Many may think of Mineola Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lorenzo Licopoli as the qualified superintendent from upstate who the Mineola School District hired to be its chief executive officer. Some may even know that Dr. Licopoli also came from Floral Park and has now returned to his roots on Long Island. But, the Mineola superintendent's parents actually used to live in Mineola and so when Dr. Licopoli took the job, it was a homecoming of sorts for him.

Now, a year into the job, he is thrilled with his decision and is looking forward to meeting the great challenges that lie ahead for the Mineola School District. "It's been absolutely terrific in every which way," he says when asked his impressions of the district. "The board of education has been forward thinking, supportive of the idea of continuous improvement of school quality. All of the players involved in the community - parents, students, community leaders - have all been extremely supportive. The evidence is very easy to see," Dr. Licopoli said.

With the retirement of former Superintendent of Schools Dr. Harry Jaroslaw, the district was looking for a new leader to meet the growing challenges of running a Long Island School District. The board of education went out of the district and hired Dr. Licopoli, who was serving as the superintendent of the Chatham School District.

A major initiative brought to the district by Dr. Licopoli and the board of education was an educational plan with mission is to inspire each student to be a lifelong learner, pursue excellence, exhibit strength of character and contribute positively to a global society. The objective may be easier said than done but the district feels it now has the basic structure for each decision it makes. "We owe it to the community to be accountable and be able to articulate that we are using the best practices and we're getting optimum results not just in the classrooms, but on the playing fields, on the stage and in the contributions to the community. It's the whole school experience," he said.

With the passing of the educational plan, the district will base its decisions around the core values, strategic objectives and delimiters it has adopted. Dr. Licopoli believes the resources the community has provided the district are excellent. "We have a very open faculty. Our administrative leadership embraces the idea of lifelong learning and the idea of advancing our school system on behalf of kids is clearly evident here. That's a rewarding feeling when you're the superintendent," he said. "The people here have a lot of pride in the schools and it makes my job easier because of that commitment."

One of the challenges facing the district is the improvement of standardized test scores. In some cases, the Mineola School District scored below other area schools on some standardized tests. The district will apparently pay attention to its curriculum since it hired an assistant superintendent for curriculum. "I think the performance of our students can improve and ought to improve. I don't say that in the context that what has happened is necessarily poor, but we definitely need to get into a cycle of continuous improvement. We have to be much more definitive in terms of how we plan," said Dr. Licopoli.

Rather than use the New York State assessment as a measuring device for the quality of education being received, the superintendent believes in using the data as a tool to determine students' learning needs as well as identify the best instructional packages to enable students to improve. "We need to do that as a system," he said. "We're trying to incorporate the review process that looks at the goals that we set up and the initiatives we design and then we try to assess them monthly and quarterly. We know we want to go up a notch. Where we hope to be this year is that each building will have its specific plans for improvement."

The district hopes to accomplish its goals through the strategic objectives it will come to develop each year in association with the budget planning. The goals will all be in line with the district's mission, core values, strategic objectives and delimiters. Examples of the 2002-2003 initiatives include revising and updating board policies, developing new elementary report cards, streamlining administrative procedures, studying feasibility of implementing a full-day kindergarten program and revising a plan for the academically gifted program.

Then, of course, there will be the task of getting the new Willis Avenue School, which will house all of the district's kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classes, open for the 2003-2004 school year.

But a major goal is to develop a sense of unity in the district so that transitions from the elementary schools to the middle school and the high school will be smooth, while not stifling the individuality of the school buildings. Evidence of the concept of unity is the district's philosophy of getting the entire school community involved in the education. For example, in proposing the revisions to the district mission statement, core values and standards objectives, the district put together a school collaborative team that worked for two days. The team was comprised of different aspects of the school community such as teachers, parents, students, principals, community members, as well as a head custodian and bus driver.

"I think the major things we are looking forward to next year is the restructuring plan, which, in effect, transitions the school system from a building-based structure in terms of delivery of curriculum and instruction to a district system of curriculum, instruction and assessment," said Dr. Licopoli.

One of the major, broader goals of the Mineola School District, however, is not to be a stagnant district. It will take hard work, but Dr. Licopoli is up to the challenge of leading the district and he hopes he continues to get the cooperation and support he enjoyed in his first year as superintendent.