To celebrate a state championship in football and a very successful fall sports season – both on and off the field as the overall grade average of all fall sports teams was a 92, the Maine-Endwell School District put on a parade for the both the school and the overall communities.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Back in the 2011 NYS legislative session, there was a law passed dealing with municipal and school district taxes. This limit had been a huge talking point in the 2010 gubernatorial election. The biggest problem is the way it has been presented to the public. The legislators who wrote and passed the law and the media both call it a tax cap. That is a fallacy.
First, the law effects the tax levy, not individual tax bills, directly. Tax levies are limited by the law but that does not mean that an individual property tax bill will have the same limit as the levy does. Tax bills involve equalization rates and for years have not been the same as the levy increase. People need to realize that if a municipality or a school district has a 0.8% tax levy increase, that does not mean the individual tax bill on a given piece of property will only go up 0.8%.
Second, the law is not a straight levy limit. There is a complicated formula that must be dealt with to obtain the amount of increase available to a specific municipality or a specific school district. There are some exemptions but these are few. There is also the opportunity, after the first year, for carryover.
Third, the idea that this levy limit is a set limit of two per cent is not totally true either. This limit is what must be met if the vote to approve is a simple majority. A school district can increase the tax levy by more than that specific district’s calculated limit if the voters in that district approve the increase by 60% of the voters or more.
All voters and the media need to realize that the “tax cap” that has been in the news is not an actual cap. Chapter 97 of the Laws of 2011 sets a tax levy limit. The limit is calculated individually for each school district and each taxing municipality within the state. This limit will be different for each taxing entity and will vary each year.
My children go to a school that is known for its academics, a school that is known for its music program and a school that is known for its sports. When you consider the high school – where sports are played most – has approximately 800 students, it is a miracle that there is more than one program where students excel. In programs like Science Olympiad, it is hard as students are generally in everything, taking AP classes while playing in the band and participating in sports.
The state championship games are coming around this month for fall sports. In this school district of approximately 2,600 students, the following teams are into the semi-finals in the state championships: boys’ soccer, football, and field hockey. On top of that the cross country team placed seventh at the state meet and is going to the federation – which, if I remember correctly, is a combination of both public and private schools – meet this coming weekend.
Just seven short years ago, my second born was playing on the varsity football team. The team went undefeated and won the state championship game. I remember the work that the boys put in practicing. I remember the work the parents put in supporting the team. I remember some very good high school football. I also remember injuries, lots of injuries and some at not convenient times.
As the boys and girls at Maine-Endwell continue on their championship journey, I wish all the teams and their coaching staffs good luck.
Yesterday the New York State Board of Regents voted on and passed a resolution that teachers will not be able to grade tests of their own students for state assessments or high school Regents examinations. With more and more emphasis being put on the scores of these tests and a new teacher and principal evaluation system set to go into play in the coming years, the Board of Regents felt this was a good way to keep the grading integrity of an exam high.
The Board of Regents also requested monies from the state for data collection to be sure that this helps with the current, and evidently highly anticipated future, problem.
First, I do not believe that teachers changing or grading a test differently to make themselves look better currently happens. I should restate that. I do not believe it happens in my area. It may happen in other areas of the state but I do not see it as an issue here. Second, in many school districts in my area, the tests are currently not graded by an individual teacher. Departments will gather and grade tests as a group. Multiple teachers will grade one essay. There are currently plenty of checks and balances to prevent teacher A from grading, or influencing the grade, of student B. Third, the Board of Regents asks for significant monies from the state. Unfortunately, none of this money will be seen by the local districts where any costs for this regulation will have to be born.
Basically, the Board of Regents has just passed an unfunded mandate for local school districts who, starting this year, are living with a 2% tax levy cap.
From an outside window looking in, the big item missing from many food programs is fresh food. Because of the perishable nature of fresh fruits and vegetables, it is hard to get them in food programs. Enter an elementary school leadership program and the enterprising teacher who knew a garden could provide many lessons for students.
Molly Goosman approached a local dentist who had some additional property around his office about three or four blocks from the elementary school where she teaches. She secured some land and then the work and the teaching began. The plot, now known as Spartan Garden after the school’s mascot, had to be tilled and seeds planted. Worse, the harvest comes during summer vacation. Who would be doing the weeding, the watering – and this July was unbelievably dry here locally, and the harvesting? Enter the school’s leadership club.
Last summer the group painted murals on the walls of the school. This year the group watered and tended the Spartan Garden. The beneficiaries of the garden: the district’s food programs M-EALS (M-E Assisting Local Spartans) and the local population in general as the students have held two sale dates so far.
The M-EALS program provides food to local families in need. An application is available on the school’s web site. Last year, on average, the program served 60 families a week. Over the summer, the program was supplemented, once harvest came, by the fruits and vegetables from the Spartan Garden. On top of that, proceeds from the sales the students held of additional items – zucchini grows plentiful in any garden – helped fund the M-EALS program.
In a world where food production is becoming more big business, students learned to garden and what is provided by such gardening. The students also learn compassion as they are helping others in the community. We cannot underestimate the value of education that occurs outside the classroom.
Here in upstate NY we sort of go by those age old adages that summer starts Memorial Day weekend and ends Labor Day weekend. Kids here do not even start school until the Wednesday after Labor Day. Best we not discuss when they get out of school as I am sure that would astonish some of you out there.
Today I am sitting here with tomorrow being the first day of September. Labor Day is this weekend. I am thinking that I do not know where the summer has gone. Thankfully, I am not ending the summer the same way I started it. We had a horrible storm the end of May and I spent Memorial Day weekend without power. I am very reminiscent of that and also very grateful that I am not one of the thousands in NYS that are still without power from Irene.
I spent a good hour yesterday chatting with the new superintendent of my school district. He and I had known each other in a parent-principal relationship in his former position as the principal of the high school. Now, we have a new relationship as I am a school board member and he has been hired as the superintendent. Today, I saw that September is National Hunger Action Month so I was very happy that our conversation dealt with the overwhelming need to get more families to fill out forms for reduced or free meals in the school district. As I opened the page for www.hungeractionmonth.org, I was told that 13.5% of the people that live in the same upstate county as I do are food insecure.
My discussion with the superintendent centered around how the district in which I live and he works has always, until very recently, been very homogeneous. This is changing drastically and quickly. Building administrators talk about transient populations. Students come to school without the ability to learn because they are hungry. There are many support systems available. The major problem is that the waiting lists to access some of the help are enormous.
Need causes creativity to create a program to meet the needs of those who have this challenge. The first creative answer was begun by one of our high school teachers who started a weekend program to support those in our community that need help. The Food Bank of the Southern Tier has a backpack program where students get food for the weekend but there is a waiting list to get into this program. Enter the Participation in Government class and what has, over the course of a year, fed between 50 and 70 families and become an incorporated 501(c)3 not for profit organization – the M-EALS program which stands for Maine-Endwell (school district) Assisting Local Spartans (mascot).
Another method to help those who may have need is to be sure that families apply for free or reduce priced meals through the food service department at the school district. This involves government paperwork which a lot of people prefer to not fill out. What it does not involve, any longer, is a huge stigma attached to the student. Because the school district uses a pin-based system for meal payments, the free or reduced pricing is just figured into the system. A student enters a pin and no one, including the child behind him or her, knows what that student is paying for lunch.
The biggest issue, in my mind, is communicating to parents to fill out this paperwork. If a student comes into a district and had either free or reduced meals in a previous district, the family has to fill out the paperwork again. While this is tedious and time-consuming, it is in the best interest of the student that it be done. Studies have long shown that being hungry affects a student’s ability to learn. As a school board member, if I filter what we as a district are doing as what is in the best interest of the student, we then MUST find a way to be sure all who qualify take advantage of the free or reduced priced meals as this is what is best for the student.
Please look for a second part to this, “The Harvest is Plentiful,” which will highlight an elementary school’s way to address hunger in our community.
I spent all last week with thoughts going through my mind. A lot of these thoughts I wanted to put down here on my blog and then I thought better of it.
I have always, even prior to my election to the Maine-Endwell Board of Education, been a huge supporter of our schools. I spent time voicing opinions back in the mid-90′s about full day kindergarten when I lived in Binghamton. I did the same when it came to starting full day kindergarten in Maine-Endwell also. I went to meetings and meetings about redistricting the Maine-Endwell elementary school lines years back.
I spent six years working for company that offered political consulting and web sites for political campaigns. Suffice it to say, if it is politics, I am interested in it. So for me to sit here quietly as New York State’s new governor is trying to balance the state’s budget and make up a $10 million dollar deficit is odd. The problem is that a lot of the cuts in the executive budget are to education. I have to realize that I am an elected official and need to not state my personal opinion as it can be construed as an opinion of the Board of Education. I know I can tell people that it is my personal opinion but few will believe that.
So, until the Maine-Endwell Board of Education has a budget approved to send to the district voters – the meeting this will happen at is April 18 – I will attempt to not voice my personal opinion. Chances are I have opinions but they will stay roaming around my mind.
What a difference a year makes! Last year’s State of the State address was around this time. Now, a new governor and I am watching the executive budget presentation on February 1st. Better than that, the entire event – comments by Lieutenant Governor Duffy and Budget Director Megna and the presentation itself from Governor Andrew Cuomo – took less than one hour. I am in awe of both Cuomo’s ability to tell people what they do not want to hear – budget cuts – and his ability to do it succinctly.
The big hits in the 2011-12 executive budget go to education funding, state government operations, and Medicaid. Do I think that all these areas need cuts? I am not sure but I do know that NYS cannot continue to spend as if its tax revenues were still the same as in the heyday of Wall Street. NYS does not have the tax revenue to continue life as usual. On top of not have income tax revenue, NYS is losing population due to property taxes. So cuts must be made.
Will the “new attitude” in the Capitol filter down to the state legislature? I hope so. It would be nice to see cuts in the budget. All current legislators should realize that everyone is taking a cut in this budget. State operating costs are being cut approximately 10% while other cuts, such as the one to public education , are in the range of 2-3%. These elected officials should also realize that those of us who elected them may not put up with much more. I cannot continue to support lawmakers who make laws that encourage deficit spending. If I cannot live that way, the state I live in should not be allowed to do so.
I will withhold judgement as I am still unsure how all these cuts will effect those I work with and those I represent. As a school board member, having the governor’s budget this early is good. Having Governor Cuomo plead with legislators to pass this budget on time is a good thing to know. It is going to be a tough budgeting year for school districts. Those with reserves will fair better than those without such. Many changes will need to be looked at and implemented. I hope that everyone realizes that change is hard – as the governor said many times – but change is necessary in NYS.
I made a quick tweet on Tuesday morning that I was going back to school for the first time since 1983. Hope I didn’t age myself any with that statement. It seems that a lot of my friends are experiencing that first day for the first time – first day of preschool, first day of kindergarten, first day of middle school, first day of high school, first off to college. This was my first time to go to a superintendent’s conference day as a Board of Education member.
Back to school is totally new at my house this year. My oldest daughter has a teaching degree and her initial certification from New York State. She spent last year, her first year out of college, substitute teaching on a daily basis in various buildings in our district. This year she is starting the school year off with a long term substitute position, as an Early Kindergarten teacher, for a school she went to as a child.
So, this year I went back to school. My daughter went back to school. The two of us are a bit out of the back to school habit but are loving that we are both involved. Tomorrow – yes, Friday – will be the last of our back to school days. My youngest will begin his junior year in high school. He will also get a huge new experience. He is going to BOCES in the afternoons for culinary arts. The program is new for him and new for me so let’s see how this goes!
Congratulations to all those first time school milestones out there!!!
