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Interim at Romulus
Please welcome Bob Thompson to the WFL CSO community. Bob is currently interim at Wheatland Chili - until the BOE meeting ends tonight - where he has been since August. Prior to that Bob was Assistant Superintendent at Monroe II BOCES forever. Bob will be at the helm at Romulus three days per week until July, while he also handles assisting Joe Marinelli with the Superintendent searches here and at Honeoye. I'm sure you will enjoy his good humor and warm ways.
Chris Manaseri will be at cbm@rochester.rr.com (home) and manaseri@frontiernet.net (work) See you all in cyberspace!
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cmurray
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02/29/00
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4-County Breakfast
Those of us who stuck around to hear Randy Kuhl may have been favorably impressed by his conversancy with the budget issues surrounding education as well as his demeanor in seeming to really listen to concerns expressed. I have always found him smug and distancing. That was certainly not the impression I took away from Saturday. There may be hope afterall for his charimanship of the Education committee in the Senate. Now I STILL think the superintendents should send a separate delegation like we did last year. I'll even volunteer Randy Bos as Seneca County's rep this time! Heck I'll even volunteer him to buy lunch!
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cmurray
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02/14/00
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April Regents
News to me, Nancy. But then NYSUT always is out there ahead of the curve. How is it that Dundee warrants such cutting edge unionism? Are you that hard to work for? Should you call Suzanne Spear about the merger study or should I? Remember - Romulus doesn't have a radio station OR a weekly newspaper - not even a restaurant or gas station anymore. But we will have 1500 of the State's finest inmates starting in August and then 100 or so youthful offenders staring in September. Thank God Mike Nozzolio is in charge of the Crimes committee and not recycling...or is there much of a difference? See you at breakfast Saturday?
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cmurray
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02/09/00
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I am remiss
And look at me... haven't checked the site since Xmas! It would be interesting to see who really does check it at all. Too bad such a potentially usefule tool goes so apparently unused. Thanks for the kind words, Steve. Attended my first CSO meeting with John last week. Sounds like he's busy. Sure I will be too once I get to Scottsville. Thre didn't appear to be any Nancies or Steves among the small group I met. So are we going to Randy's office in Albany again this year?
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cmurray
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01/20/00
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Whacked
I'm whacky enough already... well, Steve, the etymology of TONY?
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cmurray
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11/23/99
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Tony?
Okay Steve, you got me. What are the TONYs?
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cmurray
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11/16/99
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Sweet!
Nothing drier than a pun.
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cmurray
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11/04/99
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Outstanding Speech
Steve Uebbing did a wonderful job of being both genuinely entertaining and absolutely right-on about the relationship of superintendents and Boards at the School Board Convention in Syracuse on Friday. Congrats, Steve, on once again representing Canandaigua, the Finger Lakes, and superintendents everywhere so very well.
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cmurray
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10/25/99
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Math and ELA Results
Everybody got theirs? Now how do we know what the regional and or State data look like? ( I know - we wait and read it in the paper, right?)
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cmurray
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10/21/99
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Reaction to Septemeber Meeting
The obvious lack of a cohesive vision for our role in bringing about excellence and equity for all students in our region has me concerned.
Is it that we are too diverse too have common missions and beliefs? Do we need to function in sub-groups and fiefdoms in order to collaborate at all? Are we too caught up inour own district-level concerns, security cameras, board member changes, budget details, and pet projects to remember that the rising tide affects all ships?
It seems to me that when we felt we had enough outside pressure from the great unknown of the looming and ill-defined standards and their ominous assessments two or three years ago, we decided to band together and enable our front line forces to work together - English teacher to English teacher whether from Canandaigua or Sodus or Romulus or Williamson - in the hopes that they as professionals would rise to the challenge of working together on what was best for all of our kids. Admittedly even then we weren't willing to pay them for the effort, but we were willing to ask them to do it nonetheless. Remember? We brought them all together in Phelps, bored them with Regent Farley's drone and them set them to the wolves of apathy, underfunding, lack of leadership and lack of follow-through. No wonder many have floundered. Would Eisenhower have succeeded at Normandy with such an approach? We are our own worst enemy when we make promises, exchange staff if not gifts, and then forget about those agreements to cooperate when it is inconvenient or costly in terms of dollars or staffing or time away from other tasks.
Nothing we do is more important than leading the instructional charge. For us to allow ourselves to abdicate that responsibility as a region because we somehow feel less threatened by the standards process than we once did is tantamount to educational neglect and we should be ashamed of ourselves for approaching that abyss.
Just some reflections that might warrant a comment or two back. The ball's in somebody else's court....
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cmurray
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09/24/99
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Reaction to Septemeber Meeting
The obvious lack of a cohesive vision for our role in bringing about excellence and equity for all students in our region has me concerned.
Is it that we are too diverse too have common missions and beliefs? Do we need to function in sub-groups and fiefdoms in order to collaborate at all? Are we too caught up inour own district-level concerns, security cameras, board member changes, budget details, and pet projects to remember that the rising tide affects all ships?
It seems to me that when we felt we had enough outside pressure from the great unknown of the looming and ill-defined standards and their ominous assessments two or three years ago, we decided to band together and enable our front line forces to work together - English teacher to English teacher whether from Canandaigua or Sodus or Romulus or Williamson - in the hopes that they as professionals would rise to the challenge of working together on what was best for all of our kids. Admittedly even then we weren't willing to pay them for the effort, but we were willing to ask them to do it nonetheless. Remember? We brought them all together in Phelps, bored them with Regent Farley's drone and them set them to the wolves of apathy, underfunding, lack of leadership and lack of follow-through. No wonder many have floundered. Would Eisenhower have succeeded at Normandy with such an approach? We are our own worst enemy when we make promises, exchange staff if not gifts, and then forget about those agreements to cooperate when it is inconvenient or costly in terms of dollars or staffing or time away from other tasks.
Nothing we do is more important than leading the instructional charge. For us to allow ourselves to abdicate that responsibility as a region because we somehow feel less threatened by the standards process than we once did is tantamount to educational neglect and we should be ashamed of ourselves for approaching that abyss.
Just some reflections that might warrant a comment or two back. The ball's in somebody else's court....
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cmurray
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09/24/99
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Agreed
Joe, please remember that we asked at edutech Steering to have some sort of survey done of component districts comparing what the district anticipated in aid versus what each received. Will this be part of our agenda for september?
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cmurray
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09/08/99
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Procedure for Hiring retiree
In case anyone cares, there is a form which must be filed in triplicate with the oofice of teaching if you wish to hire a TRS retiree and pay them more than $15,000.
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cmurray
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06/03/99
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Thanks, Chuck
Thanks, Chuck. Did you just send a letter to Rick Mills? Is there any established protocol? Anybody else got any expereince with this and/or advice?
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cmurray
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05/11/99
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Request for Assistance
Anybody out there have any experience with petitioning the Commissioner to allow a retiree to work in excess of the minimum salary they may receive and still collect benefits? I'd like to hire back my computer guy for more than the $15,500 he's allowed to earn. Would appreciate any advice/support/experiences others have had. Thanks.
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cmurray
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04/22/99
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Meeting with Senator Kuhl
As per posting below, the fanatic four did in fact travel to Albany for a productive session with Randy and his aides. Peter Applebee was particularly up to speed and understood all of our concerns. Some heated response to the DS salary cap issues and the legislature's perception of BOCES ducking the rule of law that they all have to live under, AND some heat over the relationship between the Board of Regents as the policy makers and the legislature as the guardians of the public purse. Expect restoration of BOCES aid and no reduction from the level of the governor's proposal after a protracted budget debate. Basically safe to plan on Governor's proposal plus BOCES aid restoration. Thank you to Steve for driving, George for lunch, and Nancy for the entertainment and information sharing.
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cmurray
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04/07/99
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Meeting With Senate Education Committee Chair
As requested at our last CSO meeting, a contingent from the WFL CSOs, consisting of Steve Uebbing, George Batterson, Nancy Zimar ( if available), and Chris Manaseri,one rpresentative from each county in our BOCES, will meet with Senator Kuhl on Tuesday March 30, at 11:30 a.m.. Your business officials have been asked by Larry Driscoll to put together some data for us to hand carry to the Senator. We'll let you know how we are received.
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cmurray
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03/24/99
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School Cancellations Continued
I found cancellations.com early this winter and have used it both times we've closed school. I don't find many central/western New York schools on there yet, though, and think it would be a great source for us at 5:30 in the morning. Note that you do have to actually post a message with them, not just check that your name shows up. Last snow day ( see message below) I found hardly anybody using the cancellations.com webpage. But then again, how many of us are using this bulletin board either?
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cmurray
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03/24/99
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School Closing webpage
What school closing webpage, Steve?
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cmurray
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03/05/99
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School Cancellations
It's 9 am on an area wide snow day, and I just checked www.cancellations.com from here at work. Not many of us on there within 50 miles of MacDougall. Just in case we've picked up any new users of this bulletin board, you can creat a link from your school's home page to www.cancellations.com and list you school closings there. Free and works great. I'd encourage people to use it.
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cmurray
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03/04/99
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Foundation/ 8th grade addresses
Steve- Thanks for the offer on the foundation piece. I have a committee holding its first meeting next week. Could you bring anything simple describing how it works in Canandaigua to the FL group on Friday? With regard to the 8th grade mailing labels, I have no problem - part of being a cooperative in my mind.
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cmurray
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03/02/99
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Foundation Help Sought
Who among us has a foundation which raises money from the community to support the school and/or its kids? I have an interested group who would like to see some material that somebody locally is actually doing/using. I would appreciate contact names, phone numbers and/or email. Would also appreciate any copies of Foundation documents, etc.. The group in Romulus is particularly interested in establishing a scholarship fund. Please advise here or to CManaseri@wfmail.rcs.k12.ny.us. Thanks.
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cmurray
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03/01/99
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4 County Legislative Breakfast
Congratulations to Sharon Sweeney and the legislative committee of the CSOs for the good work that went into Saturday's breakfast. The list of points that the committee prepared was excellent. I wish that we had divided those points up among the tables present and made sure that each one was addressed publicly. That might have helped to keep us focused and to have prevented loose cannons on special interests. It doesn't help any of us when we are factious, and it certainly doesn't help us to have administrative salaries dissed by Board members in front of our legislators. Nice job to those supers who spoke up at various points - George, Tim, Chuck, George...
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cmurray
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03/01/99
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Letter Campaign
Count me in, Chuck. I think a draft posted here that we could all modify to suite our own needs might be a good way to say essentially the same thing, without running it off on ditto paper. I also think that a flood of 25 letters is a stronger message than one watered down version that we can all agree to signed by 25 people. If you draft a letter and post it in a collection here under CSOs, we can each download it and merely rewrite or add the passages we wish. I'll look for something next week? Let's all give it a try!
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cmurray
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02/12/99
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A Tree Fell...
A tree fell in the forest and no one was there to listen. A Superintendent wrote on the Bulletin Board in the CSO Collection... same effect?
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cmurray
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02/11/99
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Regional Curriculum Organizer
Thanks for the opportunity to share the idea behind the RCO at Friday's CSO meeting. It seems to me that we have the tools now and the organization within those tools to allow teachers the opportunity to develop a virtual community online at Docushare for the nenfit of their students. Now we need the leadership and commitment to make that vision become a reality. I'm looking for some people willing to partner with RCS on this this summer. We can set the pace and develop the standard and let others follow our lead. Anybody interested? Please respond here or by email to CManaseri@wfmail.rcs.k12.ny.us. I look forward to hearing from some of you adventurous peers...
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cmurray
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02/08/99
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School cancelations on the web
Accuweather out of State College PA offers a neat free service at www.cancelations.com. People can search by area code and radius up to 50 miles for cancelations which have been posted. It's just getting started. I tried it today and within 50 miles found only 3 schools on - Campbell-Savona, Central Square and Romulus. Want to join? Go to www.cancelations.com and register for free!
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cmurray
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01/15/99
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Charter School Fallout
One of the listservs I subscribe to had this information about religious leaders in NYC planning on how best to use the new charter school legislation to their advantage. From Sunday's NYTimes...FYI http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/regional/122998ny-edu-charter.html
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cmurray
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01/06/99
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Blue Ribbon Panel on School Leadership
I haven't stirred the pot yet in 1999, and thought I'd start the new year off by sharing my email message to Mike Masse, member of the Commissioner's Panel on Leadership, VP of Chase Bank in Syracuse and member of the FM BOE. Anybody feel the same way? You might like to email Mike at mjmasse.syr.com. Enjoy the diatribe!
Mike - Congratulations on being appointed to the Blue Ribbon Panel on
School Leadership. Certainly the contact I have had with you over the
past three years makes me believe you are committed to excellence in
public schooling in NY, and your appointment to this panel helps me
restore a little bit of faith in the process being employed to tackle
this difficult issue.
My biggest beef with the Commissioner and SED at this point is that they
inadvertantly ( I hope) add to the burden of the school leaders across
the state. SED employs top-down management of issues rather than really
involving the leaders in place whom they are now trying to cajole and
coddle and make feel good about themselves. They are puppets to the
legislature which is clearly anti-public education ( witness the
culpable silence of SED on the Charter Schools legislation recently
railroaded through politicians chambers)and anti-administration ( salary
disclosure and caps on defeated budgets) and they lack the common touch
( Carl Hayden is a much more viable embodiment of what public schools
should be about than Rick Mills or Jim Kadamus, and none of them compare
in my mind to Tom Sobol whom we allowed to be ousted by the dispicable
power-hungry man in the Governor's office.) Our own leaders are busy
taking pot-shots at what we do every day instead of rallying the troops
and standing up for what's really best for all of the children of all of
the people. Instead of an environment of teamwork and shared effort, we
have established a hierarchy of haves and have-nots and a focus on the
most problmeatic areas ( the cities) as if they are something that need
outside intervention to fix instead of real empowerment of the people in
the trenches.
I've only been a superintendent for 6 years and a principal for 4 before
that, but I feel much less empowered to make effective change for the
benefit of my local school today than I did when I entered the field.
School superintendents and principals are relegated to one of a number
of constituent groups the commissioner appeals to for advice on issues.
We should be the key lieutentants in this commander's war on illiteracy
and mediocrity. Instead, I too often feel that because we are small in
number compared to the teacher's union, the taxpayer coalitons and the
parent groups, we are the excluded indentured servants who are slapped
in the face with every new decision coming down the pike. I do not feel
supported in my efforts to bring real effective teaching and learning to
the little corner of the universe I get to call my own. Not from Rick
Mills, not from the Board of Regents, not from SED and certainly not
from my legislative representatives. Thank God for my Board! Sometimes
it feels likes its us against everyone else out there.
That sort of hostile environment toward educators, education and
educational leadership ( schoolmen) is something I can tolerate and even
expect from a community at large. I should not have to tolerate it from
the ranks of my own leadership.
Regional scoring is a prime example of the disregard for the opinions of
school superintendents which permeats the current culture in Albany.
The reform to the graduation requirements is another - more of the same
instead of what school leaders called for. Why? Because we are guilty
of running the education department the way Bill Clinton runs the
federal government- by poll and popular demand. Even the examination of
school leadership of which you and this missive are part does not weigh
in heavily enough with a frank discussion from school leaders about the
nature of the problem. Instead we have panels and conventions of all
sorts of people who are not the school leaders! Want to really hear
what the problem is and how to solve it? Hold a special session at the
mid-winter conference of NYSCOSS and get an earful.
If there's one message I would ask you to pass along in your comments it
is the frustration this particular practitioner feels with the internl
rewards of leadership in education in this state. They are woefully
inadequate.
I happen to think I'm a pretty with-it and together kind of guy when it
comes to not being power-hungry or inflated too much in the ego
department. I think I run a damn good little school that supports good
teachers doing good things with kids. I have supervised four
administrative interships to date and have five more people involved in
administrative coursework currently ( out of only 55 teachers in my
little district). I think I show people how much fun it can be to do
things well for teachers and kids. I should not consider my own State
Education department more of an anethema to my efforts than my own
taxpayers, and I do. I think that's a sadder comment than the
demographics of who's availbale to apply for what job. If the Chris
Manaseri's of this world get down on what the tasks of effective school
leaders are and should be, we've got a big problem!
Thanks for asking for my opinion. Bope you can translate it into
something presentable. Would love to talk more with you about the
issue.
Have fun on the panel, Mike!
Chris
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cmurray
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01/05/99
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Charter School Billing
Did you all note the funding provisions outlined in the NYSCOSS material? Charters will PROJECT the number of students from your district and bill you for those every other month. Any errors in their projected numbers will not be corrected until the following year ( if the school is still in operation). When Holly and I start ours, we're going to locate it in unused public space (supported by the bill)within a fifteen mile radius of as many other schools as possible and I'm going to bill each of you in that circumference for at least ten kids. That should net me easily $500,000 for starters. I'll make sure they're all elementary kids, all bright and eager with supportive families and we'll do very well. I'll hire eager young teachers with certification if they have it, but I'll still pay like a parochial school, no one will get tenure, no one will get a salary scale that will cost me money eventually, and I'll live with high turnover in exchange for the vitality of a near "voluntary" workforce. And if there aren't ten kids from your District that end up in The Manaseri School, I'll give you your money back by Christmas of year two - without the interest I've earned on it of course. Sounds like a plan to me.
My Board President asked an interesting question last night. If we were to convert to a Charter ( that can't tax), who does the local revenue piece? Do we keep a BOE in place for RCS for tax purposes only and then establish a separate board of directors not elected by the people to run the program and send the BOE the bill? I'll be interested to see how that piece works, too.
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cmurray
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12/23/98
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NYSCOSS Stance
Below are exerpts from the online NYCOSS service about this issue. We all have copies of the full text of the bill through Bob Oaks's office if we are in his district. Anybody else need it?
CHARTER DEAL INKED
Bill passes in middle of night
The legislature returned to Albany Thursday to enact a new piece of
charter school legislation. The action was taken presumably in time to
permit the Governor to sign the pay raise legislation by Monday. Working
into the wee hours of the morning, the Senate and the Assembly each
passed a new charter school bill which would provide for the following:
Governance
- Total of 100 new schools, 50 by (Republican controlled) SUNY and 50 by
the (Assembly controlled) Regents or local boards of educa-tion. The
Regents would have sign off pow-ers on local school plans, but can only
comment on SUNY plans. There is no limit on the number of public schools
which could convert to charter status (but such conversion would be
subject to a form of local referen-dum);
- Charter schools would operate on a renew-able 5 year charter;
- The schools must serve at least 50 students with at least 3 teachers;
- Charter schools would be subject to Freedom of Information and Open
Meetings Laws;
Teachers
- Schools with average daily attendance of more than 250 pupils would be
required to unionize and must be represented by the same organization
(NYSUT or NEA) as the district in which they are formed. They would
receive retirement benefits like regular school teachers and be subject
to the Civil Service Law.;
- No more than 5 teachers (or 30% whichever is less) of the teachers may
be uncertified;
- Student attendance would be determined by lottery. Only students
living in the district or previously attending the school (or their
sib-lings) could have preferential treatment;
Financing
- Charter schools would receive the approved operating expense
associated with the district of residence of every student who attends
the charter school;
- Districts would be required to make the payments in 6 equal
installments beginning in July or risk having the amount deducted from
state aid;
- The charter school would estimate the num-ber of students expected for
purposes of de-termining this amount, any reconciliation would not take
place until a year later;
- Charter schools would be tax-free entities and would be empowered to
issue bonds and other debt without voter approval;
Accountability
- Charter schools would be required to hold students to at least the
same graduation re-quirements as regular public schools;
- They would also have to meet all health and safety requirements, civil
rights laws, and student assessment requirements required of other
regular public schools.
ANALYSIS
Albany has become less of a city where weighty policies are debated
and decided on their own merits and more of a bazaar where rug merchants
haggle price and barter their wares. Last year, when the Senate,
Assembly, and Governor couldn’t agree on whether they could afford the
STAR and LADDER programs and tax cuts (respectively), they simply agreed
to a 3 way swap and enacted them all. This cynicism has reached a new
level in this special session of the Legislature. After trying several
possible combinations of trades (Pay raises for charter schools, Pay
raises for charter schools, school discipline and principal tenure) the
Legislature and Governor finally hit on a winning combination: the
Governor will sign the pay raise bill passed by the Legislature last
week and in return, the Legislature has passed the Northeast Dairy
Compact, some modest budget process reforms, and charter school
legislation.
While the charter school bill meets many of the tests we outlined
in our Policy Report (on the web at www.nyscoss.org), it still contains
may flaws which render objectionable the package as a whole. Probably
the worst feature is the financing mechanism devised by the Legislature.
Funding Issue
Charter schools estimate the number of pupils expected from each
surrounding district, and receive both the state aid and local levy
associated with each pupil (calculated as Approved Operating Expense) in
their dis-trict of residence. If the charter school overestimates its
enrollment the reconciliation isn’t performed until the next school
year.
Worse is the realization that this will simply be an erosion of
resources in the public school. The marginal cost of each additional
student is essential nothing. Another chair is added to a class, the
student already lives on a bus route and the building is heated and lit
anyway. By the same token, the marginal savings from the elimination of
a few students is also negligible. Removing a portion of a school
district’s revenue without a corresponding drop in expenditures will
mean that the difference will have to be made up somewhere.
As a result, we see this charter school legislation as having one
of two possible effects: either it will result in higher local property
taxes as districts backfill revenue holes created by the charter
schools, or it will result in degradation of the program of the district
as it struggles to make due with fewer resources.
Either scenario is unacceptable.
The New York State Council of School Superintendents, while not
opposed to the concept of charter schools generally, finds that this
legislation will have a detrimental effect on public school districts,
particularly in poor, rural and urban areas, and therefore cannot be
supported.
Furthermore, we take exception to the manner in which legislation
with such broad implications was rushed to a vote in the waning moments
of the year by a lame duck Legislature intent on ensuring their own pay
raises.
NYSCOSS will work in the upcoming session to enact changes to this
legislation which will render charter schools funding neutral to the
local school district. In this way, the charter school itself can thrive
or die on its own merits with less impact on the public school districts
nearby.
--
Thomas Rogers
Associate Director
New York State Council of School Superintendents
518-449-1063
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cmurray
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12/21/98
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Charter Update - New
Below are two messages received on my SU listserv regarding Charter Schools ( these people are advocates). This in combination with my conversation with Bob Oaks yesterday leads me to believe Steve was right on all along the way on this one.
Info on Saturday conference at SU might be of interest to folks. Wasn't it Don Corleone who advised keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Wonder what Sunday's NYTimes will have on this one...
Subject:
Charter Schools & NYS
Date:
Fri, 18 Dec 1998 07:50:09 -0500
From:
Jude Hollins
Reply-To:
CFEGRAD@sued.syr.edu
To:
"CFE Graduate Student List"
well.
Two things. NYS officially will have charter legislation. I expect a
moderate news frenzy, in the shadows of impeachment and iraq.
The law is rather odd, as far as the range of charter laws across the
states go. NY is the 34th state to pass legislation. It was only barely
bi-partisan, and was tied to this whole pay raise fiasco. If folks are
interested, I can pass on another note about the specifics of the
legislation. The bare bones is this:
An umlimited number of existing public schools can turn themselves into
"charter public schools."
The Board of Regents and the SUNY Board can each sponsor up to 50 new
"charter public schools."
A share of the 100 million set aside by the US Congress can come to NYS to
help schools get started.
Anyway, there is a conference coming up (Feb.) on charter schools, here at
Syracuse University. There is also another one at Bank Street College down
in NYC, in January.
Here is the post about the SU conference, from the national listserv. I
think quality dialog is absolutely critical, given the stakes and
complexity of the politics. I hope folks will pass this on and consider
participating.Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 12:29:21 -0500
Sender: Charter Schools List
From: "Anne L. Foley"
Subject: NYS Charter Conference
To: CHARTERSCHOOLS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
FYI - There is a statewide charter schools conference planned for NY -
Charters Schools: A Networking Conference, sponsored by Charter Schools
Network of Upstate New York and The Study Council at Syracuse University.
The conference will take place on Saturday, Feb. 6 from 9:00 - 1:30
and will be held at Goldstein Student Center, Syracuse NY. There is a
$5.00 registration fee. Registration information is at the end of this
message.
Briefly the purpose of the conference is "to bring together stakeholders
in educaiton to share, learn, and dialogue about charter schools and their
impact on New York State education." We have gathered together
speakers who will be able to offer workshops on defining the role of the
sponsoring agencies, educational facilities planning, union perspectives,
NYS charter legislation, New York dreaming - visions of what a school could
be, and a proposed charter school - a model application. The conference is
designed for educators, parents, students, community leaders. We are also
having two founders of a performing arts charter school from MA come to
talk about how their operations. There will be a panel discussion about
charter schools issues with participants from the teachers unions, the
Center for Education Reform, local city school board, Charter Schools
Resource Center, Charter School Research Project.
To register send your $5.00 check to: The Study Council at Syracuse
University, 250 Huntington Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY
13244-2340.
Please include the following information with your registation check or
fax it to 10315-443-5845:
Name, Home Address, School district, Phone and Fax number.
Registration deadline is February 4, 1999.
Any questions please call : 1-315-443-5836.
Hope to see many of you there. Anne Foley
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cmurray
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12/18/98
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GO!
If you want to catch the Assembly doing the dirty deed on Charter Schools you'd better get to Albany this afternoon. Bob Oaks and I just spoke and he's on his way there. I re-expressed my concern over the financial implications of a Charter starting up in nearby Geneva ( where at least ONE Board member thinks they're a good idea)and the uncontrolled and relatively large expenditure impact that could have for a place like Romulus, along with anybody else within a 15 mile radius of Geneva (or anyplace else). Bob said as of Tuesday he thought the issue was dead until the regular session, but that has changed in the last two days. He's not sure what the leadership has to say to them, but they're going to be saying it this afternoon!
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cmurray
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12/17/98
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Charter Fieldtrip
Steve- Don't jump in the car just yet. I called Oaks's office in Albany and he's not there. He's in Lyons and I'm waiting for his call back. My sense is, though, that expressing our feedback on this issue is a little like calling your congressman about the American public's feeling on presidential impeachment. We may get what they think we deserve whether we want it or not. I'll let you and anybody else who reads this know what Bob's take on the matter is.
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cmurray
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12/15/98
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Mea Culpa
I made the mistake of taking literally what I read on page 2 of the November Issue of the NYSCOSS Councilgram with regard to regional scoring of the ELA. The Councilgram says that they succeeded in lobbying Jim Kadamus to reducing the trial period to ONE year instead of two. Today I got my Exec Bulletin and saw two still. I called Bob Loretan at NYSCOSS and he said the Councilgram is in error. Despite their lobbying, the regional scoring WILL be for a two year period. Bob is going to try to get word of this correction out to everyone. Sorry to have jumped the gun on this at our last CSO. I should have called NYSCOSS first, before spreading the rumor of what they had put in print.
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cmurray
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12/15/98
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EduTech Budget
Glad to do so. My sense is that you are still uncomfortable with it, though. True?
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cmurray
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12/14/98
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Charter Chatter II
We've added a folder to our Docushare collection available to the general public (and to you) about the topic of Charter Schools. You can find our epiphanies at www.rcs.k12.ny.us. Hit "current Romulus Information" and go to the General Information collection.
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cmurray
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12/10/98
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Charter Chatter
Check out the December issue of Kappan for an excellent article reviewing five years of Charter School experience in California ( the state with the second largest number of Charters in the nation). Findings are thorough and certainly not fully endorsing. Author is Amy Stuart Wells of UCLA, pages 305-312.
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cmurray
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12/08/98
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Lightspan
We just had a demo of the Lightspan SONY Playstation product. Anybody out there looking at this as well? I understand Waterloo, PennYan, Geneva and maybe Canandaigua are using currently and/or considering. What are the comments you folks have? Where's it best applied? What are the successes you're seeing? Who are the right people in your Districts to talk with? Look forward to any feedback...
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cmurray
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12/03/98
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Who ARE those guys?
Remember Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
Are the guys in Albany that just voted themselves a 38% cost of living increase the same ones that passed legislation limiting DS salaries and the administrative portion of defeated school budgets? Maybe it's all part of a ( need I say right-wing conservative) plot to really discourage those of us who do give a damn. Once we tack the bill for charter school kids onto our budgets we may well be facing those administrative portion limits!
I'm not sure, Steve, that our legislators care...they don't act like they do.
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cmurray
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12/03/98
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RIC Charter
I just visited the Regional Instructional Council collection on Docushare and found the charge we gave them. This might be worthy of review and assessment. Possible topic for CSO agenda as we finish shuffling the deck at least for now with BOCES personnel?
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cmurray
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11/30/98
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Charter School 4CSBA Meeting
Thanks, Steve, for a wonderful job of presenting the issues in a nutshell last night, AND for orchestrating the meeting to begin with. Your leadership at a regional level is something we all enjoy as your peers. I hope something comes of the opportunity to at least throw ourselves on the track of the runaway train.
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cmurray
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11/24/98
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Athletic League Decisions
At the WFL Athletic League Meeting on Monday, our AD's approved the entry of Wayne into the Finger Lakes League with only two decenting votes ( Romulus and South Seneca) and one abstention ( Red Jacket). Apparently not the way some of us anticipated our AD's would vote. I would like to beg the question once again of who runs the schools in the region? If we are supposed to see the big picture, how can we ignore the best interests of ALL of the children by only allowing this issue to be addressed piecemeal? We recognized a need last year to address the athletic league reallignment as a whole region, we voted in favor of a hard-hammered proposal, and then we let our subordinates choose differently. That's not regional leadership, that's not what's in the best interest of kids rather than adults, and that's not anybody's fault but our own. I'd like to see us re-examine this issue at our table.
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cmurray
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11/04/98
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Leadership Conference
Kudos to Steve Uebbing and George Kiley on the excellent job they both did in planning and speaking at Friday's Leadership Forum in Rochester! Wonder what will come of the chance to advise the Commissioner on ways to improve that applicant pool...
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cmurray
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10/19/98
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Rochester Regional Meeting
Fingerlakes Supes - what's the scoop on the conflict with the Commissioner's regional meeting next Friday? Are we rescheduled or is nobody going to Rochester?
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cmurray
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10/09/98
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Getting Help After Hours
Thanks goodness for electronic media! Questions about using DocuShare can also be sent via e-mail to: skeddy@edutech.org. Please include:- Name and version of the browser you use (to find out version, go to the Help menu in the browser and select About...)
- Do you use AOL or LAKENET?
- What are you trying to do?
- What is the message you are getting?
Response (and instructions) will be sent the next working day via e-mail.
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csnelson
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10/01/98
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CSO Meeting
Thanks, Chuck, for taking the lead in the first CSO meeting with the new format. I thought you did a wonderful job! And, Joe, thanks for paying such close attention to the timetable and the expressed needs of the group. Round table went especially well with many of us actually choosing to particpate! We may get these meeting right yet.
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cmurray
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09/28/98
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Staff Training on Docushare
Our opening of school training for teachers included training in Docushare for all of our teachers. Lori Leenay did a great job along with her staff. We also had our own Ann Kaminski- on loan to BOCES for the year, show everyone the staff development online for the ELA assessments. Our teachers were required to post a document to the K-12 Curriculum at a Glance folder which you all have access to. I thought this might make a nice format for us to use to encourage teacher sharing of lesson plans, best practices, and even bulletin board items for communication about the curricular changes upon us. Please check it out or ask your RIC rep to do so. With the Title III grant moneys 10 of us are sharing which are supposed to be used to encourage technology as a means of raising the bar regionally, this might be one avenue to persue. Anybody out there?
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cmurray
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09/05/98
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Lonely at the top - or on the fringe....
My sense is that bulletin boards are not really chat rooms, but that until we start to use the tools we have, we'll never learn the game ( like those clubs that sit in the garage more than on the back of a cart). Since it's a game we think we want our teachers and kids to use, we should be modeling more. Go ahead, Steve - I dare you to send the Fingelakes Group's calendar for the year and agenda via docushare. Maybe we could set up a listserve on email or a user group to let ourselves know when to check for new documents. And, Joe, how 'bout that CSO calendar and revised agenda format?
By the way, I type all my own stuff anymore... Once you do, it's easy to post and save anywhere, even here.
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cmurray
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08/28/98
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Looking for users
Is anybody out there ever looking at this? The technology exists for us to be communicating agendas, etc. but are we going to use it? Thought I'd test the waters....
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cmurray
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08/14/98
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Romulus Looking for Help
As part of our summer curriculum work we are creating a Docushare file for all of our teachers wherein they may post activities which relate to the standards. Check us out and see if this might be a format which more of us might like to use to allow people to share model lessons around the program networks scenario. Email me @ CManaseri@wfmail.rcs.k12.ny.us with any feedback you might have. Thanks.
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cmurray
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07/14/98
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W-FL BOCES 
