From time to time I am asked by New Rochelle residents how to go about approaching the school district to bring about some desired outcome or make a complaint. They want to know about how to approach the school board or how to approach the administration of the school district.
When I get these questions the best I can do is shake my head and recall my own innocence in asking that sort of question. People in New Rochelle are simply unable to grasp the idea that there are just two people who decide what happens in the New Rochelle schools and neither of them are on the school board or in the administration:
1. Martin Daly
2. Jeffrey Kehl
Marty Daly runs the teachers union; Jeff Kehl is an attorney who has been paid millions of dollars by the District in a cushy no-bid contract.
Marty attends school board meetings when there is some union business on the agenda. He is an extremely effective advocate who can make sure that union member keep their jobs so long as they are not caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy and, even then, maybe. Kehl is the “invisible man” who drifts in and out of the school district like a ghost; he has appeared at one school board meeting in the past year and even then only briefly.
Everyone else — the Superintendent, school principals, school board members — are just figureheads. On any matter of consequence you will consistently hear these people say “I will have to check with counsel” before responding to a question. What the mean is they have to wait until Jeffrey Kehl tells them what to do. Every administrator and department chair in the school district knows not to take action against any union member because if they do Marty will “come a knockin'”. Just the other day when the board discussed publishing the school board resolutions online; Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak told the board that “Marty and Jeff are OK with this” and then the discussion proceeded from there.
The single most important value of school board members — and you will hear them talk about this from time to time — is “presenting a united front”. Somewhere along the line the concept of an elected school board became so perverted that the board members managed to convince themselves that fidelity to each other trumped their responsibilities to those who elected them. This is the litmus test they use for whether the board will support the re-election of a board member (odd that a deliberative body would choose sides as a body in elections, right?). If you break ranks you will be shunned. You can see how Martin Sanchez was treated by his fellow board members and how they now interact with Quay Watkins after she had the temerity to challenge a school board vote for the position of vice-president last July. This is the reason why the board routinely adjourns to go into executive session — to illegally discuss public matters in private so the public will not know what the individual board members think about a particular issue. It is a big part of why Organisciak’s contract was renewed. He is a dud. Most of them know that. But to not renew him after his first 3 year term was up would be to admit they made an error in hiring him and violate the “united front” policy which extends to administrators.
Once upon a time I was like most parents in New Rochelle. I took at face value what I heard from administrators and board members at parent-teacher night, school events, stepping-up ceremonies and graduations. I actually believed them when they said they welcome parental involvement in the schools, that their primary concern was educating and caring for the children of New Rochelle, that the school system was excellent.
In my naiveté I believed that if I went to the school district with a concern about a teacher or a program or some incident, they would give my concerns due consideration and, where warranted, take appropriate action. I was long ago disabused of that notion.
As the only parent with kids in the New Rochelle public school system who regularly attends school board meetings (excepting board members and district employees) I have watched with empathy as a parade of parents have come before the school board over the past two years to make their case for something — keeping a particular program, accomdating a busing request, changing some rules related to magnet schools — and each time they get the same treatment. Sometimes they come as part of some small group, sometimes a husband and wife, some times just a single parent. The board listens, nods their head and then does nothing. Occasionally they will tell the person they intend to do nothing; other times they will just be quiet and then do nothing. They say they will respond later but, in my experience, they never do.
The only exception I have seen to that recently is the so-called “Hebrew Immersion” program. Those parents (who are not parents of kids IN the public schools) were warmly received and their proposal endorsed, sight-unseen, by board members. In fact, they were not required to go through the usual “public hearing” process and get a 3-5 minute time-slot. Instead they were allowed to present at the invitation of the school board and given about 20 minutes to address the board. I wrote a detailed post explaining the problems with the proposal based primarily on quotes from the New Rochelle Hebrrew Immersion website. The group behind this initiative were later advised by board members to take down the site. Initially they responded by password-protecting the site and then eventually caved-in and deleted the site entirely.
That such an obviously unconstitutional proposal –basically creating a Jewish parochial school within a public school — would be so well received by the board might come as a surprise until you understand that Marty Daly is always going to support anything that requires more teachers. Kehl’s acquiescence is, to me, less clear but I would imagine he had his reasons for not standing in the way of their board presentation.
Going to the school board with an issue is largely pointless. They have a policy against hearing any criticism of any school employee, they will require complaints to go through channels up to the Superintendent and then after you do that they will defer to the Superintendent anyway. Neither they nor the administration is going to do anything unless they get the approval of Marty Daly and Jeffrey Kehl.
If there is something you want to accomplish Marty would have to want it and Kehl would have to say it is acceptable. Everyone else you see at a board meeting is just a puppet for these two individuals. These are the same two individuals who sit down every 2-3 years and carve up the pie known as school property taxes as they “negotiate” the union contract.
Given this when parents tell me they want to approach the school board with some issue I tell them what will happen but encourage them to proceed; better that they experience it for themselves rather than me try to convince them. The school district are experts at wearing parents out (or co-opting them) so eventually these people give up and go away which is precisely why I am the only New Rochelle parent who regularly attends these meetings. I don’t give up — and I have a web site read by thousands of people every month so I have a voice regardless of whatever rules and time limits they want to place on the so-called public comment period.
The best advice I can give to parents is to organize, develop your own communication channels (you are welcome to post here) and make your case as best you can but be prepared to make it over and over and over again.
Was Arne Duncan in New Rochelle Lately ?
I was just wondering . This is a quote from a speech he gave on the reauthorizing of the No Child Left Behind law (NBLB). “. . . The problem with the current education system is that the self-interest of the adults running the system is not aligned with the interests of the children being educated.”
Interesting comment which would make it seem like he has met that tutti di tutto dolt Mr O and his merry band of _____________ (I’ll let you fill in the blank) .
sadly bob is right
this is both the saddest and most brilliant posting I have seen since the opening of the blog. How can any reasonable person argue with this? Bob has, at great emotional cost on him I am sure, spent a great deal of time in attending meetings, preparing blogs, confronting issues and people of questionable ability and character, and placed tons of information before you as responsible adults, shareholders in the well-being of the City, and parents of children who have found themselves in a situation where their normal youthful tendency to substitute more interesting activities for knuckling down and succeeding at school, lures them daily into the malaise and politically pontificating system we call the New Rochelle school district.
Going over ground time in and time again is both useless and frustrating. My view has morphed simply to one of putting the ball squarely in our politicians court and I think bob has correctly said that it is time for citizens to act and act boldly and irresolutely to begin turning these matters around. I agree, but strongly urge you go beyond the tacit acceptance that some things are wrong — NO many things are wrong beginning with the point that this district has no checks and balances — no board to provide appropriate and firm oversight and no city administration to step in and demand that they do and by doing so, take a impartial look at exactly what the relationships are to student well being and performance and just how prepared we are as a community to support growth and expansion. Organisciak deserves to be fired on both counts and the board ought to submit resigntions as well. I, in turn, have some contacts in Washington in the Department of Labor and in the Department of Education and I am going to silently play that end.
What we need and what bob deserves is a rabid, yes rabid community response. We need to meet as if this is a tea party or town hall meeting and demand accountability, performance and significant changes in the makeup of the management team. I want bob cox to chair these meetings or at least present a report of his many findings for the community; I would like an open forum for community members to take part, and of course, the players should be there including all district players and the city administration. I DO NOT want to hear from Kehl unless a legal or regulatory inquiry is made or from Daly unless it is a matter of direct reference to the Union — of course questions pertaining to either from the audience should be the price of admission.
thank you bob, you cranky, irascible, totally productive and important individual. keep going what you are doing and people pick up on this; tell your neighbors and friends. This is not a bake sale, bicycle path, or dog walk. This is the well being and performance of your children and the success of our city’s business strategy and plan and Lord I hope we have one. Actually I think we do — if Noam could just channel his intelligence and energy beyond the status quo, selected advisors, and issues, he would be a fine mayor. He has this in him, argue this point all you want, but perhaps if he senses there is consequence behind misplaced energy and associations, he will lead.
God Bless you Bob and your significant blog folk, your wife and others. Keep the fires burning.
warren gross