Monday, December 17, 2012

Finding a Positive Path Forward

Today must have been a tough day to send a young son or daughter off to school. I am happy to report that both our students and staff experienced a strong sense of community; positive regard radiated throughout our classrooms and corridors. What began as a day fraught with challenge and difficulty ended with feelings of warmth and accomplishment.

The Bronxville Teachers Association started the morning with a staff breakfast that set a tone of mutual support. Then, as our students filled their classrooms, Elementary School teachers responded appropriately to any questions that arose, varying with the age of the children. Middle School students participated in a brief assembly emphasizing safety and connections with each other. The High School held a moment of silence and reflection. At all three schools, we have been able to resume the important work of learning and teaching. Yet it is clear that we were not just conducting business as usual, but rather maintaining productive routines with a deeper sensitivity to the very human feelings we share.

While it is natural in these circumstances to experience heightened safety concerns, please know that our building continues to be a place where even minor incidents are rare. As a measure of reassurance and precaution, we expect to continue a low key police or security guard presence for the rest of this week. We have taken steps to ensure continuous coverage at each entry. In the longer term, the events in Newtown will of course lead us to reassess and strengthen our security procedures. We have been in daily communication with Police Chief Satriale since Friday, and some options for the future are already in motion. Our safety committee meets monthly, with representation from teachers, parents, administrators, Board of Education members, and police. In the months ahead I'm sure the committee will be reviewing ideas, concerns, and suggestions in order to select and enact some practical proposals for improvement.

We are grateful for your support and for the positive spirit and resilience that your children bring to the school.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

After Newtown

Events in Newtown break our hearts and challenge our ability to make sense of the world around us. If you shed tears or felt a lump in your throat this weekend, you are not alone.  As parents and educators we share a value in the idea of a protected childhood, but events like the Newtown shootings shake us to our roots and force us to confront our vulnerability and our limits. As we try to comprehend what happened, surely we share a deep grief that binds us, one to the other.

Newtown's proximity amplifies our horror and our empathy.  That school district, not so different from our own, will need time and resources for many years to come, and I have offered our assistance. The long-term impact is unknown but profound.

As we struggle to understand and to help our children understand what happened, we can turn to other resources and expertise. Here are links to guidance from the National Association of School Psychologists and the National Trauma Intervention Programs. Local resources, such as school psychologists and counselors, are available to students, staff, and parents. We assure you that the school staff will remain attentive and vigilant to signs of student distress.

For those concerned about local security measures, please know that our schools continue to carry out a sound safety plan, including entry check points, lockdown drills, surveillance cameras, and security guard services. We have no reason to believe that these tragic events have heightened the risk at our schools. Nevertheless, we have communicated with the Bronxville Police who have already stepped up their presence at the School. Please know that their presence represents a precautionary measure and a way to reassure the public; it does not signify any increased risk or specific problem. We have also made some minor adjustments to our usual protocols for visitors to the school, and we will undoubtedly monitor and reassess current procedures in the weeks ahead.

If you have been following the news, you know that the swift and caring actions of the Newtown faculty and staff saved many lives.  We honor their heroism, expressing the shared commitment to the lives of children that is the hallmark of their chosen profession. In the coming days, I hope we all find strength and comfort in our common humanity and sense of community.

-- David Quattrone, Superintendent of Schools

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Board Accepts $1.95 Million Donation

Peggy Williams, Foundation Director
The Bronxville School Foundation's Final Act Project presented the Bronxville Board of Education with a $1.95 million donation toward the renovation of the School's auditorium. This project was approved by voters this past October and budgeted at $7.5 million.  The donation supplements an earlier $850,000 grant by the Foundation and is separate from the fundraising efforts of the PTA. The fund-raising effort gained additional momentum when an anonymous donor matched contributions up to of $750,000, which is included in the total. Board President David Brashear thanked Foundation executive director Peggy Williams: "I want to thank everyone involved in the fundraising effort and who contributed to the campaign, especially the anonymous matching donor ... All of your gifts are deeply appreciated by this Board and the entire community. I continue to be amazed at the way we work together in Bronxville to make it the best place it can be."

The donation is a major component of the public/private partnership that the Board conceived as a creative way to realize a long-range capital plan in times of financial scarcity. The complete capital plan also includes upgrading Middle School science labs and certain parts of the infrastructure, but those projects are not included in the scope of the gift to the school and will be funded through the approved bonds.

Superintendent David Quattrone thanked project leaders Steven Kraemer, Christine Ftizgibbons, and Jennifer Mackesy, and added, "This gift shows the incredible commitment our community has to providing the children of Bronxville with an excellent education.  The energy and generosity is marvelous to behold, and our students will benefit from this effort for many years in the future.  This project is a once-a-century opportunity, and this particular effort makes it possible to move beyond the adequate to something very special."

District Prepares for Tri-State Visit

Teachers have produced some promising innovations across all grades in connection with our critical and creative thinking initiative, including the following examples:
  • Elementary teachers have visited each others' classrooms, studying the extent to which students and teachers ask high level questions in the classroom. The Board of Education will hear a progress report in January.
  • Geometry students are demonstrating flexible thinking by using multiple methods to verify the Pythagorean theorem.
  • Students are researching  geological formations and producing models, maps, and descriptions that apply their knowledge to a hypothetical situation.
  • Students are creating visual essays that connect the work of Picasso to two works from different time periods and cultures. 
  • Students study the cultural phenomenon of violence as entertainment in ancient Rome through the translation of Latin quotations and the study or related articles. 
These and many other student projects are designed to strengthen student's capacity for higher level thinking.  How do we know if we are accomplishing our goal? To help us answer this question we have planned a three-day visit/consultancy from the Tri-State Commission, scheduled for May 1-3, 2013.

In the past, our accreditation visits from the Tri-State Consortium have focused on a single K-12 discipline - mathematics in 2005 and science in 2009.  This year we are taking a different approach: we are asking the visiting team of educators to assess our critical and creative thinking initiative. Rather than gathering artifacts related to a single subject, we will be assessing our improvement process and the extent to which our professional development work uses the evaluation of student work to inform and improve curriculum design, teaching strategies, and student engagement.  Perhaps most important, all faculty members will play an active role in the visit, not only those who teach a particular subject.

This new approach is an outgrowth of discussions by a working group of the Consortium, the 21st Century Task Force. Other districts using the model include Scarsdale, Weston (CT), Chappaqua, and North Salem. Founded in 1992, the Tri-State Consortium is a group of 43 school districts in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut committed to enhancing student performance. Bronxville was a founding member. 

The visiting team will explore our guiding questions by looking at action research studying the questions students and teachers ask (Elementary School), examples of assured experiences and student work (6-12), observing teacher teams in action, interviewing students and teachers, and visiting classrooms. The three-day visit culminates in a feedback session for the staff, in which the visiting committee asks questions and offers insights and preliminary conclusions about what they have seen. The findings help shape future professional development plans.

Board Explores Project Labor Agreement

The facilities committee met to review design progress.
The Bronxville Board of Education is retaining a consultant to assess the District's eligibility for a project labor agreement. If approved, a project labor agreement would permit the district to hire a single prime contractor to coordinate and manage the various trades involved in renovating the School's auditorium and Middle School science labs.

The Board awarded a contract to Hill International to conduct the study for a cost not to exceed $30,000. The study, a required step in the process, will determine if a project labor agreement would meet thresholds of cost effectiveness and labor unrest. After completion, the report will be reviewed by legal counsel prior to making a decision about whether to move forward with this approach.

Earlier this week the Board's advisory committee on facilities also heard progress reports from KG&D concerning the auditorium and science lab renovations. Architects and school administrators have met with user groups to confirm the program of spaces and the detailed planning has begun:

Auditorium
  • KG&D has completed the exact measurement of existing conditions using laser scanning and 3-D modeling.
  • The lead and asbestos survey has been completed and we are waiting for the results.
  • The engineers will investigate subsurface conditions, study existing pilings and the need for additional pilings. (This is Tom Nichol's area of expertise, and he asked to be a part of the study.)
  • KG&D has determined it would be feasible to convert the Foundation office to a rest room (for boys; there is a girl's room across the hall)
  • The work with the theater consultants has been productive but has been somewhat slower than expected.
Science Labs
  • One of the rooms will remain a general classroom, leaving four labs. 
  • The gas feed will be to the demonstration tables only.
  • One portable fume hood will be purchased.
  • To assure flexibility, the lab tables will be movable, not fixed.
  • All labs will have sufficient wireless access
  • The boys bathroom, which is not handicapped accessible, will be converted to a prep/storage area. Another bathroom is nearby in the crossover area.
  • We will reuse doors and specialized cabinets for goggles and chemicals.
In a separate matter, consultant Bill Aniscovich reported on the current state of the concession stand/maintenance shed/press box project. He expects state approval pending receipt of the electrical engineer's revisions, at which time the district will re-bid this work as a combined project, hoping to lower the cost.  The first round of bids were rejected as all bids exceeded the budgeted costs and available funds.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Mandated Retirement Costs Push Beyond 2% Cap

At its December 3rd budget workshop the Bronxville Board of Education studied three factors affecting the 2013-14 school budget - mandated retirement costs, rising enrollment, and private school transportation. Assistant Superintendent Dan Carlin explained the specific details of each factor. Required employer contributions to state retirement systems are projected to rise $1,099,357. State pension funds require all school districts and municipalities to contribute certain percentages of payroll into these systems; there is no local control of this mandate. For the employee system (ERS), this percentage is expected to rise from 18.9% of salary paid to 20.9%. For the teacher system (TRS), the percentage is expected to rise from 11.8% to 16.5%. The preliminary calculation of $1,099,357 does not include any negotiated salary increments from year to year, so the final number will be higher.  These increases in retirement costs represent a 2.8% difference in the overall tax levy, which exceeds the legislated tax cap by a significant margin.

Rising student enrollment is a second pressure on the budget. Although the overall budget has been relatively flat since 2008, the student enrollment has grown, with 3% occurring in the current year and an additional 2% anticipated in 2013-14. The biggest jump is expected at the Middle School, which is projected to go from 403 students to 420 students. In order to keep average class sizes at the Middle School below 25, the district would need to add the equivalent of a full time teacher. Superintendent David Quattrone mentioned that in the case of the High School, the District had deliberately increased some class sizes in order to introduce certain electives. He added that staff additions involved multiple variables, including impact on space, teacher quality, ripple effects on other programs, and long-term demographics.It is not clear that the district can afford any staff additions in the present context.

A third budget factor is private school transportation.  The state requires the district to transport students who reside in Bronxville to private schools within a fifteen mile radius. The costs of this service have  declined over the past three years, dropping from $556,707 to $384,200. This drop reflects the fact that fewer Bronxville students are currently using this service (74 in 2009, 57 in 2012) and also favorable contracts recently negotiated with transportation providers.  Bronxville now participates in a consortium with Eastchester, Tuckahoe, Pelham, and New Rochelle, coordinated by BOCES.  The Board's analysis and discussion focused on opportunities for reducing costs and optimizing service, and Carlin provided a detailed analysis of the transportation logistics involved for each private school and the potential cost savings. Private school parents in attendance expressed concern about potential reductions in current service, turning instead to public transportation. Board President Brashear responded that the Board intends to be sensitive to such issues as age of student, length of ride, safety, and specific circumstances, but remained hopeful that some efficiencies could be found.

This workshop followed an earlier session in September that focused on the use of reserves and long-range planning.  The next workshop will occur on February 9, at which time the Superintendent will present a rollover budget  -- what would it cost to run the same programs in 2013-14? -- for the Board to consider.