Hillsborough County Schools have endured a hell of a bumpy ride – and it’s not over. More than a year ago I detailed the tension on the school board and I frequently point to Tampa-area education commentators whose knowledge, honest thought and commitment is, in my opinion, unsurpassed. NYC-area edufolks beat them with volume and vitriol, but Tampa’s got them on genuine quality. Parents, teachers, taxpayers and academic lifers lay bare their thoughts on their local schools, sometimes at significant risk. As an outside interested party, I appreciate it a great deal.

And their school board and administration largely fights them. They’ve got champions in April Griffin and Susan Valdes, but two resilient board members isn’t enough. The established, entrenched and misguided thuggery of the others is a significant hurdle for reform in Tampa.

There’s Jennifer Faliero, whose ineffective chairmanship is a parody of an iron-fisted leader – perhaps a Colonel Klink?; Superintendent Mary Ellen Elia, whose communication and leadership skills rival Lord Cardigan’s; and that series of Toadies – Jack Lamb, Doretha Edgecomb and Candy Olson – who largely fiddle while Rome burns.

But it’s Carol Kurdell who’s on the chopping block this time around. Challengers Stephen Gorham and Jason Mims showed Kurdell’s vulnerability in the primary, and now Gorham is in position to replace her tomorrow.

I’m a staunch, well-versed Conservative – change for the sake of change is unconvincing, misguided and usually detrimental. There’s a time, though, when chronic dysfunction mandates the removal of one and the installation of another.

Carol Kurdell’s tenure on the Hillsborough board has become arthritic. It’s ever-present pain and decreasing functionality that facilitates an arrogance with ignorance that has almost overcome the board.

But again, right now is an inflection point. Hillsborough can switch its direction. No more needless kerfuffles on small expenses, no more embarrassing editorials.

I’d support challenger Stephen Gorham even if he wasn’t the young, well-educated, energetic force that he is.

Kurdell can’t [and shouldn't] be blamed for most of this, but her complacency and partisan inaction – that is, unless she’s got an opportunity for partisan action – is a detrimental force on the ailing board.

That, and her third-rate dishonest politicking. That’s a turn-off, Ms. Kurdell.

If you’re in Hillsborough County, don’t get stuck voting on party affiliation in this one. The Democrats are pushing Gorham and the Republicans have approved Kurdell, but it doesn’t matter. As a registered Republican, I’m comfortable saying that Carol Kurdell is useless and that the state party has made a mistake in approving her.

And I don’t give a whit that the Dem foot soldiers are pounding pavement for Gorham. He’s the better candidate, so Godspeed.

I can’t vote in Hillsborough’s election tomorrow, but I do hope that Mr. Gorham will take his place on their school board.

“Democrats are Standing up to the Teachers Unions: Can this be True?” asks little Ed over at Ed is Watching. Maybe he’ll get some answers on September 19th [if the event doesn't run past his bedtime]. Yet another thumbs up for the DFER folks.

From RightWingProf, who came across this dandy fop opining out of San Diego: “Sarah Palin often uses lots of notes when she speaks, even going so far as to use tabs and different colors of notecards. This is just so unbelievably tacky and small town I am considering killing myself.” Yipes. I know that frustration, though. I see it every time I obliterate, shame, or otherwise invalidate an argument made by someone who has contempt for ignorant, small town rubes [like  me].

Brown University reformed its curricula in the late 1960s. I wouldn’t have done it, and not the way they did, but no one asked me then. They’re reforming things now – and ACTA says that it’s not perfect, but that it’s a step in the right direction.

Mike S. Adams has founded F.A.S.H.I.S.T. at UNC-Wilmington – Faculty Against Sexual Harassment Initiatives and Sensitivity Training. He asks whether “mandate” is sexist, and then says, “Five years ago the administration chipped in $60,000 to help bring Ludacris to campus. He sang a lot about hos. Shouldn’t we be forcing the administration to attend mandatory sexual harassment training not the other way around?”

Haaaaaaaaaaaahahahha. Awesome.

An interesting video about Senator Obama and edu-huckster extraordinaire, Bill Ayers.

The Onion: The Word “Presumptive” Prepares for Another 4-year Hibernation.

BIG NEWS: Detroit Superintendent hung up the phone on someone. My school board members barked at me like junkyard dogs, used school facilities/organizations to campaign against me, and school employees used in-house computers to suggest that I was a drug dealer. I don’t hang up on anyone [nor do I take or sell drugs].

Today is Battle of Britain Day in the United Kingdom. British resilience is a trait I love, and one that we in Upstate New York share. Let us hope that steely resolve makes a comeback in the wake of Sharia law.

I’m on a slightly political bent, so I’ll call this fairly good news.

It’s a non-partisan primary, but if a candidate gets a majority, they win. If there’s no majority selection, the top two finishers runoff in November.

With 90%+ precincts reporting, we’ve got the following results:

Susan Valdes over Schmidt. Good, she’s alright. I guess this means Faliero’s childish attacks didn’t work. Sorry, Jennifer.

Carol Kurdell doesn’t win – and thank God for that. Kurdell is the posterwoman for do-nothing, self-satisfied, status quo school board members nationwide. You can read about all 3 candidates – Gorham, Kurdell and Mims – here.

Stephen Gorham is a great choice. He’s young, well-educated, confident, experienced – good stuff all around. The thing I like least about him is that he doesn’t live in my school district. Hillsborough County Schools need him very, very badly.

Jason Mims has been a dedicated community member and hopefully isn’t too disappointed with 17%. He’s made his concerns known about minority issues in Hillsborough’s schools, and I’m sure he’s not going anywhere.

And Carol Kurdell, whose hobbies seem to be rubber-stamping, bloviating and dishonesty, got what she has long-deserved. This edu-huckster is going to bed tonight without a win.

It might seem that I’m a bit hard on Kurdell. In truth, I actually feel guilty for not railing against her weeks [months?] ago because her in/actions warrant it.

Most recently, Carol Kurdell touted in campaign literature her success in cutting property taxes and fuel prices [one can only assume that her having ended the Cold War and liberating Europe in WWII wouldn't fit on the flier]. Oh, the pander, the pander! And had any of it been true, I’d have praised her.

Unfortunately for Kurdell, not everyone in the Tampa area is an idiot. The St. Pete Times cut her down in short order by pointing out that the FL legislature – not local districts – set the tax rate, and that she’d flubbed the fuel prices. Her response?

It [campaign lit] doesn’t note that she was one of seven elected officials involved in the decision.

“Well, you know. The board did it. I was part of the board,” Kurdell said.

Let’s hope that Mr. Mims’ supporters get behind Mr. Gorham in the runoff, and then “was part of the board” can stick to Kurdell. 16 years of mediocrity – including coddling, with the occasional turning of a blind eye, of an ineffective Superintendent – is enough.

The travel debate in Hillsborough County, Florida [St. Pete Times].

The travel expenses are in – board member Susan Valdes spent a lot, no doubt. But $50k over 4 years isn’t all that much if the travel/conferences were worthwhile. Her unfriendlier colleagues on the Board point to the gaudy number and never once address what she actually did with the funds.

There’s no evidence of impropriety, just frequent professional development. The horror!

And cue the gall from Jennifer Faliero:

Board Chairwoman Jennifer Faliero, who requested the four-year analysis of travel by elected officials, agreed. She led the call for a temporary halt on out-of-county travel at the last meeting.

She doesn’t think travel should continue during a time of budget cuts, but acknowledged that other board members don’t agree. She is pushing for oversight and budgeting that would equalize travel among officials.

“We didn’t have a policy, so you leave yourself open to all kinds of abuses,” said Faliero, whose own expenses totaled $13,000. “Even though you hope people will use common sense, that hasn’t happened here.”

Golly gee, it’s almost as if Ms. Faliero doesn’t want Ms. Valdes to win re-election!

Of course, everyone will remember that Ms. Faliero didn’t see it fit to live in the district she was actually representing [she moved back after public pressure]. If anyone is to criticize a board member about using common sense, it isn’t Faliero.

In the tradition of Ann Landers, I’ll issue a Confidential to Jennifer Faliero:

Grow up, you partisan hack. Or at least be politically savvy enough to conceal your motives more effectively.

Getting Real About Race in School [Eduwonkette].

This is old news, but it’s worth revisiting. Eduwonkette featured as a guest blogger Harvard’s Mica Pollack, author of Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real about Race in School.

And to think, I’ve only been committed to anti-racism on Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Saturday!

Pollock’s guest post is another in a series of Eduwonkette’s reminders that you [or me, or anyone, I guess] should know Pollock’s name. May 21st’s summer reading list suggestion and May 30th’s “Cool People You Should Know” nod apparently weren’t enough. Perhaps a hidden tenet of “Everyday Antiracism” is that we need to be reminded of it every day.

But Pollock’s debate is what warrants attention here. After repeating the 4 bullet points that explain the core of “Everyday Antiracism” – I’d bother linking to them if they weren’t repeated in half of Pollock’s posts – some commenters engaged Pollock in rigorous, sensible debate.

And you know how it goes. When the going gets tough, some just get going. Not everyone thought Pollock’s Kool-Aid tasted sweet, so she huffed, puffed, took her ball and went home.

I came late to the party [and the commenters raised all the issues I wanted to address, so I was content with just reading], but I’ll reprint my comment here:

• A look at patriotic curricula in public schools – what we had and where we’re not;
• Grade inflation in Hillsborough County, Florida;
• Lack of accountability in New Hartford, NY and a financial boondoggle in Utica, NY.

You can play this Education for the Aughts Podcast by clicking on the triangular ‘play’ button on the player below [or at the bottom of the post if you’re reading this in RSS] – it will expand and begin streaming audio. Alternatively, you can download an mp3 file of the podcast to listen in your own media player.

And, if you like what you hear, you can subscribe to Education for the Aughts Podcast using RSS or using iTunes.

[audio:http://matthewktabor.com/audio/aughts_podcast_03_arbor_fl_utica_64kbps.mp3]

… and a partial transcript with links from the podcast is below.

I listened the other day, as I do most days, to talk radio host Dennis Prager. He lamented on this Independence Day that American children just don’t sing patriotic songs anymore – and he’s quite right.

Dennis’s point reminded me of something in my historical archives – a program of instruction for Arbor Day in New York State Schools, May 8, 1896. The program is a 16-page guide from the Dept. of Public Instruction that outlines activities and themes that schools might cover on the celebration of Arbor Day.

Near the end of that program is a list of songs that school-children could sing:

Keller’s American Hymn
Flag of the Free
Hail, Columbia
Star-Spangled Banner
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Columbia, Gem of the Ocean
Columbia, God Preserve thee Free
and America

Following that, there was an “exercise on the American Flag.”

Remember, folks, this was for *Arbor Day*. That our current celebrations of American holidays pales in comparison to what we’ve done in the past for even fairly unimportant holidays, shows how much we have, to quote Virginia Slims, come a long way, baby – and that’s not always a good thing.

The inimitable Suzie Creamcheese, who blogs at The Wall, passed on yet another tidbit about Hillsborough County.

Hillsborough County, Florida – for those of us outside the state, we can just think of this as the greater-Tampa area – has a grade inflation problem. A big one.

As The Tampa Tribune opined a few weeks ago:

“It used to be that a 4.0 grade-point average was considered a perfect “A,” but the numbers posted by some recent Hillsborough high school graduates have been positively stratospheric – including the county’s top GPA of 8.68 earned by a student at King High School who was this year’s numbers leader.

Who knew there was even such a thing as being more than doubly perfect?”

Well, Tribune editors, if you hadn’t realize by now that Superintendent Elia and her administration think *they’re* doubly-perfect, now you do. See, they’re just passing on to the students the back-patting that’s given administrators in Hillsborough County a grievous case of bursitis over the last year.

Later in the piece – and it’s a must-read – we see real evidence of grade inflation from the mouths of babes:

“As one Chamberlain High School student recently put it: “In our class, anything under a 5.0 is considered mediocre to sucky.” And here we thought a 5.0 was better than perfect.

The district would provide considerable more transparency and accountability if it ceased monkeying with the labels and scoring systems and simply made high school courses appropriately hard and fair.

Schools should give extra credit to students who push themselves the extra mile, but there’s no need to pile it on so thick.”

A sensible suggestion, no doubt.

In an absolutely useless rebuttal to the Tribune’s editorial, Superintendent Mary Ellen Elia, back-patter extraordinaire and anything but a scholar, explained to we who are so intellectually deficient, why these GPAs are so high:

“The Tribune’s June 14th editorial is yet another unnecessarily harsh jab at the public schools.”

Actually, Ms. Elia, it’s a fair treatment of a glaring problem with your terrible administration. She went on to explain to we who are ignorant dolts and the like why, exactly, these GPAs are so gosh-darn high:

“There’s a simple reason the GPAs are higher: Students take more classes and more challenging classes. Good for them.”

Yes, Superintendent Elia – and since you’ve weighted those class grades so outrageously, your students wind up with GPAs that mirror Mary Lou Retton’s scores on the floor exercise.

Your system created the problem, then you tell us that we’re dumb for not realizing how the system works. If you want to know why I don’t live in this otherwise wonderful part of Florida, there ya go.

[April Griffin's endorsement of Stephen Gorham]

On a more local note, there’s a bit of news out of New Hartford, New York regarding public information requests. The blog New Hartford, NY Online, an offshoot of the New Hartford Concerned Citizens, would like to see New Hartford Central School comply with the Freedom of Information Laws – or FOIL, for short. They say:

“That’s right; it is a law, but the New Hartford Central School just doesn’t seem to think they need to comply.

We have received emails from our readers asking us when we think we might get a copy of the Employees Union Contract that was approved by the school board in January. The clock keeps ticking…”

Hopefully their clock has a fresh battery, because it may have to tick for quite some time before the district responds. One is sometimes driven to think that FOIL, to public school administrators, is just something you make hats out of in ed school.

And on Fault Lines, the Greater Utica Blog, we learned that the Utica City Schools administration is pushing a $187 million dollar bond. Says one Ms. Bernadette Eichler in the Utica O-D:

“Over the years, I have worked with brilliant, creative and caring administrators, teachers, members of the Utica Board of Education, college staff and community members.

Their wisdom, leadership, support and ideas did indeed bring the students in the Utica district to a higher level of academic achievement. These abilities and talents also created a stimulating environment for learning, as well as provide opportunities for students to explore and try new ideas.

Now this leadership and support groups of Utica have an unbelievable opportunity to once again demonstrate their wisdom and talents by supporting the $187.6 million bond issue.”

Fault Lines mashes the nail right on the head:

“Wow. These are the same people who studied a project for months that they could not carry out, shuffled administrators like they were a deck of cards, couldn’t keep student schedules straight, ran out of textbooks, and spent a ton of money at Proctor and now want to spend more at the same school.”

And to make matters worse, a commenter on Fault Lines said that the project:

“won’t cost tax payers a dime.”

To hearken the earlier Arbor Day discussion, we’d do well to remind our kids on the next Arbor Day that money, especially tax money, doesn’t grow on trees, contrary to what their schools’ administrators seem to think.

Ms. Eichler may find this bond proposal to be an “unbelievable opportunity,” but she’s wrong – I most certainly believe it, as it’s just another in a series of local boondoggles we in Upstate New York are asked to approve. I’m reminded of one we defeated here in Cooperstown – I forget how much, probably in the trillions – about which an architect on the project explained that new windows would, “Increase learning by double digits.” I was tempted upon hearing that explanation to show him a *single* digit – and if you can’t figure out which one, pretend it’s the old SAT and go with “C.”

The only bit of sweetness here is when we read that Ms. Eichler is a retired deputy superintendent of the Utica City School District. Thank God for that.

As Mr. Millot said, at least I’m honest.

That’s why I’m going to take you into the voting booth with me. Not literally, but here’s an outline of what I’m going to do – and why – in about 30 minutes.

No on the budget.

The increase is a modest one – 2.6% in the budget, 4.2% for the tax levy. The budget, however, is poorly-conceived; I tend not to approve suboptimal budgets. None are perfect, but this district has a long way to go.

The budget takes no steps toward aligning fiscal responsibility with declining enrollment. The budget also does not address the glaring [and ever-widening] achievement gap between the poorer, largely rural students in the district and the rest.

It’s difficult to vote against any school funding issue – I doubt that I’m in the minority when I say that – but giving a thumbs-up to an irresponsible budget does harm.

Two board candidate votes, not three.

We’ve got a bit of a muddy situation here – my next podcast will address it in full. We have three open slots: two 3-year full terms and one 1-year interim term. There are three candidates. The top two vote-getters will assume the full terms, the third place finisher will assume the interim term.

Place our situation within the words of that most astute political philosopher Meatloaf, who advised:

“Don’t be sad / ’cause two out of three ain’t bad”

… and you’ll see why I’m voting for only two candidates.

Dr. Borgstrom appears to be an intelligent, informed, conscientious candidate. He deserves a full term. Dr. Russo, though less palatable to me, should be adequate, and will receive my other vote. I look forward to the service of both on the school board and I’m excited by their potential.

Incumbent Tony Scalici, however, will not receive my vote. By voting only for two candidates, I am implicitly voting for Mr. Scalici to assume the 1-year interim term. He simply won’t have a vote from me that will count toward gaining a full term. The list of reasons is long; from his stance ~10 years ago that the district might not want to devote resources to a website because, “How do we know that the internet is not just a fad?” to the second reason put forth in “Two Reasons Why This Website Exists: A NYSED Folly and Cooperstown Perversity.”

There ya go, and congratulations in advance to all three candidates.

“It’s a Southern thang, y’all wouldn’t understand.”

Kicking myself for not getting it.

I wonder if I could make one of my own that said:

“It’s an educator thang, y’all wouldn’t understand.”

Maybe public schools could give it out at budget votes. Who do these ignorant parents and community members think they are, anyway?!?

A hearty thanks goes out to those teachers, administrators and board members – and those who weren’t voted in – who understand that the public has dignity and, usually, something important to offer.

Those other teachers, admins and board members who routinely show contempt for the public? Well, for now, we’ll have to take it from Weapons of Math Destruction and have a laugh at their expense as we work toward better days.

It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that education reform – an integral part of which is the way school leaders communicate with the public – is best measured in nanometers. I say nanometers because the term “millimicron,” describing exactly the same unit, is out of fashion, and something more colloquial like “baby steps” overstates things.

I wrote a month ago about a chronic offender of open, honest [I'd call this "basic"] communication – Irvington Union Free School District’s Paul Mandel. In a preliminary assessment of the upcoming budget, Mandel wrote on behalf of the Board of Education a summary that included a bit about New York State’s EXCEL Aid program, which provides funds for improving infrastructures/physical plants in districts statewide. He said:

At the time of the budget vote, the District will ask voters to approve approximately $650,000 worth of EXCEL Aid projects, one-time grants which are 100% funded by New York State. These projects will include replacing the Main Street School gym bleachers and floor, replacing the Main Street School public address and fire alarm systems and improving the Middle School public address system (providing access to the Middle School art rooms and CMS Rooms). Voters must approve these projects, but it is vital that everyone understand there is absolutely no cost to taxpayers for these important projects.

And, as I pointed out at the time, the emphases appear in the original – they aren’t mine. They could’ve been, though.

Mandel’s most recent full-length communique forces us to break out those microtubules and microscopes. In a makeshift homage to project-based learning – this teaches us about science and civics, kids! – we’ve got a nanometer begging for measurement. In the April 8th “View on Board: Superintendent’s Recommended Budget 2008-09″ Mandel informs:

At the time of the budget vote on May 20, the District will ask voters to approve a separate proposition for approximately $627,781 worth of EXCEL Aid projects, one-time grants which are 100% funded by New York State. These projects will include replacing the Main Street School gym bleachers and floor, replacing the Main Street School public address and fire alarm systems and improving the Middle School public address system (providing access to the Middle School art rooms and CMS Rooms). Voters must approve this proposition, but it is vital that everyone understand there is almost no cost to taxpayers for these important projects. (The only cost would be a minimal interest charge on a short-term loan needed to pay for the work before the receipt of the aid, approximately $20,000.)

“[A]bsolutely no cost to taxpayers” has become “almost no cost to taxpayers.”

He points out the minimal debt service, but still fails to acknowledge that the cost to taxpayers – in Irvington and the rest of New York State – bear the full burden. We’re happy to do so for responsible projects statewide, but there’s no reason to pretend that this money defies the adage and does, in fact, grow on trees.

I’d say that Mandel is irresponsible and disingenuous, but at this point I sincerely believe that he, and likely the Board for which he speaks, doesn’t understand – or, what’s even worse, doesn’t care.

I’ve reprinted at the bottom the first letter I wrote. There’s really no need to update it. The Board instructs:

As always, the Board welcomes your feedback. [clip] … feel free to contact us at: board@irvingtonschools.org

If you’re a resident of New York State, drop them a line. I did:

To the Board:

http://www.matthewktabor.com/2008/04/17/irvingtons-pismire-strikes-again-lesson-2-in-new-york-state-taxes/

I hope that you will regard my comments about Irvington’s billing of EXCEL Aid as “absolutely no cost to taxpayers” and as “almost no cost to taxpayers” with the sobriety they warrant. All districts – in New York State and nationwide – must treat their constituents with the respect they deserve and must communicate honestly. Twice your e-mails have failed to clear this relatively low moral and governmental hurdle – I’m confident, for the sake of Irvington’s citizens and those who contribute from other parts of the state, that it won’t happen a third time.

Many thanks,

Matthew K. Tabor
mktabor@gmail.com
www.matthewktabor.com
607.821.1752

And the letter that appeared a month ago:

My primary interest is public education. I read over 7,000 pieces a month on the topic and subscribe to nearly 100 district newsletters from across the country. Occasionally one district or an individual stands proud from the rest – for better or worse.

The February 14 newsletter from IUFSD’s Paul Mandel, titled “View on Board: Athletics, Transportation and Building & Grounds Budgets,” is an attempt by Mandel to justify budget increases in each of the topics in the title. It’s standard fare for board members and administrators to distribute such apologia and, in the District’s defense, most of the increases detailed are unavoidable. Such is public education.

But in the penultimate paragraph, Mandel commits an egregious error as he describes the $650,000 EXCEL Aid package on which voters will decide. This project will “replac[e] the Main Street School gym bleachers and floor” and improve the public address system in the Middle School. He goes on: “Voters must approve these projects, but it is vital that everyone understand there is absolutely no cost to taxpayers for these important projects.” The phrase “absolutely no cost to taxpayers” was made bold and underlined so you folks in Irvington wouldn’t have to bother thinking about it – Mandel has already done it for you.

Mandel’s huckster act conveniently glosses over one important point: New York State taxpayers have already given up the money used in EXCEL projects like the one proposed for IUFSD. The $2.6 billion slated for EXCEL aid didn’t appear when the Fiscal Fairy waved her magic wand.

I have to assume that Mandel meant to suggest that Irvington taxpayers wouldn’t see any additional tax burdens if the EXCEL-based project is approved. In lieu of such pesky clarity, he used sloppy language that masked the honest impact of the project’s approval.

One is compelled to wonder whether the statement is deliberately misleading – if so, it wouldn’t be the first time a school board member pulled a fast one – but that point is nearly moot. Whether out of malice or simply clumsy ignorance, Mandel’s gaffe demonstrates unforgivable contempt for taxpayers in the District and the larger state surrounding it.

Third-rate sales pitches by a public school pismire notwithstanding, honest debate about our schools depends on honest information. If IUFSD is serious about garnering the support not just of its locals but also of taxpayers statewide, they would do well to embrace that honesty.

“We shall fight on the beaches of Glimmerglass, we shall fight on the Regents testing grounds, we shall fight in the museums and in front of the memorabilia shops, we shall fight in the Hartwick hills, we shall never surrender.” – Sir Winston Churchill

I took that quote from memory, so I may have made a mistake or two.

Rather than highlight two pervasive national issues, I’d like to draw attention to two mundane, incredibly common local newsbits that are indicative of those pervasive national issues.

From the New York State Education Department [NYSED]:

Announcing the 2008-2009 NYS Mentor Teacher Internship Program Grant Competition!

Woo-hoo! Free money for teacher mentoring!

This program enables experienced teachers (mentors) in a district or BOCES to provide guidance and support to beginning teachers (interns) in their first or second year of teaching. Research shows that when new teachers are mentored they are more likely to continue teaching. The mentoring program provides the opportunity for beginning teachers to enhance their skill while participating in a productive and supportive experience.

Sounds great, except that this is a grant program to fund what responsible school leaders should be doing anyway.

School leaders – principals, superintendents and their underlings – are charged with the development of staff. Not only are mentored teachers “more likely to continue teaching,” they’re far more likely not to be terrible at their jobs, and an effective school leader understands this.

That we need a state-sanctioned grant program to entice school leaders to develop their staff by pairing experienced, knowledgeable teachers with recent education school graduates is a scathing indictment of the ineptitude of school leadership, the unreadiness of new teachers and everyone’s – from NYSED to principals to teachers to voters/taxpayers – inability [or unwillingness] to admit both.

And, from the “this is just a major urban school district problem/couldn’t happen in our town” file, a staggeringly dumb quote was burped out a scant 6 miles away:

“Things such as test requirements, scores and data input make it hard to look at the quality of education, said Scalici.”

Scalici is a long-time board member in the Cooperstown Central School district [up for re-election, will certainly win again] who has no problem defying common sense or covering up and then flaunting a lack of adherence to the law. In the article I quoted, he was describing the things that make being on a school board difficult. Those things amount to:

• Standards;
• Assessment of performance;
• Data.

Minimum basic skills, assessments for the purpose of evaluation/refinement of practices, and the data that supports decisions are hardships and impediments to some, including Scalici. A sharp leader uses well-defined standards and data/assessment as information to drive action – whether that action is solving a problem or just plain doing better when you’re already doing well. They aren’t things to be feared or condemned.

But at least I’m 100% certain now why no district employees have identified the achievement gap that’s ravaging our community. They clearly don’t want to look at the data, and if they tried, they likely wouldn’t know how to process it.

I don’t have children, but if I did, I’d strongly consider educating them privately, assuming that I couldn’t afford private school tuition or was unwilling/unable to move to a better district. It isn’t a distrust of public education, a belief that schools are prisons or support for any of the laundry-list of gripes [from the banal to the bizarre] I read daily.

It’s much, much simpler than that.

There’s a law on the books demanding that public school administrators and school board members in New York State think of state funds as money printed for the sole purpose of meeting their district’s needs. Again, that money isn’t generated from taxpayers, it’s just printed, well… whenever, put on a debit card and shipped to the business office to offset local taxes. No one anywhere bears the financial burden. It’s all unicorns and ice cream castles in the air.

[Actually, this can't be a law. If it was a real statute, the vast majority of board members and administrators would be completely ignorant of it. Must be something else.]

I subscribe to just under 100 public school newsletters. Irvington Union Free School District’s “This Week in Your School District,” an e-mail newsletter written and distributed by board member Paul Mandel, is a weekly comedy of errors. It might be a technical burp, like pointing readers to a link and then never giving it; it might be egregious grammar errors that would make a 7th grader blush in embarrassment.

Or it might be a complete and total disregard for taxpayers in the whole of New York State.

In February 14′s TWiYSD, Mandel explains budgetary proposals in “View on Board: Athletics, Transportation and Building & Grounds Budgets”:

At the time of the budget vote, the District will ask voters to approve approximately $650,000 worth of EXCEL Aid projects, one-time grants which are 100% funded by New York State. These projects will include replacing the Main Street School gym bleachers and floor, replacing the Main Street School public address and fire alarm systems and improving the Middle School public address system (providing access to the Middle School art rooms and CMS Rooms). Voters must approve these projects, but it is vital that everyone understand there is absolutely no cost to taxpayers for these important projects.

Bolded/underlined emphases appear in the original newsletter; they aren’t editorialized.

Mandel is right about one thing – it is vital that everyone understands how this all works. It’s just that Mandel doesn’t realize that he and the board on whose behalf he’s speaking need the most remediation.

The simple truth is that taxpayers bear the cost of all state-funded projects – period. In a tiny way, we in Otsego County foot the bill for IUFSD’s EXCEL Aid. Irvington’s residents do the same for us. That’s how being a resident of New York State works.

School boards are famous for thinking of finances only in terms of their local levy. Responsible districts delineate the difference properly: “no additional increases in local school taxes,” etc. Not only do those districts tell the truth, but it’s the responsible way to recognize how funding works.

Remember: if it comes from state funds, it’s a cost to us. Just because it’s not part of your local levy doesn’t mean we don’t pay.

I’d consider these gaffes semantics if I didn’t see it over and over again. And again. And again.

There’s a serious conceptual misunderstanding in public education – though admittedly, sometimes it’s just these board members/admins being lazy and reckless with their words – about taxes. In this, Mandel and IUFSD are unremarkable.

I’ve sent around the following letter; anyone who wishes is welcome to reproduce and distribute it.

And to Mandel, I believe, as you likely do, that everyone can learn – even experienced adults who treat the rest of their state with contempt. I’m available for one-on-one Civics/Government tutoring if you or others on the board are interested: $150/hr.

My primary interest is public education. I read over 7,000 pieces a month on the topic and subscribe to nearly 100 district newsletters from across the country. Occasionally one district or an individual stands proud from the rest – for better or worse.

The February 14 newsletter from IUFSD’s Paul Mandel, titled “View on Board: Athletics, Transportation and Building & Grounds Budgets,” is an attempt by Mandel to justify budget increases in each of the topics in the title. It’s standard fare for board members and administrators to distribute such apologia and, in the District’s defense, most of the increases detailed are unavoidable. Such is public education.

But in the penultimate paragraph, Mandel commits an egregious error as he describes the $650,000 EXCEL Aid package on which voters will decide. This project will “replac[e] the Main Street School gym bleachers and floor” and improve the public address system in the Middle School. He goes on: “Voters must approve these projects, but it is vital that everyone understand there is absolutely no cost to taxpayers for these important projects.” The phrase “absolutely no cost to taxpayers” was made bold and underlined so you folks in Irvington wouldn’t have to bother thinking about it – Mandel has already done it for you.

Mandel’s huckster act conveniently glosses over one important point: New York State taxpayers have already given up the money used in EXCEL projects like the one proposed for IUFSD. The $2.6 billion slated for EXCEL aid didn’t appear when the Fiscal Fairy waved her magic wand.

I have to assume that Mandel meant to suggest that Irvington taxpayers wouldn’t see any additional tax burdens if the EXCEL-based project is approved. In lieu of such pesky clarity, he used sloppy language that masked the honest impact of the project’s approval.

One is compelled to wonder whether the statement is deliberately misleading – if so, it wouldn’t be the first time a school board member pulled a fast one – but that point is nearly moot. Whether out of malice or simply clumsy ignorance, Mandel’s gaffe demonstrates unforgivable contempt for taxpayers in the District and the larger state surrounding it.

Third-rate sales pitches by a public school pismire notwithstanding, honest debate about our schools depends on honest information. If IUFSD is serious about garnering the support not just of its locals but also of taxpayers statewide, they would do well to embrace that honesty.

School board elections are coming up in a few months. Don’t forget to question your candidates on their understanding of public school finances. It’s usually an awfully telling way to find out not just what they know, but how they think about the community and the public good.