School board recognizes student athletes, postpones decisions on regionalization, Regents exam weighting

The school board at its meeting last week recognized six outstanding student athletes. 

Girls soccer coach Kasey Mandery presented certificates of recognition to two players.

Senior Lauren Zaweski, captain of the girls varsity soccer team for three of her four years on the team, was named to the all-county academic girls soccer team this year for having the sixth highest unweighted GPA of all girls soccer players in Suffolk County. 

Junior Carly Morgan, a three-year varsity player, was named to the all-county girls soccer team by the League II coaches. Carly was unable to attend the Dec. 10 meeting to receive her certificate.

Cross-country coach Tyler Logan said the boys cross-country team finished with a 4-1 record in the regular season and qualified for the Section XI championship for the third straight year. The girls cross-country team finished with a 3-2 record, its first season over .500 in more than four years, he said. . Logan presented certificates of recognition to Christopher Jones, Sean Rowland, Julia Chycherska and Victor Giron. Giron was not in attendance at the meeting.

“They earned three first-team all-league honors and one second-team all-league honor. Christopher and Sean also earned all-county recognition based on their exceptional postseason performances. Christopher Jones broke two Riverhead High School records this season. And Sean, Juliet and Victor each had an all-time performance earning a spot on our cross-country school record board,” Logan said. “These students and athletes have not only excelled individually, but helped lead our teams to incredible success.”

Regionalization decision postponed till January

A decision on participating in a regionalization initiative introduced by the State Education Department won’t be made in the Riverhead Central School District until after the new year, Riverhead Board of Education President James Scudder announced at last week’s school board meeting.

The initiative aims to encourage school districts to share resources, allowing districts in similar geographical regions to develop plans for sharing staff, coursework and other resources to broaden educational opportunities for students, according to the State Education Department, which published emergency regulations to codify regionalization in September.

“At first it was mandatory and then they changed the guidance to being voluntary,” Scudder said. “We have talked about it as a board with the administration. We’ve looked at a lot of data. We have decided that the best course of action as of right now is to wait,” he said. “The deadline is not until January 15. We have a board meeting on the 14th, so we’d like to look at more data, see if anything else, any other things come down from the State Education Department, and then we would make a decision,” Scudder said. “So as of now, we’re not making a decision on the regionalization plan until Jan. 14.”

Regents exam weighting policy requires more study

A board decision on district policy concerning weighting of Regents exam grades will also wait. Interim Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said she and Interim Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Alan Baum will form a new committee comprising a cross-section of parents, educators and students in the school community to review updated data and make recommendations to the board.

A committee formed last year was unable to come to a conclusion, board member Cynthia Redmond said, in part because available data on what surrounding districts were doing was not up to date, due to policy changes being made as the matter was under review by Riverhead. Redmond asked if new data was available.

Pedisich said not yet. 

“We have not surveyed districts for this year,” she said. Last year’s data is outdated at this point, she acknowledged. Pedisich said some districts have continued a hold harmless policy, which states that if factoring in the Regents exam grade works to the student’s advantage, it is counted. But if it does not work to the student’s advantage, it is not counted. Nevertheless, Pedisich notes, it is the culminating exam for a course and the State Education Department says students should take it.

Budget line transfers by superintendent or designee OK’d up to $250,000

Also at last week’s school board meeting, the board voted to approve a change to the budget transfers policy to authorize the superintendent or designee to transfer funds of up to $250,000 between budget line item accounts without prior approval of the board. The dollar limit was $25,000 under the existing policy. 

The state allows transfers up to $250,000 by the superintendent or her designee without board approval, Scudder said after the meeting. “So we decided to go with the state limit,” he said. It allows the district’s business official to expeditiously make corrections to improperly coded amounts, he said.