FULTON – During last night’s Fulton City School District Board of Education meeting, Tuesday, April 27, Regents exams were among the topics of discussion.
Executive Director of Instruction and Achievement Daniel Carroll provided an update regarding Regents exams for this year.
Carroll said the district sent out communication to families on Monday in relation to this. Affected students include 8th grade students taking accelerated Earth Science and Algebra courses, and students in G. Ray Bodley High School who is scheduled to take a Regents exam this year.
Last year these exams, in addition to New York State and federal accountability and testing requirements, were canceled due to the pandemic.
In January 2021, the NYS Department of Education and the Regents Board submitted waiver requests to the federal government requesting the cancellation of accountability and testing requirements again for this year.
“New York State really needed permission from the U.S. Department of Education in order to go ahead and cancel all Regents exams and/or state [exams,]” Carroll said.
Carroll said the U.S. Department of Education is still requiring testing.
“So as a result, New York State has issued a testing program for this year that’s very, very different than what we’re accustomed to,” Carroll said.
There will be only four Regents exams administered in June 2021:
- English Language Arts, June 17
- Algebra 1, June 23
- Living Environment, June 22
- Physical Setting/Earth Science, June 24
These four exams directly apply to the federal government’s requirements based on the Every Student Succeeds Act.
There will be no Regents exams in August 2021 and Regents exam scores will not be included in final course scores, which will be calculated based on the grades students have earned in the course throughout the year.
Carroll said typically, a Regents exam score is calculated as 20% of a student’s overall score in a course in the Fulton City School District.
Students shall be exempt from a Regents exam if they are enrolled in a course that ends in a Regents exam and they pass that course or if they earn credit for the course during summer 2021. Exemption rules apply to all Regents exams.
“An exemption will not in any circumstances impact a student’s eligibility for advanced designation or honors diploma designations,” Carroll said. “They simply won’t be factored into the calculation, the determination of those honors… Students may choose to take an exam, and actually, we encourage them to. We encourage them to give it a shot in this risk-free, no-stakes opportunity, particularly for students who haven’t taken a Regents exam before.”
Regents exams may only be administered in-person in school buildings on that one day. Remote students may choose to take any of the offered exams. A Regents Exam Planning form will be sent to the families of students in courses that end in a Regents exam.
Also in the meeting, Superintendent Brian Pulvino presented to the board an overview of the progress in the 2018 Capital Improvement Project.
“We’ve done a lot of work so far at Lanigan, but we’ll have shovels in the ground this summer here at the Junior High School as well as Volney,” Pulvino said. “There’s a lot of different pieces that you don’t necessarily see, but I want to let the community know that a lot of work is going on here in the Fulton City School District around Capital [Improvement Projects] as well as our energy performance contract.”
The report on the capital improvement projects can be found here.
Terry Warwick later gave an update on the district’s meal distribution program, Kathy Nichols gave a finance report for the month of March and Superintendent Pulvino recognized Lynn Lyons for achieving 75 points in leadership development training.
There will be a budget forum on May 5 at 6 p.m., and a budget newsletter will be sent out to community members shortly thereafter. Community members may vote on the budget and two contested BOE seats on May 18 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Fulton War Memorial. If approved, the budget will be ratified at a special board meeting on May 19.
The agenda and related documents for last night’s meeting can be found here. The full meeting can be viewed here and in the video above.
The next regular BOE meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 11 at 6:30 p.m. and will be live streamed on the Fulton Communications YouTube channel.
