The April regular meeting of the Newburgh School District Board of Education was well attended for the official commendations at the beginning of the meeting. Several middle school students, their teachers, and their principals, were recognized for achievement in the Teenbiz3000 reading program.
Richard Feller, Area Director of NYSSBA, commended Board President Fucheck for her work and dedication to seeing the district operate in a proper, efficient, and intelligent manner. He said that it was important for board of members to be lifelong learners, just as is expected of students, teachers, and administrators. He said the job of school governance has become increasingly complex and school board members must understand their roles and responsibilities to function effectively under the law. Mr. Feller complimented Fucheck's dedication and commitment to the pursuit of knowledge. Board President Fucheck graciously expressed her thanks to everyone present for their support.
Ksenia Makarova was commended for her figure skating achievements. She also maintains a high level of academic achievement as a student at NFA. Ms Makarova graciously thanked the Board and her parents.
Next, Senior Assessment Specialist/Data Administrator Diane Lennon gave a presentation on the Newburgh School District "District Report Card" data. The data she discussed was at the district level for 2008-2009. In summary, the status of the Newburgh School District is "DINI (District in Need of Improvement) Year 4 for ELA" and "In Good Standing for Math".
The 2008-2009 Newburgh School District Report card data is available here. The district level data Lennon discussed is mainly in pages 8 through 14 of the Accountability and Overview Report.
To achieve "Good Standing" for ELA the district needs to "achieve AYP" for two consecutive years. AYP was metfor the 2008-2009 year (at the Elementary/Middle level, grades 3 to 8), so depending on the exam results from this year, the district may get out of DINI status.
At the secondary level there is some additional complexity due to the different cohort groups used for different calculations. For ELA, less than the required percentage of students with disabilities were tested, and black students did not achieve the test scores required to meet AYP. Nevertheless, both categories of students met the "safe harbor" targets. But because participation of Students with Disabilities was not not sufficient, at the secondary level ELA, AYP was not met. Ms Lennon mentioned that NFA did meet the participation requirement of 95% for SWD students--you can check that in the Accountability Report for NFA. So the district did not meet AYP because not enough of the Students with Disabilities who were placed in programs outside of NFA took the required tests.
For secondary level math, several categories of students did not achieve the test scores required for AYP, and even the "All Students" category does not achieve the test results required. Ms Lennon said the Regents Integrated Algebra exam is the assessment used, and they will be studying the exam results from this June to try to determine if there are areas of difficulty that can be the focus of improvement efforts.
For determining the Graduation Rate the cohort is 880 students, and AYP is met by the district's rate of 68%. The "State Standard" required for 2009 was only 55%. Ms Lennon said that she believes that the State Standard next year will be 80%. She also mentioned that for current 10th graders the graduation requirement is that they must pass 5 regents exams with a score above 65.
Ms Lennon asked if there were any questions. There were none.
[ How is the district in "good standing" for math, and making progress toward that for ELA if results at the secondary level are not satisfactory? I asked Ms Lennon after her talk and she explained that as long as AYP is met at either the elementary/middle or secondary level, the district is considered to have met AYP. ]
The regular meeting agenda proceded.
As part of the Curriculum & Instruction agenda five separate agreements were approved for consultants to provide "Expert Educational Services". These were all funded by "the Audit of Curriculum Title I Grant". The cost of these items was not mentioned. The official minutes indicate that the going rate is about $1k a day.
Among the H.R. items: item Q terminated the employment of Vilma Montanez pursuant to section 73 of Civil Service Law; item S assigned Alan Fairey to be Director of Pupil Personnel Services (no effect on the general fund); item U assigned Claudetter Gerald to be Director of Special Education Pre-K through 12.
Reports from Board members and Administrators ran to 9:30 or so. Among these, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Bolton mentioned that they were preparing for a visit in the middle of May which required quite a bit of paperwork to be done in advance, "a paper audit, if you will, prior to their visit." He said that the paperwork would be sent to Albany this week. It seemed quite strange that Dr. Bolton did not say who the visitors were, or the purpose of the visit.
Stephen Bedetti began to speak during the public comment time. He was invited by Board President Fucheck to discuss a letter he had written to the Board during the executive session that would begin soon.
The Board went to executive session to "discuss the employment history of particular individuals" and did not take actions afterward. According to the official minutes of this meeting the executive session lasted about two hours.