We 'love' Island Park students: West Hempstead school district

Island Park’s fourth class of students have just made their choice for which high school they will be attending next year — Long Beach or West Hempstead. And with more than 100 Island Park students now enrolled at Long Beach High School, their choices matter even more.

In a class with 11 less students than last year, 27 Island Park students chose to attend West Hempstead High school and 30 chose Long Beach High School. Additionally, 10 students chose to attend parochial school, and six are still undecided as of press time on Monday.

In the 2009 school year, Island Park had 70 students at LBHS and 225 at WHHS. At the start of the current school year, there were 119 at Long Beach and 201 at West Hempstead.

Rosmarie Bovino, superintendent of Island Park Schools, said that 23 students chose LBHS in 2009 and 43 did in 2010. She attributed part of that increase to the economy.

“In the past, we always had about 20 students that went to parochial high schools,” Bovino said. “I think we only had five or six kids, instead of 18 to 25 kids, choosing parochial high schools. And a lot of the parents that were considering parochial high school couldn’t afford it, and chose to send their children to Long Beach.”

And even though Long Beach is having more students choose to attend its high school each year, West Hempstead still has more Island Park students. And Island Park students make up about a quarter of the student body. In LBHS, Island Park students are barely a drop in the bucket for the school’s student body of 1,350.

Island Park students have been a staple of WHHS for over 40 years.

“It’s a partnership that goes back long before me to 1969,” said West Hempstead School District Superintendent John Hogan. “It’s been a very friendly relationship for that many years. And we’re talking 42 years now. So we consider them very much our educational partner, and really hope that they stay linked to us for a good, long time.”