Sag Harbor schools score high

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Students in the Sag Harbor School District are scoring well above other schools in the region, according to a report presented to the School Board on Monday.

Pierson High School principal Jeff Nichols presented data from Newsday’s “School Report Card” and said Pierson students are showing strong participation in Advanced Placement classes and their scores continue to rise.

AP examinations administered at Pierson climbed from 72 in 2005 to a projected 132 this year and now more than 70 percent of students are scoring high enough to receive college credit at most institutions, as opposed to 16 percent during the 2002-03 school year when the program began gaining momentum.

“I made AP a priority in 2003,” Mr. Nichols said, noting that at the time he gave teachers the needed staff development workshops for students to be successful. The percentage of students enrolled in at least one AP course at Pierson was fell slightly in recent years.

School Superintendent Dr. John Gratto said he was impressed by the numbers and noted that achievement continued to climb even as the difficulty level of the courses grew more challenging. In 2005, 48 students took one or more AP course, and 70 percent of them scored high enough on the exam to qualify for credit, while this year, 79 students took at least one AP class, and 73 percent received the necessary scores for credit.

Pierson offers a variety of AP classes in English, math, science, history, government, and art. The AP Spanish course was dropped this year, Mr. Nichols said, though he noted the school still offers courses in the subject for college credit, but they are taken through State University of New York in Albany, rather than the College Boards that manage AP classes.

“I don’t see it as an option, I see it as a necessity,” Mr. Nichols said, explaining the importance of offering the college level courses. He said Pierson students score well above the global mean among students anywhere that a college board offers exams to high school students. He displayed various graphs representing each course with Pierson’s scores shown as a dark bar towering over other schools around the world. Mr. Nichols pointed out that achievement was sometimes triple that of other schools.

“We might be plateauing in terms of our scores,” the principal said, adding that the challenge ahead is to continue to increase that number and maintain that performance level.” He said offering more honors courses earlier might help, but students develop at a varied pace and they may not be ready for high level courses at the same time.

According to data from the 2006-07 school year, Mr. Nichols said Pierson filled the top two slots for Regents exams scores in all but eighth grade math among nine local schools, including East Hampton, Westhampton, Mattituck, Southampton, Bridgehampton, Eastport, Center Moriches and Greenport. Outside of eighth grade math, the school held the number-one slot in every other subject but science, where it came in second.

While the scores are high, Mr. Nichols explained that Sag Harbor also has the second highest cost per student, only behind Southampton among the schools listed.

In other news, Teachers Association of Sag Harbor President and Pierson guidance counselor Eileen Kochanasz said her union and the board have been back to the table twice for negotiations in recent weeks and she told Dr. Gratto that the union is looking for a response to their “counter proposal.” The superintendent said attorneys for the district will meet again to consider a proposal from TASH on November 18.

Negotiations have been ongoing since February and an impasse was declared in June. Since then, teachers in the district have been quietly protesting by wearing buttons reading, “Wanted: Teachers Contract” to school each day.

Earlier in the meeting, the board and Dr. Gratto shared a new policy about student trips that is designed to have teachers miss fewer school days and give all Sag Harbor students the opportunity to participate in trips to other states and countries. Previously, Dr. Gratto said some students were excluded because of financial issues.

The superintendent said the school has new language in place so budget appropriations and student contributions can raise money for all students to be able to attend class trips, no matter what their financial situation.

The community has criticized trip policies in Sag Harbor because teachers often missed four days for trips like those to Italy and Hawaii, removing them from the classroom and those students who could not participate. To solve the problem and appease everyone, Dr. Gratto said teachers would not be allowed to miss more than two days, but they would not try to fit trips to match school vacations because of astronomical airfares that coincide with those school breaks.