Lynbrook Schools Release Needs Assessment Survey

As the Lynbrook Board of Education works on formulating a strategic plan for the next five years, officials have released a survey to the community, asking residents what the Lynbrook School District's future priorities should be.

"We think it's going to prove very helpful in planning for the future of the school system," said Lynbrook superintendent Dr. Santo Barbarino. "We're trying to be as open-ended as possible here."

The "Needs Assessment Survey" invites residents to offer their opinions on what aspects of Lynbrook's education system they deem "Most Important," all the way down to "Not Important." Residents can rank the importance of class sizes, after-school activities, district transportation, and the value of different school subjects.

Participants are also encouraged to recommend areas in which the district can expand its curriculum. District officials are looking to determine the Lynbrook community's interest in seeing more financial literacy and business courses, establishing foreign language programs in elementary schools, and/or implementing additional Web research and media literacy in the schools. These are just some of the suggested topics; residents are encouraged to suggest their own priorities in the survey.

The survey was drawn up by the district's Strategic Planning Committee, comprised of Lynbrook administrators, teachers, students, members of the PTA, the Chamber of Commerce, village officials, and more. The planning board was formed late last year after the district administration expressed interest in developing a long-term plan for Lynbrook schools. The district has also enlisted the help of two education experts — Dr. Charles Fowler, the former superintendent at Nassau BOCES, and Dr. Vincent Beni, a former superintendent of a school district in Westchester, N.Y. — for guidance in formulating the strategic plan.

"The goal of course is to plan for the future," said Barbarino, who sits on the Strategic Planning Committee. "And do that, we needed to not only think about ourselves as an administration and Board of Education and staff … we wanted to reach out to the entire community to see what it is they feel are the important inputs for the best education for the students.

"It would be input that hopefully could take us hopefully through the next five years," he added.

The deadline for submitting the survey has been extended to March 31, and the Strategic Planning Committee is looking to have preliminary recommendations for the Board of Education by the end of the school year. This whole process — which will eventually include the development of a five-year strategic plan — will run the district about $40,000, half of which can be aided by Nassau BOCES.

The survey is available in the main offices of each school, the district administration office, both Lynbrook and East Rockaway libraries, senior citizen centers, and both Lynbrook and East Rockaway Village Halls. It is also available online at www.surveymonkey.com/s/lynbrookschools.