Riverhead school board shelves decision on athletic classification policy for now

No changes will be made to the Riverhead Central School District’s athletic classification policy in the immediate future.

The state education department in December released a new document with guidelines for districts to follow if they choose to allow students in 7th and/or 8th grades to participate in high school athletics. The new policy is effective as of September. Read it here.

Meanwhile, the district’s current policy will remain in effect. Board president Gregory Meyer said that the board would take time to review and understand what the new guidelines mean for the district.

Barbara Weir, a founder of Riverhead Athletics Inc., which was formed to promote the lacrosse program, made a short presentation to the board in which she displayed a photo of the girls lacrosse team, stating that all the players in the photo are high school students except the goalie, who is in 8th grade. Weir described the situations of several students who have been positively affected by their opportunity to have adequate play time in their junior and senior years of high school. Having the exposure has allowed colleges to recognize the students and offer them placement on a college team, she said. Without the opportunity to play, these high school students would likely not have been able to play lacrosse at the college level, Weir said.

Family Community Life Center proposal aired

Shirley Coverdale gave a presentation on the proposed Family Community Life Center project proposed by First Baptist Church in Riverhead. Coverdale’s presentation focused on the ways that the community center’s proposed facilities could benefit the school district and its families. School board member Amelia Lantz, who said she believes the proposal has merit, asked Coverdale how many students the housing units are expected to house. Lantz said the project’s tax-exempt status — Family Community Life Center is a nonprofit organization — would mean the cost of educating the students who lived there would be born by the remaining taxpayers.

Members of the community attended the meeting and spoke in support of the Family Community Life Center proposal. Among those present was the Rev. Charles Coverdale, who said the facilities are badly needed in the community. Unlike the YMCA proposal, the Family Community Life Center would be affordable for the community, he said. He noted that First Baptist Church donated the land on which the project would be constructed.

Former school board member James (Butch) Langhorn also spoke on behalf of the project. All of the services this center provides are things the community needed 25 years ago, he said. They were needed then and they are needed now, he said. He urged the community to support this project.

Technology bond discussed

Assistant superintendent David Wicks, director of technology Robert Hines and director of professional development Michael Hugelmeyer gave a presentation on educational technology under the the Smart Schools Bonds Act, which funds the purchase of iPads for classroom use.

One Wading River mom, Allison Mattway likened the technology bond to financing a car over 30 years. “What will we do when the technology is out of date and we are out of money?” Mattway asked. She also inquired about eSpark, asking how much data this company would collect from the students, and how that data would be used.

The district looks at technology in an ongoing fashion and is aware that technology must change over time, Superintendent Nancy Carney replied. She said that the data storage needs have changed with the use of “the cloud” and therefore the requirements for server storage aren’t the same as in years past. The district chooses devices that last as long as possible.

“You can’t not invest in technology,” Carney said.

The district is aware of the privacy issue where use of data is concerned, the superintendent said.

Superintendent’s contract authority questioned again

Trustee Lori Hulse requested that a resolution be placed on the next Board of Education meeting agenda to reduce the superintendent’s authority to approve contracts without prior board approval — from contract amounts of up to $25,000, as is currently authorized, to $5,000. Hulse said the district’s lawyer has informed the board that a $5,000 limit is normal practice. Trustee Susan Koukounas said the board had already discussed this issue and decided not to pursue a change in policy. Hulse said that due to additional information provided by the district’s legal counsel, she’d like the issue placed on the agenda again. Board president Meyer agreed. Riverhead resident Laurie Downs thanked Hulse for contacting the school’s attorney and urged her to “get that in writing and show them.”

New athletic field: Scrap money for bleachers, natural grass questioned

Downs also asked the board what happened to equipment that was removed from McKillop field when the site was cleared for the current renovations. She wanted to know why the district did not receive the money for the salvaging of the old bleachers and other materials removed from the site, stating that there should have been money returned to the district. “He took three truckloads to Gershow.” We’re not seeing any of that money,” Downs said.

The money received for salvaging materials is factored into the quote from the contractor during the bidding process, assistant superintendent Sam Schnieder said. If the district chose to salvage the materials themselves, the bid would have been higher, Carney added.

A handful of parents questioned why the board did not elect to install a turf field. A majority of school districts are able to play in the cold weather because they have turf fields, according to one parent who spoke, Mr. Fitzpatrick. “We are behind the eight ball,” Fitzpatrick said.

Another parent, a Mr. Kalmus, said the current plan is only a stop-gap and not fiscally responsible. A turf field would save the district money in maintenance costs. It would also allow for all-weather use and would be much safer than natural grass, which in the winter is “hard as concrete,” he said.

Board president Meyer reminded the audience that the work being done is all pursuant to the current construction bond and already voted on.

Parent portal coming to middle, elementary schools?

Aquebogue resident Yolanda Thompson asked when the parent portal would be implemented at the middle and elementary schools in the district commenting that many other districts have offered this technology to parents for years. Assistant superintendent Wicks explained that the staff in the middle school is currently going through professional development on using the eSchool Gradebook, which is directly tied into the parent portal and it is expected that the middle school will be up and running by the end of the year. He also explained that after the high school experienced technical difficulties with the parent registration process, the district did not want to compound the problem. As for the elementary schools, the district is currently investigating how that would work.