Friday, January 18, 2013

Stepping Up to Questioning

At the January Board of Education meeting Superintendent David Quattrone introduced administrators Heidi Menzel and Adrienne Laitman, who presented the Elementary School program for critical and creative thinking. Their presentation focused on the effort to strengthen higher level questioning in the classroom. Ms. Menzel showed video clips of fourth grade students analyzing reading texts and classifying the kinds of questions they were asking.  The goal is for both students and teachers to work with a full range of questions, including both factual recall questions about a particular book and evaluation/reflection questions that require students to go beyond the text.

The program, which was developed by curriculum leaders over this past summer, is called Stepping Up to Questioning. The professional development approach to this work is called lesson study, in which teachers collaborate to develop high quality lesson plans. Peer observation is a key component of the process. Lesson study, first developed in Japan, is a common practice in high-performing school systems in East Asia.

Another aspect of this work is action research. In order to develop solid evidence about student progress, Elementary teachers worked with students from Concordia who recorded classroom data about the range of questions asked by students and teachers.  The data was then analyzed for patterns and incorporated into lesson planning.  This work will be highlighted for the Tri-State Consortium visit scheduled for early May. Quattrone characterized the work as "state-of-the art and highly consistent with established best practice."

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Architects Complete Design Development

Assistant Superintendent Dan Carlin reported that KG&D architects and the associated design team have completed the design development phase of the District's capital plan, encompassing science lab and auditorium renovations.  He presented a preliminary construction schedule, calling for submission of plans to the state in April 2013, the awarding of bids this coming fall, and substantial completion by December 2014.

Dr. James Hudson, chair of the Board of Education's advisory committee on facilities,  cautioned that the time required for State approval is a variable, injecting uncertainty into the schedule. He said that the architects would also present the plans and an updated budget estimate to the full Board of Education prior to submission to the State.

At the January facilities committee meeting Russ Davidson and the design team from KG&D presented the completed drawings. The next phase entails construction specifications and new estimates of the cost of the project based on the more complete drawings. The architects hope to submit the drawings to the NY State Education Department in April. The project schedule allows a seven-month period for review, revision, and approval of the drawings.

Parallel to this work, the District has enlisted the services of a consultant to investigate the feasibility of using a project labor agreement as a way of managing construction.that report is expected in the next few weeks and will be reviewed at the next committee meeting.

Board Approves Administrative Offer to Freeze Wages and Teacher Retirement Incentive

Facing pressures that push the preliminary 2013-14 school budget above the mandated tax levy cap, the Bronxville Board of Education took two significant cost containment steps at its January meeting.

The Board accepted an offer by the administrators' bargaining unit to freeze wages for two years. The group came forward with a proposal to extend their current contract, with no wage increase and no merit pay in 2013-14 and merit pay only in 2014-15. Superintendent David Quattrone stated that the proposal was responsive to current fiscal realities and enabled the District to plan without prolonged negotiations. In 2010 the administrators came forward with similar concessions, slowing down previously negotiated wage increases over a two-year extension.

The Board also endorsed a retirement incentive crafted by the BTA and the administration. The incentive repeats a plan made in 2011 in which teachers announcing their retirement by February 8 are eligible for a $25,000 payment. The plan requires a minimum of three teachers to participate.  The cost effectiveness of this plan comes from anticipated salary savings as new, less experienced teachers move into vacated positions.

These two cost containment steps come at a time when the budget is expected to rise by about 4%. This represents about $2 million in new money, half of which is attributable to mandatory retirement system contributions. (As Assistant Superintendent Dan Carlin explained, any increase in retirement contributions above 2% is exempt from the tax cap, so in Bronxville's case the functional cap is actually over 3%, but that does not alter the main tax levy impact of the additional funds required to sustain current programs.)

The preliminary budget will be presented at a workshop open to the public on Saturday, February 2nd at 9:00 AM in the Multi-Purpose Room. (This is a change from the printed calendar.) At that time, the Board will review the projected expenditures and possible reductions, including the savings agreed to at the January Board meeting.

Update on Security

At the first Board meeting of the new year, President David Brashear began with a moment of silence to honor and remember those who died in the Newtown shooting. He expressed support for the District's efforts to "uncover opportunities for improved security" and encouraged residents to observe established procedures at the school. This set the stage for Assistant Superintendent John Kehoe's report about Safety Committee deliberations. The Committee meets monthly and includes representatives from the staff, parents, Board of Education, fire and police.

Dr. Kehoe began by acknowledging the heightened sense of vulnerability stemming from  the cumulative effect of violent events over the past year. These concerns are juxtaposed with a long tradition of openness at the school, including open access at pick-up and drop-off times and open campus at lunch times. Dr. Kehoe explained that the District has a comprehensive safety plan and went on to describe what improvements would make sense in our local context. Current approaches include (but are not limited to) greeters at each entry, security cameras, after hours security services, regular drills, swipe card readers to control door access, and an upgraded public address system.


Several additional options were discussed at the Safety Committee's most recent meeting:
  1. Increased police presence on campus, including fields and ground protection.
  2. New technology, including panic buttons at each major entrance, permitting direct emergency communication with the police station; buzz-in systems; and further use of swipe card access.
  3. Changing access at certain entrances before and after schools
  4. More after-hours security
  5. Police access to school security cameras in the event of emergency.
Some of these items are relatively easy and inexpensive to implement. Other options will require additional feedback and dialogue, and the discussion will continue at the next regular Safety Committee meeting in February.