A Call for School Board Members
Last week, Gossips shared the news that there will be two openings on the Hudson City School District Board of Education and the process of securing signatures on petitions to get on the ballot has begun. A hundred signatures are required, and petition forms must be requested from BOE clerk Leslie Coons, who can be contacted by phone--518 828-4360, ext. 2100--or by email. The petitions need to be submitted by Thursday, April 30, 2020, at 4:00 p.m.
Today, Gossips shares some information about the Hudson City School District, brought to my attention by a reader, which may or may not motivate people to want to get involved in the governance of our school district. The following information appears on SchoolDigger.
Interesting takeaways are that, among the 820 school districts in New York State, HCSD ranks 736th. Also, the $49.8 million budget for 2019-2020 is educating 1,751 students.
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At least the performance levels have been increasing the past three years. But an average spending of over $27k per student, per year seems high.
ReplyDeleteFlatline performance. I would like to see a graph for the teachers salary.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to know how much of that budget is spent on pension obligations and bond payments. I've heard it's a significant portion of the pie, though that is unconfirmed, so your readers should take my musing with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteI hope whoever decides to run commits themselves to learning the complexities and challenges inherent to public education, so we might achieve the best possible outcome for the students.
If the Hudson School District leadership had told the public in its glorious "2020 Vision" launched in 2015 that it was going to lower test scores for 5 years and create an academic disaster for its students it would have scored in the top ten in the State. The leadership has hidden this mess by avoiding extensive public interaction about this unforgivable failure and by focusing the public's attention on bright shiny objects like a tiny baseball field on historic grounds or an Olympic style athletic facility. All while taxes rise and enrollment declines. See the shiny objects and ignore the fact that the system is totally failing good kids. And failing good teachers. Where are the priorities here? And where is public outrage? Red Hook School District just down the road from us ranks 197 in the State. Chatham 409. Maple Hill, part of the Patroon Conference 240. (Quick, pack your bags and leave, that is what many are doing!) When a school district like Hudson falls to an embarrassing lowly rank of 736 out of 820 districts in the State it is the equivalent of saying it has fallen off an academic cliff. Heads should roll. If Hudson is to remain a vibrant place, a destination for thinkers and creators of all kinds who love this place, as well as a home for long time Hudsonians who too love this place ....it cannot have a school system that is underserving our future citizens and leaders and thinkers and business people. What chance will these kids have unless we change this entire setup and its leadership NOW?
ReplyDelete736, keep that number in your minds as you see the District send you another $50 million dollar budget bill for you to approve on May 19. .736. It should be the cry of a revolution. The 736 Revolution. The problem is that there is no oversight of that Board or Administration. The teachers I have met are vibrant and committed. Meanwhile at the top, failure and disorder have become acceptable and well funded - by us .So they don't want anyone to rock the boat. It's time to put our collective feet down for the good of our kids' futures and for the future of this area and to tip that boat over. Speak up. Vote NO on the Pentagon-sized budget coming to a voting booth near you on May 19. Seize this opportunity and demand a public hearing, attended by city leaders AND THE NEW MAYOR; demand an explanation of why we are getting massive tax bills that have no correlation with results for our kids, our community and our civic pride. This is failure of monumental proportions. Don't give them the $50 million more they want without change of leadership and an immediate explanation of what is actually going on inside those school buildings and some kind of justification of focusing all of the District's priorities on lavish real estate development projects built on borrowed monies.
As for John Kane, you can find SOME of your spending answers inside the cryptic budget created by the District that is on the website. Take a look. It's all about moving numbers around so take some dramamine before you read it. But John I would suggest we leave the teachers out of this initial debate. The pensions aren't going away. And the teachers are working their butts off. Bond payments are another matter and I suggest you take a few laps around that Olympic field or watch them destroy that old historic cinder track while installing major league-like dugouts at $30,000, yes, $30,000 per piece ( and they bought at least 6) and you can see why the debt payments for shiny objects are going to break the piggy banks of many Hudson district taxpayers who struggle to pay just about any tax bill these days. And keep in mind that the biggest tax bill anyone in this area will pay every year will be for the School District's Pentagon style budget. I hope some form of city outrage begins to develop; and civic leaders step in and ask "what is going on here?" Vote NO, Vote NO, and send a clear message and demand an explanation.
Very well written. Have you considered submitting it to the Register Star for publishing?
DeleteNot sure where School Digger gets it's info, but according to State Ed there are only 732 school districts in the state. https://data.nysed.gov/
ReplyDeleteThe issue does not appear to be the number of school districts but where the HCSD ranks among them. Ken did a very nice job in putting forth that facts as they are within the district.
ReplyDelete