant for $1.3 million. It will take about two years to put into place, so unfortunately, you seniors will not be able to see all these good things come to fruition."

Herricks Superintendent Dr. Jack Bierwirth added, "The problem is that after the community approves it, New York State has to review all of the very specific plans and they take forever and we can't do a thing until they sign off on our plan. Some things we will only be able to do during the summer. We are trying to schedule it so that if the state comes through we can begin work in the summer of 2009. If we don't make it then much of it will be done in the summer of 2010."

A student asked if there would be any improvements made to the football field itself and he was told not at this time.

Buckley added, "We really spent months trying to determine what it was that we really needed and what wouldn't go over the $7.8 million amount."

Another request, by a student, was to have the stage area at the high school brighter and perhaps upgrade the sound system. He added, "We were told that funding for these items disappeared."

Dr Bierwirth added, "Our own staff maintenance workers are the best I have ever worked with. They have done all the hallway lighting and they have done many other things. There are a lot of projects they have. I don't know of any funding that has disappeared. There was a bond issue that was defeated about 10 years ago that included money for expansion of the auditorium. But it was badly defeated. Unfortunately, because of the condition of our buildings, since I have been here since May of 2001 most of our maintenance work has had to go to fixing the buildings. Once they are fixed they can devote more and more of their time to renovating the guidance area, which they did last summer. Right now they are concentrating on the music rooms. The auditorium will be a bigger problem. However, it will be air-conditioned. Our guys will get to it but I can't promise when."

One student inquired about the lighting in the community center and high school gym. He said one half has an orange glow, one has white lights. Dr. Bierwirth said he didn't know about the white light versus orange lights. He added, "What is in the bond is that the windows that were once in the gym will now be restored so that the gyms will now get back natural light. It will be done in way not to lose heat and the high school gym is part of the bond issue."

One student asked if they could appeal to the Herricks Community Fund to fix up the various courtyards.

President Turner explained the process of the Herricks Community Fund. She said, "The projects for this coming year have been approved, but you could submit a request for this time next year."

It was explained that whatever is applied for would be for the good of a lot of students and that it does not have to be curriculum based, and the renovation of a courtyard might just be a project that would be approved.

Dr. Bierwirth added, "The fund gave money for the electronic sign on the corner of Herricks Road and Shelter Rock Road. Plus, they are also donating funds to replace the sign that has since died.

"One thing I might suggest in any project you want to fund, you sit down with Director of Facilities Jim Brown and talk it over with him and he will tell you what is easy to maintain."

Han said, "The next thing we would like to discuss is the back driveway of the high school at I.U. Willets Road. We would like to see if we could put a traffic light there, since it is hard to see coming out of that driveway and there have been a lot of accidents there."

Dr. Bierwirth said, "That was proposed to either the town or the county and did a study and in the opinion of their experts putting in a stop light or a sign would actually be more dangerous. They said there would be more danger of rear-end accidents. However, the PTA Council very much agreed with you and lobbied very hard, with the support of the board, and that idea was turned down flat. For those of us not traffic safety experts it didn't make much sense, but that was their finding. But, we could go back to them with more ideas. If you want to pursue it I suggest it comes from you, the students, and inquire as to whether the PTA Council Safety Committee is willing to go after it again."

Another student inquired about the amount of state aid that the district will be receiving this year.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Helen Costigan explained that the numbers out of Albany have confirmed that Herricks will not be getting any additional state aid. She said that only districts "in need" would be eligible for an increase and Herricks is not one of those districts. She said the aid is determined on the income of the community and the value of residences in the community. She added, "We are not hopeful that we will receive any additional state aid."

Another student wanted to know how the board was going to present the bond to the public.

President Turner said, "Initially we have been going around to the schools to promote the bond. We have talked to various PTA groups and we have had various board meetings to outline the bond. Our plan, as we go forward, is to issue publications that will be sent to the entire community. As the board of education we can't go out and say vote yes on this. But, what we can do is to disseminate as much information as possible through the various groups in the community, the local papers, dateline Herricks and we will be explaining all that is needed. Initially, we even had tours of the buildings to try to point out the reasons why we needed the items proposed. We are hoping to incorporate pictures of the locker rooms and the track. We intend to give the residents the facts on all of the projects. Further, we are encouraging you, as seniors, who are of voting age, to get out there and encourage passage of the bond and if each of you can encourage someone to vote it would make a big difference."

Dr. Bierwirth said, "Before we call it quits I would like to congratulate all of you for obtaining the $10,000 Allstate Award for "Keep The Drive."

Just as the students were about to leave, newly installed trustee Sanjay Jain said, "Here's an open-end question. What do you feel you would want to do in our position? What are your priorities? Let's get away from the capitol improvements because those are resource. In terms of curriculum, redesign, name something that we should explore as a district?"

One student suggested more of a "community spirit" such as a "Community Day."

Another student said, "I think starting high school later would bring a whole different aura to the high school and I would like to revamp the whole system."

Jain said, "Let's hear a general sense of your thoughts on this, or anything else."

One student added he would have liked to have sports organization start students really early in sports. He said that Herricks does not have that kind of organization, but other schools do. He said, "We do not have any youth groups. The coach of the girls varsity basketball holds a workshop every Saturday and my sister in second grade goes to it and it just gets kids interested in sports at an early age. This year when I played football there were only two kids that ever played football on that varsity team and it's hard to compete with teams that are involved in sports from very young ages."

Turner said, "I think that would be something that you could approach to the Athletic Boosters."

Another student wanted to know what could be done with the courtyards to put that space to good use. Trustee Jain said that was a good idea to pursue.

Another student said that the school was so academically driven that it should have ways during the day to relieve the stress so that the school is not all about grades.

They suggested bringing in professionals so that students could learn a little bit about the careers they might pursue in the future before they make choices for college.

Led by trustee Jain, the students outlined wish-list topics, with the focus on less stress for the students. The discussion was extended for at least another half hour before it ended.

The Herricks Juniors entered a website contest for safe driving sponsored by Allstate Insurance and won a $10,000 grant for their safe driving program "Keep The Drive."

Assistant Superintendent for Education Dr. Deirdre Hayes announced that Andrew Chen is the semifinalist from Herricks High School in the Intel Science Talent Search and 41 members of Herricks DECA were selected to advance to the state level competition.

Herricks Community Activist Tess Florentino announced that one of the members of the Herricks Leisure Club, Adela Sirraca, won first prize in all of Nassau for her entry into an art competition sponsored by Chase Bank.

Rhonda Meserole and James Pappas were on hand to give their Pappas and Company Internal report. Meserole said, "In '07 they met with the board and gave them an update of what has been done thus far and apprised them of what they would be assessing in terms of policies, business transactions covering all areas of personnel, payroll, school lunch and class room activities. Of course we will meet again. We have also addressed the action plan issued by the district's external auditor for'06-'07. There are a lot of great controls here that we are very pleased to see. It is a very serious group and they take all our recommendations to heart."

Trustee Peter Grisafi suggested, "that the auditors pay special attention to how our practices are versus our policies to make sure that our policies are up-to-date with our practices and visa-versa."

Meserole urged the board to get in touch with her if they had any concerns and they would do the same.

Herricks Superintendent Dr. John Bierwirth asked for Pappas' help in creating new policies. He said, "Policies that the New York State Comptroller wants us and other districts to have. As far as we know no district in New York State has these policies and the state is not prepared to help, so any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated."

Meserole said she and the company would be more than happy to come up with suggestions.

Dr. Bierwirth explained that the state wants school districts to have a policy on the acceptance of donations of private funds to the school district by private citizens. They particularly mentioned the donation of a piano to the Herricks District. So now a policy will have to be written.

The Herricks school board heard a presentation by math staff members Lauren Haase, Trisha Ho, Steve Alizio, Mary Won and Math Chairman Ron Labrocca on the Japanese Lesson Study.

Dr. Bierwirth said, "A number of us were familiar with the Japanese Lesson Study and became intrigued by it by reading about it. However, only one group did something with the concept and that was the math department run, at the time, by William Ma."

Math Chairman Ron Labrocca then introduced the members of the math department including Lauren Hasse, Trisha Ho, Steve Alizio, Mary Wong.

Tricia Ho explained, "The Japanese Lesson Study not only places the teacher in the role of instructor but as a learner and a researcher in a community learning environment with a common goal. One goal might be to get our students to learn their math subject independently. We plan the lesson, teach the lesson and we then we observe the lesson. Then we might go back and revise the lesson. In doing so we have a lot of self-reflection and we critique one another."

She continued, "One of the main things that Lesson Study is different from just lesson planning. We are not trying to create an ideal 'cookie cutter' lesson that will suit every single student, but it's the process of learning through action."

Then each teacher in the group added their own concept of how the Lesson Study was working, one stating that it was not just collaborative learning but also experiencing learning on your own.

Second year teacher Steve Alizio said, "Last year there were five new math teachers and what the Lesson Study did was let each one of us get to know each other as well as the teachers that have been here longer, and we all brought something new to the table and we all learned from each other and it was a good thing. Lesson Study also encourages 'risk taking' because sometimes you wouldn't feel comfortable with some of the strategies, but with the support of your colleagues you feel more comfortable. It's a great learning process."

Dr. Bierwirth added, "This method is entirely 'in house', unlike Tri-States. When it was first developed in Japan many, many teachers would teach the exact lesson to a group of students, while being observed by colleagues. After each lesson was taught, the teachers would come back and critique that teacher and each other. In a sense each teacher, for the lack of a better word, would expose their teaching methods to each other."

He said the Japanese Lesson Study is definitely working to the advantage of both the teachers and the students in the math department.

For many years residents, as well as school board members, have been asking for the rental fees and how they are obtained at the Herricks Community Center. Finally, a list is now available, compiled by the Herricks Community Center Board of Directors, that outlines how much is charged for individual rooms, the auditorium, the cafeteria and the gymnasium. That list may be obtained at the superintendent's office, on the second floor of the Herricks Community Center, 999 Herricks Road, New Hyde Park. The board then voted on accepting the outline submitted for rates.

The board approved the hiring of outsource computer technicians. Dr. Bierwirth made the following statement prior to board approval

"Many school districts, us included, have a great deal of frustration with civil service lists in Nassau County; it has its pluses and its minuses. This unfortunately is a big example of a minus. It was really with a great deal of surprise when Technology Chairman Don Barton learned that the 'exam' for the higher-level position of computer technican was mostly just a survey checked off. It's as if you asked, 'do you know how to operate a Cisco Server, or do you know how to do this or that and instead of coming up with exam questions to determine if you really did know how to operate that system, it was just a check-off from a list. When those candidates were interviewed it was discovered they really didn't know how to operate those machines at all. This is a civil service position and we have to hire from a list, so we are hoping that the next list does not have the same problem. That works for typists, clerks and other positions, but it is grossly inadequate when you are hiring for a position of this importance and to qualify you are asking them to check off a list that, in their opinion, they know something or not. It is a source of frustration given the importance of technology in this and other school districts in Nassau County."