Lynbrook Board Members, Staff and Students Recognized at Meeting

Submitted by Lynbrook School District

The Oct. 1 meeting of the Lynbrook School District Board of Education featured several special honors as well as presentations on the writing process and strategic plan update.

The meeting also included a public hearing on Gold Star Exemption for parents who have lost a child in combat.

The public hearing involved discussions from Board members and comments from residents. Gold Star parents are eligible for a $20,000 property tax exemption, which represents the statutory default amount and would produce a $0.10 tax bill increase for taxpayers of District 20 who are not Gold Star parents. The Board may opt to lessen this number by half, which would bring a tax bill increase of $0.05 or raise it by up to 4.5 percent, bringing the tax bill increase to $0.45. The Board agreed to put this up for resolution in November at the $20,000 limit.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Melissa Burak recognized the high school’s four All-State musicians and provided them with T-shirts as small tokens of acknowledgement. She noted that juniors Jonathon Cuevas (cello) and Gabriel Polinsky (string bass) were selected to the All-State String Orchestra, and seniors Luke Germanakos and Melissa Schepers were chosen for the All-State Mixed Chorus. This is the highest number of All-State music students in Lynbrook High School history. The students will perform at the NYSSMA Winter Conference in Rochester from Dec. 4-7.

See photos on our Facebook page here.

Board of Education President Robert Paskoff announced that Dr. Burak will be attending the District Administration Leadership Institute’s Superintendents Summit in Newport, R.I. this month. He explained that this is the premier professional development opportunity for the top 70 superintendents in the nation, and participants must be specially nominated in order to attend. Paskoff thanked Dr. Burak for her efforts and presented her with a T-shirt on behalf of the Board.

Accolades were also granted to the Board in honor of October’s designation as Board of Education Appreciation Month. Students from South Middle School thanked the members of the Board for their guidance and direction in making important decisions for the district. The students displayed books they had created to portray the many contributions that the Board makes throughout the year and provided each Board member and administrator with their own personal copy.

The district was the only one on Long Island to receive a Certificate of Achievement from the Government Finance Officers Association for Excellence in Financial Reporting. This is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting and indicates that the district is on very good financial ground. Representatives from the district’s auditing firm, Nawrocki Smith LLP, explained that the district has demonstrated itself as fiscally sound and transparent and went above and beyond in preparing a comprehensive financial report. The report is available at www.lynbrookschools.org.

Also during this meeting, tenure was approved for reading teacher Karen Trotta. Trotta was congratulated on this milestone in her Lynbrook career. Students from Marion Street School, joined by Principal Theresa Macchia, shared details on the blood drive they were organizing for the following afternoon.

Children came dressed in their Little Doctors uniforms and encouraged their audience to participate and help them reach their goal of 50 pints of blood for New York Blood Services. Board of Education Vice President Sean Strife mentioned that the high school football team’s fundraiser game also helped to make a difference in others’ lives, raising approximately $1,400 for Wounded Warriors.

Gerard Beleckas, the assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment, and Allison Curran, the elementary curriculum specialist, led a presentation on the writing process. They reviewed the types of writing lessons being conducted in the elementary school classrooms and explained that independent writing is an important component of the lessons. Students develop identities as writers and choose what they write about, and teachers hold individual conferences with students while independent writing assignments are taking place. Curran shared examples of writing projects at different grade levels, demonstrating continuous revisions and skill development progress made through the years.

Guidance Department Chairperson Laurie Mitchell reviewed the strategic plan update as it pertains to guidance and social work. The district has begun administering biannual survey assessments at the secondary level to measure student and parent satisfaction with guidance and social work services. The survey conducted last spring revealed positive feedback. A number of new guidance and social worker developments were initiated since the Strategic Planning Committee’s establishment, including the launch of events and programs, creation of documents and addition of staff and support, among other highlights.

Other items discussed were in reference to individual school matters. The Board will add a second-grade section at Waverly Park in order to maintain ideal class sizes and is exploring possibilities to improve staff parking conditions at Marion Street School through use of the blacktop during school hours. The facilities work continues to progress at North and South middle schools.

Dr. Burak reminded attendees that Unity Day is scheduled for Oct. 22 as part of Anti-Bullying Month and encouraged students and staff to wear orange. Homecoming will be held on Oct. 25, with the parade beginning at 12:30 p.m. in front of the high school and the game following at 1:30 p.m. at Marion Street School. Night of the Pumpkins will also take place on Oct. 25, beginning at 6 p.m. at the high school. Dr. Burak also noted that the Privacy Bill of Rights is available on the district website.

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