Post by Chris_Wendt on Jun 13, 2013 14:56:46 GMT -5
Today our granddaughter graduated from Nursery School and is very excited about going to kindergarten in September. She and her schoolmates are very well prepared for Kindergarten, and my hope is that kindergarten will be ready for her! She will be attending a well-established Full-day K in another LI district.
Last week our oldest grandson graduated from high school in Pennsylvania. He towers over me at 6-ft 4-inches tall. We were reminded, during our recent visit, how Pennsylvania long ago solved the related problems of enrollment and administrative efficiency, trading-off bloated school district bureaucracies for far better educational programs than most little LI districts--like Wantagh--could ever afford to offer.
Their by now tried-and-true answer, prevalent across most of the Commonwealth is Area School Districts. These are like Central School Districts in NY, combinations of between three and ten formerly very small community school districts into Area School Districts of between 5,000 and 10,000 students each.
As an example, the Downingtown Area School District comprises the approximate equivalent enrollment of Wantagh, Seaford, Plainedge and Massapequa. They have three physical high schools and one virtual (Cyber) high school. Two of the physical high schools are traditional, like Wantagh High. The third looks like a shiny new version of the old Sunrise Park or Seaford Avenue schools, and not by accident, but by virtue of their all having been constructed in the 1930's. But this one does sparkle as it has recently been completely renovated. Here's a link to their website (hyperlink).
The big blue sign on the lawn proclaims: "Downingtown Area S.T.E.M. Academy - an International Baccalaureate World School". S.T.E.M. of course stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Of course, among the trade-offs for this kind of efficiency and more expansive academic offerings came to light at the graduation ceremony last Thursday evening. Not everyone there looked exactly alike. But we all sounded the same when we cheered for our respective graduates.
I did use the word "traditional" comparing the DASD high schools and Wantagh High. On second thought, however, I think the DASD - East and -West High Schools are much more traditional than Wantagh High is today. This is because at the beginning of the commencement exercise, the first graduates to be recognized by the Superintendent were the two dozen or so who had enlisted in the Military and who would be starting service soon after graduation. One was a woman headed to the Naval Academy, while the others were going to various branches of the service in various programs from OCS to Basic Training.
That, to me, is an important tradition, the same tradition followed by my dad, by my son, and by me through our successive generations.
Regards,
Chris Wendt
Last week our oldest grandson graduated from high school in Pennsylvania. He towers over me at 6-ft 4-inches tall. We were reminded, during our recent visit, how Pennsylvania long ago solved the related problems of enrollment and administrative efficiency, trading-off bloated school district bureaucracies for far better educational programs than most little LI districts--like Wantagh--could ever afford to offer.
Their by now tried-and-true answer, prevalent across most of the Commonwealth is Area School Districts. These are like Central School Districts in NY, combinations of between three and ten formerly very small community school districts into Area School Districts of between 5,000 and 10,000 students each.
As an example, the Downingtown Area School District comprises the approximate equivalent enrollment of Wantagh, Seaford, Plainedge and Massapequa. They have three physical high schools and one virtual (Cyber) high school. Two of the physical high schools are traditional, like Wantagh High. The third looks like a shiny new version of the old Sunrise Park or Seaford Avenue schools, and not by accident, but by virtue of their all having been constructed in the 1930's. But this one does sparkle as it has recently been completely renovated. Here's a link to their website (hyperlink).
The big blue sign on the lawn proclaims: "Downingtown Area S.T.E.M. Academy - an International Baccalaureate World School". S.T.E.M. of course stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Of course, among the trade-offs for this kind of efficiency and more expansive academic offerings came to light at the graduation ceremony last Thursday evening. Not everyone there looked exactly alike. But we all sounded the same when we cheered for our respective graduates.
I did use the word "traditional" comparing the DASD high schools and Wantagh High. On second thought, however, I think the DASD - East and -West High Schools are much more traditional than Wantagh High is today. This is because at the beginning of the commencement exercise, the first graduates to be recognized by the Superintendent were the two dozen or so who had enlisted in the Military and who would be starting service soon after graduation. One was a woman headed to the Naval Academy, while the others were going to various branches of the service in various programs from OCS to Basic Training.
That, to me, is an important tradition, the same tradition followed by my dad, by my son, and by me through our successive generations.
Regards,
Chris Wendt