By Stewart Lilker.

The highlight of the December 19, 2001 Freeport Board of Education meeting was the continuing non discussion of Freeport’s sinking student achievement scores. Alerted that Newsday was publishing a list of the results of the English and math regents results the following day, Superintendent Eversley began his Superintendent's report reading from a prepared statement. As usual, there were more staff than parents at the meeting. In an all time new low, not counting the parents of the JV cheerleaders, there were only two parents with children in the district who attended the meeting.

The October 24, 2001 Board meeting was the first time that Superintendent Eversley told the public that he was going to investigate the reason for the low student achievement. At that time, the Freeport’s 4th and 8th grade state assessments showed Freeport in the bottom three districts in Nassau County.

Now, with the high school regents results looming, the new Superintendent moved into high gear. Refusing to reveal the depths to which Freeport had sunk, he told the Board, "The results were quite a bit less than we would have expected." Eversley said that he had asked BOCES to analyze the data, explaining that he wanted to "pattern intervention against valid data." He told the Board, "There is a problem matching up hard copy data with the data in the system."

Not one member of the Board asked the Superintendent, or any member of the administrative staff the reason for the anticipated poor student achievement.

Your reporter, who is also a resident, did question Eversley about the scores.

FNYN: I would like to know if you have any idea why that is?

EVERSLEY: When we have information to show the public, we will do that.

FNYN: So we have no idea? This has been a continuing problem since the state began testing. Freeport usually falls in the bottom three schools in Nassau County. My question is, for all these years, have we ever done any research as to why the students do so poorly in both math and English?

EVERSLEY: Let me just be clear. Your restatement was not a restatement of what I said. What I said was that when we have information to share with the public we will do that. We are involved in that investigation now, which I reported at the last two Board meetings.

FNYN: My question is, in the past three or four years, why have the students done so poorly? We don’t know?

EVERSLEY: When we have the information available to report to the public, we will do so.

FNYN: Thank you. Have you done any research before this time as to why they [the students] have done so poorly?

EVERSLEY: When we have the information together --

FNYN: No, no. I just want to know if you [to the Board] have done anything before this. I understand that you are doing it. Has this board and this administration and this district done anything before you, Dr. Eversley, to determine why these students have been doing so poorly? Before you came here?

MUSCARA: We have looked into the way students are taught. We are giving teachers staff development, if that is necessary. We are giving students extra help, if that is necessary.

FNYN: None of those things have been very successful.

On the morning of December 20th, Newsday published the results of the math and English Regents for 2001. In an article entitled "LI Makes The Grade on Exams," Freeport didn’t. The results showed Freeport plumbing new depths. In math, Freeport students scored the lowest of any district on Long Island. In English, Freeport did a bit better. Out of the one hundred districts reported on Long Island, Freeport was third from the bottom, outscoring only Hempstead and Roosevelt.