Mineola’s Board of Education approved Jennie Fahey’s appointment as Meadow Drive School’s principal during a meeting on Thursday night.

The board praised her as she took over her new role. She was previously one of Mineola High School’s assistant principals.

Michael Nagler, the superintendent of schools, provided humor to the celebratory occasion.

“She’s giddy with excitement, evident well when I asked her about almost two weeks ago, and I don’t think [she’s] stopped smiling,” he said. “[Her] cheeks really have to hurt.”

Nagler described Fahey as “very behind the scenes.” Yet, he said that because she oversaw so many various elements of the high school, many are familiar with her. He also addressed the idea of shifting Fahey from a high school to an elementary school.

“She’s a true learner,” he said. “And whatever she doesn’t know, she probably knows already, because she hasn’t stopped since I told her the news. So I’m super confident, super excited, for her to be at the helm.”

Fahey received praise from the other members, such as President Margaret Ballantyne-Mannion.

“I’ve known Jennie [Fahey] since my 25-year-old started at the high school many years ago,” she said. “I’ve never known her not to do something really well and to embrace it wholeheartedly. So I’m so excited.”

The board made several other appointments across the district.

Nagler also set the district’s educational goals for the forthcoming academic year.

First, he said he would like to see the Synergy program continue to develop. The district purchased the $4.25 million commercial property next to Mineola High School last December.

Nagler said Synergy will emphasize personalized instruction. This includes a new competency-based system that counts learning and skills rather than classroom time.

“In order to do that, you have to build the entire course,” said Nagler. “And you have to meet all the benchmarks that the learner would normally meet during a full year course. So as you might imagine, that’s a lot of work.”

He said the change is important to stay up with the present rate of educational advancement. Vice President Patrick Talty was one of the several board members that praised the idea.

“It seems perfectly natural to be doing this in the habit of the crossover between synergy and your traditional high school,” he said. “I think we’ll all start building that bridge figuratively before we can literally make that transition to the future.”

The development of their instructional model is another goal. The district started working on an integrated curriculum five years ago. Those goals included rethinking evaluation, flexible learning environments and computational thinking.

“We’re not done doing them,” said Nagler. “But that work needs to evolve to where we are now. So the structural model is a shift into a more new era of how we’re interpreting.”

Nagler emphasized that this was a celebration-worthy occurrence. He said it’s important to realize they’ve outgrown their old paradigm and initiatives.

The board agreed that evolution was a necessary step to aim for.

“It’s in [Nagler’s] book, you talk about meaningful, sustainable change being that it’s achieved through evolution, not revolution,” said Talty. “And I think you make a fantastic case for and why that is important today because the world is changing so fast.”

The last goal was to encourage seniors to earn the Seal of Civic Readiness.

A student’s high level of expertise in civic knowledge, abilities, mindset and experiences are recognized by this state certification.

Nagler said that this initiative will be led by Mineola Mayor Paul Pereira.