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. By John F. Bailey. January 12, 2004: The Board of Education will take up two historic issues tonight at Education House beginning at 7:30 P.M. The Board will vote to offer full Day Kindergarten for all beginning students in September 2004, and will follow the trend of the rest of New York State and keep the passing grade for 2004 Regents examinations at 55, instead of raising it to 65 as the district had previously planned.

ALL-DAY K ADVOCATE: Dr. Sharon Kagan, Professor of Early Childhood and Family Policy at Columbia University Teachers College, and Professor Adjunct at the Yale University Child Study Center for Children, and a consultant to President George W. Bush on the kindergarten issue, delivered an impassioned account of the national phenomena and benefits of all-day kindergarten to 65 persons, including teachers and parents last Monday at White Plains High School. She said that studies have shown that All-Day Kindergarten creates students better equipped to learn when they move to First Grade, with a dramatic drop in first grade retention rates, creating running starts for children, especially minorities. The upgrade to All-Day K will cost the School District $1.2 Million to hire 9 new teachers and renovate existing school space, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business, Terrance Schurers. Photo by WPCNR News.

Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors, brought Dr. Kagan to the district to give the Board and White Plains parents a perspective on All-Day K, the realities and the myths.

Kagan began with noting the growth of All-Day: she said that today 60% of today’s students who attend kindergarten prior to first grade attend full-day programs. This percentage has grown from 25% in 1979, to 40% in 1990 to today’s 60% level (as of 2000). She noted that the fastest growing segment of learning was “home schooling” which schools 2% of the kindergarten-eligible children in the country.

The professor said the advantages of All Day K included “a more relaxed instructional pace,” “more classroom involvement and time for children to reflect on their learning,” and “greater academic gains.”

She said that private child care facilities have begun offering kindergarten.

Public school kindergartens, she said, have come to look “more like nursery schools, highly structured, child centered.” They see all-day kindergarten as “an antidote to the learning gap affecting children with socio-economic issues and children with difficult backgrounds.”

Getting Ready to Learn.

She noted that studies show ‘Kindergarten makes a difference” in getting children ready to learn. She defined Half-day vs Full-Day, as being on average 4 hours of class a day versus 7 hours a day. The average All-Day Kindergarten she said runs 5 to 6 hours a day.

The reasons for these advantages, she reports, are that the children “spend more time engaged in child-initiated activities,” receive more one-on-one “teacher-directed individual work,” (teachers being able to zero in on individual childrens’ learning paces and devise personalized teaching tracks). She said that the All Day Format cut down the percentage of classtime spent in teacher-directed large groups, according to the Elicker and Mathur study, “What Do They Do All Day?”

She shared with the gathering the Gulb study, “Long Term Educational Effects of Half-Day vs. Full-Day Kindergarten,” which has determined, she said that

• Children who attended full-day kindergarten scored significantly higher than children in half-day programs on both math and reading standardized achievement tests in 2^nd grade.
  
• Fewer children who attended full-day programs were retained in grade by 2^nd grade.
  
• (Children) improved language skills, social development, and academic achievement, particularly for children from low-income backgrounds.

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Debunking myths.

Dr. Kagan dismissed what she characterized as “the myths” of All-Day Kindergarten. The myth that “children tire quickly,” is just that. This is “not so,” she said. “They are more than ready to handle a full day.”

It has been said that most parents will select a half-day K, but Kagan said, the overwhelming majority of parents select All Day programs when they are made available.

The mindset that “public schools should  not be in the business of providing custodial child care for young children,” has been, she said, proven to be not a good choice, because of the documented success of early learning programs before age 5 in preparing socio and economically disadvantaged children.

The All-Day K program, she said, continues the environment of the nurturing early learning environment by providing programs that are less didactive less prescriptible than Half-Day, where there is “more time in teacher-directed work and in large groups.”

Address All Areas of Development.

“Dr. K.” advised that any All-Day K would need a well-rounded curriculum, and “fully comprehensive, addressing all areas of (child) development,” including motor development. “To eliminate motor development is wrong. It is essential.”

She said All Day K should develop a child’s approach towards learning. I would ask, “Are they creative? Are they curious?”

Be careful Whom You Select To Teach

In developing an All Day K program, Dr. Kagan noted that many administrators desire the “broadest possible certification requests” in hiring kindergarten teachers. She feels it is crictical to hire teachers trained in early childhood development, and not select just any certification. “I would impose mandatory M-K to M to 1 Certification.”

Ratios.

Kagan said, as is commonly known, that All-Day Kindergarten is most effective with low class room ratios. We see a big difference going from 1 to 19 to 1 to 15. White Plains schools have usually 2 teachers (Lead and Assistant) for approximately 25 students, or 1 to 12.

You can Never Recoup

Kagan’s most serious statement of the evening was her admonition that early learning was critical, citing the studies showing the success of pre-kindergarten programs in addressing socio-economically disadvantaged children. She said “early learning” is critical in getting  children ready to learn, “it cannot be recouped.”

Timothy Connors, Superintendent of Schools, in response to a question in the q & a that followed, said that Half-Day would be made available to parents who requested it, however, he expected the percentage requesting that option would be very small. Presently, All-Day kindergarten is parceled out on a lottery basis in White Plains.

For more information on childrens learning studies, WPCNR refers you to this website  of the National Center for Children and Families, based at Columbia University, of which Dr. Sharon Kagan is a Co-Director. The site is at www.ccf.tc.columbia.edu/index.html.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET LINE.  January 10, 2004: In apparent reaction to Dan Seidel’s extracting the Draft Final Environmental Impact Statement from City Hall, by pointing out a law to them they did not know about, the City of White Plains has made available the Draft Final Environmental Impact Statement on the 221 Main Street Project. The DFEIS was inadvertently or intentionally suppressed from the White Plains citizens who asked for it. It is now available to the public in the White Plains Public Library. However, a reader notes that the document available in the library  is not complete and is missing its key appendices. The documents in the appendices explain the answers found in the main body of the document. In a comment, a White Plains “CitizeNetReporter” writes:

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WPCNR Renaissance Reporter. January 9, 2004: Mayor Joseph Delfino of White Plains personally brewed up a classic Starbucks Latte for a coffee klatch of dignataries Friday morning at the new Starbucks on Renaissance Plaza fountain. During the ceremony, Starbucks announced it was donating $1,000 towards the Business Improvement District Community Ambassadors program and furnishing the volunteer meeters-and-greeters in the downtown with distinguished uniform jackets. The Mayor said the city had long sought to bring The Nation’s Coffee to White Plains and urged all residents to support the facility.

MAYOR COFFEE AT THE CONTROLS FRIDAY MORNING AT STARBUCKS: Mayor Delfino was being trained to create a traditonal Starbucks Latte  by Starbucks Manager, Katie Cronen. Your Renaissance Reporter tasted the Mayor’s brew and it was hearty, mellow and warming in the 20 degree “Hot Coffee Weather.” Photo by WPCNR Renaissance Cam.

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WPCNR RENAISSANCE REPORT. January 9, 2004: Paul Wood, Economic Development Director for the City of White Plains reported yesterday that Argent Mortgage Corporation has agreed to lease 223,000 square feet at the landmark Westchester One building, 44 South Broadway, owned by Nick Pepe. Wood reckoned that the lease, which will bring 900 persons into the offices, would just about fill up the Westchester One space, necessitating opening the Stop and Shop garage, which has not been accessed by Westchester One tenants since it opened in 2003. Wood said Argent was to occupy the space by the end of February.

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WPCNR SOUTHEND CITIZEN-SENTINEL. January 8, 2004: Concerned Citizens for Open Space has condemned and rejected the agreement reached in principle between Mayor Joseph Delfino and New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Herbert Pardes in which the hospital would lease 55 acres of its property along Bloomingdale Road in return for commercial medical rezoning of the northern end of its property along Westchester Avenue.

In a news release privately circulated to delegates to the Council of Neighborhood Associations, and obtained by WPCNR,  the open space advocacy group made known its reservations about the plan, reviving its call for 100 acres of usable parkland instead, rejecting the plan in spirit. Here is the text of that news release:

Concerned Citizens for Open Space in White Plains welcomes a new proposal from New York-Presbyterian Hospital offering what, at first glance, would finally seem to include much needed open space and parkland for the citizens of White Plains.  We have worked for over twenty years to find a way to save this magnificent property owned by NYPH and landscaped by the world-famous Fredrick Law Olmsted just before the turn of the last century.  During those years, CCOS has had to muster community opposition to NYPH proposals for massive, high rise commercial development, a movie theater, supermarket and, most recently, several large commercial buildings, including Fortunoff. It is an oasis hidden in White Plains, so secluded that only the newest high towers of the city intrude upon a sense of being miles from civilization.  It is, in truth, a treasure any other city in the world would move heaven and earth to preserve.

As positive as a renewed initiative might appear, we have very serious reservations and questions regarding the details of this secretly developed plan to rezone the property for commercial use in exchange for the temporary use of fifty-five acres of open space. It would more than triple the value of the hospital property and, in return, LEND the city of White Plains fifty-five acres, of which even the administration quietly agrees will provide no more than twenty acres usable for parkland. Ultimately rezoning will add THOUSANDS of cars to the already choking traffic in the city, surround what little parkland we might have to use temporarily with tall buildings where people will be engaged in potentially dangerous medical research, and will greatly increase the level of air pollution in our already over polluted city.

Throughout these 20-years, all Mayors and Common Council members, including the incumbents, have vowed again and again never to allow commercial development on NYPH property. To permanently prevent commercial development, a previous Administration rezoned the property for three houses per acre, the lowest density permitted under White Plain’s ordinances.

As with all acceptable agreements between parties, the terms and conditions of an agreement should meet criteria that benefit both parties equally.  An agreement of this magnitude for commercial rezoning cannot be rife with loopholes or language that might provide misinterpretation by either party regarding the full value and intent of the agreement.  Without ironclad language, the hospital could instigate a “breach” of the purpose and intent of the agreement to the detriment of the citizens of White Plains.  NYPH cannot have the unilateral right to terminate any lease of parkland that has been developed in good faith by the city with taxpayers’ dollars.  

Since there are, as yet, no substantial details of this new plan, CCOS cannot endorse the proposal. From what little we already know, it is incumbent upon the city to require detailed information from the hospital as well as new impartial consultants to evaluate the environmental impact this plan would impose on the city.  Previous studies, particularly the highly questionable traffic studies, made prior to the many new developments now open in the city, are no longer valid.  

It has been both rewarding and frustrating to hear city officials and candidates for office seize upon the 1993 CCOS developed concept of a Central Park for White Plains.  But it should be noted that the CCOS concept of what that Central Park should be is a very far cry from commercial surroundings of a mere twenty acres situated on wetlands that will require the city to create a catch basin disguised as a pond.  The city’s concept of a Central Park completely ignores the obvious connection CCOS was making between Central Park in New York City to the parkland in White Plains, both of which were designed by America’s most famous landscape architect.

It is our belief that the hospital should agree to sell or gift at least 100 acres of USABLE parkland to the city as a gesture of good will to citizens who have provided the hospital with a tax-free home for over 100 years.

CCOS will continue to examine this proposal, offer constructive alternatives to ensure this initiative is fair to the city, and be available to provide citizen input for any plans the city develops for a guaranteed PERMANENT park.

As positive as the Mayor’s responsive initiative might appear, CCOS has very serious reservations and questions in addition to opposition to commercial development.

(It is not clear where the large, asphalt parking spaces will be. Is that part of the park?)