Massapequa Athletes Honored At Board Of Education Meeting

This week's Massapequa Board of Education meeting was highlighted by a tribute to the school's successful Fall sports season and the talented young athletes who were responsible for making it happen.

Taking place in the high school's Baldwin Auditorium, it was standing room only as the gathered teens and their proud parents filled almost every seat.

Director of Athletics, John Piropato, introduced each championship team, outlining their accomplishments and supervising the distribution of certificates of merit to each member.

"Our athletes are absolutely tremendous," he said. "I congratulate you all."

The teams honored were the varsity girls cross country, girls field hockey, boys varsity soccer, boys varsity volleyball, girls varsity volleyball, all of whom were Nassau County champions this past season. However, the shining jewel in Massapequa's crown was the girls varsity soccer team, who brought home the New York State championship for the Chiefs.

After the award certificates were handed out, the teams had their pictures taken in the lobby and headed home. From there, the crowd at the Board of Education meeting thinned out considerably, and from that point, it was business as usual.

After voting upon the hiring of an outside group of consultants who will serve the school district in various capacities (including asbestos compliance and adult education), Director of Athletics John Piropato once again took to the podium, this time to propose a three-year expansion of the sporting programs offered by the school.

"The challenge we face is creating additional teams, and additional opportunities for our students, with minimal impact to our budget," he said.

Among the additions to the sporting curriculum advocated by Piropato were boys and girls Winter track, varsity boys and girls badminton, and boys and girls bowling. Piropato also suggested hiring additional varsity assistant coaches to help with the new programs.

While the Board was receptive to Piropato's suggestions, they decided to hold off on voting on them until after New York's new governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, releases his new education budget in early February.

"Can we afford it? Who knows," said district superintendent Charles V. Sulc. "We don't know that now because we don't have enough data. We have a sound educational rationale for putting these things into the budget, but then we may have to take them out."

Cuomo is promising to cap each school district's budget, which, when implemented, may actually force the districts to cut programs as opposed to adding new ones.

Next, a presentation was given by Robert Schilling, executive director for Assessment, Student Data and Technology Services, on the advantages of video conferencing in the classroom and how it can help students.

"This isn't a substitute for good teaching or good instruction," Schilling said. "It's a valuable, valuable tool that we can incorporate into our program to remove communication barriers and allow students to touch base with folks outside the walls of their school without leaving the walls of their school."

Other topics covered at the meeting included a the approval of a contract for a new on-line store that will offer various services for the district, and the acceptance of a donation of a clarinet and violin to be used by the high school's music department.

The next regularly-scheduled meeting of the Massapequa Board of Education is on Thursday, February 3rd, at 8pm.