John Hopkins site visits to Buffalo schools new EPO

John Hopkins is in town visiting with the priority schools in the Buffalo it won the contract to serve as the educational partnership organization (EPO).

Consultants are at Lafayette and East high schools  this week meeting with school leaders and staff as they prepare to manage and operate the two buildings in January. Distinguished educator Dr. Judy Elliott seen in the Library at Lafayette is  visiting too.

Talent Development Secondary is comprehensive, on-site support focused on building a strong and safe school environment, creating and refining effective professional learning communities, and ensuring effective teaching and learning in every classroom. Talent Development also helps create and manage an Early Warning Indicator data tool and multi-tiered student support process.

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Distinguished educator report calls for more decisions made in schools less at central office

And decision-making for everything from staffing to budgeting has been happening in City Hall – not in the schools, as it should be, Elliott wrote in her report, which the state Education Department released to The Buffalo News on Wednesday.

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Buffalo board of ed voted to allow super Pamela Brown to settle case of involuntary transfer teachers

The Buffalo School Board voted, 7-1, Wednesday to authorize the superintendent to decide how to proceed in the court case regarding involuntary teacher transfers at three schools.

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discrimination complaints filed with feds in districts failing to effectively communicate with ELL parents

Schools Falter at Keeping ELL Families in the Loop By Lesli A. Maxwell As thousands of communities—especially in the South—became booming gateways for immigrant families during the 1990s and the early years of the new century, public schools struggled with the unfamiliar task of serving the large numbers of English-learners arriving in their classrooms. Instructional programs were built from scratch. Districts had to train their own teachers to teach English to non-native speakers or recruit teachers from elsewhere. School staff members had to figure out how to communicate with parents who spoke no English. But even as immigration has slowed or stopped in many places, and instructional programs for English-learners have matured, serving immigrant families and their children remains a work in progress in many public schools, especially those in communities that are skeptical, or sometimes hostile, to the newcomers. One of the biggest challenges, educators and advocates said, is communicating effectively with parents who don't speak English—an issue that, in part, has brought recent complaints of discrimination against Latino students and their families to two large districts in North Carolina and one in Louisiana.

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Buffalo News opinion page on district cancelling K-6th grade summer school

The district canceled summer school this year for students in kindergarten through sixth grade, mainly in an effort to save $4.1 million that would have been spent over a four-week program. Federal stimulus funds were non-existent and Title I funds that had been used in the past for summer school instead went to additional teacher assistants in kindergarten classes throughout the district during the regular school year.

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Prez Obama credits Race to Top in presidential debate

Prez  Obama still talked about wanting to hire 100,000 math and science teachers, but never explained why in a presidential debate where Romney showed superior debating skills and image. Prez Obama cited the success of his failed  Race to the Top education reform policy, while Romney talked about how Massachusetts public schools best in country after he was governor of the state.

Romney wants to diminish role of the feds in education views it as state and local.

Romney said," all the federal funds I'd have follow the child, and have the parents and child decide where they want to go to school." "I think [the government] has a significant role to play in education..." while Obama continues to show ignorance on public education, including on his RTTT policies, when he credits it for improving education.

Prez Obama needs a better debate coach cite more specific successful education reform policies in public education with data to support  it or risk being a one term president.

A record 36 elementary and middle schools now in danger of shut down

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Parent facilitators back in schools again as stipend volunteers

Mary Pasciak provided information on new changes on how parent facilitators are viewed and paid.

Will Keresztes, associate superintendent said:

We're ready to assign parent facilitators. This year, they will be regularly scheduled volunteers who received a stipend. Last year, they had individual contracts. They will be eligible for stipends that are $40 per day for a minimum of four hours per day, for a maximum of $2k a year. SIG schools had budgeted for much more. Parents at those schools would be eligible to receive up to $5k per year.

To be assigned, parent volunteers would complete a one-page application, interview with the principals and go through a background check. My goal is to have them in place in October. Under the old system, parent facilitators did not go through a background check. Under this one, they will. Licata is asking if something is being done to let parents know about these opportunities. I do expect principals to let their parents know. We'll do the things we usually do to get the word out -- ConnectEd calls, etc. But we're really leaving it up to the principals to get the word out. Volunteers are scheduled by the principal. The parent facilitators are not independent of the principal. That will be very clear to them. They will work the hours the principal stipulates. I cleared that up. If there is any challenge, I'd like to get personally involved and settle that.  We want parent facilitators in all our schools.

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Buffalo schools deficit will increase

Buffalo News education Blogger Pasciak last week  covered the school board finance committee meeting in City Hall.

CFO Barb Smith said  how "the baseline deficit for 2013-14 was $40.7M. The deficit will increase $7.3M based on current projections. And Smith said the district could have saved about $3M by changing bell times for some of the schools, but that didn't happen. She said the teachers were polled, and they weren't in favor of it.

McCarthy asked why the teachers get to decide. Smith: It's in the contract. McCarthy: Well, that'll handcuff us. Cottman: So what ideas do you have, Barbara, to fix this (deficit)? We need help. Smith: I have a lot of ideas, it's just whether they're actionable or not."

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Study found sex ed shocking in NYS public schools

The New York Civil Liberties Union recently released a study based on sex education curriculums it collected from 82 school districts across the state, obtained under the Freedom of Information Law. The group found a wide range of which topics are taught, which are often ignored, and how some of them are presented to students. "It's shocking what passes for sex ed in some New York classrooms," said Johanna Miller, who co-wrote the report.

Buffalo News, 9/24/12

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Buffalo schools student placement application ready online

Student placement applications are now accepted online only. Families who don't have internet access can go to the student placement office on Ash Street and use one of the computers there."

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New State Ed rules for priority schools reform plans

Buffalo school official stated at Wednesday's committee meeting "The new rule states that we must have at least two-thirds of our priority schools put in a plan or in the middle of a plan for the 2013-14 school year, and the rest have to put in a plan for '14-15. We could put in for school innovation funds, which is a whole new reform model. CTE, looking for partners, is one model. Arts is another model. There are six models to choose from. The basic idea is we need the schools implementing some type of whole-school reform plan. We would need a minimum of seven new plans needing a new plan for '13-14. Waterfront would have to be among them."

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Buffalo Board committee meetings last night

The executive affairs committee of the Buffalo Board of Education, West District Rep. Ralph Hernandez chairs, met last night to discuss the redistricting committee, layoffs of cook managers, whether to allow a group present a proposal to convert Waterfront Elementary School and East High School into charter schools after the plans had been submitted to State Ed officials, and new priority schools plans must be submitted to State Ed using an innovative format focused on whole school plans in six areas that include CTE, the Arts, etc by Oct. 1. There are nine members on the redistricting committee its plan must be submitted before February 2013, when board members in district seats hit the pavement with petitions for reelection. The charter group Chameleon associated with Tapestry were not allow to present its controversial proposals to convert Waterfront and East High because Super Brown mentioned district had its own plan for Waterfront in Albany. And except for North District Jason McCarthy, the other board members protested the group previously presented its plans for the two schools to State Ed before sharing them with the board. And district lawyers added it was not a good idea or fair to other groups.

New study on turnaround schools reading proficiency problems persist

What makes one low-performing school turn around and build momentum over time, while another, seemingly similar school tries the same strategies but continues to struggle? It's not just particular programs or practices, but the interplay of school implementation with district policies and support, according to the Institute of Education Sciences' Turning Around Low-Performing Schools project—the most comprehensive federal research on such schools to date.

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Charter school proponents invitation to present controversial proposal to school board gets little support

I strongly urge the Buffalo Board of Education to NOT allow Chameleon to present at the Executive Affairs meeting on September 19th as it is in my opinion a violation of the well prescribed method by which we select partners for our schools and as such, I submit that we are exposing the district to liability on a variety of fronts from the litigious to the potential loss of funds for improper practice. I am not anti-charter school and believe that under the present methodology used to select models for our low performing schools, a charter may be our only option. That being said, we are allowing a group to present to the board and we have not presented that opportunity to all the other parties that were previously interested, much less those that may have an interest now. That is why we use an RFP/RFQ so that individuals know that we are seeking partners. We have not issued either to my knowledge. I have had conversations with SED. SED will only approve a charter school or EPO that the board has approved first. BY going directly to SED, Chameleon is not complying with the established protocol. The prescribed method is to gain local approval first. They applied and were rejected. Unfortunately points were not awarded for persistency. Furthermore as Chameleon was not approved previously by the method the Buffalo Board of Education established by permitting them to present directly to the board, we undermine our own actions. I cannot support this as currently presented to the board and urge in the strongest terms possible that my fellow board members do the same. Sincerely, Lou Petrucci

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Buffalo teachers win court battle on involuntary transfers

Judge rules teacher transfers violate BTF contract - City & Region - The Buffalo News

A State Supreme Court justice upheld today, the ruling of an arbitrator that the Buffalo Public Schools violated the collective bargaining agreement of teachers when district officials involuntarily transferred 54 teachers.

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