By Kathianne Boniello
A day after city and state test results showed School District 26 to be the highest scoring school district in the five boroughs this year, the members of School Board 26 spent last Thursday bickering throughout the group’s monthly meeting.
The July meeting, held at MS 74 in Bayside, began what could be the school board’s last year after June’s historic school governance legislation gave control of city public schools to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A provision in the school governance legislation, which still needs approval from the U.S. Justice Department, eliminates school boards by June 30, 2003.
Last week’s conflict centered on an item on the meeting’s agenda: a resolution approving the board’s End of the Year Review of School District 26 Superintendent Claire McIntee.
Several board members protested the timing of the resolution because they said the review was supposed to include last week’s test scores and there was not enough time to review the information. But those board members who pushed for more time said during the meeting that they had no criticism of McIntee.
But others disagreed, saying test scores were only part of the review. After more than an hour of heated debate, School Board 26 approved the End of the Year Review by a vote of 6-1 with one abstention.
A superintendent’s evaluation is not a public report.
Test scores released by the city Board of Education July 10 show School District 26 beating the next highest scoring district — School District 2 in Manhattan — by 7.2 percentage points in reading and 11 percentage points in math.
School District 26 includes schools in Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck, Oakland Gardens, Glen Oaks, Auburndale, Hollis Hills and parts of Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Floral Park and Bellerose.
Board member Dr. Steven Barlow proposed delaying approval of the End of the Year Review by another week.
“The report is not complete. It was written in the absence of certain data,” he said. “It’s just a cloud over the superintendent that she doesn’t deserve to have.”
Vivian Danziger, another board member, agreed.
“I think we’re doing the superintendent a disservice when we vote on something that hasn’t been substantiated,” she said.
SB 26 School Board President Sharon Maurer said more information than test scores could be used to gauge McIntee’s performance.
“You cannot walk into the classrooms of this district … and not know what kind of job the superintendent and her staff are doing,” she said.
Abe Schargel, another board member, said “the state and city have been late in providing this data. We have almost a full year’s experience meeting every week with the superintendent.”
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
