Hey, New Rochelle homeowners guess what? Feeling stressed out? Worried about making that mortgage payment? Worried about that 8.9% City tax increase or that 4.5% County tax increase or the pending Sewage tax increase which will cost residents millions of dollars? Well has Richard Organisciak and his pals at the New Rochelle school district got a surprise in store for you!
You are going to want to sit down and buckle up for this one.
After the school district put together a budget devoid of any sense of the economic reality facing the country — giving every employee raises over the next two year while the country edged past 10% unemployment (no layoffs for FUSE members!), the same geniuses who created a new entitlement program called “Full-Day Kindergarten” and otherwise gave drunken sailors a bad name have a brand new fund-raising scheme called “Sue Homeowners for Infinite Taxes”.
The plan, S.H.I.T. for short, is pure brilliance. Rather than stand up to the union last spring or make cuts elsewhere or hold off on the multi-million dollar boondoggle called “Full Day Kindergarten”, the district has a better idea. They plan to take even more of your money to hire more lawyers tasked with taking you to court!. That’s right! If you appealed your property taxes in 2009 and won you can expect to hear from the district’s newest hired guns.. Come January, the district will be auditioning “tax cert” attorneys tasked with the job of “recouping” money you thought was yours to keep.
Surprise!
The auditions will take place at a special meeting on either January 12th or 19th. Sounds like those meetings are going to be real barn-burners!
As readers will recall, we repeatedly warned on these pages that the District’s budget assumptions were nonsensical, based on the assumption that the assessed value of property would decline just 1.4%, the same as the year before despite the worst economy in decades and a godawful real estate market. We said the effective tax increase would range from 6 to 9%. Lo and behold, the effective tax increase is squarely within this exact range, higher for elderly homeowners on the enhanced STAR program.
The effective tax rate is calculated by adding the actual rate plus STAR exemptions. With the New Rochelle school tax going up by 4.5% and the STAR exemptions cut this year, the effective rate for New Rochelle homeowners ranged between six and nine percent depending on the value of a specific home. The increase could be twice that for seniors who get the Enhanced STAR exemptions.
The “Sue Homeowners for Infinite Taxes” plan has become even more urgent as the District has come to accept the reality that New York State really is out of money and will be cutting state aid to New Rochelle by $3 million. In addition, the state’s Employee Retirement System is increasing the required contributions from 6.5% to 8.5-9.0% which will cost the district an additional $2 million. Oops!
So, after recklessly increasing the budget last spring with residents shouting at them in budget meetings from March to May, the board sits stupefied as Organisciak calls the budget problems “unfathomable”. Really? There was no way to see this coming? Really? So this was impossible to comprehend? Really? You spent a billion dollars over the last five years but not a dime on econometric analysis and budget forecasting? Puh-leeze. A child could have seen this coming.
Chrisanne Petrone ended this segment of the meeting by suggesting that Board members get detailed budget analysis before NEXT YEAR’S budget process begins so board members can make informed decisions. I guess someone has not been paying attention. Board members are to sit like potted plans while school officials prattle on with phony test scores and wildly inaccurate budget numbers. Your job is to shut up and listen. No such analysis will be forthcoming and certainly not made available to the public or their representatives on the school board.
Additional Tidbits from the Board of Education Meeting Last Night
Thanksgiving Day Parade: Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak has determined that people care about the parade and that many children were disappointed not to march this year. Ya think? Organisciak proposed the Board consider becoming a sponsor or the sponsor the Thanksgiving Day Parade next year. So, the District is facing huge budget shortfalls but Richard thinks the BoE should now be in the business of sponsoring parades? You cannot make this stuff up.
Project Hope Food Drive: district schools will be used as collection points for canned goods. Good. Score one for the BoE.
Fund for Educational Excellence Fundraiser: annual fundraised scheduled for December 3rd. Come one, come all. More money for the slush fund.
Huguenot Herald: Six years after I first proposed to the then HS principal that the school create an online version of the high school newspaper (my daughter was previously Editor-in-Chief), the district approved linking a PDF verison of the paper on the district’s web site. In his typically petulant manner, Organisciak described the school paper as a “reliable source…a legitimate source” in yet another childish attempt to discourage residents from relying on Talk of the Sound for information. I guess that means Richard still thinks Vito Costa was not arrested, or district employees were not converting publicly-owned vehicles for personal use, or the high school did not rip pages out of of a novel in a crude form of censorship, or that he did not lie about Project Restart being funded by the United Way or about how many children from Avalon 2 were registered in New Rochelle public schools or that New Rochelle has the worst cafeterias in Westchester or…. I think you get the point.
English Language Learners Conference: This Saturday at IEYMS starting at 9:30 AM there will be 8 presentations, break out sessions and featured speaker Martin Sanchez, formerly of the NR BoE.
NRHS Football Team: the varsity football team plays Saratoga Springs in Kingston, NY on Saturday night.
Death of a Salesman: The New Rochelle Theater group will put on the classic Arthur Miller play over the weekend.
response
again, again, and again, my blog response was well in the range of ann opitnion based on material i gathered as well as the exercise of common sense. And, yes, you called me a liar even if you cover it by charactrerizing present and current examples of what you label as making this us and not for the first time. of course you called me a liar.
i went through your blogs again as well as other frequent bloggers and noted no significant instances of you or others idenfying sources by name.
you should not be looking for an rfp at this point unless the district intends to go through with this matter. I said they haven’t made up their mind; once they do, you will see your rfp.
i have no reason to call the people you cite “liars” — if sara richmond, jeff hastie, lie to me, i will let you and others knnow. would know either if i fell over them.
organisciak has lied, but it was more frequent examples of ineffective bumbling than straight out lying.
we all lie to some degree, but i think the major point of all of this nonsense is to try to wokr to make this a better city. from what i can gather, this will require a lot of work and a lot of luck.it means replacing a lot of people and improveing a lot of wrong headed thinking.
one recent example appears in November 27 issue of the Sound Report subject the “layoffs, Increase of Fees are Options for Lower Tax Rate.” Chuck Strome has taking layoffs off the table and essentially says neither the City Council or Line Operations in City Administration are inerest in budget cuts. The other alternative is lowering the tax rate. Guess which will not happen? — actually both of thtem. This shows the absolute ineffectiveness and lack of business skill of the Council and Strome’s lack of forefulness in making the only potential case for relief which are budget cuts. A few comments.
1. Councilman Stowe mentions cutting employee salaries by 5%. Why not — and yes, there are union contracts in effect, but Strome can and should set into motion a thorough analysis of staff and run the risk of grievances if he can demonstrate the lack of critical necesaary of certain unionized positions. He can also put a plan together for what areas he will collective bargain strongly (like givebacks) when contracts are up.Try taking the grieavance; the TAylor Law works both ways.,,,, no one wil walk off the job. Chuck get a good labor lawyer!
2. why dont the do little council and our good mayor roll back their recent salary increases as a sign of solidarity to the voters. I remember the newly elected council people even going as far as denying when they wwere elected that increases were going into effect. So role them back.
3. the school district can follow a similar format and protocol. take a grievance, take a strike, get rid of extras and do not let Daly and FUSE participate in anything but collective bargaining and grienvaces until they pony up a little teamplay.
4. Strome is right — he can and should expect more from the council. they ask him questions and that seems to be that. get good legal counsel and present the options, draconian or otherwise to the council.
5. Barry Fertel must not have a modicum of experience in financial management. Of course laying off people impacts their lives. Brilliant, not at all helpful. Barry, you got lots of people in New Roc looking for work and who are going to be hurt even more harshly by doing little or nothing. you were elected to provide solutions, not as a morale officer and don’t mistake this for coldness, see it as reality.
6. finally, all i can deduce from Strome’s reponse to Tarantino’s reasonable comment is that department heads are empowered to make judgments. I think Tarantimo probably meant that there were financial implications to promotions; both salary and benefits, and not just rights to set a table of organixation. If that is the case, Carroll should be expected to come up with budget cuts to equal out the costs of the salary and benefit increases. that what is done in scarce times.
So, bob, this is what i am interested in. I dont’t think or know whether any named individual is a liar. If that is so, lets see what the lies contribte to the misfortunes we are experiencing in the city. I happen to want to believe that, for the most part, these are decent people who are making decisions that I, for one feel, are not helpful to New Rochelle. Again, barring some act of fidciary misconduct, etc… it is the power of the ballot box that will make the difference. Here are my oft-repeated views.
1. the school district needs to be turned around — I have hopes that the new board members will strengthen oversight, undertake proper collective bargaining, prepare a proper capital and depreciation plan, and dismiss toxic and incompetent senior middle management staff.
2. the council is not responsive to the city overall or, at least, not communicative of what they believe in and what they are about. For example, I have not heard a single word from any of them on the school budget,not even in the city tax debate. they need to turn this around or be challenged at reelection.
3. I have a fair nubmer of differences with some of the Mayor’s actions, but I believe he is a decent man and I do not find any evidence of malpractice or malfeasion.
If anyone has any evidence on any city official or board member it should be presented in a public forum and be subject to due process.
You see, it was a lack of due process in my situation that caused a lot of bad moments and negative expression from me. I would not want anyone to have to experience that be he or she friend or foe.
I almost yearn for the old days where you could face off against the other side up front and personal and finish it, bury all this negativy and mvoe forward, I am going to try
warren gross
reply to what you are reply to…
Warren,
Readers cannot follow the discussion if you reply to the original post with a reply to a specific comment. Take a moment to look more close at this page and you will see that beneath EVERY comment is a link to “REPLY”. Click that and then paste your reply there.
If you do that in this case, I will delete the above comment (and my reply to it) so that your comment will appear in the right order.
You do not have to do that but if you are taking the right to write a comment I figure you want people to be able to understand it, in context.
Sue Homeowners for Infinite Taxes
frankly, this entire scenario made less and less sense to me. for example, the board is not a taxing authority, it compromises the role of the city assessor, etc… it is not something responsible people do and there are a number of responsible people on the board even if we might not be happy with some of the decisions or outcomes.
i also have a responsibilty to my homeowners, shareholders, etc…. being previously active in the proposal for a commercial tax ratio change (never enacted), i did a good deal of checking around and here is what is likely happening.
1. the district is considering contracting an attorney to offer advice and counsel during certiorari hearings, for example, if the projected award, might seem excessive to the district.
2. this would affect only commercial, not residential establishments and for the most part, large scale awards.
3. the district cannot arbirarily alter the amount, but with presence of counsel, negotiate during the actual proceedings.
4. no retroactive awarded claims would be affected.
5. there is no effect on any commercial or residential corporation or home’s rights to file for Certiorari in the future.
It seems to be a reasonable thing to do unless and until the city decides to sponsor a city-wide reassessment of all properties. I have no issue with it and no reason to believe it is not what it seems to be based on what I am reporting. warren gross
but you made this all up, right?
Warren,
Just to be clear, you have not attended any school board meetings, right? So you have not heard any of the statements that Organisciak has made to the board, right? Also, since it has not been drafted yet you have not read the RFP that Organisciak has said will be drafted, right? In fact, you do not know anything at all about this except what you have now imagined might be the case.
This strikes me as something we’ve seen before from you on Talk of the Sound: you make something up in order to excuse certain behavior of school officials and then seek to discuss it as if your imaginary scenarios are real. In this case, you draw a hard conclusion — what Organisciak has proposed is “a reasonable thing to do” — without having ever been present for a board meeting where the topic was discussed or reading any documents related to the pending proposal.
I am not interested to discuss rationalizations based on imaginary scenarios. It is for this reason that I am encouraging interested readers to take the step of demanding the district make public the RFP for this proposed plan. f you have some specific facts, some hard information from specific sources then by all means share them but it seems your intent is often just to muddy the water in order to give incompetent school officials a free pass.
Made what up?
i just finished drafting and submitting a lengthy response which disappeared in hyperspace.
let me be brief and to the point.
1. you called me a liar
2. your respoonse to me is irrational
3. my sources are (1) someone from the city administration, (2) someone from the school board, (3) three practising real estate attorneys all experience in Ceriorari hearings and all knowledgable in the area of real estate law and NYS Business corporate law.
4. nothing in my blog entry mentions organisciak’s report or an RFP.
5. I took the advice of an earlier blogger who provided a list of email addresses and I contacted people.
6. I have no reason to suspect they lied to me; actually I have my reaponses in writing.
7. As if often the case, you flail out like a madman accusing anyone and everyone of all sorts of indiscretions or crimes if they take issue with any of your labored pronouncements.
8. I searched my prior blog and your prior blog entries and find little evidence that you ever had a positive idea to offer to the readers. I have and this is what I think you label as imagination or “made it up.”
9. the city and the school district are in much need of change — you have been brave and often correct on what you find and report.
10. but, you are a mean little man and personalize everything. It is hard to see anything in the way of a change coming from you — you are too angry, bitter and we end this now.
warren gross
me thinks you doth protest too much
I did not call you a liar and I am not flailing about like a mad man and I did not “personalize” anything. My comment is directed solely at the content of what you wrote.
It is simply the case that you have not been present for ANY of the BoE discussions on this topic at board meetings. There is no RFP or other documents. Further, you did not provide ANY information about the basis for your claims. In fact, you described your claims as “likely” which is precisely why I concluded that you had no actual knowledge. Given these facts this seems entirely reasonable to me. For the record, I also called you, left a voice mail and you never responded.
Only after I pointed out that you offered no basis for your conjecture do claim to have an email from the Board of Education. I wonder why you did not mention that in your original comment? It would certainly seem relevant. It would certainly have changed the nature of my reply to your comment.
I think your over the top reaction and that you failed to disclose that your “source” was the Board of Education makes my point — wittingly or not you are serving as a channel for the district (and hiding the fact until called on it).
That said, I cannot abide your claim to have no reason to believe that information provided by the Board of Education is untrue. Perhaps you have not been paying attention but the numerous lies and deceptions of the BoE are well-documented on this site.
Don’t believe me?
Go call the folks at the NAACP and ask them about BoE President Sara Richmond claiming to have knowledge of “Obama opt-out” letters. Same with board member Jeffrey Hastie. Both have children at Albert Leonard Middle School which sent an “Obama opt-out” letter the first week of school in September.
Go call now-disgraced former Asst. Superintendent Fred Smith who plagiarized two articles for an Op-Ed published in the Journal News while serving as the #2 person in the New Rochelle school district, you can ask him about the report he did on the performance of students at NRHS based on middle school of origin which Organisciak has SWORN does not exist. The board knows all about this and yet refuses to direct Organisciak to turn over the report or answer any questions about it.
Go call the New York State Department of Assessment in Albany about an investigation they did last summer about the district’s improper handling of my son’s Chemistry Regents exam. The district never disclosed they received the results of this investigation or provided me a copy of the letter as I am entitled to under law (any parent can have any school document related to their child). I have been asking about this investigation for over a year yet the board refuses to answer any questions about the investigation, the letter or why I still do not have a copy of it.
Shall I continue?
The idea that anything said by anyone associated with the District can be taken at face value is absurd. These are people who lie constantly. That you would assert this in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary is more of a self-indictment than anything I could write about you or your comments.
Reassessment will devastate New Rochelle
Warren;
Do you realize that reassessment will not raise one extra penny in property taxes? Do you realize it will cost New Rochelle in excess of $2 million to conduct reassessment? Do you realize the properties impacted the most will be the older properties in the south end many of whom are on fixed incomes and can least afford it? Do you realize property values will plummet from increased property taxes? If you want “fair” taxation, dispel the property tax system and adopt an income based system where people pay based on the ability to pay. Individual certiorari is the most basic form of reassessment there is and it works.
Anthony Galletta
proposed suit action
let me see if i understand this. a non-taxing body (district) who must go to the voter for yea or nay on a proposed school tax hike, is considering or planning to bring suit against any homeowner or multiple dwelling shareholder who is successful in a Certiorari action (essentially the role of the City Assessor is even being coopted here). This must be a joke or someone is pumping some funny substance into the meeting room.
This can never happen the way it has been described. At the worst the district would have to get this on a ballot as a proposition — meaning empower them to be able to do this. That will never happen.
The glass half full scenario is that finally, once and for all, the taxpayer; parent or otherwise must finally see through the venality and moral stupidity of a district who even lightly raises this matter in open forum.
we cannot afford to allow any elected representative to slide on this underperforming district. Each council member must come forward and speak. The mayor and city manager must speak. People must know what the raw facts are — (1) per capita costs per student, (2) budget actions taken to alleviate issues, (3) relationships with union and what went on in collective bargaining, (4) middle and long term capital budget plan and its cost implications, (5) 5 year salary history of every exempt middle and senior level staff member, (6) 5 year performance indicators — graduation rates, regents results, state tests for all distict members — including trend lines, comparison to other disticts in county and state excluding major cities like new york, buffalo, yonkers, etc……
again, again, again, you get the government you deserve.
bruce i hope you cover this issue in your upcoming broadcast.
warren gross
Let Them Know How You Feel About This
This just goes to show New Rochelle residents that Superintendent Richard Organisciak and the Entire Board of Education are so far removed for the economic realities and hardships that are facing New Rochelle home owners and residents.
Organisciak should be ashamed of himself for even suggesting that the Board of Education will sue homeowners that appealed their property taxes in 2009 and won so that they can recoup money that’s not even theirs.
This action fortifies my theory that Organisciak and the entire Board of Education are greedy, arrogant, egotistical, money hungry people that care ONLY for themselves. Thay don’t care about home owners, children, students, the schools, the teachers or anything that doesn’t have to do with them. All they care about is SPENDING HARD WORKING TAX PAYER MONEY on DINING, ENTERTAINMENT, TRAVEL, AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT THEY WOULDN’T PAY FOR WITH THEIR OWN MONEY.
You see, it’s okay to send people on an all expense paid trip to China, for a program that hasn’t even started. The Board of Education has approved a trip to China for two, paid for by tax payers. This trip is said to be used for a possible Mandarin CILA program. Why a trip to China? And the two people who are going on this all expense paid trip, Cindy Slotkin and Susan Yom, can’t even speak Mandarin or Cantonese. Wouldn’t the logical first step be to contact the Chinese Embassy and schedule a meeting with them to get valuable information? Of course it would, but then again we are talking about the Board of Education who has an open wallet policy when it comes to our money.
Why didn’t Organisciak initiate salary temporary salary reductions? That’s because he didn’t want to. Why take money out of his pocket and the people that work for him? That would be just wrong!
Now don’t think that Bramson and Strome are free and clear on this one people. They are involved 100%. See here, its okay for The Board of Education and City Hall to go after people that aren’t City Officials. This just proves to everyone that if the City really wanted tax money that was owed to them; they can do anything to get it. But unfortunately we didn’t see this happening to Domenic Procopio, who happens to be the Chairman of the Municipal Civil Service Commission. Mr. Procopio was receiving STAR and Combat Vet Tax Exemptions on two of the many properties that he owns in New Rochelle for over 8 years. STAR Exemption is only available on your primary residency and you must have served in any of the branches of the U.S. Military to receive Combat Vet Exemption. Mr. Procopio NEVER SERVED in any of the branches of the U.S. Military. Bramson and Strome stated that these were clerical errors, I smell cover up.
I urge all New Rochelle Home Owners to contact your City Council Representative an make him fight for your rights. I also urge you to call Mayor Noam Bramson and tell him that he better do something as well and to step down as mayor if he doesn’t!
Call Chuck Strome as well and tell him the same thing! Remember, they work for us, not the other way around!
City Officials
Charles Strome: (914) 654-2140 / Cstrome@ci.new-rochelle.ny.us
Noam Bramson: (914) 654-2150 / NBramson@ci.new-rochelle.ny.us
District #1: Louis Trangucci: (914) 235-0499 / louistrangucci@aol.com
District #2: Albert Tarantino: (914) 633-1985 / ataranti@newrochelleny.com
District #3: James Stowe: (914) 633-1049 / jamescount@aol.com
District #4: Richard St.Paul: (914) 420-6887 / rstpaul@newrochelleny.com
District #5: Barry Fertel: (914) 740-4346 / bfertel@newrochelleny.com
District #6: Marianne Sussman: (914) 740-7385 / mariannesussman@optonline.net
Call them and tell them that something better be done and if nothing gets done, they won’t have a chance come next election day!!!
EDITOR’S NOTE: You might want to try going straight to the source. I recently published a full directory listing of school board members. The Board of Education Members have to vote to approve hiring the “tax cert” lawyers who are going to sue homeowners.
Sara Richmond
School Board President
49 Overlook Cir
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Tel: 914-632-3399
Email: srichmond@nred.org
Chrisanne M. Petrone
School Board Vice President
21 Harding Drive
New Rochelle, NY 10801
Tel: -914-576-4134
Email. cpetrone@nred.org
Cynthia Babcock Deutsch
School Board Member
221 Broadview Ave
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Tel: 914-654-8915
Email: NONE LISTED ON NRED.ORG
David Lacher
School Board Member
46 Sara Lane
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Tel: 914-235-3134
Email: dlacher@nred.org
Jeffrey Hastie
School Board Member
254 Beechmont Dr
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Tel: 914-235-9667
Email: jhastie@nred.org
Deirdre Polow
School Board Member
150 Woodlawn Ave
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Tel: 914-235-3964
Email: dpolow@nred.org
Mary Jane Reddington
School Board Member
56 Wykagyl Ter
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Tel: 914-636-0155
Email: mjreddington@nred.org
Jerome Smith
School Board Member
37 Watkins Pl
New Rochelle, NY 10801
Tel: 914-576-1848
Email: jsmith@nred.org
Quay Watkins
School Board Member
212 Hamilton Ave
New Rochelle, NY 10801
Tel: 914-576-0678
Email: qwatkins@nred.org
You can also contact Schools Superintendent Richard “250,000/yr” Organisciak and Assistant Superintendent for Finance John “$195,000/yr” Quinn here:
Richard Organisciak
Superintendent
City School District of New Rochelle
515 North Avenue
New Rochelle, NY 10801
Tel: 914-576-4300
Fax: 914-632-4144
Email: rorganisciak@nred.org
John Quinn
Asst. Superintendent (Finance)
City School District of New Rochelle
515 North Avenue
New Rochelle, NY 10801
Tel: 914-576-4300
Fax: 914-632-4144
Email: jquinn@nred.org
While it is great to call or write, there is nothing more effective than showing up at school board meetings. The next meeting is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
Board of Education Meeting December 1st, 2009
7 PM COW Session (Carew Room, 2nd Fl. City Hall) Public Welcome
8 PM Regular Meeting (Board Room 2nd Fl. City Hall) Public Welcome
Anyone can come at speak during the public comment period. The BoE By-Laws state that you can reserve FIVE minutes if you ask to be put on the agenda before the meeting. You can get as little as THREE minutes if you do not get on the schedule but simply come. The message — come and speak whether you signed up on not but it is much better to sign up even if you have to cancel at the last minute.
To get on the agenda for the meeting contact Liz Saraiva, Clerk of the Board of Education at LSaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us or call 914-576-4300 or write her at City Hall (City School District of New Rochelle, 515 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10801) or stop by her office.
Who Will Request the RFP for the Tax Cert Lawyers?
As some readers know, Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak has banned me from school grounds, instructed every district administrator not to communicate with me, refuses to comply with the Freedom of Information Law in fulfilling my public records requests and refuses to respond to any of the dozens of questions I have asked at board meetings over the past year (and recently resubmitted in writing).
I know what to do but unless some lawyer is prepared to step up and defend me pro boo I am powerless to respond to the illegal conduct of the administration and the school board.
I need some help in getting records.
Under New York State law the school district must put out an RFP (request for proposal) and hold competitive bidding for a services contract except in the case of “emergency” like a water main break or a roof collapse. There is no emergency here so the district is required to prepare and disseminate an RFP.
That RFP will describe the scope of the activities of the lawyers the district seeks to hire. We want to see that.
The district is already backpedaling on this issue and trying to spin it. They are floating trial balloons like claiming that the lawyers are being hired just to “review” the tax certs to make sure they are all done correctly. Does that even make sense? That they would hire LAWYERS for this? If that is their only purpose why not hire tax accountants? And what happens if the lawyers conclude that some tax cert is not “correct”. Are they going to shake their head, say “gee, that’s too bad that this one is wrong”, and then move on. If that is the case why hire them in the first place? No, you hire lawyers instead of accountants in order to determine whether you have ground to take legal action, in this case against the homeowner.
And how is that hearing going to go? The homeowner will simply point out that the City tax assessor already approved the appeal, that this is the role of the tax assessor and always has been and that for the district to then come back later and demand the decision of the tax assessor be undone is unprecedented.
Meanwhile, we have already reported that at least one City official, Domenic Procopio, failed to pay over $10,000 in school tax due to an improper STAR exemption on his property at 7 Pinebrook Road. It will be an outrage of the highest order if the district spends a dime hiring lawyers to sue homeowners without first going after the $10,000 in school tax Procopio pocketed. That a law-abiding resident would be taken to court after WINNING their tax appeal while Procopio is allowed to keep every penny of the money from his phony STAR exemption is mind-boggling.
Who among Talk of the Sound readers is going to step up and contact Liz Saraiva, Clerk of the Board of Education, and demand a copy of the Tax Cert Lawyer RFP? You can reach her at LSaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us or call 914-576-4300 or write her at City Hall (City School District of New Rochelle, 515 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10801) or stop by her office. Get that RFP and send it to me and I will publish it in full. Let’s not rely on the words of Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak, a man who is well-documented liar, let’s look at the actual document which will form the basis for any contract signed with these vulture shysters he wants to hire to gouge tax payers.
NRHS Herald
A very good school newspaper that is hard pressed to present all the news and opinions that the students have written about. No controversy; no discussion about racism and segregation in our schools; no discussion about inequity between our two middle schools; no discussion about bad teachers or really bad teachers; especially all of the tenured teachers who are simply hanging out and reading to the class while the kids play, text and eat in class; no discussion about drug selling in our schools; no discussion about ethnic segregation in our classes and in our lunchrooms; no discussion about how the football team gets all the glory and money and no other school sports team matter;
You know why there is no discussion? Because Mr. Conetta will not allow it. NRHS is perfect, diverse and happy.
i agree
I am a student at NRHS, and i agree with the above statement. I contribute to the school paper rather regularly, and i see this pattern of “censorship” all the time. For example, last June i worked on an article with a fellow graduate of Isaac Young on how the spread of the academic elite at the high school is weighed heavily towards kids who graduated from Albert Leonard. We used the example of the National Honor Society. In May when they had their annual induction. There were 84 inductees, 4 of which were Isaac graduates, three latinos, and two blacks. Inequality, I think so.
Its simply unethical. And more needs to be discussed about this issue of racial and academic segregation.
Publish Here
My daughter worked on the school paper all four years at NRHS, the last three as editor, ultimately being named Editor-in-Chief. She won two journalism awards from The Journal News. It was during this time that I offered to help NRHS obtain grants from several journalism foundations to create a full-blown web site the Huguenot Herald. I worked with my daughter to craft the proposal and create a position on online editor. At the time I had discussions with the moderator, the principal, and the head of IT for the district and a lawyer for the district.
The proposal was rejected on the grounds that it was a privacy issue for students whose names would appear in bylines on stories. I countered that the solution was obvious, either get parental waivers to allow the students name to appear in a byline and/or attribute the article to “staff”. They also mentioned the privacy of students who would be the subject of stories. Again, the simple solution would be to only write about, quote or photograph students who had submitted a parental release form. For students who would be covered regularly such as a football player or a class officer, obtaining the press waiver would be incorporated into the consent forms already in use.
What I find odd about the decision to now put a “hard copy” version of the paper online is that nothing has changed. Any supposed “privacy” concerns still exist. Meanwhile, I have a letter from Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak which states that it is the position of the district that they have a right to publish information and/or photographs of any student while at school regardless of a consent form.
If you can figure out the logic behind the district’s actions you are smarter than me.
As for censorship, that is your Superintendent’s definition of a “legitimate” news source (i.e., one that is muzzled by the “government”). The U.S. Supreme Court has long-ruled that schools do have the right to censor school newspapers so Mr. Conetta is well within his rights to have final editorial approval on any article. But the Huguenot Herald is a “legitimate” news source in the same was as Pravda was in the old Soviet Union. Yes, some of what they write is accurate but generally they are a propaganda organ of the state.
The New Rochelle school district has operated in a world where media coverage amounts to stories by the New Rochelle Sound Report which bills itself as the “Official” newspaper of New Rochelle (in other words, NOT a journalistic enterprise but a PR vehicle for local government), pitching feel-good PR stories to local TV and Print outlets (i.e. “student bake cookies for homebound seniors” or “famous person addresses school children”), having Mr. Organisciak answer softball questions from Bob Marrone on WVOX or giving dictation to “reporters” from the Journal News (more like stenographers who print whatever lies the district wants published). They are certainly not going to allow the high school paper to challenge that.
That does not mean that there are not good writers and editors at the school paper and if they go on to work in a professional capacity in journalism they will encounter limitations dealing with editors and publishers just that they are not free to make their own decisions of what to cover and how to cover it.
There is a solution.
Talk of the Sound would be more than happy to publish a story on “how the spread of the academic elite at the high school is weighed heavily towards kids who graduated from Albert Leonard” or any other topic. You do not even have to submit it to an editor. You have already registered for an account which means you can publish right here as a blog post. I can assure you that an article on the topic you mention would be promoted to the front page and receive prominent exposure.
Not for nothing but the folks from the BoE and the City government all read Talk of the Sound. If you want to reach the powers that be in this City, with a story like that, Talk of the Sound is the only game in town.
We welcome your article and any others that NRHS students care to submit.
Abandon ship, get out while
Abandon ship, get out while you can, the whole City is corrupt, not just the school district.
Not leaving
Sorry. I intend to stand my ground and expose the corruption. THEY can leave.
Please share your article here
We live in the Isaac district and would appreciate if you could post your article here. The Kaleidescope program is heavily weighted towards AL, too. Your insight from inside the school is invaluable.
Are we closer to the Tipping Point yet?
Looking forward to the long overdue transparency, accountability and equity within the City School District of New Rochelle. Our children deserve better. No more Sun City in New Rochelle. Post the article!