Board May Vote To Shelve Princeton Plan

A proposal by Bayport-Blue Point’s school superintendent to institute the is being met with skepticism from the board of education president and local parent groups.

At the Oct. 11 board of education meeting, Dr. Anthony Annunziato discussed bringing the plan to local elementary schools as part of an overall cost savings effort. He said instituting the Princeton Plan would cut eight teachers and save about $700,000 annually. He also noted the plan would need to be approved by the board in December in order to implement in the 2012-13 school year.

However, Jim March, board of education president, said he doesn’t think that timeline is realistic currently, as a number of details would still have to be ironed out for the district to start the plan for September.

March said he would publicly poll the entire board about the Princeton Plan at the Nov. 1 board meeting.

“My gut feeling is that this is going on the shelf, at least for the time being,” he said. “I can’t honestly see too many of them being in support. At this point I’m fairly certain the board will not move forward with this for 2012 school year.”

But the board of education president did not entirely shut the door on the Princeton Plan, saying he “can’t discount the plan” because the school district has limited financial options.

“Our hands are tied where we can go to look for money,” he said. “I didn’t like the Princeton Plan going in, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have to consider it in lieu of removing something else that is valued even more.”

When first unveiled earlier this month, the idea of bringing the Princeton Plan to Bayport-Blue Point was also not well received by parents.

Patch spoke with a number of elementary level Parent Teacher Association members, many of whom privately said their memberships had mixed feelings about the plan. None, however, would offer their opinion about the plan on the record.

Dawn Banks, president the school district’s Special Education PTA, did say she was disappointed in the overall discussion at the Oct. 11 meeting.

“I would have liked to have heard both the benefits and the adverse consequences of the plan,” she said.

Under the proposal from Annunziato, Blue Point Elementary would house Kindergarten and first grade, Academy St. would be home to grades two and three, and grades four and five would move to Sylvan Ave. Currently, each elementary school houses grades Kindergarten through fifth grade.