CPAC Resolutions

Please read below 2 resolutions that any PTA may want to use for their own PTA.

Sue Dietrich, First Vice President, SIFPTA

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On Department of Education’s Restructuring, Accountability, and Weighted Funding Proposals:

WHEREAS, having considered and reviewed the Department of Education's latest restructuring, accountability, and weighted Funding Proposals; and

WHEREAS, these proposals focus on structural changes, while overlooking proven reforms that improve the quality of education, such as smaller class size; and WHEREAS, up to half of all schools, including many Title I schools, may have their budgets cut next year as a result, with no need for any reductions, since state and city education spending is expected to rise by over $1 billion; and WHEREAS, to have more effective and experienced teachers, as well as to individualize instruction, the best way to do so is to improve the classroom learning environment by reducing class size; and

WHEREAS, Empowerment Schools are less than one year old and have not been evaluated via any quantifiable means regarding their effect on student learning or the behavior of principals; and

WHEREAS, many parents of schools in the Empowerment zone have found that their principals are less responsive to parental concerns, and that without the district structure, there is no one to go to for help if their children are being treated unfairly; and

WHEREAS, though the Department of Education claims that many principals of Empowerment Schools used their additional funding and flexibility to hire extra teachers to reduce class size, some of the principals who hired extra teachers reported that they were simply sent more students by Tweed as a result, effectively eliminating any improvement in class size; and WHEREAS, many parents of the Empowerment Zone schools have also found that the letter grades given their schools as designed by the new accountability system are unfair and do not accurately reflect the learning environments at these schools; and

WHEREAS, the criteria for coming up with these letter grades are so complicated that they are difficult to understand and are based in many cases on faulty background data; and

WHEREAS, the jobs of many principals will depend upon these inaccurate metrics, for any principal whose school receives a failing grade can be removed as a result; and

WHEREAS, to judge principals based upon their schools’ test scores is inherently unfair, since many of these schools are so overcrowded, they do not have the room to reduce class size even if they were given more flexibility in spending as this proposal would suggest; and

WHEREAS, the restructuring of the entire school system may once again destabilize and impose hardship on students, parents, teachers, and administrators trying to obtain special education or other necessary services; as occurred in 2003; and WHEREAS, despite claims to the contrary, there is no independent evidence that in the last round of reorganization, $200 million was ever redirected to the classroom; and WHEREAS, the reorganization proposals place emphasis on a principal’s management skills at the expense of pedagogical skills; and WHEREAS, many material details of the proposed restructuring plan are still being determined; and

WHEREAS, weighted student funding, as constituted in this plan, will create competition for scarce resources such that many schools will have an incentive to hire lower-paid, inexperienced teachers and that many other implications of the plan for schools' budgets are not clearly spelled out; and

WHEREAS, a smaller percentage of the overall Department of Education budget has gone to instruction each year, while the headcount and salaries of Tweed central staff and consultants has grown substantially, and continues to grow, with a projected increase of 12% in spending for their salaries next year; and WHEREAS, there is no evidence that any school system that has adopted weighted funding has made significant progress in student achievement; and WHEREAS, the new accountability system will likely lead to even more low-performing students being discharged, transferred, suspended or otherwise ejected from their schools so that these students will not be accounted for in any of the measurements by which schools are graded; and

WHEREAS, the outsourcing of many key education services to private support organizations has already been tainted with scandal and puts at risk the entire fabric of public education; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Education has just contracted with IBM to produce a new computer system designed to help teachers individualize instruction to meet the needs of each student, however, with the current class sizes of 30 or more in many schools, and teaching loads of 150-180 students in Middle and High Schools, this will be impossible to implement; and

WHEREAS these proposals were created without any meaningful participation by parents, students, teachers, principals, or the community; Therefore, be it RESOLVED that CPAC rejects the Department of Education's Restructuring and Weighted Student Funding Plan and calls upon the Mayor and the Chancellor to postpone implementation of this plan, and instead, immediately hold public hearings on the priorities for education spending and restructuring of the New York City Public Schools.

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WHEREAS, the Department of Education (DoE) established Community District Education Councils (CDECs) to meet the letter and not the spirit of New York State law; and

WHEREAS, CDECs depend on DoE for support, oversight, selection, and operation; and

WHEREAS, the DoE-designed CDEC application information does not make clear the time commitment, duties, or skills required of potential members such that both candidates and selectors are able to make informed choices on the appropriate match of candidates to the job; and

WHEREAS, many of the DoE-mandated candidate forums allowed only for pre-established questions posed by a DoE forum moderator, excluding questions by parents or community members, thereby limiting the information available to voters regarding candidate qualifications; and

WHEREAS, the DoE-organized candidate forums in March 2007 were held without adequate notice (often less than 24 hours, and no more than 4 days) to both candidates and selectors such that few selectors, parents, or members of the community have had the opportunity to meet with or learn first hand about a meaningful number of candidates; and

WHEREAS, the role of Parent Association (PA) officers as CDEC selectors renders PA officers ineligible for CDEC positions unless they resign their PA positions mid-year, thus depriving their schools and/or CDECs of leadership and experience; and

WHEREAS, CDEC members receive no or inadequate training on the major responsibilities mandated by New York State law, such as: evaluating superintendents, approving district zoning changes, commenting on the district capital budget allocation, preparing district annual report cards, reviewing district educational programs and assessing their effect on student achievement, reviewing the annual capacity plan, providing input to the Chancellor and the Panel for Educational Policy, and liaising with/assisting School Leadership Teams and Presidents’ Councils; and

WHEREAS, it is impossible for CDEC members to fulfill their mandated responsibilities while the DoE refuses to offer them the tools necessary to do so; and

WHEREAS, the DoE demands highly intrusive financial disclosure by CDEC members, who serve as unpaid volunteers with little or no influence on financial matters; and

WHEREAS, CPAC and many CDEC members provided DoE with substantive feedback following the two previous CDEC election cycles, which was ignored by DoE; and

WHEREAS, the Citywide Council on High Schools (CCHS) and the Citywide Council on Special Education (CCSE) have many of the same issues; and

WHEREAS, the parents of High School students and Special Education students have no other identifiable parent organization to represent them under the proposed reorganization scheme;

Therefore, be it RESOLVED that Staten Island Federation of PTAs urges the DoE modifies the present election process. Such modifications include, but are not limited to: informing prospective candidates about their responsibilities, empowering communities to participate in the selection process, and changing the rules of eligibility to include experienced and dedicated retiring PA officers may complete their term prior to joining the CDEC.