Thursday, March 24, 2011

Finally......a bit of Reason and Actual FACTS!!!!

Although many of the posts on the TU blog simply regurgitate the "talking points" presented by the advocates of closing "AN" elementary school (read "Clarksville" since day 1) there is finally a breath of fresh air.
Finally, the presentation of actual "facts".
While it's unlikely that the mere presentation of actual "facts" will get in the way of the ideologues willingness to accept (and repeat) the "spin" offered without documentation, backup, or anything more than political expediency for justification, we can at least hope the BOA members have actually maintained the "open minds" they profess to.
Here's the link:
TU Blog re Clarksville Closing

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Letters to the Editor

A number of thinking, caring, dedicated "folks" have submitted letters to the Board of Education and/or various local publications in an attempt to get out the truth about the travesty currently being considered.
"THANK YOU" one and all and thank you as well for submitting them here for posting.
We invite any and all to follow in their footsteps.

Right click the links below to view the letter in a new tab or left click and then use your browsers "Back" button to return here.


Wukitsch/BOE Letter
Abbott/BOE Letter
Wilson/BOE Letter
Briscoe/BOE Letter
Cable BOE Letter
Cable Letter Editor
J Cable BOE Letter
BOE Letter Writing Group
Letter Altamont Ent
Letter Spotlight

Friday, March 18, 2011

The Written Word

There have been many letters published in support of the Clarksville Elementary School over these last weeks. It was requested that to the extent possible these words be made available.

As I obtain permissions and get final copies of Letters to the Editor as well as letters that were sent directly to the Board of Education I will publish the links here for viewing. So check back as I hope new links will continue to be added for a while.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Documents

The following documents are available for viewing online and/or downloading.
Click the link to access the documents and use your "Back" button to return here.
Check back as we will add documents here to keep them in one place.

Dryden-Elementary-Configurations-Consideration-4-2010

School Size: Research Based Conclusions

The Hobbit Effect

District Facilities FAQ and Initial Response

The District published a FAQ entitled "The Decision Process" yesterday (3/14/11) on the website.
It is available there and here in PDF form.

Also available here in PDF form is Jim Cable's response.

Files can be viewed online or downloaded.
Right click the link and select "Open Link in New Tab" if supported by your browser, or
Use your "Back" button to return here.

District FAQ

J Cable Response

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

NYS Assessment Testing Results

The results of the 2009-2010 NYS Assessment Testing have been published online by greatschools.org
 The following table represents a summation of the data available therein for each of the District Elementary Schools. In each case the highest percentage school in the district is highlighted in green and the lowest in yellow.
Interestingly, while most (but not all) meet or exceed the statewide average, only 2 of the 36 results meet the goal of 90% (see here for further information on NYS SED standards).

2009-2010 New York State Assessments

Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5


ELA
Math
ELA
Math
ELA
Math
Ave
Clarksville
69
73
69
78
87
84
76.67
Eagle
72
70
72
75
64
74
71.17
Elsmere
90
84
78
90
74
87
83.83
Glenmont
55
47
82
85
67
81
69.5
Hamagrael
80
80
85
87
78
83
82.17
Slingerlands
79
82
88
82
72
77
80.0
NYS Avg
55
59
57
78
53
65
61.17

Phone Survey Results

The results of the BCTA Clarksville Survey are now available and included herein:
The survey included 205 individuals (102 female, 103 male) and involved 5 zip code areas:

by Gender




Total
205
100%

F
102
50%

M
103
50%



by Zip




Total
205
100%
 Clarksville
12041
36
18%
 Delmar
12054
55
27%
 Feura Bush
12067
25
12%
 Slingerlands
12159
78
38%
 Voorheesville
12186
11
5%


The first question read:
Closure of the Clarksville Elementary School in the Bethlehem Central School District has been proposed as one way to balance enrollment and financial issues in future years. Please indicate your likely level of support or opposition to this proposed closure. The scale will be very strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, very strongly oppose:

Total
205
100%
Strongly support
26
13%
Somewhat support
23
11%
Somewhat oppose
24
12%
Strongly oppose
122
60%
[dnr] Unsure
10
5%


The next question read:
The closure of the Clarksville Elementary School and the resulting ramifications could be seen as a favorable outcome by some and an unfavorable outcome by others. In your estimation would you consider the closing of Clarksville Elementary, overall, to be a very favorable, somewhat favorable or not at all favorable outcome?

Total
205
100%
Very favorable
15
7%
Somewhat favorable
40
20%
Not at all favorable
140
68%
[dnr] Unsure
10
5%


The results were then sorted by zip code areas and gender:
Question #1


12041
12054
12067
12159
12186
Total

F
M
Total
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%

100%
100%
Strongly support
0%
20%
0%
19%
0%
13%

15%
11%
Somewhat support
3%
0%
8%
24%
9%
11%

12%
11%
Somewhat oppose
8%
15%
4%
10%
36%
12%

11%
13%
Strongly oppose
89%
58%
84%
40%
55%
60%

58%
61%
[dnr] Unsure
0%
7%
4%
6%
0%
5%

5%
5%


Question #2


12041
12054
12067
12159
12186
Total

F
M
Total
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%

100%
100%
Very favorable
0%
11%
0%
12%
0%
7%

9%
6%
Somewhat favorable
0%
15%
20%
31%
27%
20%

23%
17%
Not at all favorable
97%
71%
72%
51%
73%
68%

65%
72%
[dnr] Unsure
3%
4%
8%
6%
0%
5%

4%
6%


Finally, the results available to us as of this date include:

BCSD Poll for Bethlehem CTA - RE: 2.11, Canvassing on Proposed Closure of Clarksville Elementary, Among Selected District Parents

Analysis of Q4 - Is there any other alternative you might suggest before resorting to the closure of Clarksville Elementary?
1.       Noteworthy that for the word ‘close’ and aliases, 27 of 36 responses dealt with an alternative school-related closure – e.g., Eagle, Elsmere and Hamagrael was also mentioned
2.       Other responses related to closure of the administrative offices, older buildings, etc.
3.       ‘Close’ and aliases account for the largest word frequency with those 36 occurrences
4.       District, redistrict, redistricting – 34 times make this word and aliases the second largest word frequency count from the sample question
5.       Of 34, 24 specifically dealt with redistricting or redistrict as alternative options to the closure of Clarksville Elementary
6.        A verbatim list of the responses follows in an as is, as recorded state at the time of interviews, for your perusal and to possibly suggest further analysis:
Note: 99 is a uniform code for no actual or informative response given and those were removed (86) leaving us 121 verbatims with content:
a lack of fore thought from admin and school board
admin to look at teachers salary , insurance and pension costs methods
administration is top heavy and redistrict it again
administrative cuts and closing admin offfices
analyze viability of the closeness of elementary schools redistricting
check to see viability of closing other elementary schools and rental of prop
clarkville will continue to grow with nanotech and we should use caution
close a different elementary closer  to eagle
close and sell eagle school and redistribute students more pub awareness
close eagle
close elesmere or hamagrael
close elsemere and rent out to raise revenue
close elsemere building too old
close elsemere no land too many schools in town
close elsemere older school no room for expansion
close elsemere or glenmont and sell them worth more money
close elsmere due to its real estate value
close elsmere school
close glenmont and sell the property worth more
close hammergrill and sell for revenue
close of elsemere better control budget
close or do something different with elsemere look for other revenues
close the eagle elementary school make eagle a middle school
closing another school that they havent put 3 mil into recently
closing elsemere and move district offices there
closing elsemere and using it as district offices and lease out extra space
closing elsemere elementary
closing elsmere and renting to generate income
consolidate the central offices and contract out the busses instead of buying
could close elsmere and make that district offices and then sell building
cross the board cuts increase efficiency such as busing redistrict
cut back on technology and sports
cut higher paid adminisstrators
cut other services
cut spending
cut technology budget for middle and high school
cutting admin salaries
decrease superintendant salary
dont purchase laptops for jr hi
DONT PUT COMPUTERS INTO EACH KIDS HANDS
early retirement incentives
education before sports sports self funding  a lot to be saved
elesmere is need of renovation worse shape than clarksville
eliminate waste small cuts to make school efficient
elsemere closure
feeze all salaries pension and benefits
freeze pay
get rid of the laptop idea
hire a better consulting firm next time they do a redistricting
if staff would go a year without a pay raise
lay off the big wigs who make all the money
look  labor cntracts and modify them and the bussing sitatin clse adams pl
look at 8 mil for laptops. cut back on sports. clarksville is only one be expa
look at budgetary cuts such as lap tops to middleschol students
look at closing elsemere
look at closing elsemere
look at closing glenmont and leasing it out and make revenue
look at closure of elsmere and use it as commecial
look at extra curricular and sports and why eagle? fisher blvd development?
look at hamagrail school to close it is older and small use for offices
look at outsourcing of bussing or evaluationg if busses are needed
look at whole pic tighten the budget close older buildings redistrict
look closer at the budget to try to avoid this closure
look into conditions of elsemere elmentary
look into tighten their belt cut sports
looking into bus service outside of the district
make it a tech school or some other special school for gifted prgms
more funding option closing elsemere cut deeper into sports
move district office and sell that building
move out of adams and close elsmere admin & athletic exp share staff
moving district offices shut down 90 adams place
no
no
not doing 8 mil computer, cut extra curricular prgms fisher project
not look into new technology for rest of schools
par down administrators at all schools
pay cut for higher political powers
possibility of renegotiation of contract
privatize bus service
raise taxes rebalance classrooms by redistricting
readjust the district lines to even out school population
redistrict
redistrict
redistrict again
redistrict again
redistrict more evenly
redistrict the school district
redistrict to balance out school population
redistricting
redistricting
redistricting
redistricting
redistricting
redistricting
redistricting
redistricting
redistricting and closing 90 adams place(do) & relocating that at el school
redistricting bring more students to clarksville
redistricting whole district
reducing salaries of administration.
relocate district office in clarksville
renegotiatesalaries
reorganization of the school board and eagle el was not needed
salary freeze
salary heALTH CARE AND PENSIONS OF ADMIN TEACHERS SRP
slingerlands k-2 and clarksville 3-5 slingerlands is already setup for kinderg
splitting the classes
stop building and keep existing schools open
stop running nearly empty busses
stop spending money dont have
stop spending so much money on technology laptops
teachers not take a salary for a year and also superintendent. do like others
throw out the school board and come up with realistic workable options
tighten belts find savings elsewhere
turn into lab school make it a science and tech school
what about elsmere it needs lots of work
whatever you do do it quick to limit the impact on the children
why did they build eagle
why not look at elsmere school at the same time
you would rather see an elementary school close than split