I’m still very saddened by the closing of the International Charter School of Schenectady [ICSS]. My son, and many nieces and nephews, loved it there. But I was even more distressed when I read the June 24 article, “Students improving on state math, English examinations,” and it said ICSS “had a larger percentage of its students achieve a three or better than the district in all but sixth-grade math. It also outperformed the district in grades three, four and fi ve for English. Peter Murphy, of the New York State Charter Schools Association, said it is a “travesty” that the school faces closure given these numbers, and: “The Charter Schools Institute really made a bad call here and they need to take a serious look at this fatally fl awed review process that has taken away a successful option for the students of Schenectady.” It made me even sadder to know that the only other option for parents in Schenectady had closed, and the tests show it did better than the Schenectady school district. Why did everyone hate ICSS? Was it because the Schenectady school district didn’t want any competition? I have no clue. There were many people who wanted the school to close, and fought against the school since it opened. Yes, I admit the school had its share of faults, but what school doesn’t? No school is perfect and never will be. I will miss ICSS and the caring, friendly and loving staff. JENNIFER GAUVREAU Schenectady
It's just a 'kill the competition so the union can shine'.......I say let Exxon Mobil start a charter school to show how economics works.......with the monkey on our back and without.......let's see who stands up to their $$$..................................
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Get real about reasons for closing Sch’dy charter school
Re June 30 letter, “Sch’dy charter school’s scores were better, but still not good enough,” by Cynthia Proctor. We advise readers to step into the real world concealed behind her high-flown quotations from mission statements and claims about a rigorous process and transparent standards employed by the Charter Schools Institute (CSI) and the SUNY trustees regarding renewals and/or closures of charter schools. We’re the grandparents of two children who graduated from the International Charter School of Schenectady (ICSS), two who attended but were displaced by the closing, and one who would have attended (once he became old enough) if the school had been allowed to remain open. We joined the struggle to prevent the closure. We wrote letters and e-mails to the Gazette, the SUNY Board of Trustees and to our state legislators (Assemblyman George Amedore, Assemblyman James Tedisco and Sen. Hugh Farley). We also met with Assemblyman Amedore. Our efforts to communicate with SUNY officials were always routed back to, you guessed it, Ms. Proctor (director of public affairs), who responded that our concerns were being taken seriously. That, apparently, was the bureaucratic equivalent of a dead-letter office. Our state legislators (we were advised by their staff) were “preparing a position” on the issue, but whatever that position was, we never were able to discover. One of those three gentlemen did us the courtesy of a phone call, in which he privately advised us that no legislator would tackle the issue, because of fear of the teachers union (New York State United Teachers). As for Ms. Proctor’s recitation of statistics on the proficiency tests, we note that she is unhappy with the ICCS’s results in the ELA (49.5 percent), compared to the overall Schenectady School District (47.5 percent) and with the math tests (67.3 percent for ICSS versus 58.9 percent for the district). She acknowledges that this shows improvement, but then dismisses it as not good enough since charter schools are supposed to be the exemplar for everyone else. What hubris! Since when do charter schools set a poor example by outperforming public schools? Ms. Proctor also fails to mention that the CSI staff based their closure recommendation on 2007 test scores, after declining to revisit the ICSS during 2008 to observe the improvements that had taken place. The most telling postscript to this whole sad scandal was expressed by the ICSS’s acting director, Shirley Reed, about the final day of the charter school’s operation [June 27 Gazette]. She is quoted as saying: “They’ve been working for six years to close this school and they’ve done it. It has nothing to do with academics.” We have been following with great interest the contortions that Superintendent Eric Ely and the Schenectady Board of Education have been going through to lease space at closed parochial schools within the city, all in aid of serving the displaced charter school students. Hopefully, the nearly $6 million in state school aid that they will recapture based on the closing of the ICSS will be sufficient to cover those unnecessary leases, extra busing of students and hiring of additional (NYSUT-blessed) teachers. We say unnecessary because all of that would have been avoided if the ICSS were simply left in place and allowed to continue its pattern of steady incremental improvements. Will any of this maneuvering actually benefit the ICSS students, who were happy and increasingly successful in their environment? We will wait and watch. The fact is that the closure was unwarranted and unfair. At this point, however, we suggest that the winners simply keep quiet and stop trying to justify their actions. RUDY AND KATHLEEN PETERSEN Schenectady The writers are parents-in-law to Tracy Petersen, president of the International Charter School of Schenectady’s board of directors.
SCHENECTADY Charter school students returning to district BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Goot at 395-3105 or mgoot@dailygazette.net.
Most of the students at the former International Charter School of Schenectady are returning to the city school district. Schenectady City School District Superintendent Eric Ely said that about 450 students from the Rotterdam-based charter school had registered for city schools. “We’re actually registering a number of students every day. People wait for the week before school starts,” he said. He said about 30 Schenectady students are registered at Albany charter schools. The remaining 75 are in “limbo” and have not registered yet. Charter school Business Manager Lori Veshia estimated that about 30 to 40 students are choosing to attend charter schools in Albany. The city school district anticipated the influx of students and is opening two new facilities to accommodate them. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Elementary School will be at the former St. Adalbert’s School on Lansing Street, and the Katharine Burr Blodgett Elementary School will occupy space at the Immaculate Conception School on Bradt Street. Ely said the district has been registering about 30 new students a day. Students are coming and going, so that does not represent the total increase. However, he believes total district enrollment will be between 10,200 and 10,400 students. The district is aiming to keep its elementary school size at 22 students. There will be some schools where he thinks it will be a bit higher than that, like Elmer, Hamilton and Van Curler. Meanwhile, charter school President Tracy Petersen said there have been no offers to buy the Draper Avenue building. The property is listed with Prudential Blake-Atlantic Realtors for $7.5 million. The charter school closed in June after the SUNY Board of Trustees declined to renew its charter, citing poor academic performance.
SCHENECTADY Former charter school pupils finding a place in city district BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter
Where students are going to attend classes next month is coming into focus as the Schenectady City School District prepares to open three new schools. Superintendent Eric Ely told the Board of Education Wednesday that 87 students are registered to attend the new Katharine Burr Blodgett Elementary School, 135 at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Elementary School and 247 at Keane Elementary School. The district is leasing Blodgett and Roosevelt facilities at the former St. Adalbert’s School on Lansing Street and Immaculate Conception School on Bradt, respectively, to deal with the influx of students from the closed International Charter School of Schenectady. It had already planned to open Keane — located at the former St. Luke’s School. Ely said he had expected that more students would be at Blodgett than FDR, but the reverse has proven to be the case. He pointed out that these numbers are still fluctuating because about 30 to 40 students are registering daily day as the start of classes looms. Other enrollment data shows that Zoller Elementary School is at 438 pupils and Yates Elementary School is at 374. District officials are happy because they have been trying to reduce overcrowding at Zoller and raise the enrollment at Yates. In addition, Ely said the district has been able to reduce the enrollment at its middle schools. A six-classroom addition at Paige Elementary School is nearly finished and the sixth-graders will be located there. Among the middle schools, Mont Pleasant’s enrollment is at 674, Oneida is at 532 and Central Park is at 544. “When I came here four years ago, Mont Pleasant was over 900 students,” Ely said. At the high school, Ely said it looks like there will be slightly fewer than 2,600 students attending. He believes the total enrollment of the district will hit 10,200. Board member Gary Farkas expressed concern about the size of the high school and wondered whether enrollment would reach 3,000. Ely said enrollment at the high school has been fairly static in the last few years. However, he said it could increase if the district is successful in its efforts to keep students from dropping out. He added he intended to update the board on a plan for all of its facilities in the coming months. For example, the high school science classrooms are in need of renovation.
Defunct school wins in court City district may appeal decision favoring ICSS BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Goot at 395-3105 or mgoot@dailygazette.net.
The now-closed International Charter School of Schenectady has won a lawsuit over money the Schenectady City School District withheld while claiming it was overbilled. The city district may challenge the decision, officials said. The city district paid about $9,500 for every pupil that attended the Rotterdam-based charter school, which closed at the end of June after its charter was not renewed. District officials had said that as many as 84 students claimed by the charter school may not have lived in Schenectady. The city district withheld about $741,000 during the course of the school year. The court case revolved more around the process than the money. ICSS received the contested money after it filed what are called “intercepts” and the state Education Department sent it the funds directly — bypassing the city school district. Both sides argued their cases at a hearing in state Supreme Court in June and Judge Eugene Devine issued a decision on Sept. 26. In a 10-page ruling, Devine wrote that the funding needs to be delivered in a timely and organized manner and noted the “potential problems that a charter school could face when their funding is delayed or even consistently reduced based on petitioner’s determination to do so.” ICSS attorney Harold Gordon said that at the end of the school year both the city and charter school reconcile the figures for the number of students who were enrolled. “If there’s any discrepancy, the parties sit down. The school district didn’t choose to do that,” he said. “SED and the charter school had very carefully determined exactly what was due and the school district had no basis to quarrel with that.” Even though it is a moot point since the school is closed, Gordon said the ruling will set a precedent for other charter schools, which rely on state aid funding through local school districts. “Hopefully, no other school district will try to play the same kind of games,” he said. Schenectady Superintendent Eric Ely said the Board of Education is still reviewing the decision to determine the next step. The district has 30 days to appeal. Ely said the district still believes there is $1 million in dispute. School officials have not been able to reach ICSS staff to determine the correct number of students. “We know for a fact that we were being overbilled. We were billed for kids that didn’t exist. We were being billed for kids that there was no documentation for, no residency for.” he said. Both sides had one meeting in June and then did not have a subsequent meeting. In the meantime, ICSS President Tracy Petersen said there have been no offers to buy the former Draper School in Rotterdam that served as the charter school’s home. The board is closing its books and filing paperwork to dissolve the corporation.
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil, The Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil, The Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.
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