The Island Trees Board of Education held their regular meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 25 and discussed many issues, including the proposed Regents 'safety net.'

One of the main concerns that has been raised by many districts about the new Regents standards is that children who were previously classified as Special Education students would now have to pass the regular Regents exams. The proposed response to this problem was to install a safety net, which would, while the new standards are being phased in, make the passing grade for the Regents a 55. The school board passed this resolution to support the concept of a transitional period "safety net" during the New York State Education Department's conversion to an all Regents program beginning in June 1999. According to the school board's resolution this is to "provide an opportunity for students who previously were able to take RCTs or earn graduation credit through an approved waiver, and graduate with a local diploma." The board wants to make sure that these students do not fall through the cracks with the new Regents program.

Also discussed at the February board of education meeting was the proposed State Aid for Island Trees. The proposed amount of state aid for Island Trees was a little over a two percent increase, which works out to be about $177,000. This amount, in a $28 million budget, works out to be less than one percent of the money allotted in the state budget, and the Island Trees district is not satisfied with this amount. Superintendent Richard Segerdahl took the first step in trying to increase the state aid by writing letters to Senator Kemp Hannon and Assemblyman Marc Herbst, about the small amount of aid that has been proposed for the district. These letters were followed up when Kathleen Safrey, a school board member, went to Albany for a Legislation Education Conference. While in Albany, Safrey went to Hannon's office and spoke to both Hannon and Herbst about the low amount of state aid. She said that both were very receptive and said that they would look into it further. This situation is more of a problem than ever because of the new Regents program. No money has been set aside by the state to cover the costs of this program, which will be very high, thus passing the monetary responsibility onto the individual districts. The new Regents standards will cost the district more money because they will need, in the future, to hire more staff so that there can be a regular and a special education teacher in many classrooms, since there will be no specific special education program. This is just one of the additional costs that will fall onto the district, which is one of the reasons why the increased state aid is so important, not only to the Island Trees School District, but to all the districts in the area. It is for this reason that school districts on Long Island have begun a lobbying effort for increased state aid. On March 5, there was an informal meeting to plan for this effort, and on March 20, there will be a major meeting in front of all of the assemblypersons from Long Island. Segerdahl says that the purpose of this effort is so that "they can see that there is a strong need on Long Island, for state aid." This lobbying effort is being led by Nassau District PTAs, Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, and the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents. Segerdahl says that they will make every effort to receive support from the senator and the assemblypersons in getting more state aid. Safrey reminded everyone how important letter writing and lobbying is.

In other school board news, Segerdahl issued another reminder that parochial school bus transportation applications must be in by April 1, or they will most likely not be granted because the money will not be set aside in the budget. He also announced that the School Report Card, issued by the state, would be discussed at the next meeting, on March 25.