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W.I. students and parents to Board of Education: Keep Program Going! It was standing room only at the January 11th West Islip Board of Education meeting courtesy of vocal students and their families asking that their enrichment classes be reinstated for next year. "I really loved the fake court case and all the stuff we did in Mrs. Hollinger's class," said excited fourthgrader Taryn Mclees of Manetuck Elementary School who was referring to a mock trial between the three little pigs and the big bad wolf in which real lawyers participated. "That was wonderful, in fact the district should consider getting professionals other than attorneys willing to work with the kids," echoed Rich Thompson, a father of three in the district. This is the first year that the program is back in all six elementary schools after it was canceled by the district the last several years due to budgetary reasons. After listening to dozens of heart-felt pleas, Superintendent Dr. Beth Virginia Blau gave the news those in attendance wanted to hear. "I just want to let you know that I am recommending not only keeping the program, but adding an additional teacher and perhaps a foreign language." That may be a reality, budget-wise, as the district got a thumbs up on a recent internal controls audit from R.S. Abrams Management. "We are happy with the controls the district has in place. We found no weaknesses," said Marianne Van Duyne, representative from R.S. Abrams, who added that residents should be happy with the positive direction in which district is headed. "This is the best opinion any school district can get," she added. In other news, the District said they have decided to pay for upgrading the phone system with funds set aside last year for a new boiler and are buying $227,000 worth of computers rather than leasing them. "It'll actually be a savings because there'll be no lease expense (which was looked into)," said finance committee board member Barbara Heine. Parents in attendance spoke of their concern for inclusion class size, in which special needs students are put into a class of typical learning kids. "It seems like the three-tier special education process is too long. The teacher spends so much time with the special needs kids and not enough teaching time with my typical child. That needs to be taken into consideration when you're deciding class size," said one mother who felt the ratio of special needs kids in an inclusion class should be much lower. "We strive to have a certain balance and ratio , so we start from scratch with the numbers every year," said Dr. Blau. "We get the projections and then break down class size and although there are no set rules, kindergarten should be from 18 to 22 students." According to the district, the ratio these classes are 2:1 with a maximum of six special education students per class. There are twelve integrated classes in the elementary level, two in grade six, two in grades seven and eight and two for grades nine through 12. After one mom said she felt special need kids were "ostracized" because they didn't go to integrated classes in their local school, Dr. Blau said that it would cost about $500,000 to the district to have such a program. "Besides the fact that the District cannot afford it, the students all seem to be thriving. As for integration with the kids on their block, there's always soccer and other clubs they can join."
"Most special needs students are coming into the district into an inclusion class, but they need more help than we can give them," explained board vice president Barbara McAteer.
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