On Board Online • September 23, 2019

By Eric D. Randall
Editor-in-Chief

Anthony Omoruan, 32, is proud to be one of 200 new school resource officers who started work in public school districts in New York State this year.

The seven-year member of the White Plains Department of Public Safety was selected among 20 applicants for his posting at the White Plains City School District.

"It was an honor," he said. "Being an SRO used to be viewed as a step before retirement. Now it's seen as a really important role.

On Board Online • September 23, 2019

By Merri Rosenberg
Special Correspondent

Amid concern about how a new vaccination law will affect school enrollments, school administrators say the opening day of school was uneventful. But many are uncertain about what Day 15 will look like.

Despite a new law ending religious exemption from vaccinations, unvaccinated children were allowed to start classes this fall. However, children may remain enrolled in school only if they have received the first doses of appropriate immunizations within the first 14 calendar days after instruction starts, according to a law Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed on June 13.

On Board Online • September 23, 2019

William Miller
NYSSBA President

This is a great time of the year to brag a little about life in rural upstate New York. Nothing beats the taste of a homegrown tomato from the backyard garden or the crunch of a fresh-picked McIntosh apple from an orchard down the road.

Rural communities tend to be tight-knit places where people are proud of their history, value civic involvement and enjoy easy access to wonderful lakes, rivers and mountains. While 8 of 10 Americans live in urban areas, a 2018 Harvard study showed that, in the words of The New York Times, "most rural Americans are pretty dang happy and hopeful."

On Board Online • September 23, 2019

By the New York State Association of School Attorneys

Religiously-based exemptions from the vaccination requirements for student attendance in school have been eliminated in New York State. That significant change to the state Public Health Law presents an opportunity for school districts to re-familiarize themselves with the only remaining basis for an exemption to the immunization requirements: the medical contraindication.

Public Health Law Section 2164(8) provides that "[i]f any physician licensed to practice medicine in this state certifies that [a required] immunization may be detrimental to a child's health, the requirements of this section shall be inapplicable until such immunization is found to no longer be detrimental to the child's health."

On Board Online • September 23, 2019

By Cathy Woodruff
Senior Writer

As they crouched over a net laid along the bank of Carrs Creek, Sidney high school students Kaitlyn Brown, Adrienne Paternoster and Daressa Stevens concentrated, one at a time, on the little larvae they'd moved to an aluminum pan for closer examination.

Slowly, they worked through the questions posed by science teacher David Teitelbaum, and they compared their catches to the images they found on a laminated page and the screen of Teitelbaum's mobile phone.

Does it have a shell? How about a worm-like body? Is it segmented? Are the legs long and spindly? Are those legs or tails? Is it caterpillar-like? Do you see the head - is it armored?