Ineptness in UCSD . . . and Elsewhere

So now we find out that the Utica City School District has been wasting months “studying” a project that it cannot carry out. While the architects are taking the fall, I see this as really the administration’s incompetence . . . and an example of how educators are not qualified to be managers. They saw a huge pot of money and could not wait to get their hands on it. They made the assumptions on what it could be used for and took action before Synthesis even got on board – - unless Synthesis was ‘unofficially’ advising the administration before they were ‘chosen’ from among several ‘competitors’ (but there is no evidence of that). The administration is letting their contractor take the fall.

Should this be any surprise when these administrators and school board are the same people who brought you the scheduling fiasco and no-textbooks fiasco a couple years back?

One has to wonder, also, about the competence of the state leaders who made such a tempting huge pot of money available. It only encourages waste. 300 million for Utica, almost a billion for Syracuse . . . now add together similar projects across the state and you know why NY is the highest taxed state in the land.

If New York can blow this kind of money on education, New York can well afford to give us a free Thruway . . . which will probably do more to boost Upstate’s economy than all the new school facilities combined.

NHSD: Saving Money or Beating the Clock?

Last week the O-D had an article giving the time-table for the New Hartford School District’s capital expansion plan. Bidding will be done in March, supposedly to save money.

Phase 1 includes construction of the athletic field and the auditorium.
Phase 2 will consist of the math, science and technology wing.

The athletic field is going to involve installation of artificial turf. However, the safety of such turf has recently been called into question. Apparently ground up tires are an essential ingredient in the installation, and there is a fear that toxic chemicals from the tires could pose a health risk. It has become somewhat of an issue in Fayetteville-Manlius, which has postponed a referendum for such a field. Legislation has been introduced by Assemblyman Englebright of Long Island to impose a moratorium on such installations, pending a study of the public health aspects of same.

Could New Hartford be trying to beat the clock and get itself grandfathered in?

If it was unaware of the legislation, maybe it should consider F-M’s concern and postpone the installation until the health effects of the artificial turf are better understood.

Wouldn’t you rather play on grass than cadmium?

Why We Need Recall . . . in New York Mills!

I’ve blogged at least a couple times about our need for rights of initiative, referendum and recall – - so that the voters can do the dirty work that their elected representatives are unwilling to do. Well today on page 6D of the Observer-Dispatch is a prime example of why we need recall.

Just a few weeks ago New York Mills voters rejected an 8.9 million dollar school construction project – - – It was a narrow defeat, but a defeat none the less. Today a Legal Notice was published that the matter is coming back for another vote on January 23.

This is an abuse of power, plain and simple.

The school board knows that all they have to do is some minor tweaking and they can bring the matter back on a second time. . . . or a third. . . . or whatever it takes until it passes. The schools control more votes than ever because of their expanding employment practices, with teachers’ assistants and aides becoming the norm rather than the exception. Although voting is a “civic duty,” people eventually get sick of being ignored . . . so voters who don’t support such spending will stay home. . . . .

Once a bond vote passes, the voters on the losing side don’t have an equal opportunity to bring the matter back up again . . . and again.

New York Mills’ population is dropping, so not expanding is not going to create an emergency for the school board to deal with. The school board needs to show respect for the residents. The voters have spoken.

The New York Mills school board mocks the referendum process and disrespects the will of the people. Every school board member who voted to put this matter up for a vote again should be ashamed.

A right of recall — the right to immediately vote them out of office — might make these people a little more sensitive to what the voters are saying.

Utica School Nonsense . . .

It was interesting to listen to Mr. Pellegrino this morning on WIBX’ “First Look.” Listen to him and you would think that the management of the school district is entirely different. . . . that they are not going to put up with any nonsense any more from contractors . . . and that they are going to be tough and press for criminal charges with the DA for the malfeasance on the roofs that are now leaking. The $8 million bond for repairs was not properly managed – - but the Board is going to insist that things be made right . . . Bravo.

I don’t know about you, but I am not convinced that management people, styles or attitudes are significantly different from what Uticans have put up with for years.

What IS significantly different now is that a bonanza is about to be literally dropped into their collective lap — some $300 million in state funds — more money in one shot than the school district has ever received – - – AND THEY DON’T WANT TO LOSE IT.

While Mr. Pellegrino might have sounded tough, I heard posturing and desperation. He so wants to convince you that the Utica City School District has changed . . . that it can now be trusted with your tax dollars. . . . SO YOU WILL APPROVE THEIR SPENDING PLAN . . . And to prove it they make the show of toughness on the leaking roofs.

But what about the $37 million Millenium fiasco? From the stories emanating out of Proctor, people are suspicious that perhaps that money might not have been well spent either. That project never quite seemed to work as intended, with personnel seemingly shuffled more than a deck of cards in a poker game. Remember the scheduling nightmare? And did Proctor ever find its text books?

And how about that Krazy Kernan Skewl with its Kollege Daze? and Yoga Klasses? and seminars on Kommunity service . . . and Health Klinics. Anything but Reading ‘Riting and ‘Rithmatic!

The Utica public has put up with years and years of watching its school district’s incompetence, nonsense, and waste. UCSD knows it. So now UCSD fears that the voters may reject the $300 million even though it will be entirely state funds.

After wasting millions already given, why give these people more? They will probably bite off more than they can chew, saddling the taxpayers with unneeded facilities to maintain. The kids will see no results anyway.

Payback would be soooo sweet.

“Gender-Neutral” Housing

Growing up is one thing. Putting kids into an emotional pressure cooker is something else. Does anyone remember the book, The Harrad Experiment? It’s not an experiment any longer.

Per the Post-Standard, “Gender-Neutral” housing is the latest trend on college campuses. Cornell, Colgate, and Ithaca are considering it.

The term “gender neutral” comes from advocates for students who are transgender who don’t consider themselves completely male or female. That applies to just a few students who might be uncomfortable being required to live with someone of the same sex.

But the result is that if rooms or suites are designated as gender neutral, it takes coed living to a level not seen yet on Central New York campuses: Men and women could be roommates. [emphasis supplied]

It’s hard enough to leave home and go to college to master the academics while dealing with new people at a volatile time in one’s life. Shoving sex under everyone’s nose only complicates things further.

Is it any wonder why college graduates these days seem to know so little, and why this country is not self-sufficient in the more academically “difficult” professions such as medicine or engineering.

Getting the Message on Population Decline?

“Proposed school renovation voted down in New York Mills“

Are people getting the message that it makes no sense to expand schools when the population is shrinking? Who knows? The vote was close. Maybe NYM voters were simply upset at being played for fools when the school district cited a school closure in the early 1980s as a reason to expand buildings now. Or maybe the NYM SD did not hire enough residents to skew the vote . . . or they did, but even the employees have had enough with taxes.

Unfortunately, declining enrollments in New Hartford were not a discussion issue in the main stream media when NH had its capital project vote — and were not considered in BOCES’ expansion project either. Both projects will saddle taxpayers not only with project costs, but maintenance costs well into the future. And be prepared for taxes to support these projects to go even higher, particularly in New Hartford. Why? Demographics. New Hartford is OLD. 23.7% of the population is over 65 compared with 12.4% average in the US. Expect a precipitous drop in population when these people “age out.” Then watch housing values tumble — and taxes rise — driving even more population loss. As Gear pointed out over the weekend, the “feedback loop” puts us in a death spiral.

When the population of the County has already declined by over one fourth, it makes no sense for government, schools, and public infrastructure to expand.

We need a graceful way to contract.

Some Good School News . . .

Per Today’s OD, Westmoreland Road School has won a national No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Blue Ribbon School Award.

The school was chosen for the federal honor because students met yearly academic improvement goals for five years, officials said. It is one of 16 schools in the state, and one of nearly 300 in the country to receive the designation . . .

NCLB is constantly maligned — but the idea of setting goals and then working to meet them seems a common sense approach to success. It’s nice to see one school making NCLB work… but even better that it is one nearby.

Politically Correct Pinwheel Pinhead Pacifists . . .

I really got riled when I saw this story in last night’s OD: Students plant pinwheels for peace.

Students at Frankfort-Schuyler High School and Middle School participated in a world-wide gesture of peace Friday morning by planting pinwheels in the school’s courtyard during the Pinwheels for Peace project.

Pinwheels for Peace is an international art and literacy project where students make pinwheels, write creative and artistic messages of peace on them and then place them on display as an art installation at the school.

This is just more of the politically correct indoctrination going on in our schools that is burning up valuable time when children should be learning the “3 Rs,” wasting our tax dollars, and ultimately undermining our society by producing generations unable to think.

Let’s give our children the knowledge that they will need to figure out the world for themselves when it’s their turn to run things, instead of brainwashing them into a particular way of thinking.

Ding Dong School . . .

It’s the first Wednesday after Labor Day . . . The new school year begins. What will your child be learning?

Indications are … not much.

Last week we were treated to endless repetitions in the media of Miss Teen USA contestant “Miss South Carolina’s” incoherent response to the question “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map. Why do you think this is?” Since the contestant was an honor student, it makes one wonder what kind of school she went to.

To be fair, everyone has good days and bad days, and we all lapse into incoherency once in awhile. But there are other signs of trouble in educationland as well.

In July, City-Journal reported that this year’s almighty New York State American History Regents Exam was “nearly flunk-proof.” The writer explains how the exam was constructed, graded, and its content.

But the 15 document-related questions are ludicrously easy. The documents include some written passages, but are mostly political cartoons and photographs. Several concern the women’s suffrage movement, such as a photograph of a suffragists’ parade showing women carrying various signs containing the word “suffrage.” The exam question asks, “What was a goal of the women shown in these photographs?” Another photo shows a White House picketer with a banner reading, “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” The exam asks the student to state “one method being used by women to achieve their goal.” A third document is a reproduction of a Massachusetts Women’s Suffrage Association poster listing “Twelve Reasons Why Women Should Vote.” All of the reasons on the poster begin with the word “because”: “Because laws affect women as much as men,” for example. The Regents question reads: “What were two arguments suffragists used in this 1915 flier in support of their goal?” To get full credit, all the student has to do is copy two of the reasons from the poster! Other photographs show 1960s civil rights sit-ins. One question: “Identify one method used by these civil rights activists to achieve their goals.” Another question asks the student to name one goal of the activists. And so on.

When the answers to the questions are in the questions, a correct answer means that the student knows how to take the test — not that the student has mastered the subject. So when your child comes home with a good Regents grade, you can no longer be secure in the thought that he or she has mastered the subject (unlike when YOU passed the Regents).

Responding to the Miss Teen USA situation, Joseph Farah of World Net Daily had an excellent commentary about the problem with public schools.

I’m convinced the purpose of government schooling is to dumb down the populace and turn them into serfs and subjects rather than citizens capable of reason and equipped with a sense of morality.

Why can’t Americans pick out the U.S. on a map of the world? Why can’t Lauren Caitlin Upton and her friends answer the question?

This is what they’ve been programmed to do – or not to do.

Is this what is happening – programming rather than schooling? Is the objective to produce thousands of workers who are practiced in working together on group projects — but too dumb to question the purpose of what they are doing? Is it to produce a society that can be managed and controlled?

The History Regents is a fraud – proof that good grades cannot be relied upon as an indication that your child is learning. Ask your child questions. Listen carefully to the responses. Do you hear substance — or just rhetoric?

You may be surprised at what your children don’t know.

Two Institutions . . .

Two institutions are in the news this week . . . and the similarities and contrasts between the two should make you think.

Yesterday the State Homeland Security Training Center made the news with the County’s announcement of an agreement to rent 723 acres of the Old County Airport to the State for $600,000 per year for 15 years . . . As one astute reader noted, that’s less than $1,000 an acre. The project was announced from “out of the blue,” but with much fanfare, back in December 2005. At the time this blogger did not think it was worth getting excited over. He feels the same today as there has been little activity there worth noting. Now compare . . .

Today Utica College broke ground on a new facility for the Center for Identity Management and Information Protection.

. . . it’s not just a new building they’re getting. They are also getting the expertise of some of the country’s top-ranking government officials. . . .

Utica College officials said that since the program was founded last year, it has gained national attention, allowing for grants from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Administration, and the Department of Justice construction on the project will start in next month, and officials are hoping to complete it by the same time next year…only about 13 months away.

Both institutions are involved in security of one fashion or another. Both are law enforcement related . . . Both were born about the same time. Both are in Greater Utica. The similarity ends there . . .

The public NY State institution has announced no definite plans, and no partnerships. There does not appear to be a demand for its product. It has barely gotten state attention much less than national attention. No momentum is evident whatsoever … just a lot of waffling after more than a year. The people running it don’t seem to know what they want to do or what they are doing. Except that they want a handout of valuable taxpayer-owned land at a bargain basement rent from a County that would be bankrupt but for its decision to tax its residents to death. It also would deny potential tax benefits to a Greater Utica community, Whitestown, by taking land off the market.

The private Utica College facility is already recognized nationally. There is a clear demand for its product. It has national-level partners and is bringing money into the area from out of state. It is constructing a new building. Momentum and financial commitment are evident. The people running things are accomplishing things. And the Oneida County taxpayer is not getting stuck.

If these were two companies, which would you invest in?

Do you still think that renting the old OC Airport to State Homeland Security is such a good deal?