Dear Island Trees School Community,

The economic crisis facing the nation has now begun to have significant consequences for New York State schools.  Although many expected the federal stimulus monies to insulate our schools for at least two years, the current realities present an enormous challenge for our school district.  In fact, the circumstances seem more dire today than only a few short months ago.

Island Trees, similar to many other small suburban schools, experiences state aid reductions with much more discomfort than larger districts that can capitalize on their “economy of scale.”  After all, no matter what the size of the district, we all have mandated positions, programs, and expenditures; however, it is much more challenging to absorb these costs in a $54 million budget as compared with the typical $125-$150 million budget.

In response, the school district presented the Board with a creative option to help address some of the financial issues facing our community. One option we asked the Board to consider is known as the “Princeton” plan. Over a half century ago, Princeton, New Jersey developed a plan to create racial diversity in their schools by modifying the neighborhood school concept into schools grouped by grade levels.  With this plan, the elementary schools are organized not by geographic location (neighborhood), but by age.  Since that time, many school districts have adopted the “Princeton” model for economic and educational reasons rather than for societal ones.

One of the educational benefits lauded by “Princeton” is that all of the elementary school students receive the same educational program because they all go through the same series of schools on their way to the secondary schools -- same school buildings; same principals; and the same educational philosophy.  Advocates feel that no matter how similar a school program and curriculum may be in a school district, the individual schools tend to carry out the plans in different ways.  Under the “Princeton” plan, the academic program is consistent for all of the children in the district.

In addition, those who favor the “Princeton” plan believe there are more social benefits for students when the school is comprised of students of approximately the same age.  The program and resources are all organized around these youngsters.  Therefore, the school is able to allocate their resources more effectively -- library books, academic program, themes, assemblies, etc.  In fact, the staff is more collegial under the “Princeton” system because the entire grade level of the school district is working together in one building.

Nassau County has eight (8) school districts with “Princeton-like” models;

In addition, Nassau County has other school districts with Kindergarten centers. Although these are not true “Princeton” plan structures, these non-neighborhood centers are created to capitalize on educational and economic efficiencies by housing all of the district’s kindergarteners in one location.

The “Princeton” plan concept has been discussed in Island Trees in the past.  During the “baby boom,” the district’s student population peaked at over 5,800 students; however, a few decades later, the district lost more than half of those students.  To deal with these and other demographic changes, the community engaged in conversation around the “Princeton” plan concept.  In fact, recommendations to reorganize into this model occurred in 1990 and 1994.  At that time, many other significant restructuring changes were implemented to address the student population changes; as a result, the Board did not adopt the plan to reconfigure the Island Trees elementary schools.

In today’s climate, the decision to reorganize into the “Princeton” model is clearly an economic one.  We have calculated that the Island Trees School District could gain approximately $485,000 each year by reconfiguring the current K-4 neighborhood model into a K-1, 2-4 or a K-2, 3-4 neighborhood “Princeton” model.  This economical stewardship would grow exponentially each year, and in ten years a $4.85 million savings could materialize.  Quite significant indeed.

The Board of Education has asked the administration to explore this option further.  In response, we would like to gather a committee of community members -- parents, staff members and residents -- to study the option in more detail.  If you are interested in participating on our committee, please let me know.  We will try to balance out the committee with members of various constituent groups, so not everyone will be selected.

Again, if you are interested in participating on the committee, please email me at cmurphy@islandtrees.org or mail information to: Island Trees School District, 74 Farmedge Road, Levittown, NY 11756.  Please include your name, address, telephone number, and email address.  Since we are looking for the committee to represent different facets of the community, please include whether you have children in the schools and, if so, which schools they attend.

 Sincerely,