As I approached the end of my first year as Superintendent, I wanted to check the pulse of the district from the vantage point of the students who had spent the past 13 years in our classrooms. My visits to all senior Social Studies classes during the month of June has helped me to understand just how much the East Williston Schools have meant to our graduating seniors. In every class the seniors spoke of their treasured experiences and the relationships nurtured by a caring staff.

Ninety eight percent (98 percent) of our students will be attending college with 72 percent having earned advanced regents diplomas. Of the 145 graduates, 23 will be attending tier I colleges in the fall. While handling a most rigorous course of study, including writing 515 exams in 23 Advanced Placement courses, these students generously gave their time and talent to countless volunteer efforts. During Showdown (a healthy class competition among students promoting academics, athletics, community service and school spirit), the seniors chose the motto "Prepare for Glory." This senior class genuinely expressed the feeling that they had indeed been prepared to handle the challenges ahead. By all measures, we have much to celebrate as we proudly send the members of the Class of 2008 down new pathways of learning, toward most impressive futures.

Recent New York State Assessment results in grades 3-8 also indicate the tremendous gains made by our students in mathematics and English Language Arts. You may recall in the fall, when I shared our Plans For Results, I spoke about attending to consistent proficiency performance across all grade levels. Our staff and students have yielded mathematics performance with a range of 95.1 percent in grade 8 to 98.8 percent in grade 5, outperforming many of the schools with which we are most often compared. Last year, this range was 80 percent in grade 8 to 100 percent in grade 4. In English Language Arts, performance ranged from 87.1 percent in grade 8 to 95.7 percent in grade 4, again outperforming most of our comparable schools.

Our Regents exams results were again most impressive, both in the pass rates, scores above 65, as well as the mastery rates, scores above 85. This clearly demonstrates the students' level of preparedness in all disciplines. Performance on the five mandatory Regents exams required for a Regents diploma are shown below.

2008	English	Math	Biology	Global	US
				History	History
Pass rate	99 percent	99 percent	100 percent	93 percent	99 percent
Mastery	90 percent	60 percent	67 percent	61 percent	76 percent

I have often said that we are more than test results. For those in our community who were fortunate to attend the North Side and Willets Road moving up ceremonies and/or Wheatley graduation, you learned first hand what the true measure of this district is: Our students feel safe, challenged, engaged and ready for their next journey.