December 1994

 Dear Santa:

Sure, we know you've checked your list twice already, but we've been very, very good this year.

We worked hard to get school buses for hundreds more kids.

We ran the Saturday Project: four Saturdays of hands-on learning which served some 50 children and 30 adults.

We sponsored school visits and monthly speakers on educational reform.

We have consistently raised the issues of multi-aged classrooms, inclusion of differently abled kids, anti-bias education, mixed age classrooms, and true parental involvement.

And starting right after Christmas, Nyack PIE will continue to work for creative, challenging, and equitable education for all.

We have a great speaker for January [see below]. The school visits will continue. And we're starting to plan now for a Spring Saturday Project.

Nyack PIE is determined to keep all our activities free of charge so that no one is excluded.

But, Santa, all this costs money.

How happy we would be to wake up on Christmas morning and find our stockings stuffed with checks made out to NYACK COMMUNITY CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER (for Nyack PIE) to the tune of $10 or $25 or even $100.

In this season of peace, Santa, we know you won't forget about justice.

Thanks

* Tune in THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29 to TKR, Channel 8, 7:30 - 8 pm and again 10:30 - 11 pm to hear Johnsie Valdez and Marta Renzi speak about PIE and the Saturday Project.

* Come celebrate FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 3:30-5:30 at the Nyack Center (Depew and Broadway). Quiet reading, games, Haitian drumming, potluck dinner. Bring your favorite holiday dish to share at 5:30.

* Save THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 5-7 pm (location to be announced) for Enid Lee, thought-provoking author and educator. She's coming to Nyack to meet with parents and other community members to discuss how bias affects white children as well as children of color, boys as well as girls. If you don't want us bugging you with those phone calls, R.S.V.P. (358-2033) as soon as possible!

Teacher Contract Talk

Because a truly great teacher is worth her weight in gold, this is what Nyack P.I.E. suggested the district think about during upcoming contract negotiations ....

NYACK PARTNERS IN EDUCATION, a coalition of parents, teachers, and other community members, recognizes the coming contract negotiations as an opportunity to redefine some of our assumptions about the r-o1e of teachers in the Nyack District. In the spirit of the best possible education for all our children, Nyack PIE offers the following suggestions of issues to be raised in the negotiation process.

1) Enuring the recent public meeting, Nyack PIE submitted an article called "Raising Professional Standards in Teaching" that was prepared by the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Local 1520, AFT./'OFT/"AFL-CI 0. we hope it will be reviewed in detail but want to emphasize that in Cincinnati (and Toledo) there is a peer review program where consulting teachers, selected by the union, mentor and evaluate new teachers. The result was more vigorous and stringent review. Complementing this, consulting teachers also worked with veteran teachers who showed serious performance deficiencies. Again, the result was higher standards of excellence than administrative review had provided, as well as more successful improvement of veteran teachers. Finally, this model instituted a four-step career ladder that included the designation of "Lead Teacher" who can then become subject area leaders, coordinators of new or special programs, etc.

Nyack PIE urges both sides to review and consider implementing the Cincinnati model which as been successfully in place for a decade now.

2) The Nyack School District is in the middle of reconsidering and revamping its educational approach, in part due to the Me 11 on grant. As a compliment to the above concept of "Lead Teacher," Nyack PIE strongly urges the district to redefine the role of their professional teachers to include the possibility of administrative responsibilities in an alternative school and/or school-within-a-school. This is consistent with the current teacher responsibilities vis a vis site-based teams.

3) Following the New Compact for Learning, teachers will more and more be working with parents and other community members. Given that educational literature has found such collaboration vitally important to quality schools, we urge that the new teacher's contract include language to the effect that the union "recognizes that the parents and neighbors of our students are key allies and build strategic alliances with parents, labor unions, and community groups." [Adapted from a statement recently issued by the National Coalition of Education Act i v i sts.3

4> Similarly, given the diverse population of our district and ongoing efforts to address educational inequalities in the system, we urge the inclusion of language which encourages those who work with children to use "methods of instruction and curricula that promote racial and gender equity, combat racism and prejudice, encourage critical thinking about our society's problems, and nurture an active, reflective citizenry." [Ibid]