Since the PPATS Group (People for the Preservation of the Alva T. Stanforth School) has moved into the center of the community discussion on the Sewanhaka Central High School District's current plans for the Alva T. Stanforth School property, and has been rawly criticized by the superintendent of schools for its own ideas and proposals, it is important that we address the Sewanhaka Community about the present state of the discussion.

For two years the PPATS Group has continuously and respectfully lobbied the Sewanhaka Central High School Board of Education and the High School Central Administration to reopen and utilize the Alva T. Stanforth School for educational purposes. Our volunteers have become educated on the issues of the day that concern and effect our shared central high school district. We learned a great deal about the state of the district and the challenges we presently face together.

Notwithstanding the superintendent's charged statement, none of us living within the bounds of the Sewanhaka Central High School District can any longer afford to live under a school district policy that treats each of our five high school communities solely as separate mini-districts. Doing so in the past may have been the preferred solo method of operating the central high school district. Yet, the "home-school philosophy" which supported such a divisional policy, has over time been costly, inefficient, and worst of all, has blinded all of us from ever expecting that we could address districtwide problems by implementing comprehensive central districtwide programs. One explicit and well-known consequence of this, of course, was the 1984 closing of the Alva T. Stanforth School, followed by a 15-year standoff over what to do with the school.

While the current board of education asserts that it now has plans for the premises, the superintendent's recent statements make clear that any ideas offered for the Alva T. Stanforth School will not be allowed to impede the long-standing strictly enforced home-school policy, at least as it regards delivering educational services, though, apparently not as it regards districtwide sporting events. Yet, if implementing educational districtwide programs at Alva T. Stanforth could serve an important need to the education of our students, while enhancing the delivery of quality educational services to many - if not most - of them, and would ultimately be cost effective in the long run, what reason could remain to insist on enforcing a strict home-school policy. Let us dismiss at the outset, the fallacious argument that the Alva T. Stanforth School is too far away from the other district high schools. If the truth be told, a ride to the Alva T. Stanforth School from the furthest distance in the district is no more than ten minutes. Thus, it continues to be the responsibility of the board of education and the central administration to address the question of why not implement educational districtwide programs at Alva T. Stanforth in addition to reserving the land for sporting events.

In ridiculing the PPATS Group's educational-use proposals, the superintendent sharply criticized us for repeating a statistic revealed in a verbal report to the board of education last year by Sewanhaka School District educators. It was then said that, in conversations these educators had with State Department of Education officials, that the state recognized that the new graduation requirements calling on all students to pass Regents exams in order to graduate from high school could result in a 15 percent decline of able graduates. In asserting that the statistic does not apply to our school district, the superintendent maintains that there will be no casualty rate among our graduation candidates as far into the future as anyone can see.

In support of that claim, the superintendent stated that over the past ten years, in all five of our district schools, graduation rates have never gone below 97 percent. Yet, over the past ten years graduates completed their high school education along either a Regents track (receiving a Regents high school diploma) or a non-Regents track (receiving what had been called a local high school diploma). Students no longer have that option under the new state standards; all students must now pass the Regents examinations in order to graduate, starting this year.

Moreover, based on information the PPATS Group received from school district sources, the 97 percent graduation rate, when broken down, reveals that on average, at each of the five schools in our district, last year alone (1998-1999), only 55 percent of our students received Regents diplomas. If this were the graduating statistic for the 1999-2000 school year, 45 percent of our district's students would be unable to graduate, quite a bit worse than the State Department of Education's own 15 percent estimate. Since the effect of the new standards would effect the entire district, implementing a districtwide tutorial program would not only ensure that more of our students will receive the training necessary to graduate in the new learning environment, but uniform implementation would be more cost effective than allowing each school to implement its own plans.

According to our sources, the current tutorial commitment at any given school in the district entails using a few willing teachers after school, who may not be trained in the particular subject matter, but who provide the training to those students in need. Whatever value there may be in utilizing the services of teachers from cross disciplines, it still cannot be said that a uniform comprehensive program has been designed for implementation in what is going to quickly become a growing educational concern in our district. The question becomes why wait to implement five separate makeshift tutorial programs, one at each school, when an empty school building, which according to the board's current proposals will house the central administration, could be used as a center not only to train students in taking the Regents, but could also serve as the center to uniformly train teachers with what they need to tutor the students. Notwithstanding the superintendent's disinterest in being the champion of such an initiative, the program could, with some innovation, be monitored and supervised by central administration.

The superintendent also stated that 97 percent of our students have already passed the English 11 Regents examination, which was the first required for the new higher state standards. According to our sources, this statement is also not as it appears. Those students who took the English 11 Regents last school year took it in January, 1999, at a time when the old form English Regents examination was still used. The new form English Regents examination was not out until June, 1999, and the new form places greater emphasis on writing skill. This makes the next examination a far more difficult exam for the next 11th grade class to take and do well on. Thus, to date, we have no idea how our students will fare under the new standard. With the knowledge that, on average, last year, only 55 percent of our graduates received Regents diplomas, it behooves us all to commit ourselves to comprehensively implement districtwide programming that will ensure that virtually all of our students will fare well and make it through to graduate. The future reputation of the entire Sewanhaka School District and its residents hangs in the balance.

The Sewanhaka Community needs to also know that under federal mandate a significant number of our students will soon be returned from BOCES and reassimilated into their home schools throughout the district. These students will certainly need remediation and tutorial services to meet the demands of the new educational standards. Thus, rather than seeing less reason for districtwide tutorial programming, there is greater reason to prepare to implement such programming now.

In addition, the English as a Second Language Academy (ESL) is growing. This program, which presumably has at least some students from each of our high schools, is presently located at the Sewanhaka High School. Although the school board and the administration insist that we have no need to reopen a sixth school in the district, anyone who regularly attends Sewanhaka High School knows that it has growing space needs. While the board and administration acknowledge that Elmont Memorial High School has growing space needs, and plan to alleviate that problem by moving central administration onto the Alva T. Stanforth premises, it denounces the PPATS proposal which seeks to alleviate spacing concerns at Sewanhaka High School by moving the English as a Second Language Academy into Alva T. Stanforth as well. Under the PPATS proposal, mainstream students at Sewanhaka High School and ESL students at Alva T. Stanforth would fare better in their respective school environments; their newly revised locations would be less crowded and more conductive to their individual learning needs. It is perplexing that these ideas led the board and administration to denounce and declare the PPATS group's proposal as ludicrous, while insisting that there is no good reason to reopen a sixth school in the district.

The PPATS Group has never said that the Alva T. Stanforth School property should not be used for sports events. Nor has it ever claimed that its educational-use proposals were the only ones possible for the school. Our offering is meant solely to provide something at the Alva T. Stanforth School that the entire Sewanhaka Community could have a stake in, and be proud at the same time of being part of a districtwide educational undertaking that is necessary and whose time is now.

The board of education and the administration should address the noted concerns expressed herein and move toward compromise. In short, it should ultimately agree to incorporate a plan for educational use into its current plans for Alva T. Stanforth, when it convenes the next special Alva T. Stanforth Board hearing at Floral Park Memorial High School Auditorium, on Tuesday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m.

Richard A. Mastrocola - Facilitator