Post by Chris_Wendt on Jan 12, 2012 6:56:53 GMT -5
The interrelated subjects of Attendance Zones, Class Size, Budget Stressors, and Closing Schools are nothing new to Wantagh. Solutions have always either been found or presented themselves in the past. Let's go to the videotape and review some of the things we've done here in Wantagh over the years.
1. During the fifties, at the height of the Baby Boom we had fluid attendance zones; children were assigned to schools based on class size, and assignments were changed yearly as needed to balance out classes. Between my brother and me, we variously attended classes at Wantagh Elementary, Seymour Avenue, Sunrise Park, and the High School during our first four years of schooling. We were never both in the same building at the same time before fourth grade, when we moved to St. Frances de Chantel. My brother is a retired PhD research scientist on the coast, so all the early changing of schools during our K-3 years did us no harm. He did 3rd Grade at the high school with the really BIG kids!
2. Interstitial areas were used next, where two zones were established, one between Wantagh Avenue and the parkway, and the other in the south part of town, I think down by the JBH. Kids from those areas would be assigned to either Wantagh Elementary/Forest Lake, or, Sunrise Park/Wantagh EL/Mandalay, based on class size. Everyone else went to their neighborhood school.
Kids from the interstitial areas did not change schools once they started in whatever building.
3. We closed Seymour Avenue and Sunrise Park. We moved the district administration offices into Seymour Avenue, then later to the Middle School, and rented out the old school to Wee Friends. We sold Sunrise Park, and it burned to the ground and the site was later developed into single family homes which still later added to the student population and contributed to eventual over crowding at Wantagh El.
4. We offered a voluntary change program to parents from Wantagh El, for as long as the total student population exceeded a specified number. Parents could volunteer to have their kids sent to either Mandalay of Forest Lake, with the proviso that once a kid moved to either of those schools they would remain there, and, their siblings could attend the same school as they reached school age. Busing was provided to those kids regardless of distance, based on the "like circumstance" of their accommodating the needs of the district.
5. Before it closed, Seymour Avenue was for primary grades only, our only foray into what later was called the Princeton Plan elsewhere.
As far as other concepts and precedents, Wantagh High's first full 4-year graduating class was the Class of '58 (1958). Up until 1954, ALL Wantagh kids went to high school either in Freeport, or Amityville, or Mepham. There were no district busses for this. There wa
1. During the fifties, at the height of the Baby Boom we had fluid attendance zones; children were assigned to schools based on class size, and assignments were changed yearly as needed to balance out classes. Between my brother and me, we variously attended classes at Wantagh Elementary, Seymour Avenue, Sunrise Park, and the High School during our first four years of schooling. We were never both in the same building at the same time before fourth grade, when we moved to St. Frances de Chantel. My brother is a retired PhD research scientist on the coast, so all the early changing of schools during our K-3 years did us no harm. He did 3rd Grade at the high school with the really BIG kids!
2. Interstitial areas were used next, where two zones were established, one between Wantagh Avenue and the parkway, and the other in the south part of town, I think down by the JBH. Kids from those areas would be assigned to either Wantagh Elementary/Forest Lake, or, Sunrise Park/Wantagh EL/Mandalay, based on class size. Everyone else went to their neighborhood school.
Kids from the interstitial areas did not change schools once they started in whatever building.
3. We closed Seymour Avenue and Sunrise Park. We moved the district administration offices into Seymour Avenue, then later to the Middle School, and rented out the old school to Wee Friends. We sold Sunrise Park, and it burned to the ground and the site was later developed into single family homes which still later added to the student population and contributed to eventual over crowding at Wantagh El.
4. We offered a voluntary change program to parents from Wantagh El, for as long as the total student population exceeded a specified number. Parents could volunteer to have their kids sent to either Mandalay of Forest Lake, with the proviso that once a kid moved to either of those schools they would remain there, and, their siblings could attend the same school as they reached school age. Busing was provided to those kids regardless of distance, based on the "like circumstance" of their accommodating the needs of the district.
5. Before it closed, Seymour Avenue was for primary grades only, our only foray into what later was called the Princeton Plan elsewhere.
As far as other concepts and precedents, Wantagh High's first full 4-year graduating class was the Class of '58 (1958). Up until 1954, ALL Wantagh kids went to high school either in Freeport, or Amityville, or Mepham. There were no district busses for this. There wa