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Friday, November 3, 2017
Vol. 77, No. 44
Jericho’s Parent University leads to positive dialogue BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino recently joined with his colleagues on the Town Board in recognizing Moms of Military Chapter 12-NY of the Blue Star Mothers of America for their outstanding efforts. Blue Star Mothers of America is an organization that provides support for mothers who have sons or daughters in active service in the U.S. Armed Forces. Supervisor Saladino and Town Board members proudly presented a citation to Moms of Military Chapter 12-NY President Lisa Ryan (fourth from right), Third Vice President Nicole DePalo (third from right) and Recording Secretary Mary-Ann Barcellona (second from right),
Despite heavy rain on Tuesday night, October 24, the Jericho Middle School library was home to an important dialogue was held, one week after emotions ran high during a debate at the school board’s monthly meeting. The fourth installment of the PTA Council’s (PTAs and SEPTA’s) Parent University in Jericho Public Schools was held during a fall semester Superintendent of Schools Hank Grishman had described as very trying. During the earlier debate over hosting exchange students, the Superintendent stated his “disappointment in our inability to maintain civil discourse and the ability to disagree in a manner that has been the standard in our district.” However, Parent University was a productive path for all five members of the school board who attended. School Board Trustee Barbara Krieger explained to parents the role and responsibilities of the Board of Education, limited to setting the bar with policies and district goals. “The Board sets goals for the district,
develop policies that will bring the district toward those goals and hire a superintendent, attorney, auditors and executive staff to make sure the district is maintained properly. The superintendent’s job is to take the policies we have developed and create prefaces for donations and programs – from there the parts the superintendent has developed carries to curriculum associates, principals and other district administrators to develop the details curriculum and business program,” she said. Board President William Ferro presided over the opening remarks from the Board of Education and detailed some aspects of community-school board interactions. On October 24 Ferro left attendees with a great positive that has come out of the foreign exchange student policy debate in Jericho. He spoke of a turn of events in the one week since some contentious and insulting messages were sent to the Board of Education and posted with a Change.org petition opposing the policy’s
Beyond the name game for college admissions
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Back for his fifteenth time at the Syosset Public Library on Monday, November 6, Michael Binder of Your College Navigator LLC will present a free college admissions seminar starting at 6:45 p.m. Binder’s office is located at 575 Underhill Boulevard in Syosset, and on September 15 and October 2 he presented at Chyten of Long Island Premier Test Prep and Tutoring, his neighbors at 575 Underhill and owned by Syosset Board of Education member Anna Levitan. As a consultant he primarily presents at public libraries and meets families
from many top Long Island school districts including Garden City, Manhasset, Great Neck, Hewlett-Woodmere, Jericho, and Syosset. Binder has presented at Syosset Library two times a year, in spring and in fall, for the past seven years. His website, YourCollegeNavigator.com, promotes ways of researching colleges and their admissions criteria as well as articles on “mistakes to avoid,” students’ “10 best steps” in the process and information on scholarships and financial aid. His work is broken down into short, convenient concepts and takeaways to apply when students start
a new path towards “maximizing their college admissions value.” Recently a heavy increase in high school students’ early admissions to college has become one of the biggest trends in higher education, both with early action and early decision. Binder says when he started as a college applications consultant nine years ago, about 20% of his Long Island base students would apply under those categories over eight months before their graduation from high school. Today he says as much as 80% of students are applying to some schools early, “to at least one
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college early action or early decision which requires the application submitted before November 1.” “The entire process and schedule of when students need to do their applications has moved up. You used to be able to investigate colleges, look around, explore and ask questions starting the fall of senior year. Now that window is significantly shorter and students have just the first month of senior year before they need to get essays and applications out the door. Quality applications take time and they can’t be generated in one See page 17
Jericho honors Siemens Semifinalists PAGE 4 Civic Assn wants to preserve history PAGE 3