Buffalo superintendent job advertisement, something missing?

If you read the advertisement Cascade consultant firm placed for the Buffalo superintendent search besides the absence of a reference to the company, one gets the impression it's Say Yes to Education not the Buffalo Schools search for a superintendent.

There appears to be too much reference and information about Say Yes less about the Buffalo Schools and the qualifications and attributes of the candidates as found in other similar searches.

And with less than three months to do the search, the educational level, qualifications, and credentials expected  of candidates where either too narrow or not cited, especially the requirement of New York State certification in school administration.

So, the consultants are going to have to look at many resumes unless they narrow the field further by posting credentials beyond a Master's degree in education and citing candidates need for NYS school administration certification. Cascade was on an aggressive search schedule last month, but this week asked the Buffalo School Board for a time extension on their search for the superintendent.

The posting should mention the interim superintendent is a candidate for the position.

Also, mentioning an interest receiving applications from bilingual candidates especially Spanish-speaking ones would have been helpful given the increasing population of Puerto Rican children in the Buffalo Public Schools and there has never been a Latino superintendent, while both whites and blacks including women were  appointed past superintendents here.

And there is the lingering problem of   Say Yes to Education involved in the search for a superintendent, still negotiating a contract themselves with the Buffalo School Board to operate  their own programs that requires allocating  funds from the  title 1 grant.

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Interim Super Dixon presented new attendance plan to union

Buffalo News blogger Mary Pasciak wrote today about the latest teacher evaluation plan that factors in student attendance district officials introduced to the Buffalo Teachers Federation on Friday.

Dixon,  "verbally outlined a fairly complex plan; it boils down to student attendance being measured on a schoolwide basis, and the dividing line is 85 percent average daily attendance.

In other words, schools where 85 percent or more students show up, on average, would have one growth target, while schools that fall below 85 percent average daily attendance would have a lower target."

Few elementary schools have an ADA below 85%, but all of the academic non criterion high schools except for Mckinley have ADA rates below 85%. Lafayette High School has the highest ADA  fluctuating from 83 to 85% this year.

The attendance office at Lafayette is open only three days a week because, the school does not have a full time attendance officer and the one assigned to the school is shared two days weekly with an elementary school.

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Say Yes and Cascade question low community participation in forums and surveys...

Cascade consultant and Say Yes  president disappointed with low community response to forums and surveys in the superintendent search process.

Yet some say the forums were prepared hastily and the surveys too long , while the superintendent one not relevant.

And questions of a conflict of interest about Cascade and Say Yes conducting the search for a superintendent, while negotiating a "non-negotiable" contract for themselves with the district to operate their after-school programs continues to linger in the community. Also, others have questioned the superintendent search process as superficial because the community has been kept out the candidate selection phase . Cascade informed the reason is confidentiality.

"Our participation at community forums has been less than we're comfortable with," Gene Chasin, chief operating officer of Say Yes, told the School Board. "Survey results have been lower than we're used to. We need to look at the reasons for this.

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What a difference the drop in attendance in Buffalo schools from 2005 to 2006, after district laid-off the attendance officers!

    They blame the low attendance rates in the Buffalo schools to the attendance policy Williams scraped, but few relate it to the lay off of the district attendance officers in 2005. Buffalo News blogger, Mary Pasciak cited today a story appearing in the News in 2006 after former superintendent James had abolished the old attendance policy. Yet without attendance officers how could it have been enforced? So, what did he do? Williams abolished both the attendance policy and the attendance officers. That's the root of this current attendance problem in the district, but there's still the issue of back pay for the wrongfully laid off attendance teachers. So, it has become the elephants in the room. "The problem is hardly confined to Lafayette. For the attendance period that ended March 31, 12 of 13 city high schools had lower attendance rates than they did during the corresponding period last school year.     In many cases, the drop was severe. Riverside's rate fell from 78.5 to 67 percent; Seneca's from 82.2 to 74.5 percent; East's from 81 to 77.3 percent; and Lafayette's from 83.8 to 78.6 percent. School officials say attendance rates of less than 90 percent are unacceptable. "    

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Cascade ask Buffalo school board for more time extend superintendent search

Because of the timeframe we're in, we're thinking we would like to extend the period of time. We initially talked about April 6. But I think we want to continue that. We never published that, just said it would be open to fill.

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Cascade say surveys show nobody happy with conditions in Buffalo schools today

It is fair to say, based on the surveys you will see and focus groups, nobody is happy with the conditions of the schools today. Board members are not happy. Teachers are not happy. Union people are not happy. Leadership in the community is not happy.

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Cascade says few in community filled out superintendent search survey

Pasquarella: The thing that surprised me is not the focus groups, but the surveys, that there were few people. I've said this before. It is really not the number so much as why. Why is it the number? When you look at the surveys, one of the things you'll see is that they don't think we'll make a difference.

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Cascade sharing focus group information on superintendent search Monday

Mary Pasciak:  Chasin: You'll see every comment that was made in a focus group. McCarthy: When will we see that? Taylor: On Monday, that information will be provided for us.

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School board member John Licata troubled lack of community participation in search process for new superintendent

Mary Pasciak:  Licata: Thank you for your efforts to try to get community involvement. I'm a little dismayed that it's an underwhelming participation from the community who was saying they wanted to play a role in this.

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Cascade looking at data driven superintendent

The new superintendent has to be someone experienced with data-driven decision-making. Once we get applications, we'll screen them for minimum qualifications. We'll bring those back to the board, board will discuss it. Board will choose semifinal candidates, people you want more information about.

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Buffalo schools update superintendent search

Gene Chasin from Say Yes: Ads have been placed and run in all the major publications. The recruitment process has begun. We have been conducting focus groups and meetings across the district. 51 meetings, over 300 people. Also have conducted paper and pencil and online surveys. Our participation at community forums has been less than we're comfortable with. Survey results have been lower than we're used to. We need to look at the reasons for this.

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Targets in attendance on teacher evaluation plan under consideration

SED is willing to look at an evaluation plan that builds in different targets based on student attendance. We're pursuing that, putting together a proposal to take to Mr. Rumore and BTF.

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mandate attendance teachers into teacher contract comment on Buffalo news live blog at education meeting last night

Comment From 1st grade teacher  I have no problem taking out the attendance clause in our contract IF we can add something else into the contract. Like it is MANDATORY that all schools have attendance teachers on staff. Or it is mandatory that students miss less than 28 days to be promoted. If we work those other safeguards into a contract, we can take the attendance clause out and problem solved. The only hitch is the district needs to sitdown and negotiate a real contract with teachers. We haven't done that since before Y2K. This issue is not hopeless. It just requires REAL work, not platitudes. We prob wont get it in time for this year, but with a little elbow grease we could do it before next year.

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Demone Smith Buffalo common council on truancy officers

Mary Pasciak:  Smith: "Attendance teachers were brought back, but there were no truancy officers. Maybe that's the piece we're missing. We're talking about some of the worst schools in the nation, dropout factories. If we don't do anything, they're going to continue to get worse."

Attendance teachers are truancy officers, attendance officers and attendance teachers used interchangeably in NYS education law section 3213.

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Attendance teachers needed as mid-year cuts possible in Buffalo schools

After  the Buffalo Teachers Federation  council of delegates voted to keep the attendance provision in the new teacher evaluation system (APPR) Wednesday night, interim Superintendent of  Buffalo Schools Amber Dixon asked the director of human resources to give her a list of the positions  that she will have to cut in  mid-year as a result of the action of the BTF.
It is expected that 60  teachers or more will be laid-off that work already in the persistently lowest achieving schools because the state education department now will not release the $9. 3 million dollars expected to continue funding the positions.
The majority of teachers that voted on Wednesday night did not work in the PLA schools, causing some to say the voting was not fair to the teachers who work at these schools now facing mid-year cuts.
Yet, lay-offs are done through seniority in the tenure area so if there are any teachers laid offs in mid year most likely it will ricochet throughout the district not necessarily in the PLA schools.
The Buffalo News published an email from a teacher  in the BTF who did not agree with the voting process.
Also absent at the delegates meeting was the attendance teachers recalled in September this year. There were several attempts to  inquire about organizing them but vice president Edith Lewin, a retired teacher, a presidential assistant to BTF President Phil Rumore, suggested the teachers try a committee select a chairperson to attend the council of delegate meetings but would have no voting power. This after  the union dues deducted from the attendance teachers paycheck are nearly $10,000 yearly to the BTF not to mention all the hullabaloo from the union about attendance.
Also, chronically absent student is defined as absent 10 percent of the school year not 20 percent as the BTF cited to support its provision on the teacher evaluation.
What the BTF could have done is provided the teachers alternatives to the provision such as ensuring that each Buffalo school building is adequately staff with attendance officers at least one for every two elementary schools in the district and one full-time in the academic high school including attendance intervention in the criterion schools that also have incurred an absenteeism problem after the district laid-off the attendance teachers six years ago though it's not as noticeable in the average daily attendance (ADA) of these schools.
Now is the time for the BTF to ensure the school board establishes a  new state-of-the-art alternative school to address the problem of student discipline, suspensions and severely absent students.
And if you ask Rumore to include the addition of attendance teachers in the contract during negotiations especially now that teachers are evaluated on the achievement of students on assessments and standardized tests scores, he has repeatedly answered he can not do it.  Why?