In what has become a tradition, the Three Village Board of Education celebrated the success of its three Science Olympiad teams at the regional, state and national competitions.

While some might point to the junior high and high school teams’ dominance as proof of the district’s commitment to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, a presentation at the board’s recent meeting outlining the district’s inaugural year of the elementary STEM program could seal the deal.

The two junior high schools, P.J. Gelinas and R.C. Murphy, placed first and second, respectively, in the regional Science Olympiad competition. Gelinas went on to become New York State champions and finished 10th at the national competition. Ward Melville finished first in the Eastern Long Island regionals, second in New York State and is ranked 24th in the country. The Ward Melville team also won a first-place medal in Experimental Design and one for fifth place for Write It/Do It.

The recognition served as the ideal introduction to the evening’s report about the new STEM education program for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

STEM at Three Village introduces elementary school children to computer science and gives them the opportunity to apply engineering and design challenges to real-world issues. Colleen Maier, STEM teacher at Nassakeag Elementary School, said that while units of study vary, all grades are exposed to coding through Code.org, a nonprofit organization that offers a free web-based curriculum. 

Gretchen Tranchino, STEM teacher at W.S. Mount, said the first step for all grades is learning about algorithms — a list of steps to complete a task. While older students followed algorithms for making paper airplanes, younger children used them to plant seeds. Eventually, the process of writing algorithms was translated to writing code on computers, she said.   

The focus varies by grade level after the initial introduction to coding, Maier said. For example, students in kindergarten through second grade focus on the “living environment,” learning about vertical growing towers, which don’t need soil and can grow year-round indoors.

While working on the projects, students learn about greenhouses, plant needs and also learn the differences between geoponics — growing plants in soil — and aeroponics — growing plants in the air, said Brianna Rovegno, who teaches STEM at Arrowhead Elementary School.   

Second-graders designed the water sources for their towers and got inspiration from plants and animals, while also considering materials and time constraints, Rovegno said. Some harvests included lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and peppers. 

Rovegno said that in order to reinforce early coding concepts, third- and fourth-grade students transition from writing code on paper to programming small robots, called Ozobots. This helps students develop logical reasoning and teaches them to embrace failure, Rovegno said, adding that writing code, working to debug a program and find errors within the code aid students in becoming more perseverant. 

“They really had to stick with it,” Tranchino said. “We felt that this was a skill that was easily transferrable and really important in their educational journey.”

Though there were a variety of design challenges for fifth- and sixth-graders — they learned about computer-aided design with the application Tinkercad — all of the students had the opportunity to see their designs realized with a 3-D printer. With each lesson, said Sean Dowling, Minnesauke Elementary School’s STEM teacher, teachers presented the children with a real-world application.

Students designing shells for hermit crabs learned about the shortage of hermit crab shells in Bermuda and had to incorporate the measurements of actual hermit crabs in their design. Other students designed rectangular prism sculptures following mathematical guidelines that reinforced math concepts related to the volume of prisms. Meanwhile, another group of students designed organ transport containers that applied their knowledge of the transport of thermal energy in order to preserve ice.

Moving forward, the five STEM teachers who have been working and collaborating with the general education teachers, will continue to develop the curriculum. They will continue to review, revise and enhance the program over the summer.

Three candidates are vying for two seats on the Three Village school board.

Incumbent Jonathan Kornreich, who has been on the board since 2008, will try to hold on to one of the at-large seats. Newcomer Angelique Ragolia, 46, and Andrea Fusco-Winslow, who ran unsuccessfully for the school board in 2012, are joining Kornreich in a bid for the two, 3-year positions.

A handful of residents showed up at Ward Melville High School Monday for the PTA-sponsored Meet the Candidates Night, at which the candidates for board trustees fielded prepared questions from the audience. Pitching their strengths, each highlighted qualities they said make them uniquely suited for the board.

Fusco-Winslow, an anesthesiologist with ProHEALTH Care Associates, said that, as a former business owner, she understands budgets and the importance of the bottom line. As a “fresh face” to the board, “I may see things differently,” she said, which could help the board ask the right questions and “change things that need to be changed.”

“I want to do the best for the community that has taken such good care of me,” said Fusco-Winslow, a 1988 Ward Melville High School graduate.

Kornreich, 46, chair of the board’s audit committee and a member of its legislative committee, said his background in investment management and as a legal consultant gives him a good sense of what tomorrow’s businesses want. That makes him an effective advocate for programs that will give Three Village students the right skills.

“There are certain very special things about this school district that make it desirable,” Kornreich said. “The size of our district allows us to run a wide variety of programs and allows every child to find that special thing about school that they really enjoy.”

He added that he has demonstrated a commitment “to the kids of our community and the community at large.”

“I would love to be someone who advocates for all of our children,” said Ragolia, who taught speech for seven years in Brooklyn before moving to East Setauket more than a decade ago. She works as a positive behavior intervention specialist with people suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

Now at the end of her second year as president of the Three Village Council of PTAs, Ragolia said she has a good working relationship with district administration and the board.

Asked about the district’s greatest weakness, the former Minnesauke Elementary PTA president answered that there wasn’t one. She praised the school board for restoring several student programs while presenting a “fiscally responsible” budget within the cap.

“I see all good,” Ragolia said. “I see room for growth always, but that’s with everybody, everywhere.”

Fusco-Winslow, 46, said she’s pleased with the education her daughters are receiving at Nassakeag Elementary and P.J. Gelinas Junior High, but sees areas that can be improved.

The 13-year East Setauket resident touched on the need to increase technology and student safety. Specifically, Fusco-Winslow said she wants to move voting, like the April 19 primary, out of the district’s schools. In addition, she wants to ensure that student athletes have the most appropriate safety equipment — particularly for sports such as football and lacrosse, and that the additional $6 million from the state goes toward student programs like art and music.

“There are things that need to be improved, and we have the money to do it,” she said.

Kornreich mentioned the restoration of high school business classes, the expansion of secondary level computer science and the elementary STEM program as examples of the current board’s budget priorities.

Not only is next year’s budget below the cap, he said, “It enhances programs to the maximum extent possible for our kids.”

The district’s greatest weakness, he said, is the loss of local control.

“No one knows better than us how we want to educate our students,” he said. Kornreich added that being “force-fed” state assessments infringes on the district’s ability to “control parts of our own destiny.”

Both Ragolia, who spoke at the 2013 Ward Melville forum with then Education Commissioner John King, and Fusco-Winslow, whose platform includes opting out of state tests, believe the standardized tests are developmentally inappropriate. In interviews before Monday’s event, each said the tests were not helpful to students, teachers or parents in determining how well students are doing.

The vote for school board trustees and the budget will take place on Tuesday, May 17, at the elementary schools. Those who usually vote at W.S. Mount Elementary will vote at R.C. Murphy Junior High, and Arrowhead Elementary voters will go to Ward Melville High School. The order on the ballot, determined by a drawing required by law, will be Kornreich, Ragolia and Fusco.

The candidate with the most votes will complete Susanne Mendelson’s term, which ends on June 30.

Bolstered by a $6.6 million bump in aid from the state, Three Village adopted April 13 a $198.8 million budget for the upcoming school year that school administrators say will enhance the district’s programs. There is also a plan to add transportation options for students not previously not included.

Included in the $46.5 million aid package is a $2.9 million increase in building aid to defray costs for payments on the bond, which are due in the coming year. The aid contributes to the tax levy increase — 2.3 percent — being lower than the budget increase, 4.85 percent, said Jeff Carlson, assistant superintendent for business services.

The end of the Gap Elimination Adjustment, which took money from school aid to supplement the state budget, has brought a $3.3 million windfall to the district. Since its inception during the 2009-10 school year, Three Village has lost $32.4 million, Carlson said.

Carlson said the district will not need to reduce services to stay within the 2.41 percent tax cap — the allowable amount by which the tax levy can increase.

Residents, though, will vote on a separate proposition that could raise the tax levy to the cap. The proposal is to eliminate the minimum distance students must live to get bus transportation. If the measure passes, all junior high and high school students, who currently live too close to their schools to be eligible, will get transportation. The cost will be $160,000 for two additional buses, which will raise the tax levy increase to 2.41 percent.

While the overall budget would increase to $198.9 million, the district will get an additional $70,000 from the state for transportation. Carlson said that providing bus transportation for all students would address safety concerns about crossing busy streets such as Nicolls Road and walking along narrow, sidewalk-less roads, such as Christian Avenue and Quaker Path.

Not only will the district not need to cut programs to remain within the cap, the administration is recommending that positions be added — or reinstated — to enhance existing programs. In addition to the increased aid from the state, a decrease in payments to the employee retirement systems by $1.1 million, as well as declining enrollment, will help to make this feasible.

Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said there will be a decrease in the number of elementary students in the district by about 120 to 125 children next year. She recommended the reassignment of 3.0 full-time equivalent teaching positions to academic intervention services at the elementary level instead of laying off staff. Additionally, some of the restored GEA money would go toward two more positions so that each of the five elementary schools would have its own AIS specialist. This would put the district in compliance with AIS and response to intervention mandates, as well as provide the “kind of support that our students need in terms of their mathematical studies,” Pedisich said.

The superintendent’s recommendations also include adding 1.6 FTEs at the secondary level to rebuild Ward Melville’s business department into a “robust” program, with offerings such as virtual enterprise and web and app design; a 0.4 FTE increase to American Sign Language, which has been extended to the junior highs; and a 0.8 FTE increase to expand the high school writing center and to start writing centers at both junior high schools.

Pedisich also noted that there would be a new computer science course at the two junior highs to bridge the elementary STEM program and the reinstated AP computer science class offered at the high school. No additional staff will be needed for this program, she said.

The new budget also covers a second technology lead to provide professional development to faculty and a mentor/behavioral consultant for special education, the largest department in the district, Pedisich said.

Three Village will also bring back assistant coaches for safety, supervision and instruction and will add a “floating” nurse, an assistant director of facilities and an additional 2.0 FTEs for clerical staff in the music and instructional technology departments.

Pedisich assured the school board that all positions are sustainable. “The last thing we want to do is add something and then pull it away two years later,” she said.

The district, which is reimbursed for 66 percent of the cost of its capital projects, has planned a number of upgrades. The projects include reconfiguring the Setauket Elementary School bus loop for better traffic flow, adding air conditioners to the elementary school auditoriums and junior high cafeterias, and adding a generator at W.S. Mount Elementary School. Also proposed are a career and technology education classroom at the North Country administration building, and plumbing repairs and asbestos abatement throughout the district.

The public will vote on the budget and two board seats on May 17. Voting will take place at local elementary schools. This year, for security reasons, people who usually vote at Arrowhead Elementary will go to Ward Melville High School, and those who normally vote at W.S. Mount Elementary will do so at Murphy Junior High. The change comes because the layout of the schools requires voters to walk through the buildings to get to the polling stations, and security is not allowed to ask for identification.

A common theme regularly voiced by Three Village educators is the desire to produce “lifelong learners,” and its emphasis was underscored by English language arts educators during a recent school board meeting.

While the “Literature to Literacy” presentation by the district’s secondary level English chairs outlined changes to the English curriculum in the continued alignment to Common Core Learning Standards, Ward Melville High School English chair Brian McAuliffe noted that some are not new to Three Village.

Developing student vocabulary, along with an emphasis on close readings and critical thinking, are skills that are being developed in all disciplines, particularly in social studies and science, he said.

“In effect, we are all literacy teachers,” McAuliffe said.

He told the school board that students will be reading a balanced amount of fiction and nonfiction across the entire academic curriculum, adding that teachers “are very loathe to give up their beloved literature, and they don’t have to.”

The difference is that units will no longer be defined by one text — rather they will focus more on “intertextuality.” That means students will work with a central or “fulcrum text,” such as a novel, that will be supplemented by “texture” texts like poetry and nonfiction reading.

Those who attended the board meeting also heard that there would be an emphasis on close readings and the use of evidence from texts to support assertions and analysis. Students will also learn to analyze and write arguments, as well as deconstruct texts using literary and rhetorical devices, develop oral communication skills and be taught proper grammar and punctuation.

The emphasis on written skills is supported by the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Writing from kindergarten to the eighth grade. Cathy Duffy, chair of English at R.C. Murphy Junior High, said this is the second year that the seventh and eighth grades are using the program. Students will have opportunities to practice writing, receive feedback and do revisions so that, at the end of the school year, they will have a portfolio of their three major writing projects. The portfolio will be passed on to the next teacher, who will use it to assess where the student’s writing focus should be for the coming year, Duffy explained.

In addition to final exams and the ELA state assessments, seventh and eighth graders will take a Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) assessment. It is a computer-based test that allows teachers to monitor students’ reading comprehension and select appropriate reading material.

Joanna Cadolino, English chair at P.J. Gelinas Junior High School, added that for ninth graders, the curriculum would continue to move away from memorization and toward more critical thinking. Additionally, ninth graders will explore speech writing, public speaking and research writing, which will require the evaluation and synthesis of source material at the honors level.

McAuliffe said that this year’s junior class would be the first to take the new English Regents exam. Changes include longer, more complex texts, as well as a section in which students will have to take a position on an argument and support it with evidence from provided texts.

Though he noted “a great deal of uncertainty” about the new exam, he said he was optimistic.

“We’re not working in isolation,” he said, adding that students have had good preparation from the previous grades.

The increased rigor of Regents-level courses will mean that Ward Melville will no longer offer an 11th grade Honors ELA class.

Students can take either a Regents-level course, or AP English Language and Composition.

The high school will also offer new electives, including news literacy, poetry of hip hop and sports literature.