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Schools

Herricks Notebook: Jan. 5

Here are some highlights from the meeting.

In case you missed Thursday night’s board of education meeting, here are the highlights:

  • Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Deidre Hayes, announced that New York State once again changed the dates of the ELA and math testing for grades three to eight. “There has been a lot of talk about the length of these tests,” Hayes said. “It has become really onerous for our students — especially our younger students.” Hayes gave the example that in 2009, students in the third-grade took two days of ELA testing for 75-minutes. In 2011, it was up to 150 minutes and now the state has given three days of testing for 175 minutes for third-graders. “We’re still working on [fighting this] and we appreciate the help that we’re getting [from the PTA]” Hayes said.
  • New information was provided to the audience on the two percent tax cap calculation from Helen Costigan, Assistant Superintendent of Business. The number for Herricks is 1.0098, which reduces the deficit down to $2 million. Costigan explained that this is a “two percent property tax cap, not just a two percent tax cap.” The board is hoping to receive the same state aid as last year, which was $7.8 million.

The next board of education meeting on Jan. 19 will be held at 7 p.m. at Herricks High School and will discuss the proposed budget.

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