Q&A - Town Hall Meeting 2009
Question:
My daughters go to Homestead and I hear the district is cutting buses. I've been tring to get more information from PTA but I'm not getting anywhere. Please tell me what the plan is for cutting buses and when will more information be public.
a. Are other areas of the district at risk for losing buses?
b. Is cutting buses the best way to cut the budget? What about the safety of the kids who
may live close to school but need to cross busy streets?
Answer: Thank you for asking this important question. First, the district is not cutting buses as a cost saving measure; in fact, the proposed budget contains funds to replace buses that are nearing the end of their life cycle so we can maintain our Transportation Department at the same level as it has been for the past number of years.
The school district always considers health and safety a top priority. A study group is looking at the district's Student Transportation Policy to ensure that it is designed in such a way that it can be applied fairly and consistently across the school district. This study group evolved from a presentation the Superintendent gave in public to the Board in October that identified aspects of the Student Transportation Policy that were inconsistent with requirements imposed by the State of New York. (Board policy cannot contravene state law.) The group is comprised of representatives from the central administration, three principals, our Directory and Assistant Director of Transportation, representatives from each of the POAs and Inspector Jackson from the Garden City Police Department. The POAs were invited into the conversation because it was anticipated that any changes in routes to school (by foot, car or school bus) would inevitably have impact on traffic patterns throughout the Village.
The study group is now looking at three particular areas where busing has been previously provided and the application of the Student Transportation Policy appears inconsistent. As descried in the October presentation to the Board of Education, these areas include some of the streets around Homestead, a section south of Transverse Road affecting students going to Hemlock, and the streets surrounding Clonton Road for students going to Stewart. All of the streets in question are within the "walk-in" areas for each respective school. The study group will work with the Village to assess the traffic experienced in each area, identify the safest routes to school and make recommendations to the Board of Education concerning whether busing arrangements existing in those areas should be sustained, modified or eliminated, beginning in the 2009-10 school year.
Question:
How are subject area teachers applying new reading strategies?
a. What are the specifics?
b. How have these subject teachers changed their teaching methods (specifics)?
Answer:
At the primary and elementary levels, teachers are working with best practices from balanced literacy. Strategies include shared reading, interactive read alouds, and interactive writing across the curriculum. Early strategic reading prompts are taught as well; these include directional movement (left to right), one-to-one matching, locating known and unknown words, self-monitoring, searching for cues with regard to syntax, semantics and visual (letters, graphs and pictures) presentation.
As content becomes more sophisticated, teachers help students master advanced strategies. For example, in social studies students are taught outlining skills and how to analyze historical documents. In English classes, timelines are often used to help students recognize the sequencing of events. Content classes similarly provide practice in interpreting headings, photographs, tables, illustrations and maps. In many lessons, teachers provide what we call "scaffolding" (varying levels of support designed to meet the needs of individual or small groups of students) in their discussion questions and writing assignments. In addition, during class discussions teachers help students relate prior knowledge to the text and elicit student predictions about content before reading. Students are also taught to derive meaning from written materials by constructing mental images and summaries during reading, and teachers ask questions and seek clarification after reading. In a related manner, students are taught to make and verify predictions, and design story maps, Venn Diagrams and other types of graphic organizers. Students are provided with instruction in how to paraphrase and summarize main points and ideas, use strategies such as SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review), recognize the fine points of difference between a comparison and a contrast, and separate causes from effects. Instructional technology has been utilized as well; the Castle Software many teachers and students use provides practice in key skills required in the content areas.
To provide effective instruction for students with significant reading deficits, the district is currently continuing its efforts to provide reading specialists and special educators with staff development in multi-sensory reading techniques. This approach will help students who struggle with reading to achieve greater fluency, thereby enabling them to focus on constructing meaning from text rather than just sounding-out or recognizing individual words.