Another Half-Baked Science Program

[Chris_Wendt]

Longwood "Gets" P-Tech Program (hyperlink).

Twenty students, you can count 'em on your fingers and toes, will get to earn a Regents Diploma AND an Associates Degree in Longwood High School, courtesy of Eastern Suffolk BOCES, Suffolk County Community College, and Computer Associates (CA Technologies). They will also get to work with computers and applications during their high school careers.

Not knocking the idea. It is a good one, based on several others in existence in NYC schools. What gets me, and what should bother you, is that YOUR tax money that supports BOCES and SCCC, is being used to benefit a single school district (Longwood), but your kid won't have an opportunity to participate.

The program will benefit CA (the corporate sponsor), however. Oh, and Rep. Tim Bishop.

Trying to stay astonished.

Chris Wendt

[lilly]

Chris, you're forgetting the arrogance in Wantagh where they took away LIHSA yet think it is perfectly acceptable that *our* taxes are used to fund this, that and everything else for all the other kids.

From the Newsday article:

"Longwood Superintendent Michael Lonergan said the district welcomed the idea when approached by Bishop. The P-TECH concept fits with the district's existing commitment to expand STEM opportunities, he said. "Our board of education has been on this for a number of years, knowing quite well what the expectations will be for students," he said."

Note the other statement that you won't hear in Wantagh, about a BOE and district that has *plans* - a bonafide agenda.

[Chris_Wendt]

OUCH!!!

I am going to leave the LISHA issue alone for now. Discussing that gets people all atwitter. But in Wantagh I guess the correct word may be all a-facebook. And besides, this thread is in the Academics cache, not Music & Arts.

But you did strike a flat note or a dissonant chord when you touched on planning, and plans. Years ago we actually had annual Board Goals and Objectives. But then somebody decided that they didn't get elected just to do stuff like make goals, set objectives, and then (the real killer) report your own performance or lack thereof. So we either don't have Board Goals and Objectives any more, or, if we do, they are absent from the District website, along with the results.

The interesting thing about a thread (like this) is that it weaves, in and out, as through the fabric of the District, often turning up surprises in the darnedest places...like the District website.

Under Board of Education, Approved District Plans, while you won't find goals, objectives, of fiscal/financial planning, you will find this gem: The 3-Year District Technology Plan - July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2013 (hyperlink)

This is a gem for several reasons. Not the most important (well, maybe so) it was written by one of the Names in the Litany of Educators Who USED TO Work Here, Wantagh native and PhD Don Murphy, himself a true gem. Having been authored by Don, it is well written and easy to understand and on-point (efficacious). The fun thing about this Plan being a gem is this: here it is, June, 2013, and the plan is fully ripe, with only four weeks to run.

What is significant about that, is we now have a new Superintendent, a new Don Murphy (actually a re-purposed Kathy Cahill wearing an additional hat), and two new school board members about to be seated on the dais. Should we be expecting a comprehensive summary report on the results of the 3-year Technology Plan before the end of the school year, or early in July? When will the new 3-year Technology Plan be posted to the district website, the one that should commence July 1, 2013? Will the new Plan show the pluses and minuses from the old Plan? Or will the old (current) Plan just be filed away and forgotten about?

Is there any way for this community, we who pay for technology (and the arts etc.) to see a longitudinal review of Wantagh's investments in technology over the years, in terms of hardware, software, course work, networks, and DOLLARS? Perhaps not, but I'd almost bet some Board members would love to see something like that: the history of Technology Education in Wantagh.

Yeah! (No?)

Regardless, the Technology Plan may be worth perusing before it expires at the end of the month.

Chris Wendt