Rockville Centre presents expanded Project Great, Community Ed and summer offerings

Christopher Zapia, principal of Riverside Elementary School and administrative advisor to Community Education, and program directors presented an overview of Project Great, Community Education and the district's summer programs at the Rockville Centre Board of Education meeting on Feb. 6.

The presentations described before- and after-school care, specialty seasonal programs and summer offerings the district runs for children and adults and highlighted rising enrollment and a plan to open summer registration in April. "Project Great is a program very near and dear to my heart," Nicole Giganti, director of Project Great, told the board as she outlined the program's schedule and features.

Giganti and Christy Ambrosio, director of community education, said Project Great uses the online enrollment system Elio (also spelled Elio/LEO in materials) to manage family accounts, pickups and payments and runs morning care from 7:00 a.m. to 8:50 a.m. and two afternoon sessions (approximately 3:30–5:00 p.m. and 3:30–6:30 p.m.). The directors said students receive breakfast or an afternoon snack, homework help and supervised activities; high school volunteers provide additional support. "She is the backbone of our office, keeping everything on track from running our software to managing communications," Ambrosio said of community ed secretary Amy Abbey.

Program and enrollment details presented to the board included: Project Great reported 122 morning students, 232 students in the 5:00 p.m. session, 58 enrolled for the 6:30 p.m. session and 290 recorded drop-in enrollments in 2023–24. Ambrosio said the district provides scholarships to families in need. Winter ACE (K–8 enrichment during school breaks) and adult education sessions also reported increased enrollment; Ambrosio said coding classes in Winter ACE reached their highest enrollment and the district now offers intermediate and advanced sessions.

Leslie Denino, who runs the pre-K summer program, described activities for rising kindergartners and said pre-K enrollment fluctuates by building; she reported 13 pre-K students in last year's summer session and said there were already 44 enrollments for the upcoming summer at the time of the presentation.

Keith Eckert, summer program principal, said summer 2024 enrollment returned to pre-COVID levels with more than 400 students, up about 100 from the previous summer. Eckert listed new or expanded course offerings including drone lessons (funded by an RVC Ed Foundation grant), robotics, advanced coding, a makerspace with 3-D printing and laser cutting, and expanded cooking courses. He said the district limited volunteers to students in grade nine or older and that all high school applicants who sought summer work were placed.

Eckert gave dates for the 2025 summer program: July 7–Aug. 7, with a brochure expected in mid‑March and registration tentatively scheduled to open April 7. He said high school worker applications and parent notifications will be pushed via ParentSquare; the volunteer policy remains that only ninth graders and above may serve as summer workers.

Board members and presenters discussed logistics and outreach: staffing ratios for Project Great (directors said staffing aims for a 1:10 teacher-to-student ratio and relies on a pool of additional staff on busier days), the district's drop-in option (directors said Project Great retains day-of drop-in capacity that many districts do not allow), and the effect of hosting summer programs at different buildings (presenters said building selection involves trade-offs in space, valet/traffic and field access). The board suggested surveying families to learn why some eligible families do not enroll in pre-K or summer programs.

Directors also described academic summer offerings: Regents review courses that meet twice weekly for 10 sessions (offered after school and evening), high school remediation and credit-recovery instruction with a reported summer passing rate of about 83 percent for credit-recovery courses, and continuing adult-education classes. Giganti and Ambrosio said teachers for Regents and remediation are certified in their subject areas and often use Google Classroom and optional after-hours support.

The presentations closed with public appreciation from board members for staff, volunteers and Amy Abbey. "We are very grateful for her, and all of our alumni out there, for their support," Superintendent Gavin said earlier when the board accepted an alumni gift to the district.

Ending

Directors said they will finalize the summer brochure and staffing and return with registration details; the board encouraged additional outreach and data collection on enrollment patterns and noted the district's intention to maintain flexible options such as drop-in Project Great care.