The members of the Island Trees Board of Education voted unanimously at their Dec. 2 meeting to authorize the superintendent, Richard N. Segerdahl, to proceed with the planning of a nine-period day for the 1999-2000 school year.

At the evening meeting, Victor Longaro, Island Trees High School principal; Jon Segerdahl, middle school principal; and Dr. Arlene Genden Sage, assistant to the superintendent for Special Education, gave a detailed presentation outlining the need for a nine-period day.

The district administrators informed the audience that out of the 56 school districts in Nassau County, 38 of them already have changed from an eight-period day to a nine-period day. They stressed that the primary advantage of a nine-period day would be to increase instructional time. It would also mean that each class period would be changed from the present 43 minutes to 41 minutes, and actual student instructional time would be increased by 25 minutes.

In the middle school the additional period would allow for the introduction of a foreign language to all grade 7 students. Regents Prep and Special Education students would have room in their schedules for art, music, or health instead of deferring these courses until high school. New course selections would be created for all students in grade 8. A semester course entitled Research Paper/Geography would be developed over the summer. The removal of the Research Paper requirement from the present English/Social Studies curriculum would allow time for more content-related instruction. In the second semester, students would be involved in another new course entitled Reading/Writing/Computers which would be designed to help all students be better prepared for the newly designed grade 8 Language Arts Assessment, the new social studies exams, and the new English Regents exam.

On the high school level, all students would have the ability to choose an additional elective. Lunch periods would be available to students who presently cannot fit lunch into their schedule because they are enrolled in occupational education or they are doubling up on electives. A nine-period day would allow for better scheduling of science labs and greater flexibility and options when developing a master schedule. Academic support labs would be available to students in need of additional assistance. The creation of an additional preparation period could be used by teachers for team, grade-level or department meetings.

The overall consensus of the residents at the board of education meeting was that a nine-period day was obviously needed and would be educationally beneficial to all of the students in both the middle and the high school.