Candidate Forum Saturday

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. Candidate Search Deadline
2. Candidate Forum Feb 29
3. Judge Accuses Board President of Lying on the Stand

1) Candidate Search Deadline

You probably know someone who would make a great school board member. Someone who cares about education, and has a couple of free evenings each month. Why not give it a try?

The deadline to submit for this year is coming up! Please fill out this questionnaire by February 28.

2) Candidate Forum Feb 29

Every year, at our forum, the public has an opportunity to hear from (and rate) those interested in becoming the newest members of the East Ramapo school board.

Please make every effort to attend this important event!

The details:

Saturday Feb 29 from 12-2 PM at the Hillcrest Firehouse, 374 N Main St, Spring Valley

Please indicate you can attend the events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/517690282202113/

3) Judge Accuses Board President of Lying on the Stand

The NAACP Voting Rights Lawsuit continues this week.

The trial has begun to have all the excitement of a TV courtroom drama.

According to The Forward, Judge Seibel has accused School Board President Grossman of Lying on the Stand!

If you want to catch some of the action, you can attend the trial yourself.

The address is:
US District Courthouse
Hon. Charles L. Brieant Jr.
Federal Building and Courthouse
300 Quarropas St, White Plains, NY 10601

Courtroom info: https://nysd.uscourts.gov/courthouses/charles-l-brieant-jr-united-states-courthouse-white-plains

Yeshiva Vendors Guilty of Fraud

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. Yeshiva Vendors Guilty of Fraud
2. Candidate Search Deadline
3. Candidate Forum Feb 29

1) Yeshiva Vendors Guilty of Fraud

According to the Journal News, this week 7 people pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining $14 million through a federally subsidized program to provide electronic equipment to East Ramapo yeshivas.

The E-Rate program is a federal program to provide computer and internet services to schools and libraries in poor communities, so that children will not be left out of the Information Revolution simply because of their family’s financial status. It was established by congress so that America will not “have a two-class society in this country, those who know and those who do not.”

For this reason, The New York Jewish Week magazine asked in 2013 “How does a community that rails against the Web pull in $30 million in one year for its schools from the E-rate program?”

Another investigative article by The Forward found there was also a question of funds supposed to go to libraries. According to the Forward “Federal law … holds NYSED responsible for determining a library’s E-Rate eligibility” but NYSED told the Forward that E-Rate eligibility “is handled at the local and regional level”. However, one local agency said it’s “out of our jurisdiction to make those kinds of judgments,” This circular finger-pointing sounds very familiar to those following the issue of educational equivalency for yeshivas. 

The NYS Comptroller has released a report that finds that East Ramapo has been paying yeshivas to bus students without documentation that they attend school or even exist.

This is concerning because direct payments to yeshivas aren’t only for busing  East Ramapo’s direct payments to religious organizations may have been as high as $33 million last year.

2) Candidate Search Deadline

You probably know someone who would make a great school board member. Someone who cares about education, and has a couple of free evenings each month. Why not give it a try?

The deadline to submit for this year is coming up! Please fill out this questionnaire by February 28.

3) Candidate Forum Feb 29

Every year, at our forum, the public has an opportunity to hear from (and rate) those interested in becoming the newest members of the East Ramapo school board.

The details:

Saturday Feb 29 from 12-2 PM at the Hillcrest Firehouse, 374 N Main St, Spring Valley

Please indicate you can attend the events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/517690282202113/

 

NAACP v. ERCSD Trial Begins!

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. NAACP v. ERCSD Trial Begins!
2. School Board Member Guilty of Larceny
3. February 23 Forum Cancelled

1) NAACP v. ERCSD Trial Begins!

The Journal News: Judge sets up trial about East Ramapo voting that could alter how school board is elected

The trial is open to the public. 

Tuesday, February 11 through Friday, February 21 
from 9:30 am – about 2:30 pm 

The address is:
US District Courthouse
Hon. Charles L. Brieant Jr.
Federal Building and Courthouse  
300 Quarropas St, White Plains, NY 10601

The judge is Cathy Seibel.  Courtroom info: https://nysd.uscourts.gov/courthouses/charles-l-brieant-jr-united-states-courthouse-white-plains

2) School Board Member Guilty of Larceny

The Journal News: East Ramapo trustee Bernard Charles pleads guilty in fake town rental case, will quit school board

3) February 23 Forum Cancelled

Due to an unforeseen conflict, the forum that had been scheduled for Sunday, Feb 23 must be cancelled.

The Forum for Saturday, February 29 is still on.

The details:

Saturday Feb 29 from 12-2 PM at the Hillcrest Firehouse, 374 N Main St, Spring Valley

Please indicate you can attend the events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/517690282202113/

If you or someone you know is interested in being a candidate, please fill out this questionnaire:

www.poweroften.us/2020questionnaire

Assessment is not a four-letter word

Power of Ten Update
Assessment is not a four-letter word:

Little children need lots of positive feedback. “You’re a good helper” goes a long way to improve socialization and build self-esteem, even when the “help” is more figurative than functional. Pre-adolescents tire quickly of “phony” praise. They are big enough to care that they are truly useful and feel proud when they’ve mastered a skill. Teenagers and young adults go a step further, they start assessing their assessors. They notice that letter and number grades don’t accurately reflect the full scope of knowledge and achievements they and their peers are making. They often reject hierarchical and competitive grading systems and respond better to a more holistic assessment strategy.

The New York State Education Department is currently undertaking an assessment of the systems used by schools for graduation requirements. They are seeking input from the public.

Information on how to participate is available here: http://www.nysed.gov/grad-measures/regional-meetings

Letter and number grades and test scores are not only used for assessing individual students but also the schools that they attend. Just as an individual student’s grades reflect on the relationship between the school and the student, the average of all the students’ grades and the rate at which they graduate reflects on the relationship between the school and the community it serves.

The New York State Education Department has recently released graduation rates for East Ramapo which can be seen here: https://data.nysed.gov/gradrate.php?year=2019&instid=800000039112

I encourage you to take a few minutes to rummage around the education department’s web site. You will find not only this year’s data, but also previous years. You will find not only our district, and a comparison to the state as a whole, but also data for other Rockland County districts and the county as a whole. The TLDR is that there have been small improvements this year for our district and for the state as a whole, and very little change for most other Rockland districts which were already graduating over 90% of their students. If you have any reflections on the data that you would like to share with the school board, you can send them a message at BoardofEducation@ercsd.org. You may want to also copy the Commissioner of Education at commissioner@nysed.gov.

It’s important to note, that just as a number or a letter does not represent a student’s entire achievement or potential, it also cannot completely describe the achievements or health of the school or a school system. It does not accurately encapsulate the many joys and accomplishments of our young people and the dedicated staff that serve them.

That being said, producing graduates has traditionally been viewed as one of the basic functions of the school system. Hundreds of millions of dollars are appropriated towards this goal. A graduation rate of below 90% is cause for concern. The school system must provide the community a study of the causes of the low graduation rate, and especially the very low rates of some subgroups. The school system must be transparent about the actual experiences of students and how this relates to the high dropout rate. The school system must have a plan and communicate that plan effectively to all stakeholders so that adequate community resources can be directed to support young people.

All the powers and duties of the school system are delegated by the state. It is the state which has the constitutional responsibility to the educational civil rights of all children. Year after year, the state education department has reported that graduation rates are unacceptably low, that students are dropping out, that funds are misspent, and that school governance is dysfunctional. Yet the state government has failed to intervene in any meaningful way, resulting in thousands of children not getting the education which is their civil right. Our assessment of the performance of New York State government is that it has failed in its most basic duty.

What difference could state intervention make? In East Ramapo, a tiny slice of the budget, three million dollars per year, is specifically earmarked to fund all-day kindergarten and music and art programming. Just look at what a fantastic success this has been! It begs the question “what would happen if New York State made sure that all funding in East Ramapo was dedicated to specific educational programming?”

We, as a community must also do the difficult job of self-assessment. Many of us deserve credit for being involved. Some attend board meetings, others attend school events or participate in community organizations that support education, such as the Martin Luther King Center in Spring Valley. Staff in the schools often go above and beyond their job description because they love their students. Administration has brought in some new curriculum which students respond well to. There are many more people and organizations doing good work than there is space to list here.

However, there has been a lack of critical analysis and feedback from the community. Parents of students who are failing or dropping out are not bringing their complaints to board meetings. Teachers whose classrooms lack support services, especially for students with emotional difficulties, family issues, and language barriers are not addressing the board with their problems and concerns. Administrators who are facing issues of truancy, overcrowding and under-staffing are not coming forward. The level of cynicism and apathy is not unexpected, because so often our complaints fall on deaf ears. We can fight this by staying focused on the things that we can do, and remembering the difficulties faced by civil rights activists in the past.

Right now, what we can do is help find qualified people to volunteer to serve on the school board. It might be you, or someone you know. Please check out the questionnaire and attend one or both of our upcoming forums.

Thanks for staying with me on this long essay, and for being a Power of Ten reader.