The Oct. 21 Board of Education (BOE) meeting was held in the Shelter Rock Elementary School auditorium where over 50 teachers sat together to impress upon the board and the administration, as one teacher said prior to the meeting, "that we are here in spite of not having a contract." The meeting began at 8:30 p.m. and the minutes of the past two meetings, Sept. 23 and Oct. 7, were approved with minor changes. At the Oct. 7 BOE meeting it had been decided to put the walking distance back on the ballot. The proposition would be to return to the one-mile walking distance and when it appears on the ballot in May the additional cost will be provided.

Brenda Damiani, administrative assistant in the office of community services, then announced that because the week of Oct. 25-29 had been set aside to honor members of the boards of education, there would be a short "thank you" presentation by student representatives from both elementary schools.

The public comment session, when the community can address the board on any item of interest, followed and Jerome Blocker, chairman of the Manhasset/Great Neck EOC, spoke representing parents, also seated together, who believe students of color are treated differently at the high school. He said parents complain of communication problems with the administration and had therefore gathered as a group to address the board in order to be heard. After speaking in general for the group he turned to them and asked if anyone had comments, and the parents stood, one by one, to appeal to the board. Their complaints were twofold: first, more drastic action is taken against their children, such as suspension and police involvement, and second, the unavailability of the administration to discuss their concerns. They attended this meeting, they said, because they could not reach William Stark, high school principal, or Dr. Lawrence Bozzomo, superintendent of schools. When Mr. Blocker spoke again he requested a meeting with Dr. Bozzomo. Tom Maimone, board of education president, said there is zero tolerance for racial based behavior and if it is occurring it must be changed. He said this is the first he had heard of it and he would need to discuss the issue and the facts presented at the meeting with the administration. He also said that Dr. Bozzomo would meet with them. One woman spoke for the group when she stood and asked "When?"

Following the public comment, Robert Geczik, Shelter Rock principal, spoke about testing that occurs in the fall and spring to track students' achievement. He introduced Paulette Williams, assistant principal of Shelter Rock, who explained the Running Record, a measure and analysis of oral reading, most useful in the early years of learning. It is used nationwide and acts like a quick snap shot, it was said, and is a method of analyzing on paper a student's mistakes when reading aloud in order to better address the student's specific problems. Geralyn Murasco, a reading teacher at Shelter Rock, obtained a one year grant to test the MClass, a palm pilot that simplifies using the Running Record-it is an electronic version of what had been done on paper with the added benefit of providing a printout. Robert Feirsen, deputy superintendent, was instrumental in advancing her project.

At 9:30 p.m. Danielle Harris, high school student representative, spoke in glowing terms about the student senate. Up and running a very short time it enjoys participation from every group imaginable, she said. Currently they are focusing on several issues, including how athletics are being impacted by busing. Also, she said, referring to the Senior Frolic, tradition is important, and costs this year will be greater for their parents since the parents traditionally spend many hours in the gym transforming it for the senior class dance, and, under austerity, the custodians must be paid for those hours. The students are considering ways to pay for the use of the gym themselves so their parents can continue the tradition. Ms. Harris then said their next project will be "a combined effort to celebrate those who contribute to the greater good" and the students will buy phone cards for the troops in Iraq. She said she hoped through "the student senate, a new form of communication, we can fix any problems in our school."

Deborah Klein, school board member and liaison to the School Community Association (SCA), spoke about middle school football. Her remarks were followed by comments from the audit committee. The mantra of the audit committee has become "I asked for that last month and still don't have the information." Aline Khatchadourian, board and audit committee member, cited a need for greater accuracy from the business department including more transparency as to where costs are charged, and a need for an overall understanding of the reserves and fund balances. Discussion followed regarding what projects had been completed with $900,000 from a bond issue. Request was made, again, to see the "white book" that lists projects done. Dr. Bozzomo said Jon Thomas of Thomas and Williamson, Inc. took "the green book" four years ago and analyzed projects in the three facilities and broke them down by priority as to which should be done first. Tom Maimone responded that they needed the source book, not Jon Thomas' analysis. Aline Khatchadourian said it is "impacting our decision-making ability with the quality of the reports we are getting." Several times the business office was asked why it did not make use of software to facilitate its record keeping. "It is disturbing," said Aline Khatchadourian, "that programs were cut, and at the end of it there is money around." Tom Maimone said he was surprised at the amount of money left over at the end of the year-"I never got a straight answer," he said. Dr. Bozzomo said his attitude has always been, in 1999 and now, that just because it is appropriated doesn't mean you have to spend it. Aline Khatchadourian said since June she has been asking for the unappropriated balance.

The board had also requested a list of "miscellaneous contractual" that were tied to consultants which propelled Stanley Germain, interim assistant superintendent for business, to recount a harried cut and paste operation that seemed to leave information somewhere at the bottom of a spread sheet. The information had been requested previously, still not forthcoming, and again he was asked why he did not use appropriate software to simplify retrieving information.

Cindy Cardinal, board and audit committee member, said that before state auditors were involved and the board was contemplating a forensic audit, Cerini Associates, LLP was interviewed. The board wants to hire them to institute efficiencies in the business office, and to provide information directly to the board.

Lisa Goring, SCA Shelter Rock president, reported that Munsey Park has a new drop off policy to keep the traffic line moving in the morning. She said outsourcing of transportation is a buzz around the schools. Robert Feirsen said, among other things, that 37 juniors and seniors are in the national honor society, 300 students took the PSATs last Saturday, and the redesigned Dimensions program was launched on October 12 and is doing well. Robyn Mandor, assistant superintendent for personnel, said Dr. Bozzomo initiated "New Administrators Day" to help acclimate the new hires, and Dr. Feirsen set up new teachers meetings once a month to help them work with the staff and to grow professionally. Dr. Bozzomo said they have a relatively inexperienced cadre of administrators, that 13 are non-tenured.

Robert Feirsen mentioned the difficulty in getting students to return information cards to the nurse's office. E-School Data, the school computer system, lacks necessary information. The process is very labor intensive and requires a lot of data input. Someone asked if a note could be sent home, "This is what we have, is it correct?" Another said that cell phone numbers change all the time. Another, that the system needs a "technological tweek." Inaccurate emergency contacts are an issue. A suggestion was made to communicate the problem on the SCA website.

Mary Madden, SCA president, said the SCA updated information on one class, the senior class, and found it to be seriously out of date, by two years. And 15 students who graduated last year, she said, were on the current senior class list, of those perhaps three took classes over the summer to graduate. Ms. Madden said the project was very labor intensive but that the SCA would do anything they could to help. Questions were raised about the capabilities of the E-School Data system.