Nassau News

According to Assistant Principal Henry Williams, one of the most important changes has been the implementation of small learning communities, which breaks the school of approximately 1,600 students into smaller schools. These small school have since helped individualize a student's education and identify his or her weak areas.

They have especially impacted the ninth grade classes, which were identified as the focus group. "When they come to high school in ninth grade they come to this big large setting. They get lost, they get confused, they begin to cut," said Williams."They pick up on a lot of negative behavior patterns, and so we lose them early."

Organizing Small

The small learning communities have therefore helped students overcome their first year of high school. When specific teachers are assigned set groups of students, their progress can be regularly monitored.

Unfortunately, despite some improvements, test scores were still consistently low and the high school has been on New York State's list of worst achieving schools. Schools are placed on this list when there are a high number of students who either don't take the Regents exams or who don't pass. Hempstead High School was placed on the list after it was unable to meet the state's requirements.

Closing the Open Campus

However, some of the school's worst problems didn't deal with students' performance in the classroom. One of them included having an open campus where students were allowed to come and go freely. After much debate between the administration and the Board of Education, the campus was finally closed three years ago. "Since we closed the campus we have a lot less cutting and attendance has improved dramatically," said Williams.

According to Williams, the administration had been trying to close the campus for about twenty years, but the school board kept turning them down. The board felt fencing-in school grounds, in an effort to prevent students from leaving, is imprisoning to them. Unfortunately, it took a tragedy to make the board change its mind.

"When we lost a student a block away who went off campus and was killed, I think that's what really motivated the board to support our decision and close the campus," said Williams.

New Disciplinary Strategies

And there were other problems that seemed to consistently distract school officials from focusing on students' education first. A large problem with gangs and fighting hurt the high school for a long time. "We used to have so much fighting in the building that being late to class wasn't an issue," said Williams. "Now we have different disciplinary strategies that we're enforcing."

After a strong focus was placed on putting an end to gangs and related violence, school officials were able to focus on the important aspects of being a learning community and students have since greatly benefited.

With a closed campus, a near end to school violence and a new focus on individual students, Hempstead High School has seen dramatic improvements over the last four years. In those years alone, the graduation rate has improved from only 30 percent of students graduating to 65 percent. Other improvements include an increase in the number of students who pass their Regents exams.

Working for Achievement

Hempstead High School has even adopted a new motto: "Failure is Not an Option". The basis behind this new phrase is that school officials aren't just giving students work and telling them to do it; they are also providing a number of academic resources to help them complete that work.

"Failure is not an option because we have too many resources to support and help the students pass," said Williams. "The only reason students will not be successful in Hempstead High School is if they just got lazy."

According to the guidance department, even the number of students advancing on to college has increased. And now there are a number of new scholarship programs to further help Hempstead High School students.

One scholarship program that will begin this year is a tracking program through Nassau Community College, which will offer between 65 and 75 seniors the opportunity to attend the college for free. As they travel through
and complete school at Nassau, those who succeed will be offered free tuition to any school they get accepted to.

Students are even continuing to step up their work in order to get in to college. According to Williams, there has been an increase in the number of students taking Advanced Placement courses. There are also a number of students who are taking college courses through the high school.

Schools such as Syracuse University, Monroe College and Adelphi University have partnered up with Hempstead High and are offering students the opportunity to receive college credits early.

"We see a big improvement in the students wanting to achieve more," said Williams. "They love coming to school.

"One of the things that we are most proud of at Hempstead High School is that students are beginning to believe in themselves. That's one of the greatest accomplishments," said Williams, "to allow students to believe that they can achieve, and once they believe that they can achieve, and they realize they have the support systems to achieve, then they have done extremely well and we are proud of them for that."

Sidebar: The Administrators

The administration at Hempstead High School has played an important role in the school's accomplishments. This includes its four assistant principals. We've already met Henry Williams, now watch the following video to hear a statement from the other three and one last statement from Mr. Williams.

One of the things that Hempstead High School is most proud of is, is the improvement in the students' will to learn. More students are getting good grades, graduating and moving on to college.

Click the following embedded player to hear from some of Hempstead's students on what they plan to do after graduation.