The New York State School Boards Association has updated its popular School Board Member Experience website for 2020 with an expanded collection of resources for New Yorkers seeking to learn more about school board service.

The user-friendly site offers a virtual journey from the decision to run for school board through the first year of service.

An accurate 2020 census count is crucial to helping New York obtain its fair share of education funding from the federal government over the next decade, according to a new report by the New York State School Boards Association.

The Educational Conference Board (ECB) will hold a briefing for legislators, legislative staff and media on Friday, February 21st, to discuss the governor’s Executive Budget and the needs of students, educators and public schools. The briefing will take place from 10 a.m. to noon in Room 711-A of the Legislative Office Building in Albany.

Who:    More than 200 school board members and education officials 

What:   New York State School Boards Association annual "Capital Conference." 
New York State Interim Education Commissioner Shannon Tahoe will discuss key issues facing New York’s schoolchildren; Governor Cuomo's Deputy Secretary of Education Daniel Fuller will review the executive budget proposals and Senate Education Chair Shelley Mayer will discuss legislative and budgetary priorities.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed $826 million increase in school aid represents a starting point for negotiations with the state Legislature, though the proposal represents less than half of the estimated $2 billion school districts need to maintain educational programs and expand learning opportunities.

We are particularly encouraged by the governor’s mention of additional funding for prekindergarten, afterschool programs, and early college high school programs, as well as his aggressive efforts to protect students from the health consequences associated with vaping.

We are pleased to see the continued improvement in student achievement reflected in the growth in high school graduation rates announced today by the State Education Department. Also encouraging is the continued progress in narrowing the gap in graduation rates between white students and their black, Hispanic, disabled and English language learner peers. 

Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed some laudable goals – such as closing the achievement gap, enhancing school safety, advancing net neutrality protections and expanding pre-K and afterschool programs – in his State of the State address. These are all goals that school board members can rally around, to be sure.

Fred J. Langstaff of Sayville has been elected president of the Board of Directors of the New York State School Boards Association for 2020. He will be the 72^nd president to take office since NYSSBA’s first recorded gathering of school board members took place in Utica in 1920.

Nearly 2,500 school board members, superintendents and educators from throughout New York State are expected to arrive in Rochester next week for the New York State School Boards Association’s 100th Annual Convention & Education Expo.

Nearly six in 10 school board members recently polled by the New York State School Boards Association think the high school instructional day in their districts should begin later to accommodate teenagers’ natural sleep cycles. They also acknowledge there would be logistical challenges in doing so.