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Riverhead School Board Suspends 2024 Regents Exam Weighting Policy: School Board Summary May 14

Theo

For the third year in a row, a Riverhead student’s State Regents exam score will not negatively impact his or her graduation average.

The Riverhead Board of Education voted last Tuesday to suspend its policy that considers the exam as 20% of a student’s graduating average. The exam will continue to be counted if it improves the student’s average, according to the board’s decision suspending the policy. The vote comes after months of debate among parents, teachers, administrators and board members over whether the policy should be changed — and if so, how it should be changed.

While board members disagreed on how to change the policy during discussions at previous school board meetings, they voted unanimously to suspend the policy for this school year’s testing. Board members did not comment during the vote.

Some parents and school board members are pushing for the district to change the policy to weight Regents exam scores only if the score improves the student’s grade, a policy called “do no harm.” Proponents of the policy argue that the Regents exams that students must pass to receive their diploma should not affect a student’s grade point average for a course. A student’s performance on a longer test where a student could perform poorly due to factors outside the classroom should not count as a quarter of the school year, they said.

Others, including some Riverhead teachers, have argued that eliminating the weighting of the Regents exam would reduce its importance and disrupt the class ranking system currently in place.

The school board has been grappling with the policy in recent months. Board members initially considered changing the policy to reduce the audit weight to 12% before advancing this proposal, seeking a 10% weight. School board members said in previous meetings that they would continue discussions about how the policy should be changed.

The current policy weights a student’s Regents Exam score in required courses by 20% of their final course average, although the policy was temporarily suspended and replaced by the “do no harm” policy in the last two school years due to concerns about pandemic learning loss.

Additionally, the school board said during the May 14 meeting:

  • Contracts with several professional services firms were renewed for another year, including the district’s law firm, school doctor, auditors and financial advisor.
  • In response to several calls for proposals, new professional services contracts were awarded for the 2025 school year.
  • Recognized Phillips Avenue Elementary student Sarah Levenson, who won a poster contest organized by the New York State Bar Association.
  • Hired Arlene Durkalski, the district’s recently retired human resources director, as a consultant from May 15 to July 20 at $150 per hour, but not to exceed 30 hours.
  • Accepted a $1,000 donation from the City of Riverhead for the upkeep and maintenance of the Riverhead High School Young Observatory.
  • Accepted a $5,000 donation from the Jacob Marley Foundation to the Jeri Schlipp Memorial Scholarship Fund.
  • I accepted a total of $801 from Taylor Burgess, a 2014 Riverhead High School graduate, who donated $401 from a concert at the Jamesport Meeting House to the Riverhead High School music department, as well as an additional $400 from an anonymous additional donation from the same event.
  • Accepted a donation of 54 books (30 different titles) from the Heart of Riverhead Civic Association. The civic group raised $1,000 to purchase the books, which celebrate diversity and inclusion.
  • Accepted a $300 donation from Glenwood Village to the Riverhead High School Chamber Orchestra.
  • I accepted a donation of several boxes containing an extensive personal collection of Jim Foster baseball cards.
  • Accepting a donation of the book “Maybe You Will Survive: A Holocaust Memoir” by authors Aron Goldfarb and Graham Diamond in collaboration with the Heart of Riverhead Civic Association.

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