On Board Online • May 20, 2019

By Paul Heiser
Senior Research Analyst

St. Lawrence County, located northeast of Lake Ontario along the St. Lawrence Seaway, once had a vibrant industrial sector. The area was home to Reynolds Aluminum, Alcoa, General Motors and Jones and Laughlin Steel Company, among others. But as those companies downsized and/or shuttered their doors, people have steadily migrated from the area in search of better opportunities.

On Board Online • May 20, 2019

By Merri Rosenberg
Special Correspondent

Swastikas painted on lockers. Anti-Muslim flyers strewn in parking lots. Racial slurs shouted at an opposing team during a sports event. These and other distasteful and disturbing events have occurred in school districts in New York State.

As recently as mid-April, flyers displaying Aryan slogans and racist imagery were disturbing residents in the Lewiston-Porter Central School District in Niagara County.

On Board Online • May 20, 2019

William Miller
NYSSBA President

Ronald Reagan once famously said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"

I think of that quote whenever I see another heavy-handed mandate come down from the state or federal government. I call it "helicopter governing."

I'm sure you're familiar with the term "helicopter parenting." It refers to an unhealthy method of parenting that is over-controlling, over-protecting, and over-perfecting, in a way that goes well beyond responsible parenting.

On Board Online • May 20, 2019

By Belinda Heckler
Governmental Relations Representative and Grassroots Advocacy Manager

School board members, superintendents and other school advocates from around the state participated in a NYSSBA -organized lobby day at the state Capitol on April 30. The topic: allowing school districts to decline the designation of schools as polling places and allowing districts to move district votes out of school buildings.

On Board Online • May 20, 2019

By Jennifer Merkel

A program that infuses the curriculum with theater, music, arts, dance and visual media has earned the Gates Chili Central School District an award from the National School Boards Association.

A partnership between the district and the Rochester Broadway Theatre League (RBTL) was identified as an exemplar for removing barriers to achievement for vulnerable or underserved children. The district received a Magna Award for equity in education at NSBA's 2019 Annual Conference in Philadelphia.

On Board Online • May 20, 2019

By Jeffrey Mongelli
Senior Staff Counsel

Generally, school districts have broad discretion in assigning duties to teachers, provided the assignment does not infringe upon a teacher’s tenure rights or is otherwise legally impermissible (i.e., be disciplinary in nature, violate a contractual provision, or be affected by other factors such as “malice, bad faith, gross error or prejudice”).

In Appeal of Jane Doe, the commissioner of education reviewed a case in which a school district assigned a tenured math teacher to seven non-teaching duty periods of supervising students serving in-school suspensions.

On Board Online • May 20, 2019

By Shubh McTague
Staff Counsel

Children are entitled to attend public school on a tuition-free basis within their school district of residence. But what about children who live on a property that is intersected by the boundary line between two districts? In which of those two districts are they entitled to enroll tuition-free?

The Education Law provides a seemingly straightforward answer. The owner of the property has a right to designate the school district of attendance when the boundary line intersects the dwelling on the property. In the case of an owner-occupied single-family dwelling unit, the property owner can choose as long as the boundary line crosses any portion of the property on which the dwelling is located.