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Cheek-Sloan installs homeschooling policy
The Cheektowaga-Sloan and Maryvale Boards of Education are taking steps to accommodate students and families who choose to participate in homeschooled instruction in their respective districts.
At Tuesday's Cheektowaga- Sloan meeting, the board approved an official New York State Education Department policy on homeschooling, which includes certain academic and extracurricular parameters, according to Superintendent of Schools James P. Mazgajewski.
The statewide policy gives homeschooled students the option of taking district core classes- as long as they do not supercede a pupil enrolled in regular courses- as well as opportunities to take certain state or standardized tests.
However, homeschooled students are not permitted to take advanced placement courses and do not receive a New York State diploma upon completing their material.
Another portion of the policy allows students the opportunity to participate- if they wish- in extracurricular and intramural activities (such as clubs), but not interscholastic athletics.
Also, the policy permits school districts to loan textbooks and other supplies to homeschooled families in their particular districts, if they need the assistance.
Mazgajewski said that Richard C. Mills, commissioner of the New York State Education Department, installed a policy several years ago that designated all school districts in the state were to allow families to conduct homeschooled instruction. The superintendent added that Cheektowaga-Sloan and Maryvale were recently identified in a Buffalo publication as local districts that allow homeschool students to participate in extracurricular activities.
Mazgajewski- who stated Cheektowaga Sloan wanted to officially get the policy "on the books" after following general state mandates for several years- said there are eight children in three families who are homeschooled in the Cheektowaga- Sloan district. Maryvale Superintendent of Schools Gary L. Brader stated that he believes two or three children are homeschooled in the Maryvale district.
"According to the commissioner's regulation, we're mandated as having to allow (homeschooling)," Brader told the Times. "The policy says that we can help families, and we do our best to do so."
Brader added that the district offers homeschooled families special education services for pupils with special needs, depending on individualized education program requirements.
Brader also stated that most homeschooled students in the past have not participated in school extracurricular or other permitted activities allowed by the policy, which was instituted recently by the state Education Department.
Mazgajewski said Cheektowaga- Sloan does everything it can to help homeschooled students.
"We feel we're being accommodating and helpful," he stated.
In other action Tuesday, Board Trustee Thomas DelBello stated that he determined from recent discussions with the Theodore Roosevelt Playground Committee that the new playground- which was originally scheduled to be installed at Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School by the end of April- may not be completed until May 17.
DelBello stated that committee members, who have already raised most of the installation funds, are still waiting for a contingent, $8,000 grant from New York State Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak. If the state budget is not completed by its deadline, installation of the new playground, which is replacing the current 14-year-old facility along William Street, may not occur until September.
The board also:
• Accepted a $25,000 donation as part of the Mr. and Mrs. Norman Greenhauer Scholarship Fund, an amount that is presented on graduation day to one John F. Kennedy High School senior who is pursuing a career in the sciences. To date, the Greenhauers have donated $355,000 to graduating JFK students.
• Set April 9 as a date to hold a meeting to discuss the district's drug and alcohol policy. Several teachers, athletics directors and parents have been invited to attend the 6:30 p.m. meeting, which will take place in the Irma Czubaj Conference Room at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School.
• Approved purchasing 157 seventh grade social studies textbooks and 150 eighth grade social studies textbooks, both titled "American Nation," at a price of $75 per unit.
• Appointed JFK High School teacher Brian Flynn to the JFK Academic Eligibility Committee for the remainder of the school year.
• Accepted a letter of resignation from Sherry Santalucia, a part-time food service helper in the JFK cafeteria.
• Approved the Monsignor Martin Association's request to use the JFK track for the Monsignor Martin School Relays on May 24 from 3:30 p.m. to dusk.
• Approved JFK High School science teacher Kyle Karmazyn's attendance at a conference titled "Practical Activities for Improving Your Teaching in Chemistry and Physics," taking place April 21 in Rochester. The trip will cost the district $195 plus mileage.
• Approved the JFK High School Band and Chorus's participation in a music festival at Darien Lake from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 30.
• Declared a laminator educator and oven at Woodrow Wilson to be obsolete.
• Approved the JFK Future Business Leaders of America club holding a candy bar sale at school on April 29.
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