According to the information provided on the HCSD website, committee members must:
- Possess the requisite knowledge necessary to advise the Board about school policy and procedures.
- Willingness to learn about school law.
- Have the ability to work as a group and build consensus.
- Commitment to the well-being of the overall school community.
- A genuine desire to learn about and help shape school policies that positively impact student achievement and well-being for ALL students.
- Be willing and able to attend monthly meetings and complete 4-5 hours of work between meetings.
- Why are you interested in serving on the policy committee?
- What skills do you bring to the committee?
- Do you anticipate any problems committing to a year of meetings and additional work between meetings?
In theory, this is a wonderful opportunity for public input into an important piece of school district behavior. In practice, it is more of the same dysfunction: it does not say which school board this request is coming from: the new one or the old one. It does not tell us whether this is a new committee or an old committee, a new practice or an old one. In theory, the school board just swore in two new members of the board. Did the new members participate in this solicitation for public participation? C'mon guys, are you going to improve our district's dismal education outcomes or will it be more of the same? --peter meyer
ReplyDeleteTo follow up on the dysfunction problem: it is lonely out here, caring about our schools; rather, caring about the kids not getting a good education. This is a community problem; we should be ashamed. --pm
ReplyDeleteHello! Hello! Is anyone out there? We are spending $56+ million to educate 1600 kids, PK--12. About $35k per kid. But wait, only about 30% of the kids read at grade level.... So, in fact, we're spending $35k per kid to NOT educate them. Does no one care about our kids, the massive waste of taxpayer money? --pm
ReplyDeletePete, I was wondering about this committee when I received emails asking for submission of letters of interest. Last year, there was a code of conduct (I assume part of a broader policy committee) comprised of only BOE members. When I asked about it after being told by a now gone administrator at the end of the prior school year she was recommending me for the CoC Committee, I was eventually informed that the committee was in place and the public was welcome to “observe” meetings. I then asked if this meant the community members attending meetings would have the chance to speak to provide real-time input, and the question went unanswered.
DeleteI did, however, participate in yesterday’s DCIP Committee meeting. HCSD’s DCIP was due to NYSED 7/1, but has gotten an extension until late August. Much of the DCIP was already completed, giving me the impression that my attendance was purely so the district could check the community input box as required. It felt like the standard DCIP (you and I have both been through this). The district won’t set lofty, solid targets for fear of not meeting them, and instead are looking to make minimally incremental change. When I asked about our starting point — e.g. what percentage of parents are completing the parental survey — no one knew. I walked out with more questions than answers and the knowledge that the DCIP will go to NYSED almost entirety as it sits in “draft” now.
One thing that was brought up was to monitor each student’s performance so those in need of extra supports and encouragement make it across the finish line. I was scratching my head, wondering if former HSHS Principal Tiney Abitabile’s spreadsheet tracking and color/coding the performance of each high school student — something he practically looked at daily, and that brought the school to its highest graduation rate in many years — had been completely forgotten. I feel like we continue to reinvent the wheel (an often broken one) on the backs of the taxpayers due to a revolving door in administration.
Tiffany, what's DCIP?
ReplyDeleteDistrict Comprehensive Improvement Plan
DeleteDo you have a link for such a document and/or committee? And I got another invitation to join the Student Success Strategy Committee, with all of six hours of meetings between August 13 and next May.
ReplyDeleteScheduled dates for meetings are as follows:
August 13, 2025 from 6 - 8 p.m.
October 22, 2025 from 6 - 8 p.m.
May 6, 2026 from 6 - 8 p.m.
Tiffany, is there any sign of life in the so-called "new" board? Looks like more of the same.
It's very depressing when one is an education journalist (for nearly 20 years) and can't get anyone's attention about the dismal state of the education system in the town he lives and pays taxes in. But hey, I've been trying to be discreet about it ever since walking my 6-year-old to school at John L. Edwards public school some 25 years ago. I joined the PTA, helped my son do homework, attended every Parent-Teacher Conference, music events, sports events, and even served on the Board of Education for 5 years. While there, I helped create a Curriculum Committee of the board, then oversaw a special committee (with 15 different parents, teachers and plain-ol-taxpayers) to study the district's academic problems, which met for dozens of hours over a six-week period and produced a 25-page report with 50-some recommendations. ... The point is that this new committee is the definition of insanity: same-ol same-ol expecting different results... More importantly, however, and this is call burying the lead, I have it on good authority that the newly elected school board has nothing to do with this new Student Success Strategy committee. And so my question to this supposedly new board is, Why Not? --peter meyer
ReplyDeleteI must point out that my son -- after 12 years at HCSD -- graduated from one of the best universities in the country. How did that happen? 1) Hudson has some great teachers, 2) My wife and I knew what a good education was and made sure he got it. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen of the taxpayer class, the only thing HCSD is missing is a good curriculum (written, taught, and tested) and discipline (the environment that allows it to be taught. Actually, that's the easy part. There are plenty of schools with Hudson's demographics (poverty and race) that do just fine; "what works" is no mystery. What Hudson lacks are leaders (a board and the administrators it hires) who care to find what works and dare to implement it. --smarty pants pete
ReplyDelete