Patrick McGuire, the district director of physical education, health and athletics, presented a multiyear plan May 29 to update health and physical-education curricula, add elective offerings and expand athletics and facility improvements across the Rockville Centre schools.

McGuire said the plan will be phased over three years to align with board goals on budget oversight, student opportunities and community partnerships. "We wanna phase the implementation. We wanna take, over the next 3 years, we wanna implement these recommendations," he said, noting partnerships with the Village of Rockville Centre and Molloy University and a newly signed three-year Letter of Agreement with Positive Coaching Alliance for workshops for athletes, coaches and parents.

Key items in McGuire’s proposal include: adopting HealthSmart as a k–12, standards-based health curriculum beginning with a comprehensive revision of middle-school health this summer; piloting high-school physical-education electives (sport-education units, advanced fitness, lifetime activities); expanding unified sports (adding varsity unified bowling this year and exploring other unified offerings); and exploring varsity additions such as bowling, badminton and varsity dance. McGuire said unified sports blend students with and without disabilities on the same team and are sanctioned by Nassau County and the state.

McGuire also outlined facility priorities over multiple years: improved signage to direct visitors to gym and fields, windscreens and press-box maintenance, reconfiguring the Southside track and turf fields, new visitor bleachers, feasibility work on a Southside gym air-conditioning system, and a proposed Wilson Elementary "mega gym" that could host varsity gymnastics, wrestling and larger practice blocks.

On staffing and support, McGuire proposed contracting a strength-and-conditioning coach and exploring a mental-performance coach, and creating a coach-mentor program and a student-athlete leadership conference that could grow from a Southside event to a broader Nassau County program.

Board members praised the plan’s scope and asked follow-up questions on elective selection, student interest, middle-school team logistics and field scheduling. McGuire described an athlete-selection process for his "Athletes Helping Athletes" student leadership program: an application, teacher and coach feedback forms, and interviews to select 12 members from a candidate pool.

What’s next: McGuire said pilots and phased rollouts could begin in 2025–26 pending board approval, budget planning and staff professional development. Facility projects will require feasibility work and capital planning; some upgrades could be pursued through partnerships with village and college partners.