WHAT IS PIE?

Over the last few years, Nyack Partners in Education has brought educational opportunities to over 2500 children.

These range from a Saturday Morning Reading program to foreign language in the elementary schools. It includes home tutoring, visits to a colonial home, putting children next to bald eagles and adults next to leading educational experts.

This spring, PIE is funding an interdisciplinary visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a community member teaching quilting to a multi-age classroom, and the appearance of a leading expert on early childhood development addressing parents, administrators, and community members.

1. There’s a clear choice in school board candidates this year. Don Hammond and Michael Mark bring an open-minded approach, a fresh perspective, and – above all – an understanding of our children’s educational needs which are lacking in their opponents. If elected, they’ll need the mandate of a YES vote on the budget to start work improving the system. Many see voting for the budget as a vote for the status quo. This year – with two new board members – it’s a vote for change.

2. PIE is pleased that the elementary foreign language program it piloted, ran, and funded in all three elementary schools has been picked up by the district. In addition, PIE has worked with the high school and curriculum co-ordinator to provide materials and suggestions for the new Ethnic Studies elective. Designed to teach and explore our ethnic differences, it will run next year.

3. The most significant program change in the budget is money to support the mainstreaming of special education students. The program blends these children with mainstream students and, also, brings mainstream teachers into formally isolated special education classes. It means desperately needed Regents level instruction for our children who most need it. With the district’s commitment to putting our best teachers in these classes and expanding parental involvement, it’s an innovation worth supporting.

4. No one likes paying taxes. 1.5% is a minimal increase, less than the state allows for an austerity budget and with more flexibility on how we can spend the money.

5. Of the broad range of publicly funded projects our taxes go to, none is more important than a system to educate all children democratically and fairly. We should support our schools – and make sure they’re living up to that vision.

Professor Janice Hale’s appearance in Nyack on April 30^th was a special occasion. For one, it marked a noteworthy collaboration between the district, Head Start of Rockland, the NAACP, and PIE. Then, there was the list of co-supporters:

The Nyack Center, Pilgrim Baptist church, the Rockland-Parent Child Center, both the Nyack Plaza and Waldron Terrace tenants associations, St. Ann’s, Temple Beth Torah, Child Care Resources of Rockland, Friends of the Nyacks, Emmanuel Baptist church, and the Muslim organization, Ummatul-Islaamiyyah.

The evening’s discussion was as impressive as the collaboration. Prof. Hale’s speech is impossible to summarize, but it included two important points:

1) We can’t blame parents or society. No matter where they come from, once kids enter our schools, they can and must learn.

2) Following the motto, "Leave No Child Behind," teacher training can overcome our inability to educate African American children, especially males.

Nyack PIE is proud to have co-sponsored Prof. Hale’s unique and important visit.

HIRING AND DEMOCRACY

Community involvement is a proven way to make our children’s education better. That’s why both district and state call for more democratic decision making, why we have site-based teams and parents on hiring committees.

Yet, over the last two years, the three most important district hires have all by-passed the democratic process.

The Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, and Director of Pupil Personnel were all put in place without the kind of scrutiny that good hiring practice demands. The result? All three have been white women (in stark contrast to a student population that is 40% children of color), and all have been insiders.

Superintendent Roberta Zampolin was hired from within, having worked in the district (mostly with financial matters) for over 20 years. She was appointed by the school board without benefit of a hiring committee or any review of her credentials by the educational community: parents, teachers, students, etc.

The Assistant Superintendent, Mary Anne Evangelist, has been a PTA officer in the district for many years. She was interviewed by a hiring committee, but it never reached consensus on her being hired. People of color on the committee expressed their concerns in writing that she "could not represent all of the children in our district."

The Director of Pupil Personnel, Linda Greene, has worked for many years as the assistant principal at the high school. She was appointed without a hiring committee or any review by the educational community for a job that includes supervision of the entire special education program. A review of this most recent appointment reveals how the district has by-passed the democratic process.

Per its long-term policy, the district selected a hiring committee for the job of Pupil Personnel Director, and that committee worked over three months reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates, finally narrowing the field to three. At the end of this process, on the evening these candidates were to be interviewed by the school board, the Superintendent announced she had changed her mind. The candidates were sent home.

A memo from the Assistant Superintendent assured the hiring committee, "each will be included as a finalist at a later date." Instead, and without informing the hiring committee, the Superintendent announced Ms. Greene’s appointment. The reason given for bypassing the entire hiring process was a "re-structuring of the administration."

The Superintendent’s re-structuring has resulted in a complete turn-over in central office, and an administration which doesn’t reflect either the composition of our schools or any kind of democratic consensus.

It’s tempting to explain this hiring procedure as an example of racial prejudice, especially given the recent treatment of a committee recommendation on minority recruitment. That document, written and approved by the district’s multi-cultural committee, suggested practical and inexpensive ways to back up the district’s written policy to have a "diverse teaching staff." Rather than discuss the recommendation in public – as it does with virtually all other such documents – the school board chose to have it reviewed by every PTA, PTSA, and site-based team. At the present writing, the minority recruitment suggestions have effectively been killed in committee.

But racial prejudice may be too limited an explanation. With the single exception of Valley Cottage’s new principal, Brenda Grier, the present school board has shown it doesn’t want to hire any administrator from outside the system. It seems to feel safe only when it keeps educational and fiscal responsibilities among a few key insiders.

This closed-door policy effects other areas. It helps explain why parent/teacher curriculum committees were disbanded without discussion this year. It’s why there was almost no community involvement in the new budget’s educational changes. And it has a lot to do with why you don’t know about proposed changes in special education, reduced responsibilities for curriculum coordinators, shifts in teacher aides in your children’s schools, and reapportionment of money. Because all these were top-down directives.

Now, you do know. And it’s our responsibility to tell our school board that it may be easier and less messy to discuss matters only among a few old friends --- but it isn’t democracy.

THE 1998 PROPOSED BUDGET:

WHERE DOES IT BUDGE?

For those of you only interested in the bottom line, the proposed school budget for next year comes to about $42 million. That means your taxes will increase less than 2%.

If you want to know more about the basic costs, salaries for 189 teachers, K-12, account for about $12 million with another $5 million for employee benefits. Paying off our new buildings costs $8 million a year, and special education runs us approximately $7 million. Running the buildings we have costs nearly $3 million, as do day-to-day expenses like textbooks, hall monitors, computers, etc. We spend $2.4 million for administrative salaries and development, and $2.3 million for sports, co-curricular activities and the like. Throw in a little under $2 million for busing, and you have it.

For those interested in the all-important details, the small part of the budget that has any flexibility reveals the district’s educational priorities.

Because we have tenure in Nyack, we don’t change teachers very often (most staff stays 20 years or so). The only other option is to change how teachers teach. That’s why staff development is so important. The district has recognized this by increasing its spending in this area by $21,000. Still, that means it spends a quarter of one percent (0.25) of its overall budget on training, or around $500 a teacher. This includes $10,000 to help teachers teach reading (a crucial area) and $25,000 for general training. Perhaps the best way to put this into context is that Nyack spends more on telephones every year than it does on training teachers.

Next year, the district will be expanding its Junior Books program, revising its 8^th grade English curriculum, and writing a K-5 library program. All these are positive changes. Yet, the total spent on curriculum and program development in the language arts will be a little over $11,000 or .02% of the budget. Contrast this is the $6,500 pay raise that the Assistant Superintendent received after only 6 months on the job (raising her salary to $106,000 a year).

Finally, reaching out to the community is part of the school’s essential work. The Family Resource Center which the district proudly hailed in its newsletter ("The Center aims to assist all District families in helping their children best develop and achieve") is budgeted for a total of $30,000, equal to not even a quarter of what we spend leasing Xerox machines.

Superintendent Zampolin should be applauded for keeping costs down. Now, we need a school board that will insist the budget reflect its top priority: our children.