FOR RELEASE:  May 16, 2012

CONTACT: David Albert 
(518) 783-3716 or (518) 320-2221 cell
On Twitter: @nyschoolboards

Overall, 96% of school budgets pass

New York State voters approved 96.4 percent of school district budgets on Tuesday, May 15, according to an analysis by the New York State School Boards Association.

“Today’s results are a ringing endorsement by voters of their public schools and place an exclamation point on the fact that local school governance works,” said NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer. 

Initial statewide results gathered by NYSSBA indicate voters have passed 651 of 675 school district budgets.  The number of budgets defeated was 24.

This is the first year school districts have had to contend with a property tax cap. Six hundred twenty-three districts, or 92.8 percent, were at or below their maximum allowable tax levy increases under the cap, and required a simple majority to pass their budgets.  Of those districts, 99.2 percent passed.

FOR RELEASE: May 9, 2012

CONTACT: David Albert
(518) 783-3716 or (518) 320-2221 cell
On Twitter: @nyschoolboards
 -or- Michael Borges (518) 434-2281

As school districts present their first budgets to voters under the property tax cap on May 15, they have cut instructional and non-instructional staff, sports, extracurricular activities and elective courses, as well as maintenance and transportation in order to keep their budgets within the cap.

Those are the findings of a new survey of 403 school districts released today by the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) and the New York State Association of School Business Officials (NYSASBO). 

Based on responses to the survey, the groups estimate that those 403 districts alone will eliminate a total of 4,263 positions, including both teachers and non-teachers, in the 2012-13 school year. 
“School leaders are taking extraordinary steps to keep their budgets in line with the tax levy cap,” said NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer.  “They are negotiating salary freezes, sharing administrators, and outsourcing services.  But that isn’t always enough.”

May 9, 2012

• CALL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS
• Links to:
  • Article featuring an FRN member with his member of Congress
  • Letters to Congress sent to both the House and the Senate
  • Contact your Member of Congress
  • Pass a Resolution
  • Additional Information – ESEA Now!
• WE NEED A NEW ESEA NOW

On Board Online • May 7, 2012

By Paul Heiser
Senior Research Analyst

School boards throughout New York State made tough choices this budget season, according to the results of a survey by NYSSBA and the New York State Association of School Business Officials (NYSASBO). Nearly two-thirds of districts plan on cutting teaching positions, more than half of school districts are set to increase class sizes, and a third will reduce extracurricular activities, including sports.

Meanwhile, the State Education Department (SED) reported that nearly all districts (98.7 percent) plan to use reserve funds to minimize their 2012-13 tax levies. Districts plan to use $1.3 billion in 2012-13 – an average of nearly $2 million per district. (In the current school year, school districts used $1.45 billion in reserves– an average of nearly $2.2 million per district.)

Districts are proposing spending increases of just 1.5 percent, on average, according to state Property Tax Report Card data.

On Board Online • May 7, 2012

By Eric D. Randall
Editor-IN-Chief

NYSSBA has teamed up with the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany to recognize innovative programs in public schools.

The “Be the Change for Kids Innovation Awards” will call attention to new ways that schools are preparing students for the 21st century, including but not limited to programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

On Board Online • May 7, 2012

By Thomas J. Nespeca
NYSSBA President

This year is the first under the state’s new property tax levy cap, and the question on everyone’s mind is: Has the cap “worked”?

The final determination will be made on May 15 when voters across the state cast their vote on local school budgets.  But judging from what we’ve seen, it certainly appears that the tax levy cap has influenced the thinking of school leaders – and others in the school community – as they put together their district budgets.

An overwhelming 92 percent of districts are proposing budgets with tax levy increases at or below their maximum allowable tax levy under the cap. 

On Board Online • May 7, 2012

By Cathy Woodruff
Senior writer

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has handed the members of a new education commission a broad “soup-to-nuts” mandate to produce a blueprint for improving New York students’ academic performance and career preparation.

“Government has failed to do what government should be doing” to improve education in New York, Cuomo said.

NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer described the commission members as “an all-star cast,” but pointed to the notable omission of any school board member among those who will serve.

On Board Online • May 7, 2012

By Cathy Woodruff
Senior writer

The topic of examination quality jumped to the top of the Board of Regents’ agenda after a flurry of news stories about a strange fable on last month’s statewide ELA test.

At their April meeting, Regents questioned how items are being prepared and vetted for future exams.

Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch used the words “troubling episode” to describe a controversy over reading comprehension questions on “The Hare and the Pineapple,” an absurdist story in which a talking pineapple challenges a hare to a race. Students have complained there is no right answer to some of the reading comprehension questions, and plenty of adults – including Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings – have confessed to being similarly dumbfounded. 

On Board Online • May 7, 2012

By Gayle Simidian
Research Analyst

The state Board of Regents expects every public school teacher to teach at least one instructional unit aligned with Common Core standards this academic year, and all English language arts and mathematics instruction is supposed to be aligned to the Common Core standards in the 2012-13 school year. This will require changes in curriculums and, in many cases, new instructional materials, according to a new study from the Brookings Institution called Choosing Blindly: Instructional Materials, Teacher Effectiveness, and the Common Core.

Authors Matthew Chingos and Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst of the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings argue that efforts to improve student achievement and make students college and career-ready is hampered by too little information on what instructional materials are being used by schools. In fact, only one state, Florida, gathers data from school districts on instructional materials.