Public commenters press Great Neck board on 504 accommodations, Brandeis/antisemitism follow-up and union response

Several members of the Great Neck community used the meeting—s open time to press the board for clearer procedures and follow-up on special-education accommodations, to request public accountability for curriculum projects, and to urge union leadership to respond to a recently removed external link on the NEA website.

Ivan Zhu asked the board to address three concerns with the district—s student-accommodation process: low awareness of 504 accommodations among families and staff; insufficient training for teachers, administrators and counselors; and a practice he said penalizes students by denying make-ups for work completed during an evaluation period. Zhu said he provided the district a handout with specific proposals, advocacy references and a draft amendment to the district—s 504 policy and said he had not received a response from the district—s special-education administrator. "That was 6 weeks ago. Since then, there has been no response from Dr. Hickey, no acknowledgment from this board, and no visible progress on any of the reforms proposed," Zhu said. He asked the board to act and noted the federal Rehabilitation Act in arguing for fairness.

Multiple speakers sought greater transparency about the Brandeis project and the media-literacy work presented earlier in the evening. Judy Lyman asked how the district will inform the broader community about the content and accountability measures for the Brandeis project and asked whether the media-literacy work and related training will be taught the same way in both North and South schools. Michelle Rafael similarly asked when the material will be implemented in classrooms and whether the same curriculum will be offered across the district, noting previous inconsistencies between North and South curricular practice.

Rob Raphael raised concerns about recent school ranking results and asked the district to follow up with analysis and explanation. He said Great Neck high schools moved lower in statewide rankings and asked for an explanation of the reasons and whether grading or AP-point policies differ between North and South.

Jim Daczynski, president of the Great Neck Teachers Association, addressed the National Education Association issue: he said an external link on the NEA website contained "inappropriate and offensive content" regarding Israel and that NEA removed the link and issued a statement condemning the content. The GNTA president said he has reached out to New York State United Teachers and other affiliates and urged coordinated action. "NEA must do better," Daczynski said, reading from the NEA statement that condemns antisemitism.

Board leadership acknowledged the comments. The superintendent and other administrators indicated they would follow up; the board chair said Dr. Hickey (assistant superintendent for special education and pupil personnel services) was present and would be asked to contact Ivan Zhu. Several public speakers asked for written follow-up and more detail about implementation plans for both the Brandeis-related curriculum work and the media-literacy framework presented during the meeting.

No formal board action was taken in response to the open-time comments at that meeting; speakers asked for follow-up and greater public communication.