How will West Hempstead schools keep up public support for the budget?

While the children of West Hempstead enjoy their summer, the school district Board of Education is planning for the coming school year. At its annual reorganization meeting, held earlier this month, board President Karen Brohm, Vice President Kurt Rockensies and Trustee Andrea Shinsato were sworn in to another three-year term.

“Our priority is always going to be to maintain our impressive graduation rates and continue on the wonderful trajectory that we’ve been on over the last 10 years,” Brohm said. “We’re going to further strengthen our educational foundation, which is what we look to do every year. We’re going to push our successful literary initiatives. We’re going to expand our Ram Pathway Program, which we’ve gotten through a grant. We’re certainly committed to our universal pre-K program, which we are making more accessible to more children throughout the community.”

The services that the district offers students are invaluable to parents, Shinsato said. Referring to her daughter, Emma, she said, “Because of the opportunities granted to her at the West Hempstead secondary school in our district, she graduated with enough credits to already go into her freshman year (in college) as a sophomore. So those are bills that I’m not going to have to pay on the back end of her college education.”

Students at the high school can take courses that earn them credits from Syracuse, Molloy and Adelphi universities. Others are completing their senior year of high school and a freshman year at Nassau Community College simultaneously, so by the time they graduate, they’re a full year ahead of the game.

“Those are the opportunities that our kids have at their fingertips,” Shinsato said.

Postsecondary opportunities are among Rockensies’ biggest priorities this year. He has been involved in the school district’s career fair in the past, but wants to see it ramped up, along with internships, as well as awareness of and access to jobs and trades that don’t require college degrees.

The school board is also aiming to further the district’s relationship with local private schools. Currently, around 50 students from the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County are enrolled in the district’s Ram Pathways, specialized courses that are tailored to specific age groups.

“Any community events that the district is having, making sure that the private schools and their boards and administration are aware,” Rockensies said. “And let the community as a whole know that what’s within the school district is there to benefit them.”

Many of the programs the district offers, such as its partnership with Adelphi, are available to all students in the district, whether they attend public or private school. During the upcoming school year, the board aims to help make students aware of how they can take advantage of the district’s services.

That emphasis on community symbiosis played a big role in the budget vote in May. Observers across the state were watching West Hempstead. After being shot down the first time around for two years in a row — the only district on Long Island where that happened — the budget passed with nearly 60 percent approval. It was one of the largest voter turnouts in Nassau County.

“I think that everybody has seen the importance of maintaining a good school district, and all the things that we’ve been doing over the past few years,” Brohm said. “And I believe that we were able to promote it well enough that (voters) knew they needed to come out the first time.”

“I think it has a lot to do with the administration,” Rockensies said. “Superintendent (Daniel) Rehman, Assistant Superintendent Brian Phillips really being transparent on what makes up the budget, how we go about using reserves and making cuts where we, unfortunately, have to.”

And the key to continued success for the district, Shinsato said, is to keep the ball rolling and get back to a “cohesive, unified community.”

The celebration of the West Hempstead school community, or Ram Pride, has begun to take off in recent years.

“When I first started, even on the PTA before I was on the school board, Ram Pride was like a catchphrase, but didn’t really mean anything,” Shinsato said. “I wanted our children to be proud of where they were going to school — wear our colors and our symbol and our mascot. I wanted our kids to be proud of where they’re coming from.

“From the time I started on the Board of Ed until today, it’s been a 180-degree turn,” she added. “I’m really proud of that, and I want to keep moving in that direction.”