At last Thursday's meeting of the Mineola Board of Education, superintendent of Schools Dr. Larry Licopoli, Director of Pupil Services Janice Patterson and the board of education honored the Mineola students who participated in the Empire State Games for the Physically Challenged earlier this month at Mitchell Field.

All too often, society takes for granted what the purpose of sports is supposed to be about. But as each student was congratulated and received his or her medal, it was clear that, in this case, sports was all about a sense of accomplishment and reaching a goal no matter what impediments stand in the way.

Each ovation and medal was well deserved. Congratulations to all involved.

Among the medal winners were Alberto Diaz, Tim Papadogiannis and Kathleen Bohland from Mineola High School; Lauren Barry and Won Chung from Mineola Middle School; Austin Aronoff and Michael Shorr from the Meadow Drive School and Brianna Almeida, Courtney Aronoff, Daniel Gasiewski and Arthur Ribeiro from the Willis Avenue School.

Mineola High School students in the Advanced Placement American History and English Composition class did an interesting project whereby they interviewed several community veterans about their experience in the military and protecting our nation's freedoms.

An example of some of the projects are Amanda Buehler and Stephanie Badger's report on Walter Hobbs, a community veteran from World War II who enlisted after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and Kristin and Lauren Mobyed's report on Joan Hobbs, a member of the Navy WAVES who worked for the postal service of the United States Navy.

The students interviewed the veterans and learned that freedom doesn't come free and about the sacrifices made by our service men and women. Among some of the other veterans interviewed were Ray Vaz, Joe DiGiorgio, Manny Grilo, Sal Cataldo and John DaVanzo.

A video with clips of the interviews and music was eloquently put together by Melissa Fusco.

The board of education accepted with regret the resignation of CSE Chairperson Patricia Dobies, who has accepted a position in the East Meadow School District.

The board of education voted to abolish seven teaching positions as of June 30. They are:

One Full-time equivalent science teacher

One Full-time equivalent English teacher

One Full-time equivalent AV/TV teacher

One Full-time equivalent elementary teacher

One Full-time equivalent foreign language teacher

One Full-time equivalent art teacher

One Full-time equivalent social worker

The teachers who had these positions - Christopher Bambino, Laura Judge, Dror Kahn, Joanne Gagliano, Gerard Armengau, Jenique Nijboer and Nikolaos Michael - should be back in the district next school year, according to Dr. Licopoli. However, since their positions were abolished, they may not be used in the same capacity as they have been.

The Mineola Finance Committee is scheduled to meet on June 21. The committee is then supposed to brief the board of education at a later date. A Cross Street parent raised concerns about the playground service at the Cross Street School. The parent acknowledged that the rubber playground service is soft, but it gets all over the grass surrounding the playground and the students' clothes. Dr. Licopoli said it was the first time he had been hearing any kind of complaint about the service. The surface is also expected to be used at the Jackson Avenue School and Meadow Drive School playgrounds as part of the 2006-2007 budget.