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Meghan E. Murphy at the Times Herald-Record reports on September 17 that "Newburgh School District comes in under budget on bond".

At the completion of a three-year, $50 million facilities improvement bond, the Newburgh School District reported coming in about $3.1 million under budget.

A report by Armlin, Damon & McMordie said that all of the 20 projects in the bond approved in 2005 came in at or under budget. The remaining funds can be spent on extra items already approved during the project-planning process.

An additional $1.5 million is also being held in reserve for potential renovations at the Chestnut Street School.

$3 million is certainly a tidy amount to have left over for those little "extra items".

On September 5, Governor Paterson vetoed a bill that would have improved the access of the public to documents used by participants at open meetings.

There is a nice summary of this situation at the the Legislative Gazette:

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"My bill would have dramatically improved access to government information and built on my ongoing efforts to open up New York state government. I believe that we are missing out on an opportunity to help make our government more transparent and accountable to New Yorkers," said bill sponsor Sen. John A. DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse.

The bill (S.7042/A.5943), which was sponsored in the Assembly by Margaret M. Markey, D-Maspeth, would have guaranteed that records considered to be the subject of discussion at open meetings be accessible to the public three days prior to the meetings or "to the extent practicable."

"Far too often a public body covered by the Open Meetings Law will hold a discussion of a document that the public has had little or no access to prior to the meeting. This inhibits the public from being able to ask informed questions and to fully understand the document being discussed. My bill would have corrected that problem," said DeFrancisco.

...

By vetoing this bill, Governor Paterson is sending a clear message that he does not want members of the public to be particularly well informed about the activies in which our elected government engages. Because of his hostility toward open government, Mr. Paterson ought not be governor.

NFA, GAMS and North Junior were all put into "lockdown" around 2:30pm on Thursday, Setember 18, because of a fight and subsequent gunfire across the street form NFA. Two people ended up in St Luke's with stab wounds.

• District Statement
• TH Record: 2 NFA students stabbed during after-school fight
• Poughkeepsie Journal coverage
• TH Record: NFA back to normal; police have few leads
• TH Record: Suspect, 15, arrested in NFA fight

Available from the Newburgh School District web site is a calendar for the 2008-2009 school year.

September 4 is Student's First Day of School. We hope the student has a good first day.

On May 15 of 2007 the following propostion was voted upon as part of the annual Newburgh School District Board of Education election, and budget vote:

Proposition III -- Student Transportation Limits:

Shall the Newburgh Enlarged City School District change the current transportation limits of 0.9 for students in grades K-6 and 1.0 mile for students in grades 7-12, and provide transportation to all students in grades K-12 to the school they legally attend, up to 18 miles, effective the 2007-2008 school year, at an additional cost of $1,015,632 for the 2007-2008 school year?

The voting results indicate 1,009 votes in favor and 1,299 votes against this proposition.

This proposition was poorly written and deceptive.

The proposition has two main points, that current transportation limits be changed and that transportation be provided to all. The proposition does not explain whether the transportation limits are to be increased or decreased or by how much; it merely states that they are to be changed. The proposition does not explain whether the "up to 18 miles" limit is a change or not.

The proposition is deceptive in this way--suppose that you are completely happy with the school transportation arrangements in effect during the prior school year and you don't want to see anything changed. Which way do you vote? You would expect that voting against the proposition to "change the current transportation limits" would be a vote to keep things as they are, but that is not the case.

The proposition failed to make clear that in prior years, the district was already providing transportation to students residing closer to school than the minimum distance. The "additional cost" was already being paid in prior years.

In summary, the proposition asked the public to vote about a change. However, neither the current situation nor the nature of the change were specified. The proposition included the current minimum transport distance, which was not being enforced, and it included a proposed maximum transport distance. No explanation of how or which of these limits was to be changed was given.

Why does this matter?

According the this June 2008 press release this school year the minimum distance will be enforced for students in the City of Newburgh. Letters are apparently in the mail to affected families in the City of Newburgh. September 4 is the first day of school.

Here is a book that we definitely do not want students in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District to be reading:

The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing by Alfie Kohn.

A compelling exposé of homework -- how it fails our children, why it's so widely accepted, and what we can do about it.

In an interview, Mr Kohn explains:

What advice would you give a school leader regarding homework?

Take seriously all the lovely rhetoric we repeat about the need to do what's best for kids. Be willing to question the conventional wisdom, challenge traditional practices, and take some flack for doing so. Be guided by what the research says, not by pressures from people who know less about learning than you do. Ask yourself whether what families do in the evenings should be decided by families or by schools. Ask yourself whether there's any reason to believe that kids who rarely get homework-who don't have to work what is, in effect, a second shift after school is over-will be at any disadvantage in terms of their intellectual development. And above all, help teachers and parents to remain focused on the overriding question: How does homework affect kids' interest in learning, their desire to read and think? If the effect isn't positive, we should have doubts about assigning it. If the effect is actually negative, then the obligation to question the way things have always been done is even more urgent.

Does the homework that your children are assigned make them think?
Is it having a positive effect?

At the June 24, 2008 Board of Education meeting a petition, "signed by the parents, teachers and friends of the Balmville Elementary School regarding the lack of parking and safety issues at the school", was presented to the Board; a recent accident involving a student was mentioned; and at least five members of the public spoke to the issue.

In a Times Herald-Record article published in January of 2000:

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The district also would like to close off a small road adjacent to the Balmville Elementary School. Some residents want the road closed to avoid future accidents. The state Department of Transportation, as well as the Town of Newburgh, would have to approve closing the road.

In a letter to Wilson from Balmville Principal Grace Cardone, she stated that several accidents have occurred near the school. Twenty years ago, a car came through the front of the building, injuring several people. A decade ago, a car crashed through the fence in front of the school. And just last year, a car crashed into the gym on a Saturday.

"This is a disaster waiting to happen," Cardone wrote. "Closing the road adjacent to Balmville School will enable us to eliminate some hazards."
...

A proposal to raze the Old Balmville school is also mentioned in the article from 2000.

Over at The Newburgh Advocate you can find a concise recent history of the Broadway School. It is a curious tale. The kind that might excite Sherlock Holmes, "Look at this, Watson. An interesting article. Very interesting indeed..."

The Agreement Between The Board of Education Newburgh Enlarged City School District and The Newburgh Teachers' Association, July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2010, is mostly dry reading. Here are a few highlights not to be missed:

A helpful newburghedinfo reader has found an informative web site, http://www.seethroughny.net/, which provides clues about how New York State spends your tax dollars.

Among other things, the site claims to present: "teachers' union and superintendent contracts for nearly every school district in New York State".

Searching in the "Contracts" section for the Newburgh City School district turns up two documents: