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restructuring plan

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By Mallie Jane Kim

Three Village Central School District is on track to restructure its schools as planned in fall 2025, according to superintendent of schools Kevin Scanlon.

The district has been planning to move sixth grade up into the junior high schools to form middle schools and move ninth grade up to form a four-year high school.

Staff teams responsible for planning the changes have been working to prepare what will be needed as far as staffing, facilities, grading and curriculum to accommodate the changes and support kids’ mental health needs during the transition, Scanlon shared at a June 12 Board of Education meeting.

“We’re not done yet,” he said. “Next year is still going to be busy, but I think we’re way ahead of our schedule and on target to move forward.”

The district has already taken into account planning moving-up ceremonies and related activities for both fifth and sixth grades at the elementary schools, as well as eighth and ninth grades at the junior high schools, for the 2024-25 school year since all four grades will be changing schools at once.

One thing still under consideration is the possibility of repurposing one of the five elementary schools in tandem with the change, to address ongoing financial concerns, especially as the schools will no longer house sixth grade. Though the possibility has come up multiple times, the board has not made any substantive moves toward such a decision.

The district also must decide whether to change the names of any of the schools — for example, changing the junior high schools to middle schools.

Some parents and at least one staff member have tried to convince the district to hit pause on the restructuring plan, expressing worry that a change could risk losing what is good about the district. 

“Three Village school district has distinguished itself by providing top-notch opportunities for our students across diverse areas, while also fostering nurturing environments during pivotal transitional years,” wrote Gelinas Junior High guidance counselor Anthony Dattero in a March perspective piece in The Village Times Herald. “Our district has maintained its uniqueness for over 40 years, resisting the trend toward common middle school models adopted by other districts.”

District administrators have argued the new structure will bring Three Village into line with the way New York State standards are written and will provide sixth and ninth graders the benefits of the curriculum available in the upper schools.

“We are ready to move forward,” Scanlon said. “This is happening.”

Scanlon indicated the teams will continue to work over the summer and into the fall to make ready the transition. 

Start time complications

Secondary school start times after the restructuring are still up in the air, as there is no solution yet for making start times later, something parent advocates have been pushing for over several years, citing mental health and academic costs of having adolescents start school at such early hours. 

Ward Melville High School currently starts at 7:05 a.m. and the junior high schools start at 7:40.

“We have to do our very best to make sure we’re not moving grade nine up to an earlier start time, if we possibly can avoid it,” said trustee David McKinnon, referring to the fact that restructuring will bring ninth and sixth grade up to schools that start earlier than the schools that currently house them.

At issue is the tiered bussing system, which allows the district to get by on fewer buses than they would need if all the schools started at the same time. 

Each additional full-sized school bus added to the fleet would cost about $105,000, according to estimates by a transportation consultant, called in to help the district figure out the most efficient way to make a change with the lowest price tag. 

The consultant shared the results of his assessment at the meeting, but the board did not see an immediately clear solution. Some of the proposed scenarios had elementary schools starting as early as 7:20 a.m. or as late as 10:00 a.m., which would mean dismissal wouldn’t begin until 4:15 p.m.

“Any elementary school that ends later than it is now, is a problem,” said Karen Roughley, who is a longtime advocate of later secondary start times. She added that the early start times would also be a problem. 

“The whole point of us moving our high school kids is that we don’t want them there so early and waiting for the school bus when it’s dark,” she said. “I’m not going to have my elementary kindergarteners standing in the dark waiting to get on a bus.” 

Some of the proposed scenarios would require adding six new buses to the fleet.

Board members indicated they would continue to work with the consultant to fine-tune his results into realistic proposals they can lay out for the community, possibly in September to make a decision by October.

Ward Melville High School. Photo by Greg Catalano

By Mallie Jane Kim

New York Regents exam scores won’t hurt high schoolers’ classroom grades this year in Three Village Central School District, after the Board of Education extended the policy nicknamed “do no harm,” under which the scores are only factored into classroom grades if they improve the grades. 

The extension of this COVID-19-era policy went against the recommendation  of the district’s grading committee, which had taken up the discussion after a groundswell of concern from parents who preferred the policy, asserting it unfairly hurts students who don’t test well or face anxiety over a one-day test that can hurt a grade they’ve worked for all year. 

The board will still need to decide whether or not to change district policy permanently.

Regents scores already appear on student transcripts, per state regulations. Before “do no harm,” these scores also counted for 12% of a student’s grade in classes where a state exam is required. “It truly is double jeopardy,” said BOE president Susan Rosenzweig during the board’s lively discussion at an April 26 meeting. She suggested students who work hard and succeed in class all year long shouldn’t be affected so badly by a one-day test. “Twelve percent is a lot — it’s a lot,” she said.

Last year, the district announced the end of the pandemic-era policy, and teachers have been planning grades accordingly. According to Brian Biscari, assistant superintendent for educational services, the district’s grading committee — made up of administrators, teachers and guidance counselors — concluded after “extensive discussion” that the policy should end as planned, primarily because students weren’t taking exams as seriously, he said, and scores were slipping.

BOE trustee Deanna Bavlnka strongly disagreed with the grading committee’s recommendation, especially the idea that most students shrug off the test scores, as they do still appear on transcripts. The majority of Three Village students, she said, “want to do well — they don’t want to screw up, they don’t want bad [scores] on their transcripts.” She added that inevitably there will be students who don’t care and don’t take the exams or their grades seriously. “Like anything else, there’s outliers.” 

Bavlnka and other board members also raised concerns about issues with Regents in general, including past state tests they said have not matched curriculum well, or are graded on a steep curve, like chemistry.

“As a teacher, what would you rather have as your tool?” Rosenzweig said. “Do you want a tool that was created by the state, or do you want a tool that was created closer to home and perhaps — I would hope — more reflective of what you’re doing in the classroom?”

Board member Jennifer Solomon suggested the pandemic isn’t fully over. “We’re no longer wearing masks, no more social distancing,” she said. “But we know the social and emotional well-being of our students is still impacted by COVID. I think that extending [the policy] is appropriate.”

Research into restructuring plan approved

The board also voted to authorize district administration and staff to analyze and report on the logistics of a restructuring plan preferred by the community — that is, to move up sixth and ninth grades to middle and high school, respectively — alongside moving secondary school start times later. 

The board voted at an April 12 meeting to table the restructuring plan pending more information on cost and logistics and in order to greater prioritize the start time change.

The body of logistics research described by Superintendent of Schools Kevin Scanlon is in line with what he has previously said would have been the next step anyway.