Bedford Board of Ed Eyes Policies, Honors Students with Stellar PSATs

BEDFORD, N.Y. - Should student-athletes be exempt from gym class, and for how long? The Bedford Central School District policy now provides some allowances – but a key alteration to the policy was on the agenda at a recent Board of Education meeting.

This meeting took place on Wednesday, October 30, and the policy under discussion concerned “Alternative Physical Education.” Under the current rules, high school juniors and seniors who play varsity sports can opt out of their yearly Phys ed requirement if they play for more than one season. 

A change under consideration would limit that exemption to one season. If the change is approved, the measure will take effect next year.

“As a board member, I would rather see the athletic options remain as is,” said Board Trustee Betsy Sharma, who serves on the Policy Committee. “If a student is participating in a varsity sport and spending many hours after school. It seems reasonable to me that that student can use the PE period for study.”

Board of Education President Gilian Klein questioned a separate part of the policy that also extends to students at the 10th grade level in sports leagues outside the district. “That outside activity is somebody who is a superlative athlete and is on a national team – or is doing a highly competitive program in the city and needs to get to the city,” Sharma responded. “Those can be exceptions approved by the Board.”

“I think the athletic director recommended that we actually eliminate policy altogether, and a compromise was to provide it for one season,” noted Board Trustee Robert Mazurek. “Before the next meeting, we should make sure that Dr. Amos [Fox Lane Principal Jennifer Amos] has weighed in on this.”

Another weighty policy discussion centered on the district’s policy regarding non-district students attending BCSD schools – for a tuition fee that is established statewide. There’s no rule that requires districts to allow this practice – and plenty do not. The Board’s Policy Committee recommends limiting out-of-district attendees to students whose parents work for the Bedford Central School District. The out-of-district students pay a tuition fee that is set by the state.

“The calculation of the tuition is a formula, a state formula,” noted Committee Chair Blakeley Lowry. “It’s not negotiable, it’s not subjective, so that’s not an issue.”

Sharma noted that out-of-district students pose a variety of other issues - individualized educational plan (IEP) requirements, among them. Such services can be costly. 

“It’s the home district’s responsibility to provide those services,” said Sharma. “If there is something needed that we can’t provide, by law, it’s the home district’s responsibility to accommodate that.”

“They would have to be provided by the home district, commonly through reimbursement,” noted Dr. Rob Glass, superintendent of the Bedford Central School District.

No policy decisions were made at the meeting. A draft of this revised policy is currently being circulated among the district’s administrative people and will be reviewed in further detail at the Board’s November meeting. 

The Board of Ed meeting also focused on an upcoming series of focus groups that will be convened by the Special Education Committee. Topics to be explored include how long children have had IEPs and responsiveness to the district’s Spanish-speaking population. Parents with children placed in schools outside BCSD will also take part in the focus-group sessions.

During the meeting, Dr. Jennifer Amos, principal of Fox Lane High School, presented certificates of commendation to 11 Fox Lane High School seniors who placed in the top ranks among the 1.6 million students worldwide who took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT). The PSAT also determines National Merit Scholarship eligibility, and in September Fox Lane Seniors Zachary Cohen and Gabriel Wierzchowski were named scholarship semifinalists. To accomplish that, Cohen and Wierzchowski placed in the top 1 percent of people who took the PSAT.

The other top-ranked students honored were: Jack Christiano, Andrey Donchev, Grant Klein, Thomas Long, Alexander Montano-Miller, Madden Osherow, Annabel Silbersher, Alexander Sizer, and Madeleine Stone. The students all placed in the top 2 percent of PSAT test-takers. They are all seniors who took the PSAT last year, during their junior year.

“Last fall was the first time that the PSATs were done electronically – so there was an extra layer of challenge,” said Amos. “This is a tremendous honor for each of these students. Congratulations to them and to their families.”