At the most recent Mineola School Board meeting as the superintendent of school and the board of education were discussing potential cuts to the 2005-2006 budget, the district was criticized for some of its spending. It seems the district's high per pupil spending in relation to its test scores has negatively impacted the reputation of the Mineola Schools.

The perception among some critics of the Mineola School District is that Mineola's spending doesn't translate to high test scores. Some point to other districts near Mineola that spend less, but have a higher percentage of students reaching levels three and four, which are meeting or exceeding state standards on New York State standardized tests.

According to the recently released state report cards for the 2003-2004 academic year, Mineola spends the third highest amount per pupil at $22,250 in Nassau County trailing only Lawrence at $23,438 and Manhasset at $23,344.

The Mineola School District scores included 79 percent meeting or exceeding state standards in fourth grade English and 93 percent meeting or exceeding state standards in fourth grade math. In eighth grade English, 53 percent met or exceeded state standards while 70 percent met or exceeded state standards in eighth grade math.

By individual schools, the Mineola School District's scores are broken down as follows:

School	4th Grade English	4th Grade Math
Cross Street School	78 percent	85 percent
Hampton Street School	67 percent	100 percent
Jackson Avenue School	74 percent	94 percent
Meadow Drive School	100 percent	96 percent
8th Grade English	8th Grade Math
Mineola Middle School	53 percent	70 percent

In the Garden City School District, which spends $16,893 per pupil, 90 percent of students met or exceeded state standards in fourth grade English and 98 percent met or exceeded state standards in fourth grade math while 84 percent met or exceeded state standards in eighth grade English while 93 percent met or exceeded state standards in eighth grade math.

In the Herricks School District, which spends $16,288 per pupil, 90 percent of students met or exceeded state standards in fourth grade English and 95 percent met or exceeded state standards in fourth English while 84 percent met or exceeded state standards in eighth grade English and 90 percent met or exceeded state standards in eighth grade math.

The expenses per pupil and the test scores lead some to question whether Mineola School District taxpayers are getting a good bang for the buck.

The district recently put together a finance committee to study the spending habits of the school district and analyze where the district's financial future lies. The administration and board of education have made an effort to reduce expenses in the last few years. However, Mineola remains among the highest in the state in spending per pupil and there are several reasons why.

One reason is Mineola is well staffed. Part of the reason is the district's diverse population, which requires additional staffing. The district also offers students an educational program that has been described as "unique."

The programs are something the board and administration have been reluctant to take away. Even as the board grapples with cuts from its proposed 2005-2006 proposed budget, the district's programs will remain intact unless the taxpayers reject the budget and the board must adopt a contingency.

Still, many in the community want to see their tax dollars result in student achievement in relation to other schools that spend less money. Superintendent of Schools for the Mineola School District Dr. Lorenzo Licopoli believes that when you compare students from one district to another district, you are dishonoring student achievement.

"We met our goals for annual growth from year to year, which the thing that is most important to us. The standard in which we gave ourselves in terms of improvement, we met that," Dr. Licopoli said. "When you look at our demographics, nearly 25 percent of our population is either special education students or students in which English is a second language. When you factor out our general education students, their performance is as comparable as any general education student."

A check of the district's report card, which can be found on the Internet at www.nysed.gov, breaks down student test scores by such subgroups as race/ethnicity, disability status and English proficiency status.

There are several flaws in comparing school districts with demographics being among them. The whole idea between continuous improvement in the Mineola School District is that student achievement within only the Mineola School District improves over time.

For the 1998-1999 school year report card, the Mineola School District saw 73 percent of fourth grade students meet or exceed state standards in English compared with 79 percent in 2003-2004. In 1998-1999, 92 percent of fourth graders met or exceeded state standards in math compared with 93 percent in 2003-2004. In eighth grade English in 1998-1999, 54 percent met or exceeded state standards in eighth grade English compared to 53 percent in 2003-2004. In eighth grade math in 1998-1999, 51 percent met or exceeded state standards compared to 70 percent in 2003-2004.

There are even flaws in comparing students from the same district from year to year since there is a different group of students taking the tests each year.

The Mineola School District is planning on having a presentation on its school report card during a board of education meeting in the near future.

* In the March 23 edition of the Mineola American, in the article "Surprising Announcement for Board of Ed President" on page one, we referred to Donna Strein's speech as "infamous." This was a poor choice of words. We meant famous speech because of the response of applause it received at the meeting. We regret the error.

* On page 16, in the article "Downsizing at the Mineola School District," we stated that there is the elimination of three full-time teacher aide positions being considered at a savings of $300,000. It is actually four full-time teacher aide positions and 24 part-time teacher aide positions at a savings of $300,000. We apologize for the error.