Career and Technical Education

Since the mid-1990’s the Board of Regents has been wrestling with the question of how to assess and give credit for career and technical education courses.  They have struggled with how to ensure that different assessments for different fields can represent equal accomplishments.  Entire generations of children are passing through our schools while the Regents try to decide what and how a high school diploma should signal about a student who has pursued vocational studies.    

Yet despite the Regents’ difficulty, in schools across the state, career and technical education is an important part of the curriculum.  Our Monroe School Boards Association County book, The Best for Less, which can be read or downloaded at our website at http://www.mcsba.org/exemplary/2011BestForLess-Web.pdf , tells about the many types of career and technical education programs in our districts. 

Collaboration across district lines has allowed districts to offer a wide variety of vocational and technical education opportunities. Students from all county school districts participate in these programs offered through the two local BOCES and the Rochester City District partnerships with many area businesses.

Career and Technical Courses         

High school students can select courses in business, construction, technology, health services, and trades (mechanical, technical, industrial). They learn theory, practice skills, and receive school-to-work counseling.

School- to-Career Internships                      

High school juniors and seniors can participate in up to 150 hours of on-the-job work experiences with mentors to study career options not offered at BOCES or their home schools.

              TAMS                        

Technical Awareness Modules help freshmen and sophomores explore technical career options before committing to extensive study in any one area.

Delving into all that is offered shows students preparing for a wide variety of essential trades.  There will be more on the breadth and depth of the programs in another entry.  

What school boards do – Part 2

What I did on my summer vacation (Why board retreats are important)

By Sherry Johnson

I am always a little surprised when a community member asks me how my summer vacation “from board meetings” is going.  Many people don’t understand that school governance happens all year long and most boards meet all year to support that role.

In July, Boards of Education have their re-organization meeting where they make important decisions about banks, attorneys and appointments for district personnel to transition the school district into their new year.  At that meeting newly and re-elected board members take their oath of office.

During the summer, boards are able get detailed updates on student performance and other measurements of their district’s progress.  They use this time to develop goals for the coming year.  It is also during this summer time frame that school boards may choose to have a retreat.

Boards of Education have retreats for a number of reasons and many are the same reasons one would go on a faith, marriage or self-introspection retreat.  Boards are made up of 5, 7, or 9 individual members, all elected by their communities to represent them at the table of school leadership.  That role is multi-faceted, extremely complex and ever evolving.  To know it well and to keep up with the demands takes more than comprehending information from a meeting packet and coming to the meeting with a decision in mind.  Working with other members who have different backgrounds, different approaches to problem solving, and different priorities can stress the relationship that members have with each other and their superintendent.  New board members change whatever dynamic previously existed within that structure.  Retreats allow for everyone to come together outside of regular business meetings and develop into an effective leadership team. 

Many boards hire outside consultants to help with specific issues, including relationship issues.  Others will use local or district folks who are trained in a particular topic that the board would like addressed.  This year we asked the MCSBA Executive Director, Jody Siegle to come and speak to us about the importance of advocacy and what we can expect this fall both legislatively and from the State Education Department.  For our own self-reflection, we asked a local school attorney, himself a former board member with many years experience, to help us become a more cohesive team.  He had us take a survey to identify what our individual expectations were and where we thought things could improve.  He used the results of that survey along with a team building exercise to guide us through the process.  In the end, as a board, we had a heightened awareness of all we had accomplished together during the course of the year together and we felt confident that we could continue to work even more effectively to help the district achieve the goals we defined for the coming year.

Self-reflection for Boards of Educations should not be overlooked or taken lightly.  Board members are only effective when they work as partners; it takes effort to keep a team highly functional. 

As the new school year begins, just like a fresh box of crayons and a clean pad of paper, hope springs inspired by the possibilities of what could be for our students, our schools and our communities.  Effective Board leadership can make those possibilities real but success will require each person to accept his or her responsibility as a member of a leadership team working together to meet the many challenges that school governance requires of them.

What school boards do – Part 1

This is a time of change in public education, and the responsibility to deal with this change falls directly on local boards of education.  Seeing that each district complies with new laws and meets the community’s expectations for its schools is the job of the school board, the most grass-roots level of government.

Here in New York State there are 697 school districts, and all but three are overseen by non-partisan elected boards of local citizens who serve without pay. School board members are elected as individuals by their communities, but all decision-making is done as a corporate body.  As trustees, board members have great authority; as individuals, they have none.

These volunteers model an impressive commitment to their communities’ well being.  Most school board members say they are motivated by a desire to give back to their communities.  By the time school board members attend board meetings, visit schools, attend programs in their district’s schools, attend training programs, and complete the required reading of materials, reports, and background information, they typically spend a minimum of 500 hours each year on their board responsibilities.  Many board members, especially board officers, spend much more than that, well over 1000 hours. 

What occupies all those hours?  What follows is a brief description of the legal responsibilities of school boards here in New York State.  Complying with all the new laws and how boards function will be covered in future blog entries. 

Legal obligations of school boards:

 
The school board is the chief legal entity of the district.  The board can enter into legal contracts on behalf of the district.  The board can sue and be sued.  Each newly elected or reelected board member takes an oath of office that they will comply with all legal obligations that apply to the district. Public education is governed by Education Law as well as Labor Law, General Municipal Law, Real Property Tax Law, Local Finance Law, Public Officers Law, decisions of the Commissioner of Education, and federal law.

School boards have the authority and the obligation to adopt policies for their districts, many of which are required by state and federal law.  School boards are primarily policy- making bodies.  Well thought out policies make a district work well by providing the guidance the staff needs for many situations.  School boards develop policies for the admission, instruction, discipline, grading, and, when appropriate, the classification of students. School boards also must adopt a Code of Conduct for the district and ensure that it is disseminated annually through the district.  Additional policies specify many other aspects of district operations.

The school board must hire a superintendent.  Hiring a capable superintendent is one of the board’s most important duties.  The superintendent will take the board’s policies and then will use them to manage the everyday operation of the district. The superintendent is like the CEO of a district.

School boards receive and then act on superintendent recommendations. Among other things, these include tenure recommendations, negotiated contracts, and the hiring of personnel.

School boards must be responsible stewards of all the district’s assets and property, which constitutes a significant investment of community resources. The school board is responsible for purchasing, leasing, maintaining, and insuring all buildings, properties, equipment, and supplies.

School boards must prepare an operating budget each year and then submit it to the public for a vote to either approve or reject it.  Boards in the Big Five districts submit their budgets to their city councils.

School boards must set annual goals and then monitor progress meeting them.

School boards must comply with the Sunshine Laws that require all board meetings to be held in public where anyone can attend and listen.  With limited exceptions, all school board discussions about making decisions and the decisions themselves must be made in public.  Strict executive session rules limit private discussions to certain personnel matters, issues concerning specific students, and real estate and contract negotiations where a public discussion would weaken the board’s ability to obtain a good result. 

School boards act as judges at the final level of local appeals in complaints against the district. Due process rights for someone with a grievance against the district begins at the building level, moves to the superintendent, and finally goes to the board.  

In addition, school boards are also authorized to receive and approve charter school applications for schools to be operated within district boundaries and are the only entity that may approve the conversion of one of their existing public schools into a charter school.

Tax Levies and Voter Turnout

In the days before this year’s school budget vote, reporters all over the state kept asking, “What impact did the tax cap have on this year’s budget proposals?”  After the vote was over and 96.5% of the budgets in the state had passed, including 99% of the budgets that were at or below their permissible levy limit, reporters then asked, “Did the tax cap affect this year’s vote?”

Now that the data is in, it is possible that one of the ways the cap affected the vote was quite different from what state leaders anticipated.  Looking at Monroe County, it appears that the introduction of the cap resulted in many people deciding not to vote. 

Slightly over 3,000 fewer people voted here this year compared to last.  But it isn’t just that fewer people voted; it is notable which voters chose not to.  Many fewer “no” voters went to the polls. There were 2,130 fewer “no” votes compared with last year; 70.1% of the votes cast were affirmative votes.  Is this a coincidence or something else?

In 2003 over 50,500 people voted on our member districts’ budgets, very much in contrast to this year’s 29,169 voters.  A review of that decade’s statistics reveals a steady reduction in voter turnout even though the plurality of “yes” votes has remained relatively constant.  Over the ten years the plurality of “yes” votes has fallen below 60% (58% in 2010) only once and climbed into the 70% range twice (75.6% in 2009, 70.1% in 2012). In the remaining seven years “yes” votes averaged 64% of the votes cast.  There have been only 4 defeated school budgets over this time period out of 180 separate district budget votes. 

What is the relationship between strong support for education yet eroding voter turnout?  One explanation is that discontent is more motivating than satisfaction. In our region “no” voters have to be aware that, given the infrequency of failed budgets, they are mainly voting to make a statement.  If they are not compelled to make a statement and so don’t vote, turnout will be affected and that certainly seems to have happened in Monroe County this year.

One can surmise that many “no” voters stayed home this year because they believe the state’s cap on school tax levy increases addressed their oft-articulated concerns.   But with the cap just in its first year, what explains the previous years of falling voter turnout?  Perhaps the trend can be explained by looking at what voters were voting on.

In the first four years of this time period, when voter turnouts still averaged over 48,000 people, proposed levy increases averaged over 4.5% per year.  Voter turnout was falling during this period but only slightly. 

Then in 2007 the proposed levy increase dropped to 2.75% and voter turnout dropped 28%!  In the years since then both the number of voters and the size of the levy increase have closely correlated, with voter turnouts dropping almost every year the levy increase was small.  

The one exception to this trend was in 2010, the year state aid was deeply cut after being frozen the year before.  Schools were forced to make major budget cuts and countywide the proposed levy increases averaged only .09%.  Voter turnout jumped by 32% that year, probably to make a statement to Albany.  But that year was atypical in many ways.  Voter turnout fell again the next year, dropping by 21%. 

Of course, at the district level there are exceptions to these generalizations. Strongly contested school board races bring out more voters, as was the case in the only two local districts that had more voters this year than last.  Hot local issues can also increase turnout. 

Nevertheless, at least here in Monroe County, the trend is clear.  Lower increases in the tax levy mean successively fewer people are likely to come to the polls, and the ones that do will be predominantly “yes” voters.  Unless another issue motivates voters, the tax cap may unintentionally promote lower voter turnout

May 15 - School Vote Day

Tuesday, May 15th, is the annual school budget vote and school board election day.  New York is one of only a few states that require citizen approval for each year’s school budget. 

Why vote?  First and foremost, this is how your local school district finalizes its budget.  No other level of government depends on this form of public involvement.  You can’t vote on your town, county, or state budgets.  But when it comes to the education of children, the entire community has the unique opportunity to have a say on the direction of their district’s future.

To put this year’s budget together, local school leaders have had to deal with fundamental changes in how state aid is allocated, with the new tax cap law, with specific budget items like health care and pensions where the obligatory costs rise far faster than inflation, and with planning for expensive new operating and curricular initiatives mandated by new state laws.  They have had to decide to draw down their reserve funds to maintain their priorities.  The goal has been to develop budgets that will continue to provide high quality programs and services despite the problems created by multiple years of frozen and reduced state revenues.

Sadly, despite all this hard work, many people question the value of voting, or just ignore it. But the results from the ballot box drive numerous subsequent events. 

The annual vote lets you help shape your district’s future for years to come because this is when school board members are elected for all suburban, rural, and small city school districts.  These unpaid volunteers establish district policies, hire the superintendent, and oversee the finances.  The board sets the expectations for the operation of the entire organization, determines the quality of the programs provided to the district’s students, and, ultimately, affects whether the community is regarded as a desirable place to live  Board members devote hundreds of hours a year to their duties. 

Many school board races are contested this year.  If you are concerned about your district’s future, become informed about who is running and what they believe in, and then vote.  

The budget vote also influences how state leaders assess peoples’ attitudes towards public education.  Our Albany representatives regularly have to make choices between competing needs.  Legislators will look at school budget votes to learn what thousands of voters in their own communities are thinking.  A large affirmative turnout makes a strong statement to state representatives about what their constituents’ value. 

So May 15th is approaching and the school board has done the best they can.  Now they need the community to do their part and vote.   

Sometimes budgets fail because a community opposes the proposal. Then the board must make changes in response to the community’s message. But it is an outrage if a budget fails because not enough people bothered to vote.  And the only way to make sure that doesn’t happen is for each citizen to take the time to vote. 

If you forgot to read the district budget newsletter and already recycled it, the information it contained is still readily available.  Your district’s website has budget, candidate, and poll location information.  So does your public library.  You can link to your district website from our own MCSBA website, www.mcsba.org, by clicking on Member Districts. 

In a democracy, the people who show up to vote get to make the decisions.  Be a part of making good decisions for your school and your community.  Vote on May 15!

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Some facts about the budgets here in Monroe County districts:

School board members are taxpayers, too, and since long before the tax cap law they have been striving to ease the burden on local taxpayers. 

The four-year average of the annual increase in the tax levy for our 18 suburban and rural member districts is 1.91% per year.

The four-year average of the annual budget growth for our 18 suburban and rural member districts is 1.6% per year.

All of the districts have proposed tax levy changes lower than or equal to the permissible limit on the increase in the property tax levy as calculated by the new tax cap law. 

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Schools Partner with Towns and Community Groups

People are often unaware of how much their school district operations are interwoven with the quality of life for the entire community.  In addition to the classroom experiences, extracurricular activities, and athletics everyone associates with public schools, school districts build liaisons and partnerships with their towns and community groups in a wide variety of ways. By collaborating with one another, their town governments, cultural institutions and other groups, Monroe County school districts offer a wide range of specialized programs to meet the needs of their students.  Here are some examples; others can be found in our Best For Less Publication

(http://www.mcsba.org/exemplary/2011BestForLess-Web.pdf).

Local Rotary clubs collaborate with school districts to bring high school students from around the globe to attend high school in Monroe County. This famous international exchange program helps local students learn about the world from their peers in other countries and gives them an opportunity to be an ambassador for their nation.

The annual Senior Transition Day in the Wheatland-Chili High School provides students an opportunity to learn from community members who help them explore everything from apartment renting, insurance selection, ballroom dancing, cooking, college life, car repair, and more.

The Family Support Center in the Spencerport District’s Administration Building is a collaboration of the District and the Town of Ogden. The Center offers free counseling services for children and families, as well as community-wide educational programs and support groups for parents. The Center also includes a resource library and information on local social service and mental health resources.  Several other districts also maintain family support centers. 

Continuing education programs for adults are offered by many school districts in Monroe County.  One example is the Greece Central School District Office of Community Education.  Greece’s program serves thousands of adult learners every year. More than 450 people participate in adult literacy programs learning subjects from adult basic education to citizenship. The district also offers a variety of workforce development programs for adults.  People looking to change careers or improve their skills can enroll in career certificate classes in the areas of office technology, customer service and sales, custodial maintenance and repair, and pharmacy technician.

The Rush-Henrietta Cooperative Wetlands Education Program is a cooperative venture of the Rush-Henrietta School District and its community. Educational signs as well as instructional programs inform visitors about the features and value of this wetlands environment.

The Gates Chili Central School District also hosts a similar nature trail on the property of its Neil Armstrong School, and West Irondequoit’s Helmer Nature Center has been providing a wide range of learning programs including classes in awareness, animal habitats, snowshoeing, Native American culture, pioneer living, outdoor cooking, and more since 1973. 

 
Many Monroe County school districts collaborate with civic groups like the YMCA to provide before and/or after school child care in school facilities.  One example is West Irondequoit’s K-6 Extension Program offered through the district’s Community Education Department.  The morning program begins at 7 AM; the afternoon program runs until 6 PM.  Children are provided with appropriate snacks, exercise, time for homework and reading, and enrichment activities.

Coping Power is an after school program in some Rochester schools.  This program for pre-adolescents is coordinated by a group of pediatricians and helps students learn strategies for reducing aggressive behavior, improving social competence, and increasing problem-solving abilities. 

The Brighton Food Cupboard is a program of the Brighton Central School District with the Jewish Community Federation, Foodlink, and other community organizations and volunteers.  Working through local social service case managers, the cupboard provides a means to prevent and reduce hunger and food insecurity for individuals and families living in Brighton and surrounding communities. 

Experience learning – the E3 Fair

We know that when students are excited about a subject, the effect of that enthusiasm spills over into other areas of learning and enhances performance.  We also know that experiential learning is internalized far more readily than passive learning.  Given the importance of such things, several blogposts over the coming year will be devoted to learning experiences that can be life changing because of the stimulation and new exposures they provide.

One such unique event is next week, the annual E³ Fair at the Rochester Institute of Technology.  E³ stands for Engineering -Exploration - Experimentation.  This fair is sponsored by RIT along with the Rochester chapters of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and AMSE (American Society for Mechanical Engineers).  Many local engineering firms also participate.  The objective is to provide students an opportunity to learn about engineering professions, to meet and interact with practicing engineers, and to begin learning how to "engineer" solutions to problems. 

Research has shown that the seeds of interest in STEM subjects are often sown in middle school, and this fair is for students in grades 6-8.  The students can participate in the fair by creating an exhibit about an experiment or project that involves engineering or technology, or by being part of a team of students who build a motorized LEGO vehicle or LEGO robot to perform a specific task.  In preparation for the fair, teams of students spend weeks working with mentors in their home schools to design and prepare their LEGO constructions for these competitions. 

Over the past two years more than 1400 middle school students from throughout the surrounding area have participated in the fair.  High school students also attend to talk with exhibitors about career opportunities in engineering and technology.

The fair, which is free to attend, is open to parents and community groups as well.  This year the fair will run from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the Clark gymnasium on the RIT campus.  For more information, go to the event website at http://www.e3fair.org .