The Levittown Board of Education had a busy night on Feb. 7 for their monthly regular meeting, as they were entertained by some talented young students, honored a number of students, and parents, as well as being educated on numerous new reading programs utilized in the district.

The Levittown Memorial Education Center's Board Boom was filled with Lee Road students' artwork, as the finest from that school hit the stage to perform a presentation entitled Lee Road Gets a Voice. Lee Road Principal Anthony Goss was on hand to introduce the students, and the program, that kicked off last week.

"This program is trying to promote a safe and bully free environment," Goss said.

The students' performance included a scene of one student making fun of the other with everyone else going along with it, but in the next scene, another child steps up and sticks up for him, and then everyone else starts to do the same. To be part of this program, you have to take the official oath, and even faculty and administration at Lee Road have done so.

Nine district students were then honored for their excellence in writing, by being winners of the LUT sponsored essay contest, with the theme of the essay being "My teachers are special to me because..." Winners included Jessica Gutowitz from Lee Road, Michaela Napoli from Gardiners, Nicholas Rigali from Summit, Emily Rollins and Kaitlyn Gerdes from East Broadway, Matthew Cohen from Northside, Matthew Leonhardt and Kristen Schaefer from MacArthur, along with Kevin Powell from GC Tech.

The big winner was second grader Jessica Gutowitz, who was recognized Island-wide for her essay, has won $250 for it. She is now eligible to win $500 and have her essay featured on a television commercial.

The Levittown Board of Education recognized the PTA Executive Board with certificates of appreciation and a reception.

The Curriculum Report portion of the meeting focused on four relatively new and innovative reading programs being used in Levittown's elementary schools. They are the Guided Reading program, the Wilson Reading Approach, Read 180 and the DRA Assessment program.

All four of these serve different purposes, with the Guided Reading focusing solely on the meaning of the story and being able to read independently. The Wilson Reading approach is more for special education students, and self-contained classes, and consists of a sound card for each letter in the alphabet that consists of a letter and picture that the child can associate with. Read 180 has been discussed at board meetings before, and has been very productive in trying to solve children's reading problems before they even get to high school. This centers around more personalized instruction, with reading topics that are more interesting, to go along with time at independent computer stations.

The newest reading program featured was the DRA assessment program, presented by Rene Wurst of Gardiners Avenue, who displayed an unparalleled enthusiasm for it.

"Assessment driven instruction is the main philosophy here," Wurst said. "This program gives us an opportunity to figure out precisely where children are in their reading, almost immediately."

Wurst went on to say that when students come to school in the fall, it could take teachers at least one marking period to get a grip on the reading level of each student, but with DRA it takes maybe only a couple of weeks.

All the presenters of these various techniques boasted about the strong results thus far.

Other news included talk by Superintendent Dr. Herman Sirois that Governor Eliot Spitzer's budget plan for 2007-08 would benefit Levittown, as state aid for the district would increase. However, he mentioned that it is unclear if the state legislature would pass this. There has also been talk to expand the district's Summer Tutorial Program to now include third graders. The cost of this would be an additional $7,000 approximately, but Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Victor Longaro said, "It would be worth it."

The board will have four Budget Planning sessions on Feb. 28, March 7, 21 and 28, the next Regular Meeting will take place March 14. All meetings are at Levittown Memorial Education Center and begin at 8 p.m. For more information, log on to www.levittownschools.com.