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 ALBANY ROUNDS. From The Governor’s Press Office. February  16, 2009 Governor David A. Paterson announced Saturday that a preliminary analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act shows New York can expect to receive at least $24.6 billion over the next two years. This critical legislation will provide significant funding for State fiscal relief, as well as for education aid, infrastructure projects, direct benefits to low income and unemployed New Yorkers, and other critical priorities.

“With New York State at the epicenter of a nationwide financial crisis, I have been working for months with governors around the country advocating for federal aid to help states weather the current economic storm,” said Governor Paterson.  “I am grateful to Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Congressman Rangel and the entire New York Congressional Delegation for taking swift action on President Obama’s economic recovery agenda.

Governor Paterson this week created the New York State Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Cabinet to manage the development of State and local infrastructure projects financed through these federal funds. The cabinet will be composed of State agency heads and senior members of the Governor’s staff, and will work closely with local governments to ensure federal dollars reach critical projects and put people to work as quickly as possible.

Senior Advisor for Infrastructure and Transportation Timothy J. Gilchrist, who leads the Cabinet, said: “These funds will allow critical infrastructure projects to progress at a time when state and local governments cannot move these projects forward alone. Now we must work with local officials to outline an aggressive agenda to ensure that the State utilizes these funds quickly and efficiently, for job-creating projects with lasting value across the State.”

National Overview

Overall, the national cost of the provisions included in the legislation is expected to total $789 billion. This includes approximately $463 billion in spending and $326 billion in tax cuts. Of the $463 billion in spending, $374 billion is for programs that directly impact our State.  New York is expect to receive $24.6 billion of that funding.  

State and Local Fiscal Relief

Several portions of the federal stimulus legislation will provide direct fiscal relief to State and local governments, many of which are addressing significant budget deficits. Some of these major provisions include the following:

Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP)

The stimulus bill provides a total of $87 billion in fiscal relief through increased Medicaid reimbursements (FMAP). New York’s share of that funding (which includes funding for the State, counties, and the City of New York) is nearly $11 billion over a 27-month period – $1.9 billion in 2008-09, $5.0 billion in 2009-10, and $4.2 billion in 2010-11.

Based on preliminary analysis, it is expected that approximately 70 percent of this relief will accrue to the State and the remainder will be provided to local governments.

Education

The legislation includes a State fiscal stabilization fund that totals $53.6 billion over two years, which primarily consists of funding for education.

There are three main components of this fund.

• Education Restorations.  New York is expected to receive $2.5 billion out of a total of $39.5 billion that will be provided to restore proposed reductions in funding for education. The federal legislation requires that this money be used for that purpose.  It is expected that half of the $2.5 billion will be committed in 2009-10 and the remainder in 2010-11.
  
  
  
• Flexible Relief.  New York is expected to receive $556 million out of a national total of $8.8 billion provided for other fiscal relief to state governments over the next two years. Like FMAP, this funding would be flexible and can be dedicated to support any government service.

• Incentive Grants.  An additional $5 billion in education grants will be available for states meeting key performance measures as determined by the United States Department of Education. While the amount New York would receive is subject to the grant awarding process, we expect that New York will be in a strong competitive position to receive substantial funding.

Other Education Funding

New York is expected to receive $940 million out of a total of $13 billion in Title I funding for high needs students and $760 million out of a total of $12.2 billion in IDEA funding for special education over the next two years.  Both of these funds would be split roughly evenly between the next two fiscal years. This funding will be provided directly to school districts through the State Education Department subject to specific federal formulas over which the State has no discretion.

Other major education funding for New York includes increasing the maximum award for Pell Grants by $500 (National Share: $15.6 billion, State Share: $180 million), and providing substantial increased support for education technology (National Share: $650 million, State Share: $61 million) and the education of homeless children (National Share: $70 million, State Share: $7 million).

Infrastructure and Energy

The stimulus legislation delivers substantial support for infrastructure projects. At the national level, this includes $48 billion in funding for transportation capital projects ($8.4 billion for mass transit, $27.5 billion for highways and bridges, $9.3 billion for rail, $1.3 billion for airport improvement projects; $1.5 billion for discretionary surface transportation projects). Of this total, New York is expected to receive at least $1.25 billion for the mass transit and $1.1 billion for highways and bridges. The Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Cabinet will be working with State agencies and local governments to aggressively seek funding from other sources of transportation funding.

The legislation also includes $16.8 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and technologies, including research and development. New York will receive $126 million through the State Energy Program and $31 million in alternative energy block grants. It provides $4.5 billion for energy research and development projects nationwide, including $2.0 billion for energy storage technologies, which could provide funding for the Governor’s proposed battery storage consortium. 

New York State is also projected to receive $435 million from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund; $85 million from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund; and $404 million to help weatherize the homes of low-income individual.

Other Major Spending Provisions

The federal legislation will also provide funding for a number of other critical initiatives over the next two years. New York is expected to receive $1.3 billion in enhanced food stamp benefits; $1.3 billion to fund 33-week expansion of unemployment benefits (to a total of 59 weeks), as well as provide additional weekly benefits through December 31, 2009 instead of March 31, 2009; and $100 million for child care services for low-income individuals.

In addition the federal legislation provides funding for several programs that will be administered at the federal level.  The Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Cabinet is analyzing the legislation to identify programs that the State and local governments can take apply for funding.

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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. February 14, 2009: In response to repeated inquiries about specific cuts department-by-department in White Plains, rumors of job cuts, and rumors of city hall closings, the Mayor’s Office issued a statement to WPCNR Friday evening declaring that a briefing on the state of the city finances would be given to the Common Council next Thursday evening, February 19.

The statement from Melissa Lopez, the Mayor’s media spokesperson reads: ” (at) the Common Council meeting on Feb 19 the council will be updated on all budget concerns.

He (Paul Wood, City Executive Officer,  also said that, “legaly, contractually, we cannot cut union jobs mid year without an agreement from the unions.”

Mayor Delfino wants to preserve jobs not make cuts so we are continuing to speak to the unions about various alternatives that cannot be disclosed right now.”

At the Council of Neighborhood Associations meeting this week, Augie Zicca, reporting on the state of the Department of Public Safety told delegates present that the firefighters loved their new 24-hour shifts, there had been no absentees, and no overtime. He also told the CNA, the department was a full strength and that there would be no layoffs.   

The city has been working on cutting the city budget since early December, but has not issued a specific overview of all cuts and savings, though noting cuts of approximately 25 part-time personnel at the White Plains Library, the Department of Recreation and Parks and the Department of Public Works. This week the annual Camp Chill camp for ice-skaters at Ebersole Rink was not held, apparently because of budget cuts at the Department of Recreation and Parks, despite earlier reports that no programs would be cut as a result of the layoffs.

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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. From The Mayor’s Office. February 11, 2009: White Plains Mayor Joseph M. Delfino announced today that a city practice is cited as one of “5 Ways to Turn Traffic Greener” in the February issue of AAA New York’s Car & Travel Monthly.  “The article deals with what government can do to improve fuel economy, cut greenhouse gasses and boost safety, it and praises White Plains for having computer synchronized traffic lights in place for years,” said Mayor Delfino.  “If you were to visit Traffic Commissioner Tom Soyk’s office here in City Hall, you’d think you were in NASA’s ground control center.  It’s very high-tech, with screens and monitors showing the actual real-time traffic flow.”

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. February 10, 2009:  Kerry Broderick, President of the White Plains Teachers Association, addressing the Board of Education last night,  called for the school district to assess the performance of its administrators and district-hired consultants, advocating putting teachers back in charge of their classrooms and listening to the teachers, claiming teachers’ ideas are often “lost in translation.”

.In a five-minute address to the Board of Education, Kerry Broderick, President of the White Plains Teachers Association gave new evidence of a festering schism that has been driven between teachers and administration by annual almost ritual reinventions of the curriculum to fix test scores and achievement gaps driven by consultants and teacher improvement programs. The thrust of her address was that teachers know best – not outsiders – or administrators who are not in the classroom and that the administration does not want to listen to the teachers  on classroom procedures.

The White Plains Teachers (numbering 651) are approaching their second  mediation session with the school district being administered by a New York State Public Employers Relations Board-appointed mediator, scheduled for February 26.. (The teachers have been working without a contract since last June.)

Broderick said: “Last September we were aware of the economic fall. Our White Plains Teachers Association focused on the bigger picture that involved the entire community to create a bigger picture that served the best natural resource of White Plains the students of White Plains.

              In November, we reiterated our concerns on spending large amounts of money on so-called experts who have imposed initiatives on teachers with minimal financial support and absolutely no independent assessment on the impact these initiatives have had. We ask the Board (of Education) and administration to please tell the teachers and the community why any assessment has not been done, why it cannot be done.

             I’m here again this evening speaking on behalf of my 651 colleagues.  We are in very difficult economic times. We must work together to make smart cuts and maintain smart spending. We need to maintain the educational gains we have made and to do that we must agree to put our teachers in front of the students, not consultants.

             We have good ideas. Money-saving ideas for program changes. But, alas, our requests are lost in translation. The goals of the White Plains Teachers Association are to maintain the educational quality of this district, to insure our members are treated fairly and the district uses its resources wisely.

             We can only do this when we work in an open and honest environment  where the hard decisions are made collectively in the light of day.”

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. News & Comment By John F. Bailey. February 9, 2009: Dr. Christopher Clouet, the Superintendent from New London, will be authorized to be hired this evening as the new Superintendent of Schools in White Plains. He is expected to be in attendance as the Board of Education makes the most crucial and important decision about the schools since it ordered choice of schools and busing decades ago.

Dr. Christopher  Clouet steps into a position that for the sake of the schools and White Plains as we know it, has to change in order to make education in White Plains  educationally sound for more than just the white, Hispanic and Black children with demanding parents. His challenge should the Board of Education allow him to do it is to make it economically viable for the White Plains taxpayer and more educationally effective for the students. Throwing money at it is off the table as an option.

The Board of Education has for the nine years I have been reporting on this district accepted excuse after excuse and incremental gain after incremental gain in the achievement gap hand-wringing crisis. They have approved budget after budget doubling inflation rates in increases year after year. They have spent money on projects whose need is because they would be nice.  

The Board has been masterfully compromised by administrators who do not take responsibility and make excuse after excuse for not delivering results and not being able to show results reliably. Every year the budget is decided upon before the previous year’s School Report Cards are published by the state (a disgrace).

25% of the Boston City School Budget

The  White Plains budget, educuating 7,123 students with 5 elementary schools, two Middle Schools and one high school,  has grown to the point AT $184.4 Million where it is slightly less than 25% of the school budget for the city of Boston ($833.1 Million).

The Boston Public Schools educate  55,800 students in 143 schools.

If the White Plains budget stays at $184.4 Million it will be more than 25% of Boston’s budget which is seeking to cut $107 Million to $726 Million.

Well, this year, Timothy Connors the present Superintendent leaves June 30 turning over the leadership to Dr. Clouet.

The Dream Job

Clouet is a used to a small budget, $50 Million compared to this year’s budget of $184.4 Million for the White Plains schools. Dr. Clouet has had to fight for mere million dollar increases from the depressed city of New London, where the city council supervises the school budget.  No one really can tell whether the painful progress of New London schools under his leadership is from having to fight hard for change every step of the way, or rather the job was just too big. The district appears beyond repair.

Dr. Clouet instead moves into Westchester’s dream job: the district that never says no, loves its children, and burns money at double the rate of inflation.

A Poisoned Atmosphere

However all is not “all for the kids this year.”  The  Board of Education who this year has suddenly discovered that  perhaps a 6% to7% increase in a budget might be a little politically incorrect this year.  They have declared war on the Teachers Union and are handing Clouet a charged negotiation atmosphere.

It never occurred to the Board of Education as they ran up the budget compounding and raising expenses the last nine years that the public income was not keeping pace with their school taxes. The Board of Education even refused to negotiate with the White Plains Teachers Association over a contract, throwing the ball to the New York State Public Employers Relations Board going to mediation. 

This is the situation Dr. Clouet steps into: the question is what does the Board of Education really want him to do? Cut the budget next year? Close the Achievement Gap? Rein in spending more? Bring in fund-raising from the community and the state to shore up the budget? Trim the teaching staff or increase it? Negotiate a contract and  tweak a pay and step schedule that pays new teachers less going forward and trims step increases? Trim the fat from the administration or tone it up? Evaluate programs more effectively? Make the faculty bilingually correct and effective? 

Those are just some of the issues the Board of Education needs to decide and tell Dr. Clouet. It’s called leadership. And perhaps if they have given Dr. Clouet a “To Do” list, perhaps they should tell the public what it is, instead of a Strategic Plan that is developed behind closed doors.

Or does the Board of Education just want an earnest, committed  and charismatic Superintendent to sell the budget? Dr. Clouet does not appear to be that kind of man. He deliberately puts himself into very hard situations and gets beat up but keeps fighting for what he believes in, apparently.

When this search for a new Superintendent began, I wrote a mock ad for what White Plains needs in a new Superintedent it went like this:

WANTED

Savior of Schools

For White Plains City School District

Experience: Proven credentials as a leader or Assistant Superintendent of a school district of  up to 10,000 students of diverse population.

He or she should bring to the district a demonstrated record of academic improvement in upgrading academic performances of a diverse student body in a 3-year or less time interval with a significant  ESOL student population in a district respected by the collegiate community, demonstrated by the number of students continuing to collegiate education.

They should be capable and familiar with the challenges of and demonstrated ability to manage a school budget of $200 Million for maximum educational achievement with prudent financial cost conservation in the face of dwindling taxpayer support and significantly increased costs.

He or she should be able to interact productively with parents, taxpayers, faculty and administrations and city management to contain costs in a manner that will not overburden taxpayers and compromise quality of education.

Proven Administrator Motivator

Able to reorganize district management, academic administration, and information reporting to demonstrate timely feedback on the effectiveness of skills, practices, and managers.

Innovative Amiable but Firm Negotiator 

Able to work with teaching faculty to attract high quality new recruits with pay-benefits ratios acceptable by employee  to deliver bottomline effectiveness, arresting out of control salary escalation now affecting district – with pragmatic department-trimming skills to lower overall budget.

Endowment Specialist/Fundraiser –

Able to interact with the community, city and government  to build a district endowment fund to transition the district from a totally taxpayer supported operation into an endowment/taxpayer combination to finance major new construction and limited borrowing.

Innovator – problem-solver

Capable of undertaking a major cost-cutting management initiatives to lower the costs of operations without sacrificing educational effectiveness.

Salary: $300,000K and Up Plus generous incentive package based on performance in bringing school budget growth under control.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Let’s see how they did.

Dr. Clouet appears to fit these parameters in some respects, and not in others. His present district is just 3,000 students, but it is about 80% black and Hispanic.

Demonstrated record of improvement after three years. It depends on whom you talk to in New London as to whether he has done that. If you go strictly on test scores, his elementary program is improving, but it is so far behind what the State of Connecticut wants (and was before he got there), that you have to think it is a lost cause. However Clouet took on the challenge turning around a whole mindset and took on the community and entrenched bureaucracy to attempt that change, and he had only one assistant Superintendent. In White Plains he will have  4 heavyweights. Whether he keeps them all is open to question. He is the Lone Ranger against entrenched bureaucracy. (Never works well.)

Cost cutting? Wow. Where does he start with that one?

A complete overhaul of the maintenance program would be in order. How do you budget $3 Million a year for maintenance of the schools and wind up in 5 years having to borrow $15 Million for infrastructure improvements?  How about use of teaching assistants? Do we really need a high school office the size of the White House  greet staff (I exaggerate to make a point)?  Interaction with the city? Good luck on that one. Maintenance in White Plains is a blank check and they’d probably charge the school district a fortune – but the work might be done more effectively with the appropriate engineering.

He or she should be able to interact productively with parents, taxpayers, faculty and administrations and city management to contain costs in a manner that will not overburden taxpayers and compromise quality of education.

Proven Administrator Motivator

Able to reorganize district management, academic administration, and information reporting to demonstrate timely feedback on the effectiveness of skills, practices, and managers.

That’s going to be tough because the management, academic administration and data people say they do that now, but the district year after year cannot get meaningful figures on data. The district pays 4 data processing executives close to a million dollars a year in salary and benefits and we can’t get the data we want. Clouet is a data specialist and is closely attuned to measuring results. This should be an interesting conflict and interaction. Let’s face it: if you provide inconclusive data, nothing changes, because you can’t make a decision.  That has been the strategy (whether intentional or just convenient incompetence on the part of the administration) that has kept things moving along to the $200 Million level in the White Plains School District.

Innovative Amiable but Firm Negotiator 

Dr. Clouet based on his record in New London has changed the culture there somewhat.

In White Plains, he inherits one of the great teacher contracts in the country – the envy of many another school district. He has to decide whether the district can live with this contract going forward, or whether benefits, retirements, and perhaps step increases have to undergo some “creative” adjustment to restrain the 5% a year rate of growth on teach salaries. He has to have some guts from the Board of Education on that one and some imagination on his part. The Board has shown the last nine years that they have no stomach or brains for negotiating – hence the mediation procedure this year – and certainly no ability to use simple baseball statistics, and a calculator,  to see what will happen to their school budget if practices continue. As long as the budget kept passing  and school parents raved the Board of Edcucation  did not worry about the budget growth. Never mind that the White Plains tax base has been dwindling.

Will Dr. Clouet trim staff by attrition? This is another way of putting out career administrators out to pasture and trimming the fat. The district never met a job they did not think was necessary.

Administrative talent evaluation. Here is where Clouet will be most challenged. Who does he really need? What positions does he want to keep and what eliminate?  More to the point, what does the Board of Education want him to do?  

But, I digress.

Endowment Specialist/ Fund-Raiser

Here, Dr. Clouet, with his boundless enthusiasm and relentness questing that he demonstrated in New London, obviously has an advantage. Unfortunately, the economy is going to hurt his ability to get local corporations and individuals to fund endowment for the school district. But, perhaps with major “ObamaBucks” coming to education from the state and Washington, he will be very effective in sweet-talking the sweet money to White Plains School District.  The White Plains record of fund-raising has not been the greatest. The football field is a good example of that.

Innovator-Problem Solver.

This apparently is Dr. Clouet’s strength.  My description above in the mock job ad I created, focused on cost-cutting. But that may be short-sighted.  Is it time to rethink the busing that goes on in White Plains since the population is now very diverse anyway, reverting to the prospect of “neighborhood schools?” Should he enhance the magnet school concept, and keep the busing – turning the schools into academies – and not just the public relations names they have now?  One school Hispanic based, another African-American based, Another White-based, another science based, another art-based, another English Based. (Radical, yes? Thought-provoking, indeed?)

Class-size? Can smarter students have larger classes? The list is endless.

The White Plains School District equips their students better than any other district in the county to survive both academically and socially  in the college environment and get into and succeed in elite schools because of the quality of their academics. But, the make up of the district is changing and the resources to keep funding it are dwindling, so Clouet will have to examine more than ever how the district manages to maintain the quality with a leaner fuel mixture.

Meeting the Parents

Dr. Clouet has apparently passed with flying colors the power-groups that the Board of Education allowed to meet him prior to his being announced. So he has already been seen as a “friend to education,” “a supporter of the kids,” and has heard a litany of their hopes and dreams of the realtors, the neighborhood movers and shakers, the teachers, the district administration.

Dr. Clouet at the High School January 29.

Will he work for them or work for what apparently, given the future the district faces, dwindling tax base and compounding school budget, a repackaging of the district to make it something White Plains can afford?

Does he see his job as an assignment to keep the status quo by finding ways to pump more money into it and sell the taxpayers on it, or does he see his job as trimming the fat while making education better? What has the Board told him they want him to do, again?

Introduction to the Community.

Dr. Clouet visited White Plains and met about 100 parents, teachers and administrators taking questions from the audience last week, at White Plains High School.

He impressed the audience, saying he took the New London position because he wanted to work with a heavy minority population.

He said on the subject of testing that he felt exhaustive testing diminished the district ability to nurture the spirit of learning in children, but nevertheless realized the necessity for testing. He felt tests should not be given every year, but perhaps every other year. This was a very politically neutral statement.

He said to a question from a person who did not have students going to the district schools that he was aware of the tax pressures on such families. He told WPCNR he had met with the Mayor of White Plains and been acquainted with the tax pressures in the district from assessments and other matters.

He strongly supported language programs and the dual language program just begin in the White Plains Public Schools. He has started a similar program in New London.

He acknowledged that he considered himself a good fund-raiser and hoped to bring about private corporate funds in the district through his contact in the city as a way to bring more revenue to the district.

He praised the district Strategic Plan.  This plan by the way, is the  plan for moving the district forward – without any specific ways  or commitments  in place of achieving its objectives.

He is personable, earnest and radiates enthusiasm that wins over an audience. You could see him easily selling a budget to the PTA, the League of Women Voters, and the parents of the district very easily. He is, if any one person could be more Tim Connors-like than the present Superintendent, Tim Connors, that person.

Working With Connors, Monitoring.

I asked him after the talk if he would be working closely with outgoing Superintendent, Mr. Connors. He said, taking a cue from President Obama , that there can only be one superintendent at a time, but would be keeping in close touch with Connors to monitor budget developments. Asked if he would have veto power on any cuts in the budget now being shaped, he said he would not.

He said he believed in teacher input in curriculum and listening to teachers in the classroom as to how to improve programs. That will play well to the White Plains Teachers Association which is on record as deploring the district reliance on consulting.

What was sad about the community meeting with Dr. Clouet were the questions that were not asked. There were no hard questions.

The parents acted worried and seemed to seek reassurance from this man, that he had his heart in the right place, and would continue school as we know it in White Plains. It was melancholy and hopeful, too.

No one asked about his experience in New London and his progress there and how it could be useful in White Plains. It can only be hoped it will be useful.

But New London and Thomaston Connecticut, his two previous Superintendent positions are the past. They do not matter now. He is the Superintendent of the White Plains Schools now.

No one asked how he might change the operations of the White Plains School District. But, Dr. Clouet can only take his cue from the Board of Education, which other than saying they need to save money this year has given no indication of how to do that or what they want. How will the Board support him if he runs into conflicts? This is not a Board of Education that takes stands, makes demands, and makes hard decisions unless it involves sports, band uniforms, and class trips. 

The head of the teachers union thought Dr. Clouet was an excellent choice because of his intelligence.

This is a dream job for Dr. Clouet, He has never worked in a district that was an upper middle class school district. He said the right things, promised even more community involvement and parent interaction than we have now. (White Plains loves that.)  The audience wants to believe.

We shall see.

Tonight the Board of Education will authorize the President of the Board of Education to hire him.

I and we should wish him well and support him.

He is going to need our support.

And we need to tell him what we want directly.