Students in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District can now enroll in six new after-school enrichment courses in an effort to replace after-school clubs.
The program, run by a Smithtown-based nonprofit group, SCOPE Education Services, will offer six to eight classes at one school in the district for six weeks. Courses will be determined by parents, board members and students, district Superintendent Robert Katulak said.
“In a maiden voyage, you’re always concerned about going too wide and thin, rather than going small and deep,” Katulak said at Monday’s school board meeting.
The district had to cut after-school clubs five years ago for budgetary reasons, Katulak said. With the new program, the district has to provide heat, a physical location and teachers under a contract with SCOPE.
While she called it a “noble idea,” school board Trustee Patricia Rudd said she is concerned about running SCOPE in only one school because it may be unfair to students at the other schools.
A resident at the meeting suggested that the district run the program in rotation at all four schools.
Also at the meeting, Katulak said three of the district’s water fountains came back positive for lead out of 58 surveyed in May.
The fountains were in a faculty area on the top floor of one of the schools, Katulak said.
“Each of those situations was tested, shut down and replaced with proper plumbing, and tested numerous times,” Katulak said.
