Coalition for Glen Cove
Minutes of July 10, 2001
Held at St. Paul’s Church 7:00 p.m.
Election of Officers:
The following Coalition members were voted in
as officers for the 2001-2002 term :
Donald Scarl – President
Doug Brown - Vice President
Lorri Prince – Treasurer
Ronnie Lavine - Secretary
Guest Speaker: Bob Lupinskie
The Coalition invited Bob Lupinskie, who
retired at the end of June after ten years on the Glen Cove School Board, to
share his thoughts regarding education in Glen Cove. He emphasized initially
that the Glen Cove public schools are very good and that the school board, the
school administration, and the teachers have been working to keep them that way.
Bob explained that "it is easy for the
people of Glen Cove to get the impression that our schools are not doing well
because public schools in general have been under attack for over fifty years. A
small number of people, some of whom would like to see public schools replaced
by private schools, have been distorting data about Scholastic Assessment Tests
(SATs) and other tests to try to make us believe that our schools are failing.
In fact, American public schools are doing very well, but, of course, they could
still do better." Bob stated that it is a myth that schools have been
better in the past; that in fact, schools are doing a better job of educating
more and more students including disadvantaged and disabled students.
With those overall messages stated, Bob
explained that test scores depend heavily on students’ family income and on
the level of their parents’ education. He pointed out that our school
district, which has quite a few students from low-income, low education
families, as well as students who have moved from district to district, has done
a good job in educating these students, as well as its students from more stable
and more wealthy families . He stated that very few Glen Cove students drop out
of school before graduation, and about 90% of our graduates go on to college.
The fact that the small fraction of Glen Cove students who choose to attend
private and parochial schools has remained almost constant for many years shows
that students and parents believe that our public schools provide a good
education in a safe and encouraging atmosphere.
In the remainder of his very encompassing
talk, Bob outlined a historical perspective of issues which impact education
today to include deregulation of schools, misinformation in data reporting,
political implication of educational issues, education as an economic force in
society and specific historic budgetary issues in Glen Cove. He then went on to
discuss a project which is being initiated via Nassau BOCES which, in effect,
will be a warehouse for student data. All data will be stored and made available
to Nassau school districts, so that information on students moving from one
district to another can be efficiently retrieved.
Bob discussed current concerns throughout New
York State, such as student drop-outs/increased crime rates, "no
cost-bills" passed by the Legislature which pass on mandates to school
districts without funding, and the high cost of construction for public schools.
Regarding more recent concerns regarding Glen
Cove public schools, Bob explained that unlike the City Council, our Board of
Education is not a political machine comprised of single parties. The seven
school board members are responsible for listening to the concerns of the
community while considering student outcomes as a main priority. They must
balance the appropriations of monies in the budget with results from this
spending regarding student outcomes.
Bob encourages our community to stay involved
with the issues concerning education for our children in Glen Cove. Community
members must be well informed about the candidates who give their time and
effort to run for the school board. He encourages our Site Committees to
function in a more public manner, and issues publicized in our local papers to
be truthful and factual.
The Coalition would like to thank Bob
Lupinskie for his visit and for his very valuable and informative talk.
Thanks also to Natasha Price for her help in
preparing this months minutes.
The next meeting of the Coalition for Glen
Cove will be held on Tuesday, August 14th at St. Pauls Church at 7:00 p.m.
Ronnie Lavine,
Secretary