BOARD GAMES: My search for transparency and accountability at the New Rochelle Board of Education

This article is the first in an ongoing series that will follow the activities of the New Rochelle Board of Education. I will try to provide an honest and fair report of the issues that affect all of us in the community and our children.

YOUR RIGHTS AND THE DIGNITY ACT

Did you know that New York State enacted a new law called the “Dignity for All Students Act”? It became effective this past summer and our schools are required to comply with it. In short, the law mandates a ZERO TOLERANCE FOR BULLYING.

If you are a parent in the school system you should brush up on this law and know your rights! Contact me through Talk of the Sound and I will get you a copy of it.

Our New Rochelle School District Code of Conduct must be amended to include the new law. In fact, New York State suggested that School Boards start working on this early so they would be able to change their Codes before the law took effect on July 1, 2012. Our Board of Education reviewed our Code in August, AFTER the law had taken effect.

At the most recent BOE meeting, held earlier this week, the Board voted to approve the newly revised Code of Conduct which includes the Dignity Act. But they also dropped a bombshell: they intend to abolish the Board’s existing Anti-Bullying policy (policy #5535).

“So what?” you ask. The Dignity Act already covers bullying so this policy appears redundant. Well, here’s the problem: the Code wasn’t rewritten to include the protections we were given in the existing anti-bullying policy. In particular, the protocols for reporting and investigating an incident are much harder for a parent to understand.

The school’s anti-bullying policy says we should report an incident to a teacher, administrator, or Principal. That individual will investigate, write a report, share the report with the Superintendent, and follow up with the parents. It’s very clear and it’s all written in plain language. If a child was bullied, we knew what to do.

Next week the BOE will vote to abolish this policy, leaving us to rely on the confusing language used in the Code of Conduct to figure out what to do if we need help with bullying. Here’s what it says:

“The reporting and investigative procedures created pursuant to the Board of Education’s existing policy with respect to sexual and other harassment shall be utilized for concerns raised under the Dignity for All Students Act.”

What? What does that even mean? It means if you have a problem, go look at some other policy. But what policy? What’s the name of the policy? Where can I find the policy? Does the policy have a number associated with it so we can easily find it? How about a web link?

After some digging, I found the relevant policy and that presented more problems. It tells us that we can make our complaint to our school’s “Human Rights Coordinator”. But the Dignity Act says schools should use a Dignity Act Coordinator to help with these issues. The two policies appear to conflict with one another. Worse, I’ve never even heard of a Human Rights Coordinator. I asked the Board who fills this position at my children’s school and they responded with silence. I also looked on the staff directory at the High School and found nobody with that title.

So to sum up, last week we knew who to go to if our child was bullied. After October 2nd, when the BOE votes to abolish its anti-bullying policy, we will have no idea who is supposed to help us.

One New Rochelle resident, who is also an attorney, made comments about this publicly to the Board and its legal counsel. I commented on it as well. They have been made aware that the Code of Conduct is not in compliance and needs to be revised. I’ll report back when they address this.

FINANCIAL CONCERNS

Turning to financial matters, the Draft resolutions for the next BOE meeting include a transfer of $925,000 out of the employee benefits budget to pay for tax refunds. I have long noted that the administration pads the employee benefits line in the budget with extra funds that are used to pay for other things during the year. This was brought up as an issue by the Citizens Advisory Committee as well. Here we can see this happening live, before our very eyes. We will never run the school system efficiently if we don’t budget for our costs accurately. This remains an ongoing problem that the BOE has so far refused to address. Slush fund budgeting leads to waste and fraud.

This week the BOE approved the hiring of 6 teaching assistants who were previously let go. I asked the Board if they accounted for each teaching assistant at $67,000 per person, and if so, where they found the $402,000 needed to pay for these positions. They said they would get back to me.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

In addition to reporting on the activities of the Board, this column is going to keep a running list of outstanding questions that have been made by the public but not yet answered. I will report back to you when the BOE does follow up with answers to these questions.

I find it odd that the BOE acts so stoically at these meetings. These are our elected representatives. They asked for this job and worked hard to win our votes, but they sometimes appear annoyed or defensive when the community asks questions. Their responses, or lack thereof, cause many of us to suspect something funny is going on, so we ask more questions and sometimes get frustrated ourselves. It is a negative cycle of mistrust caused by a lack of transparency.

I hope this column will add transparency to the process and help to educate the community on our successes and failures so that we can work together to make our School District the best in the country.

A COMPLIMENT TO THE BOARD

At the last meeting the Board invited Jeffrey Kehl, its outside legal counsel, to attend. Very often the Board is unable to answer community questions until they consult with counsel. But at this meeting Mr. Kehl was able to address questions about the process behind revising the Code of Conduct and the reasons for abolishing the anti-bullying policy (he feels it is already covered by the new Code). It was very helpful having him available to speak at this meeting and I hope the Board will choose to include him at all future meetings.

Look back here for a report on the next BOE meeting which takes place on October 2nd at City Hall. Better yet, go to the meeting and see for yourself how the sausage is made! I’ll see you there.

Adam Egelberg, CFA