Congratulations! The Regents responded to your call for a delay in raising the high school graduation requirements and also made significant changes to both the Math A and Physics Regents exams.
On the recommendation of Commissioner Mills, the Regents agreed to:
1. Retain 55 as a local option passing score to give students and schools more time to boost achievement. This provision pertains to all students now in high school and for those entering 9th grade in the fall of 2004. Students who score 55 or higher on 5 Regents exams (English, Math, Science, Global Studies and US History) will receive local diplomas. Regents diplomas will continue to be awarded to students who pass 8 Regents exams with scores of 65 or higher. The Advanced Regents Diploma which was supposed to be implemented in 2005 is now on hold.
2. Continue the Regents Competency Tests (RCT) known as the "safety net" for students with disabilities through the fall of 2009.
3. Adopt the major recommendations of the Independent Panel on Regents Math A which include: revising the standards, curriculum and exam. The panel concluded that "the standards were not clear and that necessary support systems for students and teachers are not in place." A Mathematics Standards Committee comprised of math teachers, mathematicians and professionals who use mathematics will be appointed to overhaul the standards. In addition, a "suggested" grade-by-grade K-12 curriculum that matches the revised standards will be published. A new Regents Math A exam will be designed that will cover a year of math instruction rather than 1 ½ years. The Department will also develop a network of math training for teachers. NYSSBA commends the panel for their fine work. The report can be found on SED's website at www.regents.nysed.gov/October2003/1003brd3.html
4. Convene a committee of practitioners to establish new scoring for the
next Regents Physics Exam. The Regents agreed physics should be accessible to all students, not just the elite. After a heated debate, the Regents directed the Commissioner to come up with a plan for adjusting the physics scores of the students who failed the exam, but remain in high school. Citing concerns over pending litigation and precedent, Mills urged the Regents to back off from this directive, but he eventually acceded to their wishes.
While these initiatives are certainly a step in the right direction and long overdue, we believe the state must come up with alternative courses and multiple ways for assessing students. We will continue to advocate on your behalf for these changes. It is probably no coincidence that the Regents opted to take action on these issues before legislative hearings on the Regents testing system conclude. A joint-hearing of the Senate and Assembly Education Committees will be held in Albany on October 22. While at convention, you might want to stop by the Rochester City Hall for an Assembly hearing on October 23rd. City Hall is two blocks from the Convention Center on Main Street. The hearings will be held in Room 406.
Diane S. Ward
Governmental Relations Representative
New York State School Boards Association
24 Century Hill Drive
Latham, NY 12110
518-783-0200 Phone
518-783-3542 Fax
diane.ward@nyssba.org
As you probably know, on August 15 the State Education Department will announce the schools that have been placed on the state's "persistently dangerous" list. Sometime in September, SED will announce those schools that are required to devise a plan to reduce the incidence of weapons in the schools. While neither list is likely to be long, they are likely to generate public and media discussion even in districts where no schools have been designated.
To assist you in your discussions - refer to the talking points below. Obviously these should be supplemented with positive news about your schools and/or proactive steps you have taken to make your schools more safe. One further suggestion for those districts that will have a school on one or both lists: Make the announcement yourself without waiting for SED. It is good public relations practice that you should announce your own bad news, especially when you're certain the news will become public anyway. It permits you to frame the parameters of the discussion yourself, and it shows you will be candid and forthright in dealing with the bad news as well as the good. Leaving the announcement to others may create the impression they are "exposing" something you were attempting to "hide."
We hope these suggestions and talking points will help you deal with this issue.
Timothy G. Kremer, Executive Director
David Ernst, Director of Communications and Research
New York State School Boards Association
(518) 783-0200 or (800) 342-3360
Talking Points
“PERSISTENTLY DANGEROUS SCHOOLS”
Ø Nothing is more important to schools and school districts than maintaining an environment in which children can learn without fearing for their personal safety.
Ø Schools are safe places for children. According to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics, children in 2000 were twice as likely to become a victim of serious violent crime away from school as in school.
Ø Nevertheless, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires states to develop criteria for identifying “persistently dangerous schools.” Parents of students in these schools have the right to transfer their children to other schools.
Ø Schools tentatively identified by the State Education Department as persistently dangerous have the opportunity prior to Aug. 15, 2003, to contest the designation. SED will release a statewide list of “persistently dangerous” schools on Aug. 15.
Ø SED has decided that a school with a ratio of weapons incidents to enrollment of 3% or greater in each of two consecutive years will be designated “persistently dangerous.” NYSSBA believes the school’s efforts to keep weapons away from schools also should be considered in the designation decision.
Ø Schools with a 2% ratio of incidents to enrollment in each of two years will be required to develop a plan to reduce the number of weapons incidents during the 2003-04 school year. Unless there is improvement, these schools may be designated “persistently dangerous” for the 2004-05 school year. This list of schools will be announced in September.
Ø Parents are encouraged to visit their children’s schools, to request details of weapons incidents cited in the designation decision and to make their own judgments about the environment in their school. Schools that are being proactive in preventing such incidents, but meticulous in documenting and investigating those that do occur, should not be stigmatized for being conscientious.
In case you’re asked…
Ø NYSSBA successfully argued against use of a single incident of a student’s bringing a firearm to school in each of two consecutive years to designate a “persistently dangerous” school. Data on firearms incidents is incomplete, and such incidents should be related to the size of the school.
8/11/03
Nanuet educator runs for state post
Copyright, The Journal News
Former school board chief only candidate for group’s top job
Randi Weiner
The Journal News
Anne Byrne is leaving the presidency of her local school board and heading into the leadership post of its statewide umbrella organization.
Byrne, a longtime member of the Nanuet Board of Education and its outgoing president, is the president-designate of the New York State School Boards Association, running unopposed for the top spot in the statewide organization where she has been a co-vice president for two years. The election will be held at the association’s convention in October.
“We would expect that Anne’s nomination will be very well received by the delegates,” said David Ernst, director of communications and research for the School Boards Association. “She’s a former recipient of the NYSSBA distinguished service award, which is in effect a school board member of the year award. Her dedication to school boards and children is well-known around the state.”
NYSSBA serves as an educational and advocacy organization for 700 school boards in 13 districts composed of about 5,500 school board members. In 2002, Byrne was elected one of two vice presidents of the state School Boards Association. Traditionally, the vice president becomes the organization’s president, and since co-Vice President Harris Dinkoff is retiring from his Nassau County — District 11 — leadership post this year, Byrne is the only candidate for the slot.
The 61-year-old Byrne, whose three children all graduated from Nanuet schools, said she got involved with education when her oldest child was in kindergarten. She was a room mother for her children while they were in elementary school, joined the PTA early and ran for school board when her youngest child was 3 and her older ones were in third and fourth grades.
“You move into a new neighborhood, you really don’t know a lot of people,” Byrne said. “It was a really good way of getting involved in the school and really get to know the school, the staff, the principal and other parents.
“I knew after a couple of years on the PTA that the decisions to make the school district better were happening at the board level,” she said. “The one way to make sure the district remained excellent was to get on the board. I love being a school board member. It’s exciting and very stimulating. You learn something new every day.”
Byrne was elected to the Nanuet school board in 1981 and has been a board member ever since. She has been Nanuet school board president three times, the most recent stint officially ending last night. Her current school board term will continue for two years.
“I think it’s a well-deserved title that she’s getting,” Nanuet schools spokeswoman Jo Cavaliere said. “She’s just a hard worker, very, very interested in the schools and the welfare of the children. The School Boards Association is lucky to have her as its incoming president.”
About a dozen years ago, state aid was cut drastically to local districts, and Byrne and several other education activists in the area created the Lower Hudson Education Coalition — referred to as the Nine County Coalition — as a way to get people from the New York City metropolitan area together to lobby for more state money.
The lobbying was successful, and Byrne made strong connections with educators throughout the area. When the New York State School Boards Association Area District 10 seat became vacant in 1997, Byrne ran unopposed for the spot. District 10 includes school boards in Rockland, Westchester and Putnam.
“The main purpose of NYSSBA is information,” Byrne said. NYSSBA keeps school board members up-to-date on educational concerns, passing on what’s happening in Albany with the Governor’s Office, the Legislature and the state Education Department. NYSSBA also holds numerous workshops for school board members to explain how a school board works and to train school board members in everything from contract negotiations to implementing standardized testing.
NYSSBA also acts as an advocacy group on behalf of school districts, school boards and children. To that end, the group lobbied state legislators to restore school funding originally cut by Gov. George Pataki in January. In a move applauded by educators across the state, the Legislature overturned the governor’s veto of additional school funding.
Byrne said that one of her goals for her upcoming two-year term as president is to foster a better relationship between NYSSBA and the Governor’s Office.
Each incoming president creates a theme. Byrne said she is still formulating hers. She knows she wants to concentrate on leadership, excellence and children. She said she planned to be a hands-on president, visiting all of the state’s NYSSBA districts in the coming year.
Byrne said the state is facing some difficult times in the next few years.
She expressed concern over the standardized testing problems with the math A and physics Regents exams this year, and the continuing low scores at the eighth-grade level. Current tests do not seem to be either diagnostic or predictive, she said. They cannot tell where a child needs specific help, and they are not good indicators of whether a child will do well in middle or high school.
She also was not in favor of using only one test that would determine whether a child passes a course and graduates from high school. High school students must pass five Regents tests in order to get a diploma, a procedure that became a problem this year when only about a third of the students who took the required math A test passed, throwing graduation into doubt for an estimated 3,000 seniors until the Board of Regents decided to toss the results.
“I think you have to examine whether or not the exams really show whether a child has learned the curriculum,” she said. “All those Regents exams — they have got to be accurate and reliable or we’ll lose our faith.”
She said that funding would be a concern next year, as well as getting inner-city children equal to their suburban peers educationally.
In addition, instituting the federal No Child Left Behind law that mandates, among other programs, standardized testing for every child enrolled in third through eighth grade, will be a herculean task.
“I think that’s going to be a huge challenge,” she said.
Reach Randi Weiner at rweiner@thejournalnews.com or 845-578-2468.
The New York State Senate today joined the Assembly in overriding the governor's veto of A. 8023/S. 4286 changing the date of the annual school district budget vote and school board elections from May 20 to June 3. The vote was 58-0. At about the same time, the governor called the legislative budget (as it's been revealed thus far), "irresponsible," according to the Associated Press, and promised to use his veto to prevent it becoming law.
The new vote date is mandatory, not optional. Below is NYSSBA's interpretation of the legislation and the new timeline it sets for district budgets and board elections.
Alternate Timeline -- 2003 Annual Budget Vote
& School Board Election
(as per A.8023/S.4286)
April 19 - Districts publish first of four public notices of budget vote and board election 45 days prior to budget vote.
May 5 - School board candidate nominating petitions due in the office of the District Clerk by 5:00 p.m. 30 days before election (except in small cities) .
May 14 - Deadline for districts to transmit "Property Tax Report Card" to SED (i.e. 20 days prior to vote).
May 14 - School board candidate nominating petitions due in small city school districts in office of District Clerk by 5:00 p.m. 20 days prior to election.
May 13-20 - Districts complete budget document 7 days prior to public hearing on the budget.
May 20-27 - Boards hold public hearing on the budget 7-14 days prior to vote.
May 20-June 3 - Copies of the budget must be available to the public during 14 days prior to vote.
May 28 - Deadline for mailing "Budget Notice" (this is the "postcard") 6 days prior to vote.
June 3 - Annual Meeting and Election (i.e. the Budget Vote and School Board Election)
Jay Worona, Director of Legal/Policy Services
David Little, Director of Governmental Relations
New York State School Boards Association
24 Century Hill Drive, Suite 200
Latham, New York 12110-2125
Phone: (518) 783-0200
Fax: (518) 783-0211
jay.worona@nyssba.org
david.little@nyssba.org
Visit the NYSSBA website at http://www.nyssba.org
NYSSBA: Education and Equity for All
Congratulations! After months of effort on your part and the part of your state association, the state legislature has passed the education portion of the state budget. In the face of the largest proposed education aid reduction in state history, the legislature responded by passing one of the largest restorations on record. For the upcoming school year, over a billion dollars of the governor's proposed $1.4 billion cut is slated for reinstatement. School aid runs detailing restorations by district are available through your state legislators, the NYSSBA website or by calling NYSSBA's Governmental Relations department.
While we recognize that the change in voting date causes a number of logistical problems, as well as increased voter confusion, we need to also recognize the extraordinary nature of what has taken place. School districts and NYSSBA have correctly claimed for the past several months that the proposed cuts created a crisis that would decimate educational programs and escalate local tax rates. While still 28 days past the April 1st deadline, the legislature nonetheless responded in a dramatic fashion. No other state has received similar legislative support. Public education is one of only two areas restored in the state budget and it received the lion's share of that restoration. While we must ensure our communities understand that state aid could not be fully restored and does not address inflationary increases, the legislative effort to restore funding within a time period that allowed school districts to make use of that funding came at the expense of traditional political alliances. While we are often critical of government's approach to the fiscal needs of public education, we should also appreciate this unprecedented legislative response.
NYSSBA has been informed by legislative leaders that the governor may not veto the education portion of the state budget. We have also been assured that should such a veto take place, the legislature is unified and determined to override that veto. Based on this information, NYSSBA is confident that funds restored by the legislature will in fact be provided to districts. As districts reevaluate their budgets, we are mindful of the consequences of choosing to ignore the restored aid, either out of concern for the procedural problems, the uncertainty of receiving the funds or the likelihood of voter confusion. There is danger in that, however. First, if districts do not add in legislative restorations, our collective cries of the dire consequences of the proposed cuts will be perceived as disingenuous. We will have removed the incentive for the legislature to continue to stand up to the governor on behalf of public education throughout this session and into the next. We will have provided the impression that we will warehouse the aid and make legislators less likely to fight for restorations in what is expected to be as difficult a fiscal situation next year.
Two years ago the state legislature considered aid provided in early September to be a crisis for public education. They now recognize that even late April is extremely problematic. The legislature's tardiness causes severe difficulties. However, they have done the right thing, some at great personal and political expense. This situation will demand that they continue to be unified and determined in their support of public education. Districts making use of the additional funds to restore programs and lower local property tax projections provides legislators with the political support needed to sustain that effort through this year and next.
We have been outspoken critics of our state government throughout this crisis. NYSSBA's staunch advocacy and your ardent support are largely responsible for the legislature's willingness to go to extraordinary lengths in its attempt to protect public education from the effects of the state's fiscal crisis. I am grateful for your tireless efforts and extremely proud of what we are doing for our state's children this year. Our recognition of what has occurred thus far and our use of the restored funds that resulted from our efforts will set the stage for what remains to be done throughout the veto process and into next year.
The following is a synopsis of the legislature's approach to major aid categories:
Operating Aid, Gifted and Talented Aid, Operating Standards Aid and Academic Services Aid have been combined into the category of Operating Aid. This category has been reduced from 2.25% to 6.3% depending on a district's relative wealth. The legislature rejected the governor's proposal to include Special Education categories into Operating Aid. In some instances the governor's cuts to Operating Aid would have exceeded 8%.
BOCES Aid, Transportation Aid and Extraordinary Needs Aid were all fully restored. The legislature rejected the governor's plan to eliminate aid for BOCES administrative services and facilities. The proposal to eliminate BOCES as a separate category in future years was rejected.
Universal Pre-K and Class Size Reduction aid payments will be the same as last year.
Proposed changes to Building Aid were rejected, except that, for projects that did not have a certified general construction contract on file at the State Education Department on February 15th of this year, building aid would be held over until the 2004 state fiscal year.
Thank you once again for your successful effort to keep public education our state's highest legislative priority.
David Little
Director of Governmental Relations
New York State School Boards Association
24 Century Hill Drive, Suite 200
Latham, New York 12110-2125
Phone: (518) 783-0200
Fax: (518) 783-0211
david.little@nyssba.org
Visit the NYSSBA website at http://www.nyssba.org
The March 17, 2003 issue of NYSSBA On Board includes an article entitled - "Job One for School Boards: Envision". It was the sidebar that caught my eye -- Trends affecting education in the next 10 years -- Questions school boards should ask themselves to develop a district-wide vision.