“Ice Cream-Gate” At Arkport Central
April 10, 2014
ARKPORT, NY – One Arkport resident is referring to it as “Ice Cream-Gate”. During last week’s Common Core testing at Arkport Central, some students grades 3 to 6 were given ice cream for taking the Common Core English Language Arts testing, while the students who did not take the tests did not get the ice cream.
That has some Arkport parents unhappy. “Very sorry that it was taken in the light that it was taken,” Arkport School Superintendent Glenn Niles told WLEA News. “We try to do a simple token, as we’ve done every year that we’ve ever tested, this year was no different. We just had more kids that didn’t take the tests, and therefore, it was a little bigger deal, so we will evaluate what we do in the future.”
An unusually high number of parents were present at Wednesday night’s school board meeting. One parent and her child read statements about their feelings about being excluded from getting ice cream, because they did not take part in the Common Core English Language Arts testing.
However, Niles also says he was disappointed in the reaction from some parents. “I am very disappointed in the reaction, quite honestly. We were never asked to explain ourselves, we were just basically attacked through social media and through other venues, and it was really unfortunate,” said Niles. “Some of the things said about me, about Mrs. Dewey and about the school, are really just plainly ugly.”
Reading from a prepared statement, Arkport Principal Caitlin Dewey says she was sorry for all the uproar that the controversy caused, but also says she does not like to be threatened and was concerned for her family’s safety.
