Superintendent of Schools for the Mineola School District Dr. Lorenzo Licopoli has high hopes for the Mineola School District. The superintendent is aiming high. He envisions eventually having the district pre-kindergarten program nationally recognized and having the district become recognized by the state as a National District of Excellence. He talks about the National Blue Ribbon Award and National Baldrige Award for education.

But the Mineola School District will hope to see improvement for the time being in student achievement and indeed they have on the Regents examinations, where the biggest improvements were seen on the Math A Regents, U.S. History and Chemistry.

On the Math A Regents, 69 percent of students received a 65 or better in 2003 whereas 91 percent reached that score in 2004. On the U.S. History Regents, 87 percent reached a score of 65 in 2003 whereas 95 did in 2004. On the Chemistry Regents, 69 percent achieved a 65 in 2003 whereas 84 percent did in 2004.

"It happened by hard work. It happened by good instruction and our kids responding to that instruction. We are out to celebrating this achievement," said Dr. Licopoli of the improvement.

The Mineola School District has other areas it can improve in so that the school district received the reputation as one in which it is worth buying a home in the district.

The community certainly spends its fair share on education as Mineola has one of the highest cost per pupils in the county. Now, it may be time for the community to start seeing a return on that investment.

Dr. Licopoli acknowledges that the community provides the district with excellent resources and the district puts out what he calls an extraordinary program.

However, with the board of education acknowledging that taxpayers have reached a threshold in terms of what they can afford, the district must look for ways to raise revenues and cut expenses.

For the past three years, the district has begun to look at its expenses. According to Dr. Licopoli, cuts were made to the expense side of the budget with some staff reductions. When he took over as superintendent, a retirement incentive was offered to some employees. For those who retired, their positions were not filled in some cases. "It didn't make me the most popular cat in town," Dr. Licopoli said.

The district may also need to look at some of its non-mandates programs for cuts. The board considered eliminating its universal pre-kindergarten program to save money in the 2003-2004 budget. However, when numerous parents packed the board meeting to voice their displeasure with the board's potential decision. The board decided it would keep the pre-k program.

More tough decisions may have to be made in the future if the district is going to put out an educational program that is financial feasible to the community while enabling its students to achieve.