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Oysterponds evaluation plan approved by state

JENNIFER GUSTAVSON FILE PHOTO |
JENNIFER GUSTAVSON FILE PHOTO | The Oysterponds Superintendent Dick Malone said Tuesday the state has approved the district’s APPR plan.

The New York State Education Department has confirmed it approved the Oysterponds Elementary School District’s teacher evaluation plan on Tuesday — 12 days after the district missed a state-imposed deadline.

Although the district’s annual professional performance review plan, known as APPR, has been approved, state officials said Oysterponds will still be penalized for filing late.

It remains unclear how much Oysterponds is in danger of losing. State officials have declined to specify an amount and have said a school district’s annual change in state aid can vary throughout the year based on claims they’ve submitted and individual districts will have more information on what their total claims will be at the end of the year.

Oysterponds Superintendent Dick Malone said Tuesday that although he couldn’t confirm how much the district will lose for missing the Jan. 17 deadline, he described the amount as “no significant loss” because the district was never “entitled to that portion” anyway.

“It was my understanding it was some additional state aid that we did not qualify for,” he said. “There was a rumor that we were losing our regular state aid, but that isn’t true. We’ve gotten our major state aid payments already and there’s no reason to believe we’re not going to get the balance.”

The Oysterponds school district in Orient, one of the smallest schools in the state, is the only district on Long Island that failed to submit teacher evaluation plans on time. The other six school districts across New York slated to lose state aid for missing the deadline include New York City, Harrison, Hamburg, Pine Plains and Fallsburg.

As of September, the district has about 85 students enrolled in its pre-kindergarten through grade six program and sends 88 secondary students to Greenport.

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