The Hudson City School District website now has a page devoted to the Superintendent Search.
- Parents and guardians
- Students
- Teachers and staff
- Community members
- Local partners and organizations
The survey can be found here. Readers who live in the Hudson City School District, especially those who are property owners and taxpayers, are encouraged to complete it.
What I don't understand is what the Board thinks its job is. America created public school in the 19th century so parents didn't have to teach children. And for a hundred or so years we did a pretty good job. We created schools of education to train teachers and administrators. We pay lots of taxes to hire and pay professional educators. As a New York City Public School administrator told me: you don't get good schools with parent involvement; you get parent involved from good schools. C'mon BOE: get educated about good schools! They are all around you! Read a few books; there are thousands of good ones.
ReplyDeleteIn Hudson only about 24% of students are proficient in Math and 33% in Reading/ELA.
DeleteNew York State averages are typically closer to 50–55%.
Charter equivalent high schools in Africa that spend 1/50th per student, with classroom ratios of 40:1, do better.
For the same amount of spending per student Hudson students could enroll in fancy New England prep schools or commute to Botswana (2 - 4 trips home per year) and they would have better College placement outcomes and lifetime earnings.
It would also be warmer.
I took the survey. It's ok as far as it goes but lacks any ability to leave a comment. Lots of ranking choices and limited means/goals questions going forward. It's pretty much a sop to a thought about the idea of the concept of "community input."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure if I asked 10 neighbors on the street what their expectations are for the HCSD viz. our community's children, 9 would comment something along the lines of "teach them to read, do math and think." Why is that so bloody hard for this school district when it is operating with what is essentially a bottomless well of money?
John, unfortunately, there is a lot of mishegos masquerading as curriculum and I'm not sure our BOE knows the difference. This is why I asked them what they learned in hiring Ms Pennyman, a champion of mishegos. Believe it or not, a lot of our "educators" don't believe in reading writing and 'rithmetic, much less the work needed to learn such useful skills. As you point out, the BOE needs to spell out its expectations and how to achieve them.
Delete- HCSD Employees: ~600
ReplyDelete- HCSD Students: ~1500
- Staff-to-Student Ratio: 1 adult to 2.5 students.
- Total Cost Per Student: ~$40,000
(Total budget approaching $60m per year)
~
Local progressives are masters of the cause du jour, always ready with a window sign, substack story, or a protest against a distant federal agency that impacts Albany more than Hudson. Yet they remain curiously silent about the colossal waste and the "lifetime of lower earning potential" they are handing to Hudson’s graduates, who often have no choice but HCSD.
A 20-30% tax cut isn't a radical demand, it's rational, a restoration of sanity. Maintaining the status quo is a moral failure, and we are all coerced participants.
It’s the difference between a family being able to afford their mortgage and being taxed out of their own home to fund a failing status quo.
Obviously there are some NY state "mandates" driving up costs... and the student to teacher (not including staff) ratio is a private school bougie level 12:1 (without the private school results or discipline).
The math doesn't lie: HCSD and the Hudson Youth Center have undergone a total institutional flip. They are no longer student-centered services; they are taxpayer-funded employment programs where the children are the after-thought.