W.H. schools open their doors

“The summer is never quiet here — there’s always something going on,” West Hempstead Superintendent of Schools John Hogan said of the district’s plans for the new school year, which began on Monday.

After releasing its poor state assessment scores from last year — 25.5 percent of seventh-graders passed the English Language Arts exam, while 28.3 percent passed the math exam after a state-mandated switch to the Common Core curriculum — the West Hempstead district has taken steps to prepare its students, and faculty, for more rigorous learning standards in an attempt to pave the way for improvement.

“It established a benchmark, a mark that’s just a starting point, and we’re going to move forward from there,” Hogan said of the results. “Our faculty wants the boys and girls to succeed just as much as I do, and I believe that we will rise to the occasion.”

According to Assistant Superintendent Ann Peluso, the district will implement a revised curriculum in multiple disciplines, along with two new math programs that are aligned with Common Core — Pearson’s enVision Math, for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and Digits, for sixth- to eighth-grade students, which are designed to help students develop a deeper understanding of math concepts through interactive learning with plastic blocks, graphs, models and other visual aids. The programs introduce math lessons on interactive white boards and provide online access to lessons at home or in the library.

The district will also continue to implement its Science Fusion program for third- to eighth-graders, in which students utilize actual and virtual labs to conduct experiments inside and outside the classroom.

“We don’t want to discount the assessment scores our students earned, but we want to use them as a roadmap to see where their strengths and weaknesses are,” Deputy Superintendent Richard Cunningham said of the revised school curriculum. “We feel our students will be in a much better position to achieve at a higher level.”

The district hired six new primary and secondary teachers, along with a new assistant principal at West Hempstead High School, a new director of mathematics, a director of a new department called academic advancement and innovation, and full-time reading teachers at Chestnut Street School and West Hempstead High.

Hogan said that he enjoys students’ enthusiasm, whether it’s on the playing field, in orchestra or student government. “We know you are wonderful students,” he said in an address to them. “We hope you can achieve at your highest level, and that you really discover the joy of learning each and every day.”