EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AWARDS PREPARATION OF NEW GRADE 3-TO-8 ASSESSMENT TESTS TO QUESTAR–TAKES IT AWAY FROM PEARSON THE INTERNATIONAL TESTING GIANT

Posted on by

Hits: 92

 

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. From the New York State Education Department. July 9, 2015:
The State Education Department Thursday announced that Questar Assessment, Inc. will be awarded the contract to develop the State’s grades 3-8 ELA and mathematics assessments.  The contract with Questar, Inc. must still be approved by the Attorney General and State Comptroller.  The new contract, valued at approximately $44 million, will run for five years and include a district option to administer the tests on computers.

“Our students deserve the best, most accurate assessments we can give them,” Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch said.  “Teachers and parents should have clear, practical information to help them help their students learn.  Our goal is to continue to improve the assessments to make sure they provide the instructional support parents and teachers need to prepare our students for college and careers.  This new contract also recognizes how vitally important it is to have New York State teachers involved in the test development process.”

“New York State teachers will be involved in every step of the test development process,” State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said.  “Teacher input is critical to building a successful state test, and that’s why the new contract emulates the collaborative process used to develop the Regents Exams.”

“Questar, Inc. will also provide computer based testing (CBT) platforms that will help reduce the need for stand-alone field tests, and more importantly, help make our assessments even better instructional tools.”

The new contract has two components.

Component 1 is for the development of grades 3–8 ELA and mathematics assessments and an operational bank of test items.

Component 2 is for the development of CBT (Computer Based Testing) capabilities for administration of grades 3–8 ELA and mathematics assessments.

The vendor must provide test administration and test delivery platforms that can be used by computers at New York State’s public, nonpublic, and charter schools.  The vendor will move toward embedding all field test multiple-choice items in approximately 22-28 computer delivered operational test forms per grade level.

Under the terms of the contract, New York State teachers will be instrumental in the development of the assessments at several stages in the process.

Questar, Inc. is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has offices in Brewster, NY. Questar, Inc. was awarded the contract through an RFP process. Four firms bid on the contract. The original RFP can be found at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/compcontracts/15-008/home.html

 

Posted in Uncategorized

PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE DAY: MAYOR ROACH, LOUIS CAPPELLI DEDICATE NEW PARK BETWEEN THE RITZ AND GRACE CHURCH. CAPPELLI ANNOUNCES MEDITERRANEO RESTAURANT COMING TO WP

Posted on by

Hits: 128

2015709capelli 019

New Park Completes Renaissance Square, Dresses Up Grace Church. The View of the new park from Mamaroneck Avenue

 

2015709capelli 004

Councilman John Kirkpatrick, Milagros Lecuona, White Plains Mayor Tom Roach, Louis Cappelli of The Cappelli Organization , Rector of Grace Church Richark Kunz at the opening of the new park built for the city by The Cappelli Organization. Workers for LRC Construction completed the last sidewalk pieces early this morning.

2015709capelli 014

The view from the open terrace of BLT Steak, revealing the inspiration of old Grace Church and providing a breath of natural beauty to the White Plains downtown. The told WPCNR the hours of the park have not been set yet but felt it would probably be open to the public until 11 P.M.

 

2015709capelli 010

 

2015709 125

The Mayor said in his remarks that the completion of the park showed what a vibrant downtown White Plains has, and the Mayor also said a new restaurant would be opening in the glass building above in downtown. Mr. Cappelli said there would be another opening for that. The restaurant coming in is Mediteranneio, which runs Meditteranio in Greenwhich, Mr. Cappelli told WPCNR. The restaurant will occupy the entire 7 Renaissance Square structure above and is planned for a Nov-December opening.

Posted in Uncategorized

THE BOYKIN BRIEFING: WHITE PLAINS COUNTY LEGISLATOR URGES PUBLIC TO REJECT COUNTY EXEC SPECTRA PIPELINE

Posted on by

Hits: 102

 

2015530 002

COUNTY LEGISLATOR BENJAMIN BOYKIN IN HIS MAY 30 APPEARANCE ON PEOPLE TO BE HEARD ON WHITE PLAINS TV

WPCNR THE BOYKIN BRIEFING. From County Legislator Benjamin Boykin, District 5, Westchester County Legislator. July 9, 2015:

I wanted to express my disappointment in another bad deal the County Executive has made for our community. During the July 2nd  Board of Acquisition and Contracts meeting, the County Executive signed off on a deal to give the Spectra organization a temporary license agreement that will allow them to rip open approximately 18 acres of parkland inside the Blue Mountain Reservation for their 42 inch pipeline.  Not only does the pipeline damage our natural parkland, it will have a significant financial impact on Westchester taxpayers. However, he has agreed to reopen discussions with Spectra to address many concerns posed by my colleagues and I, and by neighbors and advocates in the area.

Please call the County Executive today at 914-995-2900 to ask him that the following items be included in the license agreement with Spectra before he signs away access to county taxpayer-owned parkland:

•    Increased safety protection
•    Additional resources for monitoring
•    More specific details on how the park will be restored once construction is complete
•    Increased insurance coverage, including a performance bond

The County Executive’s pipeline agreement secures only $2 million for approximately 18 acres of parkland.  Whereas, a recent agreement entered into by Spectra and the Town of Yorktown for the same pipeline was for $2 million in exchange for only 7.5 acres.  Clearly this deal does not make much sense for county taxpayers and provides inadequate funds to do the type of monitoring and remediation needed to protect Blue Mountain from permanent damage.

This agreement risks serious damage to one of our prized parks and the larger Hudson River Basin and leaves many unanswered questions about whether it will adequately protect the park and nearby residents from contamination by heavy metals and radioactive materials, polluted storm water runoff and wholesale destruction of landscape, vegetation and wildlife habitat.

Given that the contents of the pipeline has toxic elements that could damage the natural environment, I believe the County owes it to the taxpayers to secure a deal that offsets the environmental risks involved.  There are still too many concerns with this pipeline to move forward at this point and I believe the County Executive should take the time and get the answers before irrevocable damage is done to our natural environment.

Please continue to voice your concerns to the County Executive and urge him to address these significant concerns as the Administration still has time to for discussion with Spectra before the deal is executed.

Posted in Uncategorized

A CONVERSATION WITH ALEX PHILIPPIDIS — VETERAN REPORTER AND OBSERVER, CO FOUNDER OF WHITE PLAINS WEEK– TONIGHT ON PEOPLE TO BE HEARD 8 PM ON WHITE PLAINS TV CHANNEL 45 COUNTYWIDE ON FIOS AND CHANNEL 76 CABLEVISION IN WP. DON’T MISS HIM!

Posted on by

Hits: 1

2015703 003

WHITE PLAINS’ ALEX PHILIPPIDIS, FORMER GANNETT REPORTER, FORMER EDITOR OF WESTCHSTER COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL, CO FOUNDER OF THE WHITE PLAINS WEEK WHITE PLAINS TV NEW ROUNDUP,  AND NOW SENIOR NEWS EDITOR OF GENETIC ENGINEERING & BIOTECHNOLOGY NEWS, NEW ROCHELLE RETURNS TO PEOPLE TO BE HEARD TONIGHT AT 8 PM.

JOHN BAILEY INTERVIEWS ALEX ON THE STORY BEHIND THE SOARING AND CONTINUED SOARING CANCER DRUG SITUATION, THEN ALEX GIVES HIS OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF WHITE PLAINS, THE STATE OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY, THE NEW YORK LEGISLATURE AND THE EDUCATION SITUATION IN NEW YORK FROM HIS UNIQUE 15 YEAR PERSPECTIVE…

ALEX PHILIPPIDIS — DON’T MISS HIM TONIGHT AT 8 ON WHITE PLAINS TELEVISION FIOS CHANNEL 45 COUNTYWIDE AND CABLEVISION IN WHITE PLAINS CHANNEL 76

Posted in Uncategorized

Letters We Get Lots and Lots of Letters — Council Ignores Own Comprehensive Plan if they Approve FASNY, Writer Says

Posted on by

Hits: 221

WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. JULY 8, 2015:

Dear Mayor and Common Council,
We were gratified to see your growing skepticism of FASNY’s mitigation efforts, which seem to us to be insufficient (e.g.. under the legal standard set forth in Cornell for a clearly oversized dream project), ill-conceived (e.g., with closure of an important thoroughfare considered mitigation), illusory (e.g., incorporating a two phase approach when it’s first phase already breaches the boundaries of acceptable), and unreliable (e.g., founded on questionable traffic analysis, criticized by many, including our Board of Education).
We accept Mr. Kirkpatrick’s opinion that our neighborhood must embrace change; however, we question his judgment on the change he considers acceptable.  We can think of change in at least two dimensions: slow and incremental or radical.  There is no question that the FASNY development would bring radical change to our and other neighborhoods.  We note with satisfaction that the White Plains Comprehensive Plan as updated embraces change for our City in many respects.  However, the type of change contemplated for our and other residential neighborhoods is change that “preserves” the scale and character of these neighborhoods.  This, in our view, means change of the moderate and incremental type (as the rezoning to R1-30 illustrates) not the radical variety.  Excerpts from the Comprehensive Plan:
“The preference in the 1997 Plan for modest residential growth in the Close-In and Outer Areas remains appropriate. The 2001 Zoning Ordinance amendments which aligned the zoning to the existing densities of these areas, and thereby reduced overall development potential, are consistent with the 1997 Plan objectives of preserving the character of the neighborhoods in these areas. The 1997 Plan strategies for limiting new housing development in the Close-In and Outer Areas to that which is consistent with the character of the existing neighborhoods is affirmed in this 2006 Update.” (p. I-II-37, 2006 Modifications to 1997 Comprehensive Plan Housing Recommendation.)
“This Plan reflects a vision for the City’s neighborhoods based on preserving the scale and character of these diverse residential areas. Although each neighborhood is unique, the need to maintain a high-quality of residential life at the neighborhood level is the common thread that binds all of the City’s neighborhoods.” (p. II-I-45, Neighborhoods Vision Statement.)
“Like the vision for the Close-In neighborhoods, the vision for the Outer Area neighborhoods focuses on preservation – preservation of neighborhood diversity and sense of community; preservation of the high-quality homes on spacious lots; and preservation of tree-lined streets, public open spaces and substantial portions of open space on quasi-public and private institutional and commercial properties. It also focuses on controlling growth through the reduction in permitted densities on large undeveloped and underdeveloped residential parcels and through the strict regulation of development, ensuring that new housing is compatible with the character of the surrounding area and is developed in a manner sensitive to the open space and environmental features of the individual sites and neighborhoods.” (p. II-I-58, Vision Statement for Outer Area Neighborhoods.)
Accordingly, we think that Mr. Kirkpatrick’s vision of the type of acceptable neighborhood change should be shaped not by his own personal opinion but rather by what our City’s governing documents envision.
Sincerely,
Max & Gail Schwartz
Posted in Uncategorized

North Street Nightmares That Will Not Go Away, Letter Writer Says

Posted on by

Hits: 89

WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. JULY 6, 2015:

Dear Major Roach and Common Council Members,

I don’t know if all of you are aware of the situation at the YWCA on North Street. There are hundreds and hundreds of cars going in and out all day.  Day care, nursery school, all sorts of programs plus Hazel’s a small restaurant down stairs.

During the day there are hundreds of teens from the high school crossing North Street to eat over there.  They literally stand on the median in the middle of the street to get across. They don’t always pay attention to a traffic light. I know this first hand because I take my young grandchildren there for classes. Talk about a dangerous situation for our White Plains children. 

With all FASNY busses (if project is approved and built) and cars on North Street you can be guaranteed of an accident.
I hope you all have driven down North Street to see the work being done for the German School.  When that opens in the fall we are talking about another possible disaster.  
  This would be a very small fraction of the FASNY 10-year construction nightmare).
You seriously have to consider these situations.

 

Thank you,

Sharon Gould

Posted in Uncategorized

URSTADT BIDDLE QUIETLY ANNOUNCED PENDING SALE OF WHITE PLAINS PAVILION TWO MONTHS AGO

Posted on by

Hits: 99

WPCNR EAST SIDE STORY. From Urstadt-Biddle Properties. July 4, 2015:

2014526 006

In April Urstadt-Biddle Properties announced in a news release they were attempting to sell the White Plains Pavilion mall on Maple Avenue, adjacent the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The news release reads:

Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. (the “Company”) (NYSE: UBA and UBP), a real estate investment trust, announced today that it has entered into a contract to sell its Westchester Pavilion Property located in White Plains, NY (“Pavilion”). The purchaser is Maple and Broadway Holdings, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lennar Corporation through its Lennar Multi-Family Communities, LLC subsidiary (“Lennar”) (NYSE:LEN). Operating in twenty-one states, Lennar is one of the country’s largest homebuilders. The Pavilion is a 190,000 square foot retail shopping center located in White Plains, New York (Westchester County). In November 2014, the City of White Plains approved the Company’s request to change the zoning of the property to allow its development as a mixed-use property containing residential apartments above ground level retail and restaurant uses. The contract contains several contingencies that need to be satisfied in order for the transaction to close, and there is the possibility it may not close.

If all contingencies are satisfied, the Company expects the transaction to close at the end of fiscal 2015 or early fiscal 2016.

Commenting on the contract, Willing L. Biddle, UBP’s President and Chief Executive Officer said,

“Our Company has owned the Pavilion since the 2002. The property was originally a three story department store that, prior to our ownership, was converted to the retail shopping center it is today. Over the years, the property has become less competitive in the market-place. Its current configuration and condition prompted the Company to explore whether there might be a higher and better use for the site.

About two years ago, we began the process of petitioning the City of White Plains for a zoning change to permit the demolition of the buildings and the construction of a dynamic mixed use development containing a mixture of apartments and retail/restaurants. The City of While Plains and in particular Mayor Tom Roach were welcoming and supportive of our efforts and approved the zone change in November, 2014.

During the approval process we met with several prestigious development companies to consider as partners in the development – the plan being that UBP would own the retail/restaurant portion and our partner would own the residential portion.

As time went by it became more apparent that a better structure for our Company was an out-right sale of the property to a more experienced mixed-use developer and that developer was Lennar. We will continue to work closely with Lennar through the remainder of the approval process, which includes, among other things, site plan approval. The Company is in the process of resolving the remaining contingencies to permit a closing.”

Posted in Uncategorized

FIREWORKS FLAWLESS. CROWD FESTIVE. ENTERTAINMENT ENERGETIC PARKING FREE.

Posted on by

Hits: 96

WPCNR AROUND TOWN. JULY 2, 2015:

THE ANNUAL WHITE PLAINS INDEPENDENCE DAY FIREWORKS DISPLAY SLIPPED UNDER THE WIRE LAST NIGHT UNDER HUMID CLOUDY SKIES BUT ALL WENT WELL.

COUNCILPERSONS MILAGROS LECUONA AND DENNIS KROLIAN WERE SEEN COLLECTING SIGNATURES TO RUN IN THE  ELECTION FOR COMMON COUNCIL, BUT THIS REPORTER SAW NO REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES COLLECTING PETITION SEGNATURES  THOUGH APPARENTLY TWO ARE RUNNING FOR TWO OF THE THREE SEATS.

2015702fireworks 005

THE BAND “FDR DRIVE”  PLAYED STRAIGHT FROM 7 UNTIL 9 ENTERTAINING THE CROWD WITH DRIVING CONTEMPORARY 80S-20-SOMETHINGS SOUNDS THAT CONSISTENTLY HAD THE MULTITUDES MOVING WELL.

2015702fireworks 012

2015702fireworks 010

2015702fireworks 029
PAUL FRIED, (FAR LEFT) NEW WHITE PLAINS SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS TO BE WAS ON HAND, WITH COUNCILPERSON BETH SMAYDA (SECOND FROM LEFT,) COMMISSIONER OF RECREATION AND PARKS WAYNE BASS (red shirt),Assemblyman David Buchwald(4th from left). Mayor Tom Roach (5th from left), who welcomed the crowd.  Councilman Dennis Krolian far right ,was there with Councilperson Milagros Lecuona (not in picture). ALSO PRESENT WAS STATE SENATOR ANDREA STEWART-COUSINS

2015702fireworks 034

THE FIREWORKS SPONSORED BY BURKE REHABILITATION FOUNDATION WERE SPECTACULAR LIGHTING UP THE THRONG OF THOUSANDS (BELOW)

2015702fireworks 043

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized

LETTERER INTERPRETS FASNY: THE LAW ACCORDING TO MR. KIRKPATRICK???

Posted on by

Hits: 133

WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. JULY 2, 2015:

Dear Mr. Kirkpatrick:
      We attended this evening’s (Monday, June 29) Common Council and listened carefully to the comments of the Council members, including your comments. Frankly, we are appalled at some of your comments, and wish to express our strong disapproval of them.
      We understand that you are a land use attorney and have some level of expertise in this field. We also are attorneys with over seventy years of combined experience in litigation and trial work. While our specialty is not land use, we have read all of the applicable case law and also have extensive experience in advising clients of the merits of proposed actions.
      Your contention that a Court would undoubtedly overturn the denial of the FASNY application is simply wrong. Equally wrong is your statement that a Court would impose even more negative impacts upon the City if FASNY challenged the denial of its applications. The Courts have never held that a school has a full exemption from zoning rules; rather, the Court of Appeals in the Cornell case stated:
 Although in Matter of Diocese of Rochester v Planning Bd. (1 N.Y.2d 508, supra), we found an exclusion of a religious use to be arbitrary and unreasonable, we rejected any conclusive presumption of an entitlement to an exemption from zoning ordinances. . . .
 Under Cornell, the standard in reviewing the request of a school or church for permission to expand into a residential area is the over-all impact on the public’s welfare:
  Although the special treatment afforded schools and churches stems from their presumed beneficial effect on the community, there are many instances in which a particular educational or religious use may actually detract from the public’s health, safety, welfare or morals. In those instances, the institution may be properly denied. There is simply no conclusive presumption that any religious or educational use automatically outweighs its ill effects (citations omitted). The presumed beneficial effect may be rebutted with evidence of a significant impact on traffic congestion, property values, municipal services and the like. 
There is abundant evidence in the record to support the denial of both FASNY applications. FASNY has not even begun to demonstrate that partial closure of Hathaway Lane is in the public interest, and the Cornell presumption regarding educational uses is clearly rebutted by the showing here of an overwhelming negative net impact on the welfare and safety of the public.
    We are also troubled by your suggestion that the neighborhood should accept change, even if the change is negative, because times change and neighborhoods deteriorate. We find the latter comment to be downright bizarre, particularly coming from a person who lives in the Gedney Farm neighborhood.
While we would not expect your vote to be influenced by the fact that you live in the neighborhood, we are at a loss as to how you could make this comment. Perhaps this was a Freudian slip, for indeed, the neighborhood will deteriorate if the FASNY development were ever built.
 Sincerely,
 Joseph L. DeMarzo and Denise Liotta DeMarzo
White Plains, NY, USA
Posted in Uncategorized