Board tackles helmet safety, coaching needs

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The Levittown Board of Education met last week to review various issues about football helmet safety, assistant coaches, new regulations for teachers and a need for overnight security staff.

The meeting took place at the Levittown Memorial Education Center on Oct. 7. National Scholar Merits were announced at the start of the meeting where six commended scholars from Division Avenue High School and three from MacArthur High School were honored for their top PSAT scores. Junior Ashley Kim, from MacArthur, was also mentioned for being a national semi-finalist.

The board also reviewed some impending changes. Due to reformed New York State policies and education law, changes have been made to the Annual Professional Performance Review. With the new APPR plan, teachers will be given ratings at the end of the year only based on a matrix-type scale, which includes factors such as percentage of students passing tests and teacher assessment. The new plan has made it very hard for districts to adopt it for the current year, so schools have the option of submitting a hardship waiver application so there is no risk of losing eligibility for additional state aid.

“A hardship waiver is evidence of good faith bargaining,” Assistant Superintendant Debbie Rifkin said. “It’s also evidence of training.”

The board also plans to eliminate a midterm week and introduce new classes like Algebra II and the English Common Core for the first time.

The need for assistant basketball coaches was also an issue raised to the board. Athletic Director Keith Snyder asked for the reinstatement of four assistant basketball coaches, one for both the girls’ and boys’ varsity levels for each high school. By eliminating boys’ and girls’ soccer assistant coaches last year, the district was able to save $24,000.

“The more adult supervisors and coaches that work with our kids, the better I think our teams will be,” Snyder said. “That’s it in a nutshell.”

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