Hicksville School District’s Board of Education Meeting.

            The meeting began with an award ceremony for selected students from the local elementary schools, the middle school, and the high school. There was one student from my elementary school so I got to see my old principle very briefly. There were about four or five students from other elementary schools, Hicksville has East Street, Woodland, Folk, Dutch, and Lee Avenue all included in their district. The schools combine for the middle school and high school.

            Two students from the middle school spoke to the board. They made a conjoined speech talking about how thankful they are for the board and what they have done for the school. Two high school students spoke as well on similar terms. Apparently, my town is getting a swimming pool that I was unaware of.

            The first topic that seemed to be the focus of the meeting was Hicksville’s special education programs within the various elementary school. The district has been implementing co teaching for integrated classrooms. When this first began the integrated classes would be co teached, by one general education teacher and one special education teacher, for only 40 minutes a day. Despite the small amount of time it was benefitting the students but the administrators felt that more time would help students even more.

            Currently the integrated classes receive 80 minutes daily of co teaching. The women who represented the education program were proposing having the entire day for those students be changed to the co teaching model. They disclosed some of the concerns happening currently that lead them to this proposal.

            The special education teachers currently employed within the district are spread out among various classes. They come into each class not knowing exactly where the teacher currently is in their agenda since with young students a teaching schedule is flexible depending on how quickly the students can grasp a topic. This does not give the special education teacher the opportunity to plan. There also isn’t time for each general education teacher to create a lesson plan with the single shared special education teacher for each grade.

            Another current issue is that there are plenty of moments when having the help of another teacher would benefit more than the times that the special education teacher is present. Struggle within the classroom is unpredictable. It does not hurt to have a second teacher when things are going smoothly but it would benefit the students tremendously if they had assistance when there is a lot of confusion or dysfunction.

            I think the idea of having a full day co teaching program sounds amazing, especially since I have been strongly considering mastering in special education. I think integrated classrooms benefit both types of student. It gives the students who are struggling the chance to have peer assistance or just to observe another peer perform work which could get rid of the impossible theory. I think it also benefits the students who aren’t struggling. They have a chance to help their peers and also learn that the students within special education are not much different than they are. I believe it supports inclusion on the side of the general education students and inhibits isolation for the children within special ed.

            The board then briefly flew through policies, analysis’s and other reports which were a tad more difficult for me to keep up with. Staging areas for the swimming pool were discussed and a bond that was just recently sold to build it. The woman that I assume handles the finance spoke a different language to me. I have taken a lot of classes but none in anything remotely like finance. The head of safety committee discussed the results of different assemblies, and the schools none existent social media policy was brought up so that they can formulate one within the next meeting.

            A parent addressed the Board with a safety concern about the high school’s construction. From what I heard I believe a worker left a door off the building with no temporary infrastructure in place of it. At first, I did not get what the issue was until I remembered how many guards are now at schools’ due to the issue of school violence. Once that clicked I understood why the parent was upset. That door left an open entry that put his child’s life endanger. That made my heart hurt a bit. The board stated that as soon as the school realized they placed a guard there but the parent was notified about it by their daughter. I assume that means that she was feeling nervous about this unguarded entry enough to go home and tell her father about it. Overall, I actually enjoyed attending. It made my future as a teacher feel a lot less far away.