The same school in Rockland County where Peter Cocker of Tappan, described as an "irate parent", barged into the South Orangetown Middle School in Blauvelt and held the district superintendent at gunpoint went into lockdown again the other day after a student brought a pellet gun to school.
Under New York State law, schools are required to develop "lock down" and "lock out" plans. The law was inspired by the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Immediately upon learning that a student was found to be carrying a weapon, the South Orangetown Middle School implemented their "lock down" (classrooms locked, lights off, kids hiding) and "lock out" (no one enters or leaves the building) plans.
Read more
May 2010 F.U.S.E. News and Announcements
F.U.S.E. ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The following Leadership positions are uncontested for the 2010-2012 terms: President, Executive Vice President, Vice President/Pedagogic, Secretary and Treasurer. Therefore, there will be no election for these positions. Petitions have been submitted for the office of Vice President/School Related Professionals, therefore an election will be held. The five candidates are:
Kareem Ali, Administration
William Coleman, Trinity School
Melvin Darden, Albert Leonard Middle School (incumbent)
Deborah Ferrara, Isaac E. Young Middle School
Edward Jones, Trinity School
As per the recent amendment made to the F.U.S.E. Constitution only SRP members are eligible to vote in this election. Voting will take place on Friday, May 21, 2010 by ballot in each building.
More information will follow.
The changes to the F.U.S.E. Constitution were announced in the April newsletter (below)
Read more14 April 2010 F.U.S.E.
Over the past year we have been telling Talk of the Sound readers about the "camel's nose under the tent" approach to establishing requiring BMI data collection for every child in the United States. What began as a voluntary program may now soon become the law of the land with parents compelled to allow government officials to measure and weigh their children to "fight obesity". How does measuring and weighing children "fight" obesity? It doesn't. The first step in these sorts of "do goody/big brother" initiatives is to create voluntary programs and take measurements to establish baselines.
Yahoo has a fun and current AP story about the Silly Bandz craze that is sweeping our schools. New Rochelle gets a mention towards the bottom of the article:
[Silly Bandz] receives about 500 fan letters a week. One, signed by a 10-year-old named Logan Librett and a few of his friends in New Rochelle, N.Y., suggested a way to circumvent all the bothersome Silly Bandz restrictions: "Some schools in New York have banned them, but we have ideas that might change that ... clear silly bands that teachers can't see and only glow in the dark."
Just in case the company bites, Librett offered his address. He's still waiting.
Have a great day!
Read moreTake a stand and vote NO tomorrow. We've all been here before. Another school budget is before us and as ususal the School Board and the PTAs are out pushing for us to vote yes on a budget that's supposed to increase our taxes by 3.8%. I say supposed to increase by 3.8% because last years budget that we approved was supposed to increase our taxes by 3.2%, yet when I look at my tax bills the actual rate of increase was 6.7% so I'm thinking the budget writers are a bunch of morons that didn't make it through Calculus.
My property taxes are going through the roof and the majority of it is for the school and so are your tax bills. I mean no harm to the school district. I have kids in various grades, but if I can't afford to live hear because of skyrocketing school taxes then they won't be going to New Rochelle schools anymore.
If the budget is voted down, we'll get to vote once more on a new budget or the school board can present the same budget. This happened 10 years or so ago. The board simply presented the exact same budget that was voted down, not even with a small reduction, but they were able to rally the troops to get enough support to pass the budget. I started thinking it seemed rigged to me but that was 10 years ago and now we're at another budget juction.
Read more
Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson was on hand Thursday, May 12, to help kick off a new bike program at Beth El Synagogue Center’s Nursery School. The Nursery School recently purchased new bikes and helmets for their 3- and 4-year old classes. The little bikes without pedals, called “Strider Bikes,” are developmentally appropriate bicycles for nursery school aged children. The children learn to balance and glide without the added step of pedaling. Since the program started, some of the children have already had asked their parents to take off the training wheels at home.
What would you do with an extra $115,000?
New Rochelle schools have full day kindergarten across the entire city. There is no mid-day dismissal at all in New Rochelle. So, why do we still have 18 crossing guards working a two hour lunch shift? There are no children to cross.
In mid December I was home from work on a Friday and walked to the deli for a sandwich. I exchanged a few words with our crossing guard and continued on. He is a great crossing guard, works hard, is friendly to the children and is no nonsense to the drivers. But soon I wondered if we have full day kindergarten now, why is he at his post at lunch? I looked around. There were absolutely no children to cross.
Read more
At New Rochelle High School last night we enjoyed a rollicking musical performance of Big River - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A very strong cast of performers confidently and deftly sang song after song in this show based on the 1860 American classic by Mark Twain. The strongest performer was Huck Finn played by Isaac Assor who was utterly convincing as the vagabond boy. The entire group captured the audience with their first large cast number of the night "Do You Wanna Go to Heaven" with a strong music number choreographed with dozens of wooden spoons.
Even the overture was enjoyable with harmonica music and a wonderful violinist (student Sarah Kenner) playing Bluegrass riffs. The alcoholic dad was portrayed convincingly by Matt Moliterno, who takes his son away from two relatives who were raising him to live in a shack in the woods, all in an effort to take his sons money. Here is the boy in a difficult situation, forced to run away to protect his own welfare. Soon he hooks up with Jim, an escaped slave, played perfectly by Freedom Weekes, spot on. Jim and Huck Finn perform a duet "Muddy Waters" that captivated the audience. It was a perfect balance of song.
Read more
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Web site developed by Convey Media.