Superintendent Dr. Rogers and district science leaders told the Syosset Central School District Board that the district’s multi‑year work to align to the New York State Science Learning Standards is intended to give students stronger, more transferable scientific skills before they face newly aligned Regents and state assessments.

At a presentation spanning elementary through secondary instruction, Mister Steinberg and Doctor Jeanette Wojcik traced the district’s adoption and rollout back to 2016 and described a sequence of actions: selection of the Carolina Building Blocks of Science as a primary resource, hiring Barbara Fournier to support teacher capacity, extensive summer curriculum writing, and in‑district and cross‑district professional development. The presenters said those investments built a foundation for three‑dimensional instruction—disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts—now being assessed by New York State.

“Science is near and dear to my heart,” Dr. Rogers said as he described coordination between curriculum work and the district’s long‑term goals. The presentation included classroom examples: chemistry teacher Courtney Cheravino described a phenomenon‑based lab where students compare hydrophobic “magic sand” to beach sand; physics teacher Joe Sarriello described units that move from routine calculations toward designing, testing and refining devices that reduce collision force.

Board members asked how the district is supporting students who struggle with the new approach. Presenters said supports include scaffolded Claim‑Evidence‑Reasoning (CER) tasks that are gradually weaned, differentiated instruction across honors, Regents and ICT sections, collaborative teacher planning, and the use of online practice tools such as Inner Orbit at the elementary level. The district also described using a “do no harm” policy for regional exams so early administrations will not negatively affect students’ final averages.

The district said it intentionally delayed participation in the first statewide administration of some newly aligned exams to give teachers and students more preparation time; biology and earth and space science were not taken by the district in the first statewide administration, and the district plans to administer newly aligned biology and earth and space Regents in June 2026 and physics and chemistry in June 2027.

Students invited to speak described increased hands‑on work and greater relevance to real life: “We do CERs in class,” one student said, “and it really ties everything together about what we learned.” Presenters said these classroom shifts aim to make assessment items more meaningful by asking students to use evidence, analyze data and construct explanations rather than only recall facts.

The board took no formal action on curriculum during the meeting but requested continued updates; district leaders said they will bring further implementation details to the board in future presentations and continue tracking assessment data as the transition proceeds.