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     When the question was posed, "What can we do to improve the schools?" I began to recall research studies, political agendas,and examples of schools that have experienced significant improvements.  Laura Pappano’s "In School Turnarounds, the Human Element is Crucial" (online 10/20/10) comments, that in reform efforts, "It is people who bring the strategies to life."  She continues, in 2001 a new principal, Anthony Smith, of an Ohio high school given the lowest rating of "academic emergency" was able to turn the school around so that it earned the highest rating, "excellent." 

     How you may wonder did he do it?  First he went "door to door in the neighborhood" asking for support.  He met with teachers and asked what worked and what was ineffective.  Then he challenged them by saying if they were not "ready" to help the students they should not return to school after lunch.  But all of the teachers returned.  Smith did not fire or remove any staff members.  He gained the support of Bell’s chief executive who promised every student with a "3.3 grade point average" a cell phone and a laptop. 

      The businesses in SoNo New Rochelle met on September 20 to talk about the murder of a twenty year old, Kevin Williams. on September 18 in downtown New Rochelle. Jim Killoran, Executive Director off Habitat of Humanity, as Chairman of he SoNo New Rochelle group in downtown opened the meeting by promoting New Rochelle as one of the best downtown’s in America.  He called it our Times Square, but  then pleaded for a police presence in this downtown area. He asked the people gathered to form a safety committee  to volunteer to patrol the area.  He stated if he had seen someone with a butcher knife at 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon (referring to the murder), this incident could have been prevented.  Complimenting the police force, he said the were needed in downtown.  Since there were eight police outside of 311 North Avenue, he thought it was not "unreasonable" that these police could get out of their cars and onto Main Street "all the time."  Killoran asked everyone to pray for the victim’s family and opened the discussion on this issue.  He lamented we don’t want these things happening in the area.  He opened the discussion to those present.

As we continue to look at the City School District of New Rochelle Full Day Kaleidoscope, we were interested in learning its racial/ethnic composition. In “For Children Attending South End Schools, the Full Time Kaleidoscope “Windows” Still Remain Shut”, we previously reported that 50 of the 65 students invited to the District Full Day Kaleidoscope Program were from the North End Schools. Only 15 students who attend South End Schools were invited to apply. Since we reported this same disproportionate pattern of unequal representation of North End/South End in 2008, and since the City School District has done absolutely nothing to address it, we decided further examine the issue. If the numbers were not what they are, there would be no reason to shine a big bright light on the issue. We believe that the Kaleidoscope program exemplifies how students are typically tracked in the South End schools of New Rochelle.

My recent remarks to the Board of Education

Before I begin tonight with my prepared remarks on the importance of educators in New Rochelle to serve as role models for children I wanted to mention that the City of New Rochelle intends to begin televising meetings of the IDA, Planning Board and Zoning Appeals Board in the same way as the City Council – live and archived on the web.

When first raised some on the City Council expressed concern as to the cost of wiring the meeting room at Beaufort or the cost of televising each meeting. As it turned the entire annual cost turned out to be about $8,000. A small price to deliver transparency and fulfill the promise of our democracy.

I know some on this board take a perverse pride in preventing live televised coverage of Board of Education meetings (hint: Deidre Polow) but for those who reject this Anti-American and even Stalinist mentality, I would encourage you to deliver on Mr.

Today is election day for the three candidates running for two school board seats. By default, the winners should be challengers Lianne Merchant and Valerie Orellana.

Incumbent Jerome Smith, who no longer has a primary residence in New Rochelle, is ineligible to serve on the board but refused to withdraw from the race after Talk of the Sound disclosed Smith’s failure to meet the district residency requirement.

If ever the school budget were to be defeated this would be the year. There has been a noticeable absence of lawn signs supporting any of the school board candidates and just a sprinkling of “vote yes on the budget” signs. Many parochial and private school voters, upset over the proposed service cuts for 6th graders, have organized to oppose the budget including a “vote no on the budget” online petition.

Current school board member Jerome Smith will be competing against at least two first time candidates for the New Rochelle Board of Education.

At the school board meeting at Albert Leonard Middle School on March 23rd, Valerie Orellana of 12 Belleview Place announced her intention to run for school board. At the most recent school board meeting at Trinity School, Lianne Merchant of 99 Cortlandt Street announced that she intended to run for school board. The three candidate are all from districts that send students to Albert Leonard Middle School, Smith is from Webster District and both Orellana and Merchant are from Ward District.

Currently, 7 of the 9 members of the school board are from one elementary school district – Ward. If both Orellana and Merchant were to win, that would make 8 of 9 board members from the Ward District with one from the Trinity District.

Currently, the elementary school districts of Jefferson, Columbus, Lincoln, Davis and Barnard have no representatives on the school board and if Smith loses Webster would lose its only representative. Most of these district have not had board representation in many years. In a very real sense, the school district is run by a super-version of the Ward PTA.

We continue to receive numerous reports from individuals and parents on the negative substandard climate children are subjected to in the Trinity School cafeteria. Some of these reports include screaming, yelling and berating on the part of adults directed toward our children. If this is true, it’s probably not such a bad thing for the fourth and fifth graders to have only 15 minutes to stand in line, purchase and eat their meals.

The fact is that our children are being socialized to behave like animals. Some will argue that this is not true or simply an exaggeration. It is not difficult to conclude that there is a direct connection between how adults treat our children and how the children behave while they develop their self-image. If you treat them with dignity and respect, they will behave in a dignified and respectful manner. The opposite is also true.

Last week, I was speaking to a former student from New Rochelle High School. He happens to be a Latino student from the West End of New Rochelle. He is now 23 years old. I asked him about his experience at New Rochelle High School. He commented about the low expectations some of the staff at New Rochelle High School had for him. Also, when it came to applying for college, how he was steered towards a community college. He further commented how an overwhelming majority of Latino friends were also are steered towards 2 year community colleges instead of four year institutions.