Area 6 Director Dana Smith Represents the Following School Districts:

Au Sable Valley, Beekmantown, Brasher Falls, Brushton-Moira, Canton, Chazy, Clifton-Fine, Clinton-Essex-Warren-Washington BOCES, Colton-Pierrepont, Crown Point, Edwards-Knox, Elizabethtown-Lewis, Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES, Gouverneur, Hammond, Harrisville, Hermon-DeKalb, Heuvelton, Indian Lake, Keene, Lake Placid, Lisbon, Long Lake, Madrid-Waddington, Malone, Massena, Minerva, Moriah, Morristown, Newcomb, Northeastern Clinton, Northern Adirondack, Norwood-Norfolk, Ogdensburg, Parishville-Hopkinton, Peru, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Putnam, Raquette Lake, Saint Lawrence-Lewis BOCES, Saint Regis Falls, Salmon River, Saranac, Saranac Lake, Schroon Lake, Ticonderoga, Tupper Lake, Westport and Willsboro

Area Director Electronic Newsletter

Welcome to the November 23, 2009 issue of the Area 6 electronic newsletter. The electronic newsletter is designed to facilitate communication between members of your NYSSBA Board of Directors and the Areas they represent. The newsletter contains information about Area 6 and NYSSBA. I hope you find it informative. I would appreciate your sending comments and suggestions for future newsletters to me at area06director@nyssba.org. If any of your board colleagues do not have computer access, a copy will be sent to the district office for distribution. If others with email did not receive their own copy, please submit their e-mail info@nyssba.org.

In the last issue of the Director's Newsletter I failed to thank all of you who attended the Area 6 Annual Dinner in Malone.  We had over 100 people in attendance, and the response to the program was excellent.  Everyone I spoke to then and since was impressed with the Chancellor Tisch, Commissioner Steiner and Deputy Commissioner King.  They were responsive, funny and engaging.  It was wonderful to spend quality time with the three most influential individuals in SED for the short time they spend with us.  We look forward to our annual get-together next year, same place and same Thursday evening, so mark your calendars now. 

NYSSBA Board of Directors Retreat

The Board of Directors and department heads convened for a two-day retreat on November 14-15.  Day One was held at Tech Valley High School; Day Two at the Hampton Inn.  Much was discussed.  Two objectives emerged, which will drive much of what we do during the next two years:

1.   NYSSBA will empower school boards to overcome the effects of the financial crisis.
2.   NYSSBA will inspire school boards to embrace methodologies that increase success for each student in the 21st century.

Welcome New Member

We are pleased to report that the East Moriches School Board (Area 12) has voted to rejoin NYSSBA.

New Big 5 School District Representative

During the recent Annual Convention, the Conference of Big Five School Districts met and appointed Father Gerald Sudick of the Yonkers City Board of Education as their representative to the NYSSBA Board of Directors effective January 1, 2010.

Webinars

On November 12 NYSSBA hosted a complimentary webinar for the Association’s membership to familiarize the field with their responsibility to adopt and certify Medicaid Compliance Plans for their districts (if they bill $500,000+ in Medicaid claims) by December 1.  James Sheehan, New York State’s Medicaid Inspector General, conducted the webinar, which was very well received by the estimated 1,000 individuals across the state who listened in.   The Association received very positive feedback from this complimentary membership service and plan to conduct live sessions with Mr. Sheehan in various locations around the state in March 2010.

Advocacy Awards

NYSSBA is taking nominations for a new award – the Board Advocacy Award – to honor the school board/superintendent governance team that has advocated most effectively at the state and federal levels in behalf of public schools.  NYSSBA is also taking nominations for the Advocate of the Year Award, awarded to an individual school board member.  Both awards will be presented at NYSSBA’s annual State Issues Conference in March.  The deadline for applications is the end of December.  For more information, go to www.nyssba.org for guidelines and nominations forms.

Special Legislative Session Update

On Tuesday, November 17, an extraordinary session was held in Albany.  Mid-year cuts to public education have been met with strident opposition in the Senate.  According to a statement by the New York State Senate, a caucus comprised of upstate and Long Island senators has formed a coalition to protect healthcare and education from proposed cuts during the DRP negotiations. The coalition consists of the Senate Majority Upstate Caucus (Senators Aubertine; Breslin; Stachowski; Thompson; Valesky) and Long Island Senators Foley and C. Johnson. 

Among the few accomplishments of the session is final passage of a measure that would limit the amount of a plaintiff’s recovery in lawsuits against municipalities, including school districts.  This bill should drive down the cost of liability insurance for school districts.

For more information on this session, please see the Wednesday, November 18 NYSSBA Advocacy Alert.

Regents Update

The NYS Board of Regents met this week and newly appointed Commissioner David Steiner, along with Senior Deputy Commissioner John King and other key SED staffers, unveiled the department’s plan for making significant changes to the State’s educational system.  The driving force behind many of the changes is the State’s application for a share of the $4B Race to the Top funds. 

Proposed changes include transformation of teacher preparation, establishing a graduation rate goal and annual targets for accountability, the creation of a College and Career Readiness Working Group, sequences curriculum frameworks and aligned professional development, and a virtual high school initiative.

These changes being introduced by the Board of Regents and State Education Department demonstrate their acknowledgement that much needs to change in order for New York State to remain a leader in public education. 

Regents State Aid Plan

Each fall the Regents issue their proposal for state education aid in the upcoming state budget.  Some reforms and recommendations in this proposal include a reset of the Foundation Aid base with adjustments to recognize changes in student enrollment and district wealth, maintenance of current Contracts for Excellence, restructuring of the universal pre-K formula to provide more stability and predictability of funding, and a limit on the amount of High Tax Aid which tends to benefit high wealth districts.

In addition, the Regents’ plan suggests ways to achieve efficiencies through investment in high performance buildings (promoting long term reduction in energy consumption), streamlining or elimination of duplicative reporting, functional or district consolidation strategies, regional transportation strategies, shared business office strategies, shared tax collection strategies and options to  reduce or eliminate short-term borrowing (tax anticipation notes) which should result in significant additional cost to taxpayers due to interest. 

Fiscal Oversight Online

Session 9 of the Fiscal Oversight Online course ended on Wednesday, November 18.  This was the final online course for 2009.  In total, 317 board members met their training requirement via the online format, up from 221 in 2008. 

New School Recognition Program

The New York State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development has announced a new recognition program for schools in New York State, called the “Educating the Whole Child for the 21st Century Award.”  Each school in New York State (public, parochial, charter, independent) is eligible to apply.  An announcement of the award program will be distributed to each school principal, superintendent of schools, assistant superintendent of schools and independent school.  Recognized schools and/or districts will receive a 20 book professional library and a certificate of achievement.  The announcement will also be posted in the NYSASC website - http://newyorkstate.ascd.org – soon.

2010 Convention Sponsor

We are pleased to announce our first sponsor for 2010 – HSBC Bank – at the Honors level!  We look forward to working with HSBC again next year. 

What’s NYSSBA Staff Been Up to?

Jay Worona, NYSSBA General Counsel, appeared on FOX News’ national program, FOX and Friends, to discuss the administration of the swine flu vaccine in a school district without parental consent. Jay’s clip was linked to the NYSSBA Facebook fan page, in case you may have missed it.

Marc Humbert, NYSSBA Senior Writer, discussed politics with Susan Arbetter on her WCNY (Syracuse public radio) radio program, “The Capitol Press Room.” The taped broadcast will be disseminated statewide in the near future.

Barbara Bradley, NYSSBA Deputy Director of Communications, attended a webinar on “Creating the Complete Social Media Experience for Your Meetings and Events.” She’s shared her information with Communications, Leadership Development and Marketing. Meanwhile, she reports the NYSSBA Facebook Fan page now has 283 fans, including three area directors.

Upcoming Events - 2009

Fiscal Oversight Fundamentals Workshop
  December 5, Islandia, Marriott

COLSBA/NYSSBA Joint Conference
  December 10, Care and Feeding of your Leadership Team with Westchester-Putnam SBA,
    Elmsford, Southern Westchester BOCES
  December 15, Hiring a Board-Savvy Superintendent with the Mid-Hudson School Study
     Council, Newburgh, Ramada Inn

Winter School Law Conference
   December 9, Albany
   December 15, Rochester

ECB Bullying Conference
   December 10, Albany, Desmond

Upcoming Events - 2010

State Issues Conference
  March 14-15, Albany, Crowne Plaza

NSBA Annual Conference and Exposition
  April 10-13, Chicago, IL

10th Annual School Attorneys Conference
  June 4-6

NYSCOSS Fall Conference
  September 26-28, Saratoga Springs

14th Annual Pre-Convention School Law Seminar
  October 21, New York City

91st Annual Convention
  October 21-24, New York City