O
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A crisis in Freeport
ToThe Leader:
We have a crisis here in Freeport in our
schools in terms of some very serious
academic p e r f o r m a n c e problems. I
reported on some of these problems in
-o
my letter in The Leader, March 15 edit/}
1—
tion, titled: "We Must Have a Change,"
3H but I discover the news now only gets
worse. 'The Freeport H i g h School
results for Marking Period #2 just came
out, and I want to report j u s t a few
highlights that make me shudder. The
w
total number of students enrolled in the
w core English courses of 9R, 10R, 1IR,
H and 12R was 1182; of that 1182 total,
368 failed, with a failing percentage of
31%. In the previous marking period
( M a r k i n g Period #1). the trumbers
were: 1180 enrolled, 322 failed, with a
failing percentage of 27%. This shows
for this core English curriculum, failing
percentage has gone up from 27% to
31% in just that one quarter. In Math,
the total number of students enrolled in
core courses Math A-l and Math A-2
for the 2nd marking period was 849; of
that number 584 failed, with a failing
percentage of 69%. The numbers for 1st
quarter Math (the same core courses)
were 860 enrolled, 534 failed, with a
failing percentage of 62%. Again, we
have the f a i l i n g percentage, now for
Math, going up significantly from 62%
the 1st quarter to 69% the 2nd quarter.
How on earth are we supposed to get
these 7.400 children of ours, enrolled in
the Freeport School District, ready for
life after high school if we have 697r of
our students failing math, 31-% failing
English, and the results getting worse —
going in the wrong direction. Continuing, you will recall from my March 15
Leader letter that among 53 school districts reporting in Nassau County for
4th grade math scores, Freeporl had the
lowest "Mean Score" of all 53 districts.
No district was lower.
I think our current Board of Educat i o n is more concerned w i l h some
image they want to have, as written in
their own words from the most recent
"Freeport Pride P u b l i c Schools"
n e w s l e t t e r on page 3 w h i c h says
"Freeport School District spends less
per pupil than any other district in Nassau County." Clearly this current Board
is proud of that. How about 69%' of our
high school students failing their core
math? Is our Board proud of that also?
HAVING CONSTANT PAIN, HEADACHE THAT
WON TOO AWAY, ARTHRITIS, SCIATICA,
CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME, ETC?
Well, I don't see them doing anything
about it. because the percentages are
going up. Let me quickly add. this is
not about spending more money. It's
about spending it more wisely and with
more thought; which is obviously not
being done now, or we would be seeing
different.results.
Of the candidates r u n n i n g now for
the two seals up for election on May 15,
I strongly endorse Carmen Pineyro and
Eloy Yndigoyen. Both these candidates
have excellent educational and professional backgrounds, and are well versed
in the issues here in town. I urge everyone to come meet them at the candidates forum given by the PTA .which
will take place on May 3, at 7:30 p.m.
at the Atkinson School.
Continuing. I am sending out the call
for everyone in Freeport to come out
and vote. We have a crisis in town. This
is our town, our Board of Education,
and only we can do something about it.
As seen from the above and my letter in
the March 15 Leader, we are sending
many of our children out the door, there
at the high school, unprepared for a job
and ill-prepared for the rest of their life.
This is against our Slate Constitution,
and is also seriously morally, wrong. 1
have also noticed a slowing down of
real estale home price increases over
the last couple of years. I can now see
why. Who would want to move i n t o
Freeport wilh their family wilh a school
system such as the above? We must fix
our schools, and do it ourselves. We
don't want lo attract a lake-over by the
slate, which has happened elsewhere.
" V o t i n g is on May .15. For f u r t h e r
i n f o r m a t i o n , please c a l l t h e Board
office at 867-5200. They are there to
help.
Bruce Lloyd
(continued on page 8)
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