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| On Board Online • April 23, 2018 By Cathy Woodruff Under a change approved by the state Board of Regents, schools will be counting instructional time in hours, not days, in the 2018-19 school year. The change will give districts more flexibility for delivering the required amount of instruction, still within a minimum of 180 school session days. For instance, a district could schedule a half-day of instruction to make up time lost to an early dismissal or snow day. | ||||
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| On Board Online • April 23, 2018 By Julie M. Marlette The final enacted state budget included a proposal many feared but few thought would be included: a requirement that every school district report to the state the amount budgeted per pupil in each school building. The reporting requirement will be phased in over three years. If a given district's report is found incomplete or noncompliant (or is not received), the district's state aid increase can be withheld until the report is deemed compliant by both the state Division of the Budget (DOB) and the State Education Department (SED). | ||||
| On Board Online • April 23, 2018 By Cathy Woodruff The enticing whiff of rebellion that once drew many students to sneak their first cigarettes has faded over the last 20 years. But there's a new fad with the power to launch nicotine addiction: vaping. A term referring to the use of devices that deliver flavored vapor to the lungs, vaping is wooing a new generation of teens who shun traditional cigarettes. | ||||
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The new state budget delivers a school aid increase of $859 million despite a tight fiscal year. Competition for state funding was particularly fierce, and we thank lawmakers for making education a high priority again this year. | ||||
| On Board Online • April 2, 2018 By Pauline Liu In the wake of deadly shootings in Parkland Fla., school districts are re-examining "target hardening," a police and military term for using architecture, technology and procedures to make it more difficult for an intruder to gain entry to a school building. "We can always do more to harden our buildings," John Perrino, president of the Middletown school board told On Board. The district already has more than 700 surveillance cameras to help keep its 7,000 students safe. | ||||
| On Board Online • April 2, 2018 By Cathy Woodruff Grief, outrage and a determined sense of solidarity with the students of Parkland, Fla. have fueled a wave of activism by New York students. Protests began on Wednesday, March 14, when students in about 200 local schools around New York held 17-minute vigils, walkouts and other events to mourn the loss of students and staff when a gunman attacked Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14. | ||||
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By William Miller As school board members, we care about every child in our schools. But we have a special obligation to care about students with special needs. April is Autism Awareness Month, so let's start there. Autism is present in virtually all of our schools and many of our families, including mine. Stephen M. Shore, an education professor at Adelphi University, has said, "If you've met one individual with autism, you've met one individual with autism." He was referring to the fact that there is a great variety in the nature and severity of symptoms or behaviors associated with autism, which is why autism symptoms are often described as falling on a spectrum.
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| On Board Online • April 2, 2018 By David P. Keefe The ability of the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) to provide teachers in your district with a secure pension is a shared responsibility. Your school district and your employees provide required contributions, and TRS provides disciplined investment management to achieve optimal long-term returns. | ||||
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On Board Online • April 2, 2018