The Levittown Board of Education met for the first time in the year 2007, on Wednesday, Jan. 10 at the Levittown Memorial Education Center. In one of the more uneventful and tranquil meetings in recent memory, the BOE took care of all business in less than an hour.

The Levittown Schools' Department of Pupil Services presented on the services that they provide to the district. Pupil Services is part of the special education program, and Director Tonie McDonald, and Todd Winch were on hand. The Department of Pupil Services is responsible for the provision of special education and support services in the Levittown Public Schools.

The department's most important resource for improvement in special education is the Nassau County Data Warehouse. This makes them much more apt to see what areas the children are lacking in, and are more proficient in. The warehouse offers a repository of data elements collected from separate sources and organized for optimal analysis and reporting. "We basically just use this information to better instruct in the schools," Winch said.

Pupil Services also provides support in psychological services, speech & language, writes grants, oversees funds, revises ESL programs, works with handwriting, and has social work programs. More complexly, they deal with making sure any student who might lose a home due to a fire or any unforeseen circumstance is still being educated, and watches over all Section 504 meetings that comply with the civil rights act to make sure the playing field stays level for special education.

The Public be Heard segment of the meeting was relatively quiet, as the only contentious moment came when a Levittown resident complained of his daughter's late bus being canceled from Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School in Hicksville, due to less than five kids using the bus. "You always say there should be 'no child left behind,'" the Levittown resident said. "That clearly isn't the case here. How can I tell my daughter she can't do her after school clubs anymore?"

BOE President Gina Interdonato has been addressing the matter, and is working on a joint late bus system with other neighboring districts.

The latest proposal for the restructuring of the Hunt Road Transportation Building is in, and it figures to be 18.8 percent bigger than the previous building with a large media room, more bathrooms, a dispatch and storage area but lesser office space. "This proposal seems a lot better," Superintendent Dr. Herman Sirois said.

Finally, a board meeting would not be complete without the latest update on the Salk/MacArthur Traffic Study. "Six to seven more things still have to be done before we can do any voting on this," Dr. Sirois said. Last month Dr. Sirois was banking on a February board vote, and an April public vote, but all of those dates will certainly have to be pushed back.

The next Levittown Board of Education meeting will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 8 p.m. at LMEC. For more information log onto www.levittownschools.com.