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WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Fast Johnny. February 27, 2007: The latest high school sports fiasco was committed over the past weekend when five schools showed up for the Sectional Championships at West Point without registering for the event is more evidence that high school athletics is badly in need of more intelligence, compassion and creativity at the top. Two years ago it was failure to let the girls play in the County Center as part of the basketball championship due to county scheduling, this year it was the continuing deterioration of football officiating, and vicious unsportsmanlike play and spectator thug behavior in ice hockey. Now add to that lazy, negligent, inflexible management of a bookkeeping crisis. 

White Plains “K.K.” Gilmartin-Donahue after finishing first in November, 2006,  in the County Cross Country Championship.  K.K. i s one of the potential state champions denied a chance to run in this past weekends Section I State Qualifier meet at West Point because her coaches did not register her team in the meet.

 

To refresh your memory, White Plains, Mamaroneck, Nyack, Peekskill and Pelham arrived at the West Point Sectional qualifier meet over the weekend to compete for a berth in the state championships and found they were not registered. Meet officials said their athletes could not compete. Well, that’s not how to handle it, guys.

  

 Now we can see that no one at the Sectional level bothers to check registration lists before the Section I State Qualifier to see who is coming and who is not. If they did, 40 athletes would not be heartbroken this morning.

 

 This year, the geniuses running the track Championships did not check to see why five top schools with possible state champs have not registered for the event. This inability to manage a crisis on the fly compounded the irresponsibility of the coaches of five schools did not register for the event and just showed up with the kids in uniform who were denied by the meet officials the opportunities to run.

 

More glaring is the apparent inability of the Sectional Meet organizers to adjust on the fly and register the “walk-ons” on the spot. I do not want to hear that it is logistically impossible to do that “on the fly.” You register them on the spot and add more heats. There is so much wasted time at the West Point Qualifier anyway, that officials should have been able to adjust. The fact that they could not is absurd.

 

Let’s face facts: meet officials did not feel like it. They were too lazy and chose to tell kids you can’t run because you did not register. How easy for them to do that. How self-indulgent for the meet officials to do that. How utterly sanctimonious.

 

That’s not Championship in any way. 

 

How can you deny possible state champions like Kaylin Gilmartin-Donohue of White Plains the chance because their coaches did not do their job.

 

Coaches forgot to register. Others said they got confirmation, and the confirmation was apparently not sent.

 

You always register for meets. How come they did not?

 

But why did not some organizer of the meet note that five of the biggest schools with possible state champions on their track teams had not registered and called the schools to see what the problem was. A little thinking please? How about a phone call? One, maybe?

The excuse that they could not allow the surprise 40 athletes showing  to run is lame.

 I’ll tell you why.

 

Sending out a reminder to register as the Section I Girls Coordinator did the day before the meet is when you send out a reminder. How about a week before?

 

And if a team did register the day before the meet, the officials would have had to accommodate extra competitors anyway on 24 hours notice. The excuse that they could not allow the surprise 40 athletes shows they simply would not make the effort for the kids.

 

And what are high school sports about anyway. We are always told it is for the kids. Except when it is too much effort to accommodate the kids.

 

I think the Sectional Officials should be changed.

 

Why, because nobody used their brains at the Sectional management level and White Plains coaches were negligent, students went up to West Point and could not run. They staged a protest and now today it is reported the Section 1 Committee are going to look into “what led to the controversial protest” where a number of White Plains competitors blocked the track and delayed the meet.

 

Well, what lead to it was your bad management, Section 1 Committee. And no followup when you were using online registration for the first time? The White Plains Little League runs online registration but we always check and send persons reminders.

 

 

As far as registering online. This was the first time coaches had to do this. Shouldn’t you have double-checked everybody? Of course you should have.

 

How hard was it to register the athletes on the spot? Rework the heats? Apparently that takes more brains and logistics than the guys standing around with the starting pistols and the hand-held computers have.

 

Forget about the asinine quotes saying it would not be fair. It was not fair to deny the children a chance to run, jump, and compete. Though the Section reminded coaches at every meet this season to register for the Sectional, when you notice your registrations do not contain five schools with possible state contenders on their teams, why don’t you check?  

 

Five little phone calls was all it would take, but nobody thought to do that. What kind of due diligence is that?

 

And why in the world is a reminder sent by e-mail the day before the meet? How about two weeks before? How do you know how to staff the meet otherwise? It sounds like this whole meet is just winged by the sectional. This is a Sectional Management problem and a coaches problem that both sets of managers (Sectional and School District) dismissed and simply hung the kids out to dry.

 

 

WPCNR asked  White Plains Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors if the school district was contemplating relieving the track coaches from their coaching positions,  for their negligence in failing to register the teams and costing seniors their chance for who knows what honors.

 

Connors said he was not fully familiar with the circumstances surrounding the White Plains coaches’ failure to register, and he would be looking into it.

 

WPCNR PIES-IN-THE FACE  go to the Sectional management team, the meet officials on the scene, and the lame coaches and their athletic directors who did not follow procedures and double check their own coaches.

 

I do not care if computer programming of devices to monitor the results could not accommodate changes in entries at the last minute. You had to make the adjustment this one time. The athletic spirit cannot be held hostage to inflexible technology and lazy meet officials.

 

I say give the athletes who were denied the chance to compete,  a pass to the State Championships if they wish. It is the only fair thing to do because the grown-ups screwed up.

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. February 26, 2007: The Mission Statement, Core Values and Strategic Objectives of the White Plains City School District, as created by the Core Strategic Planning Committee February 7, 8 and 9 at a three-day, closed-to-the-public-and-media meeting have been reported in the new issue of White Plains Public Schools for February, out today.

The Number 1 Strategic Objective is that all students will achieve challenging district standards of literacy across all disciplines by 2012 (4 years). To put this objective in perspective:

 

 

 In 2005, 75% of all 4^th grade White Plains students passed the 4^th Grade ELA test, and that  percentage dropped to 70% in 2006. In 2005, 82% of 4^th graders passed the Math, and in 2006, 75% of 4^th graders passed the Math.

At the eighth grade level, in the  ELA Assessments in 2005, 53% passed the ELA Assessments and 63% passed the Mathematics. In September, the state reported that in the 2006 ELA Assessments White Plains 8^th graders passed at a 58% rate, up 5%  while  in the Math Assesssment scores the 58.5 % of WP eighth graders passed, down 5%.

An action committee or committees will be assigned to determine how this number 1 objective – district standards of literacy across all disciplines (however the district chooses to define it) will be achieved.

Strategic Objective 2 seeks that All students will continually choose to explore and enrich communities, and Objective 3 is All students will choose to apply their knowledge and skills to solve problems meaningful to them.  No details of what the Core Committee means by these statements were reported.

The newsletter identifies  the following Strategies, reporting that the Core Committee has decided that the district should:

1. Gain the understanding and commitment of all employees to achieve our strategic objectives;


2. Align new and existing resources, both internal and external, to accomplish our strategic objectives and mission. 


3. Align and develop curriculum to achieve our strategic objectives and missions.


4. Continue to develop and capitalize on leadership capacity within the system at all levels to sustain commitment to the strategic objectives and mission.

5. Develop an open and ongoing communication process that results in all stakeholders believing in the value of a White Plains City School District education and actively participating in reaching our strategic objectives and mission.

 The Mission, Stragic Objectives and Strategies were defined by the Core Planning Committee, consisting of  Peter Bassano (Board of Education member), Lenora Boehlert (Superintendent Cabinet member), Sheryl Brady (parent), Victor Brady (student), Kerry Broderick , LaShiela Brown, Bill Carter, Vicki Cignarella, Benny Cipriano, Leonard Coleman, Timothy Connors (Superintendent of Schools), Leslie Davis, Leroy Dixon (WPHS Assistant Principal), Margaret Dwyer (Superintendent Cabinet member), Malula Gonzalez, Terri Klemm (Principal, George Washington School), Suzanne Laser (WPHS ), Melissa Lopez (Mayor’s Office), Mary Marquis, Marianna McCormack, Donna McLaughlin (Board of Education member), Jorge Mejia, Alberto Minotta (WPHS), Ana Montoya, Charlie Norris (Parent), Randy Patterson, Jerry Rosen, Dorothy Schere (former Board of Education member), Lesley Tompkins (WPHS), George Tsuji.

The Mission seeks to educate and inspire all students, while nurturing their dreams, so they learn continually, think critically, pursue their aspirations and contribute to a diverse and dynamic world.

The Core Committee found the district Core Values to be that:

All people have intrinsic value; celebrating and embracing diversity enriches live; all people can learn, grow and contribute; every choice matters, and people are responsible for their choices; respect, honesty and trust empower; when people serve the community, both the individuals and the community benefit; and high expectations promote high achievement.

Rosemarie Eller, a Board of Education member writes in the newsletter that now that these long range goals have been set by the Core Committee, Action and Management Teams will be formed to implement and measure progress towards the goals agreed upon.

No timetable as to when these Action Committees will begin to meet was announced.