Friday, June 22, 2012

The Class of 2012 Moves On

The Bronxville School's 90th commencement took place on Saturday, June 16th, with the traditional white gowns, red roses, and dinner jackets on full display. 

The outdoor ceremony featured two students and a parent speaker as well as several academic awards. Melissa Imperiale, Senior Class President, encouraged her classmates to "be a first-rate version of yourself, not a second-rate version of someone else."  Patrick Tine, President of the Student-Faculty Legislature, spoke of the welcoming atmosphere he encountered as a new student.

Bob Flannery, father of graduating senior Dayton Flannery, was chosen to speak by the senior class. "Smartphones are not so smart," he advised the class.
Always keep in mind that “Conversation” is an art form - best
practiced through verbal communication and the use of interesting
vocabulary within structured sentences – those structured sentences
being offered in response to similar verbal communications made by
others while you are both physically present...
And while I’m at it - Gentlemen, I want you to always remember that
the way to a girl’s heart is most often through her mother and father.
A text message to your newest squeeze - that you are waiting in the
car outside her house to pick her up for a date - does not relieve you of
your duty to walk up to the front door to meet her parents!
One hundred twenty three seniors received their diplomas, awarded by Board President James Hudson.
A slide show of the ceremony can be found here.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

SAVE THE DATE: OCTOBER 2 REFERENDUM - Board Reduces Bond by $500,000

This coming October 2nd Village residents will have the opportunity to vote on the school district's plan to renovate Middle School science labs and the auditorium.


At its May meeting the Bronxville Board of Education supported a bond referendum to fund these long-planned facilities improvements. The May proposal was for a bond not to exceed $5 million; in June the Board amended that figure downward to $4.5 million, thus reducing the tax burden on Village residents and relying instead on a construction reserve.


The total capital plan is budgeted at $10 million, and was conceived as a public/private partnership in light of current economic realities. The Bronxville School Foundation, the PTA, and other private sources have contributed $3 million to this effort as a way of adding significant value to a basic scope of work and turning it into a superior design with a larger seating capacity in the auditorium. The remaining $2.5 million is slated to come from the District's construction reserve, which was increased by $500,000 in June.

For more information on Bronxville's capital plan and the related finances, go here.


Saturday, June 16, 2012

Rugani Leaves Board After Nine Years

At the June meeting Rick Rugani completed nine years of service on the Bronxville Board of Education, three as its President. President Jim Hudson acknowledged his many contributions to the school system, especially his mentorship of new Board leaders. Rugani responded by thanking colleagues on the Board, students, teachers, parents, community members (including Thomas Wolff, who attends all meetings) and administrators.  He spoke of the continuing needs for good governance and the Board's sustained efforts to promote high quality education.  During his tenure Rugani played a key role in resolving ongoing construction litigation, recruiting a new Superintendent, several cycles of labor negotiations, and containing costs.

PTA Recognizes Faculty Milestones

At the Bronxville School's annual Recognition Tea, the Council Chairs and PTA President led the ceremonies honoring faculty and staff members for their years of service.  Nina Evison, PTA President, was joined by Jennifer Mackesy, Angela Seminara, and Ashley Hanrahan. Each of them spoke on behalf of the honorees:

30 Years of Service: Anthony Angotta
25 Years of Service: Michael Peragine
20 Years of Service: Dian Grandefeld and Virginia Martin (Teacher Dan Martin spoke on behalf of his mother)
15 Years of Service: Beth Agarabi, Donna Bianco, Marijke Briggs, James Brogan, Elizabeth Fleisig, Virginia Gentile, MaryBeth Gettelfinger, Adele Hoffman, and Adrienne Laitman.

Two retiring staff members, Bob King and Barry Richelsoph, were recognized by Assistant Superintendent John Kehoe and Superintendent David Quattrone, respectively. The event, attended by the full faculty, was hosted by the PTA and its hospitality committees.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Board Approves State-Mandated Evaluation Procedures

After a full year of planning and discussion, the Bronxville School has agreed upon an Annual Professional Performance Review plan as required by the state. The plan required negotiations with both teachers and administrators; unraveling a set of dense, complicated regulations; and a challenging deadline. The requirements themselves were only finalized after a prolonged period of legal wrangling and intervention by the Governor. Each public school district in the state is required to submit its Annual Professional Performance Review plan by July 1 and fully implement it in 2012-13.

The State requires each district to rate each teacher on a scale of 0-100, with 20 points based on state assessments, 20 points based on locally-determined assessments, and 60 points based on classroom observations and other measures. Total scores are classified into one of four rating categories: highly effective, effective, developing, or ineffective.

Bronxville's approach uses the state testing results for both state and local results.For the local component, Bronxville has developed school-wide standards of achievement for all students that apply collectively to all teachers covered by the law.. Advanced Placement and Regents tests are used at the High School. Special challenges arise in areas without any state tests, such as grades K-2, certain high school courses, and art, music, and physical education.  In these areas the district will use either approved third-party assessments or locally designed student learning objectives.  The infrastructure for these assessments needed to carry out this work entails time, training, and additional cost, notably for the purchase of additional assessments and the associated data entry and management.  Test results comprise 40% of the total rating.

The remaining 60% derives from classroom observations and other measures. Danielson's Framework for Teaching, in place since 2006 and updated in 2011, is one of the models approved by the state, and Bronxville will continue to use it.The evaluation process has been revised to conform to the new regulations, including a second unannounced observation for all teachers covered by the law and additional evidence of effectiveness presented by the teacher (such as portfolios of student work, curriculum plans, or newsletters). The final evaluation encompasses planning and preparation, the classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. The ratings on twenty-two separate components are then converted to the sixty-point scale for each teacher covered by the law.

The District APPR also includes design of a teacher improvement plans and an appeals process as required by the law.  The evaluation process for principals follows the same contours as the process for teachers: 20% based on state assessments, 20% on local measures of achievement, and 60% on other measures. Bronxville has selected the Multidimensional Principal Performance Rubric, one of the state-approved models. That rubric addresses principal performance in six domains: shared vision of learning; school culture and instructional program; safe, efficient, effective learning environment; community; integrity, fairness, ethics; and political, social, economic, and cultural context.

The state requirements and local approach will surely evolve with experience, and the adopted plan will be reviewed and revised as needed for 2013-14. Superintendent David Quattrone commented, "We continue to have concerns about the wisdom of using state achievement tests in this fashion and the false precision of reducing the complexities of teacher performance to a numerical scale. Yet we are doing our best to adapt to the new realities, reaffirm our higher aspirations for students that are not captured by standardized tests, and protect teachers' ability to innovate and try new approaches outside the context of performance appraisal."