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| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 By Pilar Sokol A school paraprofessional admits that she slapped a student in the face because he refused three times to accompany her to the cafeteria. Another does not challenge a finding that she hit on the head a student who did not do his work properly. Under such circumstances, would a school district have to defend the resulting lawsuits filed against both employees? The answer is yes, according to the New York Court of Appeals in Matter of Sagal-Cotler v. Bd. of Educ. of the City School Dist. of the City of New York. The case arose in New York City, where provisions of the state Education Law and General Municipal Law applicable to New York City schools seemed to preclude such an obligation. But those provisions do not affect a school employee’s rights under other provisions of state law to have legal defense to be provided by their employer, if that would be consistent with other provisions of state law. The Court of Appeals found separate provisions of the state Education Law gave the paraprofessionals the right to a defense. |
| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 Cathy Woodruff New York leads the nation in the number of school-based health centers (SBHCs) and the amount state funding provided, according to a 2011 survey by the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care. Eighteen states have state-funded SBHCs, according to the survey. Leaders in 2011 were New York, which spent $21.76 million on 223 centers, Michigan, which spent $16.5 million on 72 centers, and Connecticut, which spent at least $10.7 million on 81 centers. New York ranked near the middle of the group on another measure, however, with just over 4 percent of all its public schools receiving state-directed money for SBHCs. New York has budgeted $17.7 million to support SBHCs in this fiscal year, said Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond. That reflects a 5.575 percent cut, he said, and the sources include $9.8 million in state aid to localities and funding streams created by the federal Health Care Reform Act. |
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| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 By Cathy Woodruff Whether it’s time for a routine sports physical or a tetanus shot, a wheezing episode that could signal an asthma attack or a sore throat that might be a strep infection, Laurens Central School students don’t have to go far for medical attention. Help is just down the hall. “It’s quality health care right where the kids are,” Superintendent Romona Wenck says of the district’s School-Based Health Center. The Laurens School-Based Health Center (SBHC) is among 19 operated by the Cooperstown-based Bassett Healthcare Network., the state’s largest provider of school-based health care in rural communities. In all, there are 228 SBHCs throughout New York, with three-quarters of the centers operating in urban areas, according to the state Health Department. But the centers also are gaining recognition as a way to reach rural children who otherwise would lack regular access to physical health care and mental health treatment. |
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| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 By Candace Reimer Imagine turning off 23 million 60-watt light bulbs for a 24-hour period. That’s how much energy Erie County school districts will be saving per school year, thanks to a new “end point management system” housed at Erie 1 BOCES. Funded by a $570,500 Governor’s Local Efficiency Grant, the system will save an estimated $2 million annually. An end point management system is a tool that centrally manages computers located in hundreds of buildings. It will automatically power off approximately 94,000 computers located in schools throughout Erie County. Increasingly, the audits from the state comptroller’s office have been focused on missed opportunities for efficiencies, such as energy use in school districts. |
| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 By Merryl H. Tisch In late April, we reached a major milestone in our state’s education reform agenda: elementary and middle school students took new state math and reading tests designed around the Common Core learning standards, rigorous new benchmarks for measuring college and career readiness. The Board of Regents adopted the Common Core standards in 2010, because we believed then as we do now that these standards will allow us finally to get a clear picture of how our students’ progress stacks up against the challenges they’ll face in the wider world – and against the progress of students in other communities and countries who will be competing against them. There is no question that this is the right strategy over the long term. There’s also no question that the introduction of the Common Core is going to cause a bit of in-flight turbulence – especially with respect to these first rounds of test-taking. As I have traveled to school districts, visiting classrooms across the state over the past month, I have heard concerns from educators, parents and students about the new format, stressing as it does critical thinking and close reading skills that in the past went under-emphasized. It’s only natural that there should be some uneasiness about the kind of results produced by a substantially different test. We have always expected that scores will drop initially. But that’s not a sign that our education community is doing something wrong. It’s a sign that we’re doing something right. |
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| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 By Pilar Sokol Owners of taxable property that is intersected by the boundary line between two school districts may designate which district the children residing on the property will attend if the boundary line intersects either (1) the dwelling on the property, or (2) in the case of an owner-occupied single family dwelling unit, the property on which the dwelling is located. In support of their argument that they were entitled to make such a designation, the petitioners in Appeal of Velazquez claimed that they lived in an owner-occupied single family dwelling. Therefore, the boundary line only needed to intersect the property on which the dwelling was located. However, the evidence showed they lived in a multi-family dwelling with three separate and distinct living spaces. Although the three units were occupied by the petitioners and various relatives, “familial relationship is not the determinative factor.” Therefore, the petitioners’ ability to designate a district of attendance depended on whether the boundary line intersected the dwelling itself. |
| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 By Pilar Sokol With the upcoming school board elections and budget votes in mind, school districts are taking extra care to avoid engaging in activities that could be deemed to be improper advocacy. The well-established prohibition against the use of district resources to express “favoritism, partisanship, partiality, approval or disapproval…of any issue” is not limited to advocating a “yes” vote. It also forecloses even subtle promotional activities. The issue in the recent Appeal of Tillet was whether signs that read “VOTE MAY 15 TUESDAY PENFIELD SR. HIGH 6AM-9PM” violated that prohibition. As in prior years, the district placed the signs during last year’s vote and election along various roads and intersections in the district, including along roads bordering district schools and at major road intersections. |
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| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 By Adam C. Hover A student wrestler was injured during a match when his right arm struck a hardwood floor that was exposed after two wrestling mats, which had been taped together, separated and his opponent tripped on them. In his lawsuit against the district, the injured student argued, in part, that the mats had been improperly taped and secured. |
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| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 By Pilar Sokol While acknowledging that a teacher’s termination generally can be subject to the grievance and arbitration provisions of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), a state appellate court recently ruled this was not applicable in the case of a probationary teacher who was terminated after the expiration of a so-called Juul agreement. A school district and a teacher may enter into a Juul agreement to extend the teacher’s probationary appointment for an additional year in instances when the school superintendent decides to not recommend the teacher for tenure. The agreement gives the teacher a second chance to prove his or her worth while allowing the district to grant or withhold tenure at the end of the extended period. |
| On Board Online • May 13, 2013 By Gayle Simidian When reporters from The New York Times looked into attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), they found something rather shocking: 11 percent of school children – including one in five high school boys – have been diagnosed with the disorder, which can interfere with learning. The number of ADHD diagnoses has shot up 16 percent since 2007, according to an article that appeared on the front page of the March 31, 2013 issue of The New York Times. The newspaper used data from a government study of children’s health that included 76,000 phone interviews. The research was funded by a bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s website at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/slaits/nsch.htm. For perspective, On Board spoke with psychologist Steven Kurtz, senior director of the ADHD and Disruptive Behaviors/Disorders Center at the ChildMind Institute (www.childmind.org), an organization dedicated to transforming child mental health through clinical care, research and advocacy. According to the Institute, Kurtz is “one of the nation’s leading clinicians in the treatment of children’s behavioral problems and disorders, particularly attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the social anxiety disorder selective mutism (SM).” |
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