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Back in June 2010 one year "successor agreements" were established between various unions and the Newburgh School District. These agreements specify modifications to the the previously in-effect contracts which expired in June of 2010.

The agreement with the NTA is a single page. The chart of salaries ("step increases") used for 2009-2010 is increased by 1.75%, with additional $1,000 and $2,000 increases at certain steps. Step advancement and the increased salaries will be effective December 1. Assuming an advancement of one step, this will result in a net increase of between 3 and 6 percent for most NTA members.

Retired members of the NTA have a right to vote on contracts. Presumably, Board of Education members Bowles, DeMarco, and McAfee would have had that right.

The agreement with the NTA Teaching Assistants is two pages long. The salary schedule is increased by 1.75%, with the change to be effective December 1. Due to "advancing a step" the actual raise percent will be higher than 1.75%. Maximum accumulation of sick leave is increased from 225 days to 300 days.

The agreement with the CSEA (Civil Service Employees Association, OC Local 836) is six pages long. Employees not eligible for step advancement are to receive a 1.5% "longevity" that isn't added to base salary. Other employees will advance a step but not get an additional wage increase. Senior Monitors get a $4,000 increase over step. There are a number of other provisions, including a prohibition on collecting on a health insurance buy-out as a retiree while receiving health insurance as a spouse of a retiree.

All three of these agreements terminate June 30, 2011.

According to a US DOE annnouncement New York is to be eligible for up to $700m through RTTT.

The Race to the Top state competition is designed to reward states that are leading the way in comprehensive, coherent, statewide education reform across four key areas:

• Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace;
• Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals how to improve instruction;
• Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and
• Turning around their lowest-performing schools.

Commentary on this topic at NYSSBA, Jerry Moore, and EdVANTAGE. See also Race to the Top website.

There are several teaching jobs posted on the Newburgh School District's HR web pages, including:

See the official Administrative and Teaching Positions web page. The HR web page notes these jobs as open to both internal and external candidates with a closing date of "August 16, 2010 at 4:00PM". At the OLAS job listings site you can find the Newburgh School District postings by choosing region "Mid-Hudson Valley" and clicking "Search". The start date posted at OLAS is "09/01/2010".

In my opinion, the Newburgh School District offers relatively good job security, superb benefits, challenging work, and an opportunity to do some good.

Excerpt from the NYSED press release on the changing of exam "proficiency" cut off scores:

As a result of raising the bar for what it means to be proficient, many fewer students met or exceeded the new Mathematics and English Proficiency standards in 2010 than in previous years. Across Grades 3-8 statewide, the majority of students, 53% in English and 61% in Math, met or exceeded the new Proficiency standards this year. By contrast, in 2009, 77% of students met or exceeded standards in English and 86% of students did so in Math.

On one hand, this seems to be a necessary step to make statewide assessments more meaningful. If the standards were set improperly it is good to correct them.

At the same time it seems misguided to expect that "raising the bar" will somehow cause improved achievement. How will this more meaningful information be put to use...

Ensuring that student achievement information provides meaningful information about student progress is just one element of the Regents' broader reform agenda. The State Education Department is working to enable educators and parents to make the most of that information - for example, by developing statewide curriculum models aligned with college and career-readiness standards, and by implementing a teacher and principal evaluation system that will provide differentiated professional development.

Oh.

There is a webcast of the July 28 news conference and here is a slide presentation and links to the data.

For your convenience here is pdf version of the assessment data for schools in the Newburgh School District. Of the 95 "Out of district placement" students, only one student on one exam scored at level 3 or 4.

Additional commentary on this topic at NYSSBA, Jerry Moore, EdVANTAGE, and recordonline.

There was one additional item from the June 29 Newburgh Schools BOE meeting that may be of interest:

VI. Agenda Items - Superintendent

C. Resolution to Direct the Superintendent of Schools or Designee to Advertise for Sale the Old Balmville School

[Passed unanimously without question or comment.]

Public attendance was sparse at the June Newburgh School District Board of Education meeting. Only about half the audience of 10 waited out an hour long executive session which followed a presentation about special education at the beginning of the meeting.

There was a lack of unanimity among the Board on a resolution to approve evaluators for the Extended School Year program.

"Memoranda of Agreement" between the Newburgh School District and the NTA, NTA TA, and CSEA unions were all agreed to. These contracts are just one year in duration.

An Executive Director for Curriculum and Instruction and a Director of Social Studies and International Languages were appointed.

Click for the meeeting notes from the regular Newburgh Board of Education meeting in June.

Interesting article from The Buffalo News, July 8, by Mary B. Pasciak, Flawed tests distort sharp rise in scores by students

Over the last few years, student performance has soared on math and English tests across New York State, with the most dramatic improvements evident in urban districts such as Buffalo, leading many to celebrate the progress.

But now, state education officials say the progress may not have been quite what it seemed.

Weaknesses in the state's testing and scoring systems over the last several years created what Education Commissioner David M. Steiner equates to systemic "grade inflation."

Students who score at the "proficient" level in middle school math, for instance, stand only a 1-in-3 chance of doing well enough in high school to succeed in college math, he said.

"This is about telling the truth about how far we are from where we need to be for kids to succeed in college," said John B. King Jr., senior deputy education commissioner.

Steiner and King are calling for a host of reforms to the state's testing system, as well as the eventual adoption of a statewide curriculum.
...

If you are interested in what the NEA is doing at the national level see the Education Intelligence Agency blog. EIA has excellent coverage of the NEA 2010 convention, for example NEA Votes "No Confidence" in Race to the Top.

Tuesday June 22, 2010 there was a Newburgh Schools BOE Workshop meeting which began in the Library auditorium at 7 P.M.

32 retirees were recognized at this meeting.

"Memoranda of Agreement" have been drafted with three major unions in the Newburgh School District. These may get approved at the next Board meeting if the unions have voted to approve them.

The Board is considering eliminating two Kindergarten sections at GAMS. Average Kindergarten class size in the district would stay well above 20.

Here are additional notes.

The NYS Budget is approaching completion, and ithe State Senate and Assembly have reached agreement on the education portion. Some of the education cuts in the Governor's proposed budget have been restored. An informative post can be found at the EdVantage Blog.

From the new school aid "run" (page 53 of the pdf, aka "page 87") it looks like the Newburgh School district will receive an additional $2.8 million in the form of "gap elimination adjustment".

[Update: June 30]
"Governor Paterson wasted little time last night in following through on a threat to veto spending added by the Legislature. About two hours after the Senate gave final passage to the education budget bills, the Governor vetoed the Legislature’s restoration of School Aid funding." More at EdVantage.

An article at the New York Times, New Diploma Standard in New York Becomes a Multiple-Question Choice, raises several questions about NYS Regents exams.

• How will the new "five regents exam" graduation requirement affect graduation rates?
• Should testing standards align better with college requirements?
• What do the exams really test?

...
For a time, Mr. Decker encouraged teachers to spend more time delving into the philosophy behind the Bill of Rights, a line of inquiry that seldom leads to points on the test in United States history. But he drew back when he saw that many students were failing the exam.

Educators are also debating how the tests are graded. Teachers currently grade their own students' exams, which many critics say encourages grade inflation, particularly on tests that include essays, whose scoring is somewhat subjective. Because schools can be closed for sagging graduation rates, teachers have a stake in the scoring, and will have an even larger one two years from now.

"We've raised issues about scoring of the test for the last 10 years, but I don't see sufficient pressure for them to really examine it," said Howard T. Everson, a senior research fellow at CUNY and the chairman of a committee that advises the state on testing. "The problem is it would be expensive to do it any other way, but I don't see a plan for them to address it."

More important, Mr. Everson said, there has been little evidence that state officials are certain about what the exams really test and what their impact is.

"People have always taken the Regents as a fact of life," he said. "They were always seen as a benchmark of quality - it has always meant something. And does it still? That's the real question."
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I know of at least two elementary teachers who used this last week of school to present very constructive and worthwhile lessons to students. The lessons were well-designed, well-executed, and encouraged learning at multiple levels. One "practiced Shakespeare" with a fourth grade class. Another had a younger class write and illustrate a mini-journal reflecting on accomplishments over the school year. Besides getting students to read, dramatize, write, reflect, illustrate, and think, these lessons conveyed important ideas about the value of Shakespeare, the value of writing, and the purpose of school. Thank you to all the teachers in the Newburgh School District who put in the time and effort to make this last week valuable for students, your professionalism is greatly appreciated.

The decision by the Newburgh School District to require students to atttend half days and a one hour day this week matters because it teaches a bad lesson.

Very little of an educational nature is likely to happen on these days, and on the one hour day the value of the day in terms of education of students will be nil. So what lesson do students learn on these days about the purpose of school? They learn that the purpose of school is that everyone get paid. The transportation companies, teachers, and administratators all get paid. The district gets its state aid. All that is necessary is to bus the kids to school and take attendance.

If the teachers, administrators, and Board of Ed have some other purpose in mind, then that purpose needs to be evident, and it must be evident every day of school.

An article in the Utica Observer-Dispatch from April 2010 discusses Pike Company, which had been in charge of some construction projects in the Newburgh School District. Company supervising schools project had contract canceled elsewhere:

The company overseeing the Utica City School District's $187.6 million renovation project recently had its contract with another school district terminated.

In early 2008, about the same time it was chosen for the Utica project, the Pike Co. was hired as construction manager to oversee contractors for a $75 million renovation project for the Newburgh Enlarged City School District.

But just more than a month ago, the contract with Newburg was terminated.

Utica Superintendent James Willis said he knew about Pike's situation with Newburgh, but he isn't concerned about what that means for Utica.

...

Past problems

There are varying opinions about why Pike's Newburgh contract was cancelled.

Pike Co. Chief Executive Officer Tom Judson said the project size was cut dramatically, and the company's services were no longer needed.

Representatives from Armlin Damon & McMordie, the company that oversaw Pike in Newburgh and is doing the same in Utica, said there was a conflict of personalities.

The Newburgh district isn't talking. Multiple calls to Newburgh Superintendent Annette Saturnelli and school board members were not returned.

Minutes from that district's school board, however, say simply that there was an "early termination of the contract." No other details are provided.

Pike also was removed from the $35 million renovation of the Albany County Courthouse in August 2008 after that project lagged more than two years behind schedule.

...

The team of Pike officials who worked on the Newburgh and Albany projects is different than the team in Utica. Gloria Ciminelli, who will lead the Utica team, did not return calls Monday.

Willis said he spoke to Newburgh board members, who told him the contract was terminated because "the chemistry wasn't there."

"There was nothing wrong with the work that they did," Willis said.

Utica Project Manager Tony Armlin, whose company oversaw Pike in Newburgh, said Pike is a "fine company." "They are a very strong construction management team," Armlin said. "We're very pleased with the team in Utica."

Armlin, who didn't work on the Newburgh project, said the situation there wasn't a good fit.

"It was not a performance-based issue," he said. "The personalities of that district and Pike didn't mesh. That happens sometimes on projects."

...

A letter announcing that Wednesday June 23 and Thursday June 24 will be half days and that Friday June 25 will be a "one hour day" was received by some elementary school parents in the Newburgh School District on Monday June 14. The letter says that "After consultation with the Newburgh Teachers Association and the New York State Education Department, the decision was made to provide professional development to the staff." The half day announcement was posted to the official Newburgh Schools website on Tuesday, June 16.

Noted in the Newburgh Teachers' Association Pendulum Vol. 40, No. 2, January 2010, p.1: "We heard the elementary teachers loud and clear, expressing their concern over the last week of school in June. We will try to rectify this inequity."

The hardship this last minute calendar change causes parents and guardians, and the rediculousness of students being bused to school for a couple of hours, and ultimately for one single hour, appears not to be a concern.

The Board of Education approved a different calendar than the one which will be implemented.