The City School District of New Rochelle has a budget of $231 million yet there is a paper shortage at one of the elementary schools? When I got a call about this I insisted on seeing the actual note. I simply did not believe it.
Sure enough that note was real:
Dear Parents
I am sure that you have noticed that your child has not been receiving weekly spelling packets as usual and that we are using a lot of the worksheets from the math workbook instead of differentiated worksheets for homework. That is because we have had a shortage of paper in our school. Teachers won’t be receiving copy paper until the end of the month. Now that the holidays are approaching we are going to need more copies than can be made in school so I am asking you that if you can, please donate a ream of plain white copy paper to our class it would be very helpful.
Thank you for your continuing support
Incredibly, parents are being told that the reason there children are not being taught spelling is the teachers do not have paper. There is also some issue with their math lessons as well. These same parents, many of them struggling financially, were asked for a similar donation last fall.
Meanwhile, the District continues to dole out highly questionable contracts to a small circle of contractors who are said to be “special envelope friends” of certain Buildings & Grounds administrators.
Although the district employs a FULL-TIME Mason, a company called Wager Contracting was doing work at Isaac E. Young Middle School last December. The work appeared to consist of re-pointing a stone pillar to a gate that is not used and has not been used for decades.
This is not complicated.
If the mason employed by the district is not able to re-point a small stone pillar, get rid of him.
If elementary teachers do not have paper buy them what they need and postpone unnecessary work on an obsolete gate at a middle school.
This came from an educator?
I certainly hope whoever authored that note is not an English teacher.
It’s not just using “then” instead of “than”. The whole note is riddled with misuses, run-ons, and an utter lack of punctuation.
Wow.
School supplies
My daughter came home at the beginning of the year with a list of supplies needed for school. After an hour in Staples and almost $80 in supplies, I thought to myself, doesn’t the school supply the basics? About 2 months into the school year my daughter said she needed new pencils. I asked her what happened to the 2 packs of pencils I bought her a month ago!? Her answer was this, ” I had to put them in the “community bin” so the rest of the class could use them.” Apparently, I had to supply school supplies to those who are “less fortunate”. I work hard for my money. My wife and I both work 2 jobs to try and survive in this City. My taxes are out of control, the City put a wage freeze in effect for its employees, and yet, as a City employee, my salary is flat lined but my taxes keep going up!
There’s an expression- “shoveling crap against the tide.” Basically, no matter how fast you shovel, eventually, you are going to lose and get crap on your feet! This is what it is like to live in this City. No matter how hard you try to better yourself and your family, staying here is a losing battle. I don’t want to get “crap on my feet”,which is why I am house hunting to remove my family from this City. 45 years I have lived here and, to this day, haven’t seen any glimpse of improvement or hope.
You Are Correct But…
Of course you are correct. There is much to do to put the school system right. But, as a former substitute teacher here, I purchased many a supply item and times were good then.
I hope no will work to see that things improve here. But for now, lots of good teachers and many students seem to be doing without.
I am going to pick the closest school and donate as many reams as I can afford without fuss or fanfare. I am going to think that the publication of this unfortunate note will have an impact on Christianne Petrone and a good number of her colleagues.
Again, this is not an approval of the situation but an investment, a meager one at that, in our children and teachers.
This is not the first time I have heard this kind of report
Some years back a parent at Davis School was told the teacher had no chalk, etc. and brought supplies to that teacher. For the small amount of money for copy paper involved it is mind boggling that this situation exists. Do teachers still get Teacher Choice money? Students are usually told at the beginning of the school year to bring notebooks etc. to school. Does this happen in New Rochelle and if it does why can’t a child take a piece of paper from his ringed notebook to copy spelling words?
Its not just notebooks at the
Its not just notebooks at the beginning of the year, its a whole supply list; tissues, papertowels, juice, cups ect.
I beleive its a suggested list though.
I don’t see any reason why the teacher can’t write the words on the board & have all the kids copy them down.
It all seems pretty silly when you think about it. We’re talking about classroom supplies in a system that has a budget of $20 million per month.
I wonder how the school board
I wonder how the school board feels now about giving the superintendent a raise and health benefits for life, when they can’t even afford the basic supplies to educate our children?
School Budget
I work in a big company and the same thing is happening. They are monitoring the copies made, asking people not to do bulk printing, etc. This is the world today.
Everytime something like this comes up we go back to the same argument that there are expenses paid by the school board not warranted.
This is why I vote against the school budget every year, beacuse I just feel there is no accountability for the expenses.
I vote & feel the same
I vote & feel the same especially knowing that the budget is close to $20 million per month!
That’s a lot of coin & I’m not convinced the best & brightest are watching over our money.
This is shameful in so many
This is shameful in so many ways… To begin with, the letter sent out to the parents has an error by using “then” instead of “than”. Though this can be an error by Talk of the Sound, not sure. If not, then these are the fine people New Rochelle has teaching their children. For many of us who pay taxes but opt to send our children to private school, what would New Rochelle do if their classrooms were that much more filled when they can’t even afford paper as it is? As for the on staff mason who was apparently couldn’t fix the point in front of IEY, he’s probably just someone’s cousin who NR has on payroll, yet never even punches a clock… Amazing, huh? What amazes me is that New Rochelle can lend their pool at NRHS to Badger for practically nothing, yet is asking parents desperately for paper. Does anyone not see something wrong here?
typos and misspellings
The errors are those of the author of the note.
That said, as readers will know, I am the last person who needs to be criticizing someone for typos and misspellings 🙂
just saying
How can the mason do his job when he works whith the plumber all day and overtime at night.The B.O.E.D hirerd a second master plumber a few years ago why does the mason still work with plumber? I also can’t understand why the mason gets to work overtime before the the new plumber or the mechanics helper.who is this guy related to that he gets all this overtime.MR COX can you get the overtime salaries list for 2011 school district