New Mandates Large Part of Seaford Superintendent's State of the District Report

The reality of taking on new state mandates was a major theme of Seaford Superintendent Brian Conboy’s annual State of the District report delivered at Thursday evening’s Board of Education meeting.

One of the key new state mandates Conboy touched on his report that Seaford and other districts are facing in the 2011/12 school year is the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), which is a new evaluation system that will be used for teachers. The Seaford United Federation of Teachers is in the process of negotiating an APPR plan, which the school board will then review and approve. A lawsuit filed by the New York State United Teachers against the new APPR system is still pending at the State Supreme Court.

Other new mandates that Conboy touched on that Seaford is prepared to tackle include Response to Intervention (RTI), which is aimed at responding to students in kindergarten through fifth grade who are struggling with reading and the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Another mandate New York state districts are faced with addressing is the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects.

“We can cry all we want about it, they are not going away,” said Conboy when referring to the many state mandates Seaford must face. “[We will] implement them to the best of our ability.”

Conboy expressed satisfaction that Seaford students in grades three through eight performed above the Nassau County average on the state ELA and math exams including improving from a 53 percent passing rate to 71 percent for third graders. Conboy said he was alerted last week that the was placed on a list for not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) because of 31 students with disabilities not achieving state standards and that an action plan is being put in place to address this.

“We have to target those kids and have interventions in place,” said Conboy during his report at the school board's Sept. 1 meeting held at .

Seaford enters the 2011/12 school year operating on a contingency budget after for the first time in six years. However Conboy sounded an optimistic tone for what can be achieved, saying “we have to keep our vision forward at all times.”