By:Eugene Gilligan
Parents had an opportunity to raise these issues with members of the school board and district Superintendent Dr. Kathy Weiss at a Community Input meeting Oct. 27 at Baldwin Senior High School.
The meeting began with the district's PTAs honoring the school board's service to the community, and students performing several numbers from the school's upcoming performance of the musical "Ragtime."
Then parents and administrators got down to business. Several parents questioned members of the board and district officials about the school district's hiring practices in the wake of Marshall's arrest. Board President Joseph Scannell said the district performs a thorough reference check of every employee hired. He encouraged parents to report what they consider inappropriate behavior by teachers to the school principal.
One parent questioned how tenure protects a teacher who is accused, for example, of sexual impropriety. "The teacher that is accused has the right to a certain amount of due process," said Scannell. He said that the district does, however, have wide latitude to reassign a teacher to a position at more of a distance from children. A teacher could be assigned to perform clerical duties at the district office, for example.
Scannell said that parents will sometimes discuss a problem teacher with one another, but won't report the situation to the district.
Test scores were also a hot topic. "What about those test scores?" asked Ellen Holland of Baldwin. The scores aren't a fair representation of the school district's performance, Scannell said. "It's part perception and part reality," he said, explaining that the truest measure of a school district is its finished product - that is, the high school graduate - and that statistics prove that the longer a student spends in Baldwin schools, the better the result.
Scannell offered as an example the results of the 2001 Grade 8 English Language Arts assessment exam and the 2004 Regents English exam last June. Eighty-one percent of those who scored at level 1, the lowest level, on the assessment test passed the Regents exam, with grades of 55 to 100. Of those who scored at level 2, 93 percent passed the Regents exam. One hundred percent of students who scored at levels 3 or 4 on the eighth-grade exam passed the Regents.
Of students who scored at level 1 on the eighth-grade math assessment exam, 61 percent passed the math Regents. Students who scored at level 2 had an 83 percent Regents pass rate. Of those students who scored at levels 3 and 4, 100 percent passed the Regents.
But while Scannell said the community supports the decision "not to sacrifice a rich, varied curriculum for test prep," the board has made test performance one of its priorities this year. The district has also instituted a staff development day for teachers that focuses on the tests, and initiated Saturday prep and extra help sessions, he said. Other steps include monitoring curriculum to assure that it is properly aligned with the tests, and ensuring that teachers are keeping pace so that all subject matter covered in the tests is covered in the classroom.
Gang problems in the district were also a topic. Weiss said that there was a "zero tolerance" policy regarding gangs in the schools, and said students would be suspended "if they wore gang colors or used gang signals." She added that the district can only control what happens within its walls. Weiss explained that representatives from the district meet once a month with First Precinct officers to share the latest intelligence about gangs.
One father of a second-grade student in Meadow School said after the forum that he is generally happy with his daughter's education. "They pay attention to my child's needs," said Baldwin resident Steve Sciortino. He added that while problems at the high school aren't of great concern to him right now, "it's something parents are watching."
