Today, we are focused on the Democratic Primary, the outcome of which will have significant consequences for the City of Hudson. Tomorrow, something else of significant import may happen.
Tomorrow night, there is a Hudson City School District Board of Education meeting--the last meeting of the 2024-2025 board. Gossips has learned that the board may, at this meeting, consider extending Superintendent Juliette Pennyman's contract, before the two recently elected new board members--Diana Howard and Maureen Sheridan, both retired HCSD teachers--take their place on the board.
Tomorrow's Board of Education meeting will take place at 6:00 p.m. in the Hudson High School library.
Here's more news about our school district. Earlier this month, it was announced that the Hudson City School District had received an award from the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) for its monthly newsletter. The announcement can be found here. In the announcement Pennyman is quoted as saying, "We are incredibly honored to be recognized by NSPRA for our team's efforts in creating a transparent, engaging, and high-quality communication for our families, staff, and community. I want to thank our team for their creativity and dedication to telling the stories that make our schools special."
According to a Gossips source, HCSD pays a Brooklyn-based public relations firm about $10,000 a month to help create the newsletter. It's not clear who comprises the "community" Pennyman mentions, but I can say with some certainty that I, a school tax paying resident in the Hudson City School District for three decades, albeit never the parent of a student in the district, have never seen it.
COPYRIGHT 2025 CAROLE OSTERINK
The newsletter comes out once a year, I believe, right before the annual budget vote. This school board is a piece of work alright.
ReplyDeleteWhich is weird, because a lot of school districts use a similar template before the budget vote. I saw the same posted online from Germantown and Taconic Hills… with that whole matrix about how it will only cost you a little bit a month if your home is assessed at $200K
DeleteNo, no. It's a monthly -- and pretty hefty, well-done publication. (See here:https://www.hudsoncsd.org/?s=newsletter). Our non-profit (School Life News) based our literacy event last November on a story titled "Hudson City School District Presentation Outlines Numerous Areas Where Scholastic
DeleteImprovement is Needed" "buried" on page 21 of the October newsletter (https://www.hudsoncsd.org/2024/10/28/october-2024-hudson-city-school-district-newsletter/) . --peter meyer
The fact that it is now Thursday night, a full 24 hours after the board meeting that Gossips predicted would extend the contract of the current HCSD Superintendent -- and we don't know what happened -- is testament to this community's dysfunction. --peter meyer
DeleteBut if I recall doesn't report the shocking amount spent per student multiplied by 12- a number likely multiple times more than most graduates of the Hudson School district will ever expect to earn in a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteThe general consensus is that it would be highly inappropriate for outgoing BOE members to cast a vote to extend Dr. Pennyman's contract. The voters elected new Board members in May because they wanted change, and the change primarily sought starts right at the top. Further, the BOE meeting was scheduled (and has been all year) for last night. While I understand it was hot and after school activities were cancelled yesterday, tonight's potentially very important - and now at the last minute rescheduled - BOE meeting conflicts with this year's baccalaureate ceremony, taking place at St. Mary's Church at 6pm. This is an incredibly important night for graduating seniors and their families, and a ceremony that one would expect both the Superintendent and available/interested BOE members to attend. The BOE meeting could've easily been rescheduled to Thursday night when there are no conflicting activities for graduating seniors. The message that is being sent is twofold: The BOE isn't concerned about what parents or family members of graduating seniors think about the critical decision of whether to extend the Superintendent's contract (remember, some of us have younger students in the district as well), and neither the BOE nor Superintendent are prioritizing honoring the district's graduating seniors by attending the baccalaureate ceremony (odd given the graduation rate -- these students should be celebrated!).
ReplyDeleteDoes the HCSD have an advanced program that confers a baccalaureate diploma on its graduates?! That seems mighty contraindicated by the district's results generally and Pennyman's insistence to do away with advanced programs generally. Very interested to learn what's what in this regard, Tiffany, if you can shed light
DeleteJKF, HHS' baccalaureate - as far as I know - is not tied to specific awards, scholarships, or honors achievements. We had awards ceremonies already (general on the 11th, music on the 12th). This is simply a nondenominational ceremony honoring the graduates in a more intimate setting leading up to Friday's graduation.
DeleteJohn, the district's academic core has been eviscerated with inattention: tens of thousands of dollars going to non-academic programs (e.g. the PR budget! countless programs devoted to DEI (trying to put diversity, equity and inclusion together is like squaring a circle), and a "disciplinary" crumbling (both the academic kind and the behavioral kind) that makes it possible for this outlaw anti-intellectual brigade to kick the largest children's book festival in the state off its campus. It would be a disgrace to this community if the community bothered to care about its children. What should be a scandal is a yawn. --peter meyer
DeleteI stand corrected: last night’s BOE meeting was postponed to tonight to allow admin and the BOE to attend the 8th grade moving up ceremony. This is wonderful for the class of 2029 - a milestone - congrats to all of them! Nonetheless, rescheduling the BOE meeting to occur tonight at the same time as the baccalaureate ceremony instead of to tomorrow night (for the reasons I mentioned in my prior comment) comes across as both disrespectful to this year’s graduating seniors and intentional in that it prevents meeting attendance by parents/family member of those seniors.
ReplyDelete