Superintendent Explains New Electives Process in Rocky Point

A change in the electives process in resulted in a belief by some that electives were being eliminated, Superintendent Michael Ring said.

Ring spoke with Patch after Monday's Board of Education meeting and explained that a new process was enacted in order to let students know which elective courses they may or may not receive as soon as possible, as opposed to in the past where requests would be made at the end of spring but the schedules wouldn't run until the summer.

"This year we said to students, we know how many seats we have available for each elective, we're not going to let ourselves get to more than the number of seats we have," Ring said. "Because what's going to happen in August is you're going to find out you're not in the course. So we're going to tell you now if you're in the course, on a waiting list or not."

Ring said that because it was a change, it was perceived that electives were being eliminated, but they have added one elective and eliminated one elective. Dream Weaver was eliminated for low enrollment and AP Music Theory was added because of high demand. The final change was that journalism, which was a full year course, is now a half year course based on low enrollment in the full year.

"Those were the only changes," Ring said. "The perception was that all of a sudden we're getting rid of electives. No, we're doing what we did all along.

"Now we're going to tell you in advance the best we know. But, if when the schedule runs that course is in Period 7 and you have to take a required course in Period 7, you're not getting the course, you get the required course. That's where it all came from. Through the discussion process I think we've clarified that with some people but I think still some people think we eliminated electives."

First bid for Capital Improvement rejected

The first bid for the Capital Improvement plan enacted in this year's budget, which includes asbestos abatement, roof replacement, ceiling replacement and toilet reconstruction, was rejected at Monday's Board meeting.

The first bid, a contractor's estimate, was deemed to be too high and discussions will reopen on June 30.

"The closer we can do it the better because then we can start to work faster," Ring said. "It will be accepted. We did this last year as well with the partial roof replacement. We rejected it, went back out and it came in $200,000 less.

"It's my expectation that the new bid will come in lower and if it doesn't we'll take the parts that are most important and we'll do that."