WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. From the New York State Education Department. August 7, 2013:

State Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr. today released the results of the April 2013 grades 3-8 math and English Language Arts (ELA) assessments.

This year’s state assessments are the first for New York students to measure the Common Core Learning Standards that were adopted by the State Board of Regents in 2010.  King said that, as expected, the percentage of students deemed proficient is significantly lower than in 2011-12.

This change in scores – which will effectively create a new baseline of student learning – is largely the result of the shift in the assessments to measure the Common Core Standards, which more accurately reflect students’ progress toward college and career readiness.

King emphasized that the results do not reflect a decrease in performance for schools or students.  The new assessments are a better, more accurate tool for educators, students, and parents as they work together to address the rigorous demands of the Common Core and college and career readiness in the 21st century.

“The world has changed, the economy has changed, and what our students need to know has changed,” Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch said.  “These scores reflect a new baseline and a new beginning. We have just finished the first year of a dramatic shift in teaching and learning.  Teachers, principals, superintendents and school boards have worked extraordinarily hard to implement the Common Core.  With the right tools, the right training, and continuous feedback and support, our teachers –the best teaching force in the country — will make sure all our students are prepared for college and career success in the 21st century.

“Our students face very real challenges.  But it’s better to have our students challenged now – when teachers and parents are there to help – than frustrated later when they start college or try to find a job and discover they are unprepared.”

“These proficiency scores do not reflect a drop in performance, but rather a raising of standards to reflect college and career readiness in the 21st century,” King said.  “I understand these scores are sobering for parents, teachers, and principals. It’s frustrating to see our children struggle.  But we can’t allow ourselves to be paralyzed by frustration; we must be energized by this opportunity.  The results we’ve announced today are not a critique of past efforts; they’re a new starting point on a roadmap to future success.

“We all share the same goal: to make sure all students in New York have the skills and knowledge to be successful in college and careers.  With the Common Core, we’re building a ladder toward that goal; the assessment scores are a measure of where our students are on that ladder and give us a clearer, more accurate picture of the climb ahead.”

King said these new results are consistent with other indicators of the college and career readiness of New York State students including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), New York State student performance on the SAT and PSAT, and college and career ready scores on New York State’s high school Regents exams.

King noted that the scores will not negatively impact district, school, principal, or teacher accountability. 

No new districts will be identified as Focus Districts and no new schools will be identified as Priority schools based on 2012-13 assessment results.  The student growth scores used in teacher and principal evaluation result in similar proportions of educators earning each rating category (Highly Effective, etc) for student growth in 2012-13 as 2011-12.  The State provided growth scores to be used in teacher and principal evaluations are based on year-to-year comparisons for similar students.

Earlier this month, King sent a memo to school district superintendents, urging them to recognize that this is the first year of the new assessments and recommending judicious and thoughtful use of each measure of the State’s multiple measures evaluation system.

2017 the Target for Meeting the Standard

In addition, the Department is providing guidance for districts to ensure that students are not negatively impacted by the new proficiency rates.  The first cohort of students required to pass Common Core-aligned Regents exams for high school graduation will be the class of 2017.    The Board of Regents has asked the Department to adjust its guidance on Academic Intervention Services (AIS) as well.

The “cut” scores used to rate students’ proficiency level on a scale of 1-4 were set by a panel of 95 teachers, principals and other educators from around the state at a five-day conference in June.

Tisch and King both expressed concern that the learning gap for low income students, African-American and Hispanic students, and English Language Learners remains unacceptable.

Summary of Statewide 3-8 Exam Results:

• 31.1% of grade 3-8 students across the State met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 31% met or exceeded the math proficiency standard
• The ELA proficiency results for race/ethnicity groups across grades 3-8 reveal the persistence of the achievement gap: only 16.1% of African-American students and 17.7% of Hispanic students met or exceeded the proficiency standard
• 3.2% of English Language Learners (ELLs) in grades 3-8 met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 9.8% of ELLs met or exceeded the math proficiency standard
• 5% of students with disabilities met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 7% of students with disabilities met or exceeded the math proficiency standard

Across the Big 5 city school districts, a smaller percentage of students met or exceeded the ELA and math proficiency standards than in the rest of the state:

• In Buffalo, 11.5% of students met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 9.6% met or exceeded the math proficiency standard
• In Yonkers, 16.4% of students met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 14.5% met or exceeded the math proficiency standard
• In New York City, 26.4% of students met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 29.6% met or exceeded the math proficiency standard
• In Rochester, 5.4% of students met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 5% met or exceeded the math proficiency standard
• In Syracuse, 8.7% of students met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 6.9% met or exceeded the math proficiency standard

A summary of the test results, as well as individual school and district results, are available at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/pressRelease/20130807/home.html.

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WPCNR MILESTONES. August 6, 2013:

Sixty-seven years ago, the Enola Gay, a single American bomber dropped an Atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The terrible effects of that single bomb are a horror that has never been repeated

A second bomber, Bock’s Car on August 9, dropped a similar bomb on Nagasaki. Unknown thousands of Japanese citizens’ lives were vaporized, burned,  and maimed and two cities leveled to the ground in an instant in both bombings.

To grasp what one atomic bomb did to Nagasaki. Readers may see the photographs Japanese photographer Yosuki Yamato took of the aftermath of Nagasaki the day it happened at http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/photos.html#journey/63.jpg

The decision to drop the bombs was made after the United States, Great Britain and the Republic of China demanded Japan  surrender in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26 or face  “prompt and utter destruction”. The Japanese government did not.

The United States deployed two nuclear weapons  dropping one on Hiroshimi today, 68 years ago and one on Nagasaki on August 9.

Over four months the bombs resulted in the deaths of   90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, half dying the day the bombs fell.

The Hiroshima prefecture health department estimated that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In a US estimate of the total immediate and short term cause of death, 15–20% died from radiation sickness, 20–30% from burns, and 50–60% from other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizeable garrison.

The horror of those two bombings and the aftermath, the injuries have created  an effort and reluctance on the part of nuclear-armed powers to avoid any nuclear attacks since that date.

Within a few days of those bombings, Japan surrendered unconditionally, officially ending World War II.

The decision to use the bombs by the United States has long been debated. A dialogue on what the bombs did, why the decision was made was collected in 1995, the fiftieth year since the bombings. It is available at http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/commentary/decision.html

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL-CHRONICLE EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey  August 5, 2013 UPDATED AUGUST 6, 2013:

Unless a law firm and traffic engineering firm can complete their analysis of the French American School of New York consolidated campus plan for the defunct Ridgeway Country  Club property with weeks, it appears the Common Council will not make a decision on the FASNY project, or even take up the FASNY proposal for the Gedney Farms neightbor property until after the November city elections.

At the Common Council monthly meeting Monday evening, the council voted to extend the contracts the city has with Silverberg Zalantis and TRC Engineering to continue to review the project this fiscal year.

The contract with Silverberg Zalantis  is being being  extended to a maximum cost of $85,000 for the purpose of reviewing the FASNY Draft and Final Environmental Impact statements.

The Council will also extended the contract of  TRC Engineers, Inc., to continue to review traffic and transportation, noise and air quality issues that may be raised by the Final Environmental Impact Statement the school presented last April. TRC Engineer extended contract will be to a maximum of $90,000.

The French American School will pay the cost of both contracts.

Silverberg and Zalantis is the law firm that devised the proposed Recreation District Ordinance restricting setbacks on recreation properties (Westchester Hills Country Club, the Ridgeway property, Fenway Golf Club and areas adjacent the Hutchison River Parkway) in the city last year. The Recreation Ordinance has not been reintroduced after the draft ordinance was presented last fall. There has been no comment from the city whether or not a revised such ordinance will be reintroduced,  just that it was being “tweaked.” That recreation ordinance received strong objections from Westchester Hills Country Club which threatened to take the city to  court over the ordinance because the club felt it compromised the future value of their property.

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 WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2013. From Cass Cibelli, Candidate for Mayor of White Plains. August 4, 2013:

Renaissance Plaza needs to improve its image. What could be the jewel of our downtown seems drab and stuck in time, seemingly tired and uninviting. Particularly now, on Wednesday nights, the fountains are jammed with people listening to loud, contemporary music while a chalkboard chronicles the scribbles of a sentence stem begging, “Before I die”.

We Propose:  “As I live…” displayed electronically, and erected high so as citizens watch the fountain waters rise, their eyes take in positive and refreshing messages. These messages may be texted from all over the world, or right from our very own town such as announcements, words of encouragement welcoming home soldiers and congratulations to graduates, local teams and civic groups; it all can be managed from a lap top computer.

In terms of Public Safety, the band shell needs to go. That it sits in a full lane of traffic just raises the probability that if for any reason, the City needs that space at a moment’s notice; it just doesn’t have it, at great peril to pedestrians and automobiles; save to mention bicyclists. A city-owned light truck sits idle with no emergency vehicle in sight. Perhaps it was inconspicuous?

Save the electricity, down size the unnecessary overhead, and transform the arts.  Change the experience from a top down, passive performance venue like cover bands, to a more appropriately amplified musical performance such as string quartets and light jazz ensembles; moreover, Doo Wop artists and the many tribute artists currently on the circuit.

It appears that from the sound and volume of the cover bands, the fact that the bands tower over the crowds, losing the natural buffer all those bodies provide, restaurant patrons within ear’s shot while dining alfresco obviously strain their conversations.

Economically speaking, the City spends taxpayer dollars to produce this venue and fails to leverage its clout to raise revenues by utilizing a space like Renaissance Plaza Fountains effectively.

We see in Renaissance Plaza a chance for real culture.

A venue whose ambiance deserves what is pleasing to the eyes, palate and particularly to the ears so citizens can choose where to spend their dollars and hear themselves think.  In Frascati, Italy, there are merchants with fresh fruits, gelato and Panini, jewelry; both costume and fine, literature, paintings and prints, and as you shop or browse, you remain engaged and free to be you.

Here at home we will generate fees from Participating Merchants so residents, visitors and future investors alike experience the real 21st Century White Plains. We can replicate world class experiences in White Plains.  We propose to promote local and world-renowned artists, musicians and retailers. That they be celebrated in White Plains doesn’t come free. It’s a win-win situation, particularly for tax payers. We do not believe for a second that owners of the Residences at the Ritz Carlton expected their investments to include a regularly scheduled Block Party outside their windows?

This November, we have a real chance to change the direction of White Plains by focusing now on what seniors, young families and their children deserve: A quality of life supported and paid for by raising revenues and relieving us of the current outrageous tax burden. The lack of vision at Renaissance Plaza is endemic of the lack of vision for the entire 10 square miles that makes up White Plains.

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PETER KATZ, JOHN BAILEY BAND JIM BENEROFE REPORTING

PETER KATZ, JOHN BAILEY AND JIM BENEROFE

ON

 THE TAPPAN ZEE ACCIDENT

 THE CITY DRAGS FEET ON REVEALING THE REAL POLICE OVERTIME FIGURES SAYS POLICE JUST WANT A 3-DAY WORK WEEK. POLICE SAY $50,000 EXPENDED IN OT IN JULY ALONE.

MAIN STREET HOTEL BRINGS IN THE CRANES

CITY AUDITS CABLEVISION AND VERIZON.

PETER KATZ ON THE TELEVISION OF THE FUTURE.

ON WHITE PLAINS WEEK THE CITY NEWS ROUNDUP SHOW

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