Friday, April 15, 2011

Board Adopts Flat Budget

At its April meeting, the Bronxville Board of Education continued on its path of fiscal restraint, adopting a 2011 budget of $43,604,187. This budget represents approximately a 0% budget-to-budget increase, a 0% tax levy increase, and, because of reductions in assessed value, an estimated 3.17% increase in the tax rate. Expenditures have been flat since 2008-09, when the budget equaled $43,631,140.
Over this period of time, cost containment has been accomplished through a combination of approaches, including voluntary wage concessions, retirement incentives, not replacing certain vacancies, and outsourcing the custodial function. At the same time, the District has been able to maintain average class sizes in the low twenties and signature programs such as elementary science specialists, instrumental music, K-8 skills, and electives and advanced courses at the high school. The proposed spending plan for 2011-12 adds two additional teaching positions in order to reduce elementary class sizes at grades 3 and 4. The budget also includes targeted reductions in the clerical staff (2.4 positions), 1.0 teaching assistant, freezing two top salaries, and various adjustments in non-instructional areas. Overall staffing was 257.7 in 2008 and is projected at 222.1 positions in 2011 – a reduction of 13.8%. The Board has also applied $840,000 of reserves
in order to offset tax levy increases. The April budget presentation can be found here.

The Board is also taking a long view toward future needs. Responding to the most recent building conditions survey conducted by our architects, the Board of Education has developed a five-year capital plan. This plan addresses various infrastructure needs and contemplates renovations of our auditorium and middle school science labs. In order to fund such projects, the Board wishes to establish a construction reserve.


The Board has also expressed an interest in exploring possible cost savings that could arise from program redesign, school consolidation, service delivery models, and administrative changes. These options will be analyzed this coming fall.

Seven Achieve Tenure

The Bronxville Board of Education has awarded tenure to seven faculty members recommended by Superintendent David Quattrone: Joseph Alaimo (ES), Dan Carlin (Assistant Superintendent for Business), Greg DiStefano (MS Technology) Joseph Donaldson (ES Physical Education), Deirdre Doyle (ES), Michael Mari (MS Latin), and Jennifer Zopp (MS Science).

Quattrone explained the tenure process:

When teachers first come to Bronxville they are hired for a three-year probationary period. There is no expectation or obligation of continued employment beyond that point.

Probationary teachers are formally observed in the classroom a minimum of three times annually, including a planning conference before the lesson and a reflection conference after the lesson. The evaluation system involves 22 separate ratings related to planning and preparation, the classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. The district annually publishes the names of all probationary teachers, inviting the public to submit written comments by March 1. The overall evaluation of a teacher encompasses not only formal observations but also a consideration of collaboration with colleagues, leadership, and contribution to the school as a whole.

In the tenure year, teachers are evaluated by multiple observers, and administrators confer to compare appraisals and review progress.
Consistent with state law, only the Superintendent can make a recommendation for tenure.

Board policy states the standard for tenure: “Appointment to tenure will be made upon recommendation to the Board by the Superintendent. The Board will base its tenure decision on consideration of whether the candidate is worthy of permanent appointment in a school of excellence in accordance with Board approved evaluation procedures. Tenure will be granted only to candidates who have demonstrated outstanding ability and who have met the highest professional standards. In case of doubt, the Board will not grant tenure, even at the risk of losing a teacher who might have proved outstanding.”

Critical Thinking in Action

At the April Board meeting, Chris Doyle, 6-12 curriculum leader for social studies, Glenn Stockton (MS), and Christina Reidel (HS) presented a video of eighth graders and upperclassmen discussing questions related to the US Constitution. The exercise showed how students at the two levels demonstrate critical thinking. The students discussed the competing priorities of freedom ("securing the blessings of liberty") and security ("providing for the common defense"), justifying their opinions with historical examples. The twelve-minute video can be found here.

This presentation was the second in a series of "Curriculum Conversations" designed to show how the district faculty is addressing the higher order thinking skills that have become the focal point of Bronxville's three year "global initiative." (Science was the topic of the February presentation.) This year's work emphasized essential questions developed at the beginning of the year.

To what extent do our students think critically and creatively about the world around them and their place in it? Does your instructional plan encourage students to:
  • Identify authentic problems and significant questions?
  • Gather, analyze, and synthesize information from multiple sources?
  • Apply what they know to generate new ideas, products, or ways of doing things?
  • Make informed decisions or identify alternate solutions to complex, globally relevant problems?
  • Take constructive action?
The K-12 faculty recently completed two conference days devoted to continuing this work. Eighty-nine percent rated the sessions as excellent, stating that "the work that was accomplished will have a positive impact on student learning." In addition, 78% of the faculty expressed strong agreement that "Creating instructional strategies and performance tasks that encourage student to develop critical think skills, creativity, initiative and responsibility are important tasks for my grade level/department to address at this point in time."