The School District announced a major restructuring six weeks ago and, as usual, the parents and taxpayers of New Rochelle are the last enough. In fact, no announcement has been sent to parents and there is nothing about it on the NRED web site. In keeping with our interest to keep parents informed, here they are for reading pleasure:
The document above describes part of the current structure of the City School District of New Rochelle’s Central Office Administration. Most members of the community may not be aware of these important changes in the District’s leadership structure. We do not believe that this letter was mailed out to the community nor could we find it anywhere on the City School District of New Rochelle website. At the time of this post (August 15, 2008) these changes were not reflected in the downloadable District Calendar phone directory. The current available calendar reads as follows:
Assistant Superintendents:
– Business & Administration 576-4240
– Business & Admin. FAX 576-5395
– Elementary Education 576-4204
– Elementary Education FAX 576-4602
– Secondary Education 576-4206
– Personnel 576-4214
– Personnel FAX 576-9437
– Pupil Personnel & Curricular Services 576-4233
We believe that some of the reasons for these changes were due to the fact that one of the Assistant Superintendents in no longer with our district. That position was not filled. The duties and responsibilities were distributed amongst the remaining staff.
We hope the City School District of New Rochelle makes the necessary corrections before the calendar is sent to the printer and mailed out to the community. The members of the New Rochelle Community should be able to know who does what and where to call if they have a concern that could not be addressed at the building level.
If the changes are not made in time, we are sure that the district will incur quite an expense in reprinting them. They can always add a supplement that explains and clarifies the changes if the calendars were already printed. There are more than 10,000 calendars printed and mailed to the community.
educational core mission re: talk of the sound
i hope that all bloggers carefully read and reflect on the core mission of this important community media. Take note of the language; it resonates with common sense. There is much to change in the educational business proposition. Given the severity of the times and the moral absolute to provide every child with a quality education and every citizen with a voice, we can no longer stand by and experience the absolute absence of critical thinking and meaningful community involvement. The prerequisite school district response to concerns and problems is form over substance. For example, and these are simply reflections of how people think in the district — there is a fire in New Rochelle HS and we learn that “certificates or plaques are given to the Mayor and City Manager among others. Why? Earlier this year or late last year, there is an issue at Isaac concerning an alleged incident re: a symbol of lynching and another so called diversity training day is called. Earlier yet, a totally non-responsive response to the Journal News was issued in reply to an Op Ed piece on the lamentable main street punch up and if you read what the Op Ed piece said and the response from the City and the District, you cannot help but draw the conclusion that there is a total lack of critical thinking around the management and oversight of the District and this involves more than our pocketbooks and wallets, it involves the very critical point of rebuilding our students opportunities and performance, our district infrastructure, and the standing of New Roc itself in the county and state. Add to this other seemingly small matters such as the “day of exercise” response, and build it larger by looking at the scarce funding choices made such as artificial turf and New Roc HS extensiion space allocation, etc. and you got to wonder about the business decision making process and you must really wonder at the animosity directed at the very existence and purpose of the blog. Blogs are here to stay in our culture and I am glad for it. Every news source acknowledges that. If the district and the city do not like blogs — take a deep breath, get over this nonsense that you inhabit an intellectual space that we are not capable of entering and serve, serve, serve — that is why you are in the positions you are in period. And, readers while you are at it, read up on what the Manhattan Institute says about “educational myths” and what the Graduate School of Washington says about school boards in their Casey REport, and you will no longer feel any compunction to be silent. And, by the way, the so called reorganization some of you are worried about, is mostly smoke and mirrors. Compare what is new to what was in place and look at the people involved. It is merely a reshuffling of the deck.