Before the Glen Cove Board of Education commenced its regular meeting of Oct. 28, the members of the board had an opportunity to be recognized, commended and even given gifts for their tireless work all year long, thanks to School Board Recognition Week.

Mayor Mary Ann Holzkamp presented certificates from the city to the school board members and thanked them for the countless number of hours they offer on a voluntary basis, and the hard work they do for the benefit of the education of our children. The mayor also told the board that she looks forward to working closely with them.

It is noteworthy that this is the first time in recent memory that a mayor in office has come to a board meeting to commend and thank the hard-working members during School Board Recognition Week.

Representatives of the Glen Cove Council of PTAs echoed the sentiments of the mayor, and added that a donation of $100 had been made in the name of the board of education to the Community Scholarship Fund. Each board member also received a handsomely wrapped box containing a pen and pencil set.

The kudos of the community were followed by an auditor's report done by the firm of Miller Lilly, with Mr. Lilly reporting. He commented that he found the Glen Cove district to be on a par with other districts in a number of areas; in fairly good shape in some areas, in very good shape in others, and then made some suggestions on how to better run the areas that need improvement.

Mr. Lilly asserted that the district needs to hire another staff member in the financial area. As things stand now, there is just one person doing basically everything, from deposits to payables to receivables, and Mr. Lilly avers that separating the workload leads to "more efficiency... work being done more quickly." This also creates a state of checks and balances, avoiding situations of "theft of services, such as in one district, where there was a theft in the amount of $1.5 million."

Mr. Lilly also remarked that the technology of the district's computer equipment is being underutilized; software that is already installed is not being used and other programs are being worked, resulting in both the duplication of work, and the waste of software we already own.

Glen Cove Drug Free Schools Committee representatives Geoffrey Whitely and Ann/Marie Gailius gave a progress report. At this time, they are working on a "needs analysis" and are not to the point of inviting guests to their work sessions.

They recently announced an open forum in the high school, welcoming students and promising to withhold names, to discuss drug use, prevention, etc., but Mr. Whitely reported that there was not as much student response as they would have wanted. He explained that students are still hesitant to be too trusting, despite the promise of anonymity. The present committee consists of teachers, counselors, and those very few students. It was suggested that having a policeman on the committee could deliver a great deal of information and direction, but , then, if the goal is getting the students involved, they might not be so comfortable with a policeman sitting across from them.

Mr. Whitely reiterated that "first we have to get a needs analysis done" before proceeding further, so the board is waiting for that.

Moving onto personnel items, the board debated a not yet formed Polish Club at the high school, and the cost to the district of the stipend to be paid to the person running the club. At one point, a board member suggested loudly, that perhaps this was a "matter of executive session," and so it was left until later to decide whether or not it is cost effective to approve the club at a cost of $57 per child per year.

The next semantics debate came when it was time for acceptance of the CSE minutes. The CSE (Committee on Special Education) meets for each classified or would-be classified child in the district with a teacher, psychologist, parent, parent advocate and the chair of the special education department. Minutes of the meeting are kept and distributed to the board. Doug Brown questioned the point of reviewing minutes for meetings they had not attended and board attorney Carol Hoffman explained that the role of special education has changed greatly lately, and is, in fact, always changing. Originally, the board's job was to approve special ed placements, but now the decisions lie with the CSE. The board can question a decision of the CSE, but cannot veto a decision, nor can members attend CSE meetings. Board member Janet Bates-Wilkins agreed that lay persons should not second guess the professionals. Dr. Rodger Silletti said he couldn't just vote yes on accepting the minutes, and it was finally decided that the question was whether the board was "approving" or "accepting" the minutes, with their exact role in the process to be examined, determined and reported at a later date.

Last year's highly criticized physics Regents revisited the school board. This was an exam that had between two and three times the usual number of students fail the test, due to the difficulty of the test and a curved grading system. By all counts, it has been called an aberration, to the point that the district of Rockville Center is suing the Board of Regents. Dr. Mary Ellen Freeley stated that the administration has determined to let parents individually decide if the test grade should be included on each student's transcript, or just the class grade, which is much higher than the Regents grade in every case. Since New York is the only state that administers or recognizes Regents exams, no school out of the state will look askance at a lack of a physics Regents mark.

Board member Carol Sucharski wanted further explanation as to what goes on in the D-rooms(detention rooms) and the punishment a student receives for cutting or disrupting class. It was generally agreed that it does no good to remove a student from class for not working and place him in a situation where he still is not working. The consensus of the board seemed to be that the high school needs to get a better handle on how to educate students that need an alternative type class and/or learning method.

By the time the public comments section of the meeting was called, much of the public had left, commenting that it was late and they were tired. Former Glen Cove board member Robert Lupinskie, trustee of the Nassau County BOCES board, stood to address the board and stressed the importance of the upcoming BOCES referendum, thanking the district for making the middle school available for voting (see story on page 3).

Resident Glenn Howard commented that he originally had just one statement to make, but in staying so long, had gained 10 pounds munching on snacks, so he needed to speak longer to work off the calories. Speaking for the chamber of commerce, he reminded the board and administration that the chamber offers a $1,000 scholarship every year to a graduating senior, and last year the gift went unclaimed. This year, therefore, the chamber will be able to offer two scholarships and they would very much like to distribute funds to deserving students. He also complimented the board and administration for using sense and logic as regards the physics Regents, and agreed that it was a good idea to sue the State Education Department, adding that their obligation is to our students.

The next meeting of the Glen Cove BOE will be held on Nov. 4 at the high school library at 7:30 p.m. While it is a special meeting, a portion of the meeting will be devoted to a presentation and discussion of the impact on the Glen Cove schools of the newly enacted legislation No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This discussion will be the first in a series of presentations on NCLB and community members are strongly encouraged to attend.