Starving the Yonkers Schools
NY TIMES Op-Ed, August 1, 2004

It would be tempting to dismiss the loud noises coming from Yonkers, in the latest flare-up of its never-ending school crisis, as just another ruckus from the troubled family up the block.

But this domestic dispute is a bad one, and the people crying loudest - long-suffering teachers and parents in the 27,000-pupil system - deserve attention, even though their complaining is a chronic condition and the crisis behind it a cruel fabrication.

Yonkers has a $50 million hole in its $389 million school budget. To try to shame Albany into closing it with new state aid, the city has pleaded poverty and pre-emptively gutted school spending, over the ferocious objections of parents and teachers. Layoff notices for hundreds of employees - teachers, librarians, guidance counselors, safety officers and others - have gone out in the last two weeks. Drastic cuts are planned in sports and other after-school programs. In a city that gives nearly 200 officials the 24-hour use of leased cars, including fully loaded S.U.V.'s, with free gas from city pumps, 3,500 children will no longer be able to take the bus to school.

Yonkers portrays itself as the agonized victim of Albany's indifference, and its theatrical austerity binge as the inevitable consequence of inadequate state aid. Stop us, the city says, before we brutalize these children again.

It's a tangled situation, but it's easy to identify the main bad actors. Start with Mayor Philip A. Amicone, whose refusal to be realistic and honest on city budgeting amounts to a case of gross civic negligence. Running a school system takes money, and the reasonable way to get more of it is to raise city taxes, cut city spending and shift more city revenue to the schools. This Mr. Amicone refuses to do. Yonkers's contribution to its school budget has remained flat, at about $135 million a year, even as the school system heads toward a financial cliff: the end, next school year, of a series of multimillion-dollar payouts from the state as part of an agreement that settled a historic desegregation lawsuit and ended federal oversight of city schools. Mr. Amicone's budget brinkmanship seeks to keep this cash pipeline open indefinitely, and the municipal side of his government happily in the black.

If there is any lingering doubt that Yonkers is starving its schools, consider this: State Senator Nicholas A. Spano and Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky accused the Amicone administration last month of using budget trickery to rob the schools of a hard-won financial windfall. The legislators said they had helped win passage of a pension reform bill that would save Yonkers $15.7 million, a sum they assumed the city would apply to its worst budget problem: a school system $50 million in the red. Instead, they learned that the Amicone administration had already slipped the anticipated money into the proposed city budget, applying it to reduced city spending and giving nothing to the schools.

"This kind of gimmickry makes it impossible to trust them," Mr. Brodsky said.

It also has prompted State Senate and Assembly committees to start scrutinizing the city's budget and spending practices for irregularities - a welcome move. Mr. Spano and Mr. Brodsky have also asked the state comptroller to step in, to try to pin down Mr. Amicone's slippery budget numbers.

It's not as if anyone had reason to doubt the city's warped priorities. In a city of 200,000 people with a school system on life support, what do the first deputy mayor, second deputy mayor and several "special assistants to the mayor" (Robert Ferrito, the school board president, is one) do to deserve six-figure salaries? And what about those S.U.V.'s? This municipal embarrassment, uncovered by The Journal News, prompted the recent announcement by the public works commissioner (who drives a city-leased Lincoln Navigator) that the city would economize on 10 S.U.V. leases by trading Mountaineers for slightly cheaper Trailblazers. This is not a comfort. Why not give the mayor a used Honda Civic, and lesser officials bus passes? Free bus rides are still more than those thousands of schoolchildren will get next year.

Many others share blame, like the school superintendent, Angelo Petrone, who, appallingly, echoes the mayor's line that Yonkers schoolchildren deserve not a penny more from Yonkers taxpayers. So do the mayor-appointed bobbleheads on the school board, led by Mr. Ferrito, who voted unanimously last month to impose cuts they weepingly deplored - even before Albany and Yonkers itself had passed budget plans. And there is the Yonkers City Council, where a veto-proof majority of mayoral allies has long stood in the way of more equitable spending.

Who is left to stand up for children? The teachers and parents who have not yet moved away in disgust. That emotion overflowed at a recent school board meeting, where speakers begged the board not to play politics with the schools. Mr. Petrone was absent. His office said he was on vacation.

Amid all this angst comes a new report from the external review panel set up to monitor Yonkers's compliance with the 2002 settlement to integrate its schools. While its members take note of the system's fundamental soundness, they express tactful chagrin at the social and political dynamic that allows the schools to be so abused by Mr. Amicone, whose political base does not include the black and Hispanic voters whose children make up 80 percent of public-school enrollment.

"Fiscal conditions in Yonkers," they write, "along with unchanged patterns of city investment in the Yonkers Public Schools since 2000-2001 and through the settlement agreement year, which began in 2001-2002, combine to suggest to some a lack of commitment by city leadership elected mostly by a population essentially disconnected from the Yonkers Public Schools, except as a tax-bearing entity."

Unless or until Mr. Amicone gets religion, or a control board steps in to make tough decisions that the mayor will not, or the school system finally collapses from budget cuts and an exodus of disillusioned teachers and parents, or - this is the Amicone plan - the skies rain manna from Albany and from video-lottery terminals at Yonkers Raceway, the people who truly care about Yonkers and its children will have to continue their weary battle.

Exhausting though it may be, the committed citizens of Yonkers need to keep up the pressure, to hold their representatives accountable for starving the schools, as loudly and as often as necessary.
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Bailing Out Yonkers
NY TIMES, Opinion, July 4, 2004

The details would glaze the eyes of the saintliest therapist: years of irresponsible spending, threats, confrontations, bluffs, broken promises and empty ultimatums - a lurching from crisis to crisis in a cycle so predictable, it's boring.

It's not a dysfunctional marriage. It's Yonkers.

Here's the pattern:

A. Yonkers budgets and spends far more on its schools than it has, counting on Albany to make up the difference. Fueled by an abiding sense of injustice, city officials make wildly optimistic projections about the amount of new state aid that is their due. (The great leap of hope for the new fiscal year was $50 million, for starters.)

B. Albany, after a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do lecture about fiscal responsibility and good judgment, refuses to pay up, demanding that the city submit a realistic budget plan.

C. Crisis looms. Yonkers stands firm, while teachers, parents and pupils wait, watch and worry about paychecks, athletic programs and after-school activities.

D. Albany gives in, patching the budget with a short-term fix that pushes the problem down the road.

E. See (A.)

The latest trauma involved the city's threat last month to withhold year-end pay from 2,000 school employees if Albany did not come up with $12.5 million in aid. That would have been a cruel blow, since each check represents a fat chunk of deferred salary meant to carry teachers through the summer.

The blow never landed. State officials, while sternly warning Yonkers about its "unrealistic" and "imprudent" reliance on large infusions of state aid, came through with a large infusion of state aid. They also abandoned their insistence that Yonkers immediately submit a three-year balanced budget plan, saying they now expect it no later than 15 days after the Legislature completes the overdue state budget. They also dropped their demand that the city stop counting on increased state aid to make things work out.

It is long past time for sound, basic fiscal management of the Yonkers schools. Mayor Philip Amicone, who likes to compare his city - when it's convenient - to upstate fiscal trauma cases like Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, does not seem ready to make tough decisions about cutting costs and increasing the city's contribution to the school budget. Budget brinkmanship has got him this far, and no one seems ready to stop him.

Someone should. Yonkers's fiscal straits are not about to get drastically better. New York State has a $5 billion budget deficit, and is not about to come up with hundreds of millions more in new aid for Yonkers, no matter what the Legislature does this summer to fix the state's school-aid formula. What's more, the river of cash that Albany has been sending to Yonkers from the settlement of a historic school-desegregation lawsuit is about to dry up, with a final payment of $40 million in 2005.

The situation is so strange that it has Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Democrat, siding with the Pataki administration against a city that is partly in his district. "Is the state doing its share? We should be doing more," he admitted. "But the city has to step up to the plate. The city government is not functioning in a rational and coherent way."

Times are hard, decisions are tough - but children come first. It's looking like drastic measures - a radical shift in city thinking, or a state financial control board - are all that will break the dismal status quo.

LINK
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does Commissioner Richard Mills know about the fiscal mess (not a legal defense, sorry - parentadvocates):

DISTRICT NEWS - YONKERS

NY State Education Commissioner Richard Mills Praises Yonkers Public Schools at Albany Press Conference
New York State Education Commissioner Richard Mills again singled out the Yonkers Public Schools for the improvements in English Language Arts (ELA) testing at a press conference in Albany, Thursday, June 3.

Superintendent of Schools, Angelo Petrone remarked that he is "extremely proud of the improvements that we are seeing across the board on our ELA results. Each year we see gains, some years we have seen significant increases and years like this, the results are in smaller increments."

Commissioner Mills expressed it better than anyone when he said at today's press conference, "Yonkers is remarkable. The district has raised the proportion of students meeting the standards. Yonkers exceeds the State." Commissioner Mills also said that Yonkers has the highest performance of the Big 5 City School Districts and that Yonkers' scores are higher than the state average (all NYS public school students on ELA 4 meeting the standard - 62.2%, Yonkers Public Schools students 65.0%).

"But, the results do not tell the entire picture of our students' success. Many of the principals have shared the tremendous academic growth that they have seen in their fourth and eighth grade students over this year. They attribute it to a concentrated effort to provide targeted instructional support during the school day, after school and on Saturdays. Our teachers and administrators have been reaching out to parents as well, involving them in their child's education," said Angelo Petrone.

Commissioner Mills also spoke today about his visit to Yonkers' Patricia A. DiChiaro Elementary School. According to Commissioner Mills, the school was all about literacy. Children write their own books and came up to him wanting to read their books. Classrooms were full of examples of the children's writing. The school was, in the Commissioner's words 'striking' in that teachers were treating the students as authors.

City of Yonkers Mayor, Philip A. Amicone enthusiastically praised the school district. "This is great news for our children, our schools and our community. This proves that we were right. By gaining control of our schools again and having the resources, we can provide a great education. Congratulations to the superintendent and all of those who work in our schools. Great job!"

Board of Education President Robert M. Ferrito said, "The Trustees have been focused over the past several years to support the administration's efforts to gain control of and strengthen instruction in our schools. We had confidence in our staff and they have shown that they and our students can produce. On behalf of the children we represent, I want to congratulate our entire team from the superintendent to the school support staff, central office, teachers and administrators for a job well done."

At today's press conference Commissioner Mills was asked why gains in Yonkers at the middle level were not as strong as those seen on the elementary level, and what is Yonkers doing to improve. Deputy Commissioner James A. Kadamus responded by saying that Yonkers is focusing in on smaller learning communities.

According to Mr. Ferrito, the Trustees listened to the parents in this community who wanted smaller schools and a more personal environment for their children. "Next year five elementary schools will become prekindergarten through eighth grade schools. This helps reduce the number of students in our large middle schools and provides more options for our parents and students. We are thrilled with the new vitality and improvements in the middle schools, and look forward to greater gains next year."

Yonkers ELA-4 Results: 2004

Overall, District results show a change of +1.3 percent to a total of 65.1 percent proficient. This gain reflects the continuing trend of improving ELA performance. The previous gains were +20% (2000), +0.0%, +6.7, and 4.2% (2004).

Eighteen of twenty-nine schools increased the percent of students at or above proficiency. Only eleven declined. This is the second year in a row in which 18 schools have improved and eleven declined in the percent of students at or above proficiency.
Six schools had no students performing at Level 1, an increase of two schools (compared to 2003). An additional seven schools had only one student at Level 1. As was the case in 2003, only five schools had ten percent or more in Level 1 and none had more than 14.8%.
Ten of twenty-nine schools increased the percentage of students performing at Mastery (Level 4).
Seven schools increased the percentage of students at Level 3 as well as at Level 4. This repeats the number in this group from 2003.
Four schools achieved a proficiency level of 90 percent or more (compared to three in 2003).

Yonkers ELA-8 Results: 2004

ELA 8 results decreased Districtwide by -1.4 percent. This modest decrease reflects stability over the six years of gains and losses for this exam. These changes have been -3.5% (2000), +0.5%, -6.2%, +7.8% and now -1.4%(2004).

Two of the five middle schools increased the percentages of students at or above proficiency in 2004.
Only one of the gains was a double-digit increase, but the school (Mark Twain Middle School) more than doubled the percent at/above proficiency by improving to 32.0 percent in 2004 compared to 12.9% in 2003. Both percentages at Level 3 and at Level 4 improved. Level 1 declined from 25.6 percent to 10.4 percent.
All five middle schools increased the percent of students scoring at Proficiency (Level 3). Two also increased the percent of students scoring at Mastery (Level 4).
Three of five middle schools decreased the percentage of students scoring at Level 1.

The end result is, the kids dont have the services that they should:

After Cuts, Yonkers Prepares for School With Few Extras
By KIRK SEMPLE, NY TIMES, September 7, 2004

YONKERS, Sept. 4 - Akeem Smith, 15, had it all worked out. Tenth grade was going to be all right.

He had made the jump from the junior varsity football team at Gorton High School to the starting lineup of the varsity squad, and will play guard and linebacker this fall. After a good season at power forward and center on the junior varsity basketball team last year, he had hoped to see some playing time on the varsity this winter. And next spring, he was going to chase down school records as a top sprinter on the track team.

But with a new school year starting on Tuesday, Akeem, like many of the 27,000 students in the Yonkers Public Schools, has had to shelve many of his plans. The school system he is returning to is a much leaner - some would say woefully undernourished - version of the one he left in June.

Football season is under way, but Akeem has been told there will be no basketball or track this year. In fact, no sports will be offered, except for the fall varsity sports.

"Now since we don't have that, I'm like, 'What am I going to do now?' " he said last week. "During the winter, during the spring, what am I going to do?"

There are few answers for him in Yonkers. For several years in a row, the city threatened sweeping school budget cuts only to receive 11th-hour bailouts from the state. No such rescue came this year.

When classes begin on Tuesday, there will be 574 fewer teachers and support staff members than there were a year ago. Over the summer, 419 employees received termination notices, and the rest of the positions were lost through attrition, like retirement, and left unfilled, said Jerilynne Fierstein, the district's spokeswoman.

There will be no art, music or foreign language classes in the elementary schools, with limited instruction in those fields in the middle schools. There will be no extracurricular programs, like instrumental music, drama, the yearbook, the student newspaper or the literary magazine. There will be no freshman or junior varsity sports all year.

"Kids are losing the things they like most," said Athena Waligore, a coordinator for the Alliance for Quality Education, a lobbying group based in Albany.

Marc Pekowsky, who was laid off as the music director at Emerson Middle School, bemoans the loss of popular noncore subjects. "What we're going to see as a result of these cuts are 27,000 bored, highly disengaged kids who are not going to have anything to do except for the basics," he said, "and we're going to lose them."

Security teams have been reduced in the elementary and middle schools, and in some elementary schools they will be replaced by door buzzers. Most librarians have been eliminated. And social services - guidance counselors, social workers and psychologists - have been trimmed to a skeleton staff.

Each high school, for example, will maintain last year's level of three guidance counselors, but only one counselor will be in each middle school and, according to Steve Frey, president of the Yonkers Federation of Teachers, one counselor will travel among the system's 29 elementary schools.

"Remember in the Old West, how they had the circuit judge who came to town every 10th month?" Mr. Frey asked. "That's what it looks like they're going to do."

Albert Edwards, who has three daughters in Yonkers schools, said he was concerned that middle school students passing through puberty would lose counseling services when they need them the most. "They need these people to help them with the adjustments," he said.

And among employees who survived the cuts, many were shifted from grade to grade, school to school, and in some cases, department to department.

Parents and students say they are uncertain about what they will find on Tuesday. Will favorite teachers still be there? And exactly which classes and activities remain?

Jeffrey Ronnermann, 13, spent the summer practicing his clarinet and saxophone at a music camp and planned to play in the concert band at Museum Middle School and in a jazz quartet his band director was going to form. But the band director has been let go and Jeffrey is unsure if there will be a concert band.

"I'm not sure about anything," he said.

City officials say they have done the best they could to narrow a projected $50 million budget gap to $25 million over the summer. In an interview last week, Angelo Petrone, the school superintendent, said, as city administrators have said before, that the state's school funding formula had shortchanged the district and that Albany had the responsibility to make up the difference.

Asked if there was any chance that staffing and programs would be rescued, he said not "until we receive the appropriate funding."

Michael Marr, a spokesman for the State Division of the Budget, said on Friday that the state was still waiting for Yonkers to submit a required three-year financial plan and, meanwhile, "was monitoring the situation closely."

Officials from the city's Board of Education say that students will receive an education that meets, if not exceeds, the minimum standards required by state law. They also say the schools will be secure despite the reduction in security personnel.

There will be music and art in elementary schools, Ms. Fierstein said, but it will be folded into normal homeroom lessons rather than being taught separately. "Teachers can incorporate drawing along with poetry," she said. "Or they can take poetry and incorporate rhythm in it."

In a letter to parents this month, Mr. Petrone tried to be reassuring. "Our public school system is solid," he said. "These are difficult times, but Yonkers Public Schools will continue to provide your child with a solid education."

But many parents, students and faculty members remain profoundly apprehensive - and demoralized. High school seniors who had pinned the success of their college and scholarship applications on extracurricular activities are entering their final year with fewer opportunities. Teachers and administrators have seen years of work vanish.

Tom Henvey, who was involved in the district's physical education program for 31 years, had planned to spend three more years as the district's director of physical education and athletics. But this summer, in part because of the budget problems, he decided to retire. "The demise of the budget really affected what I worked for," he said.

The annual budget jousting has driven some teachers and families from the district - and persuaded many more to consider leaving.

After a dozen years in Yonkers, and tireless lobbying for a better school system, Elizabeth Johnston decided this summer to move with her husband and two sons to Wilton, Conn. The continual budget crises were largely to blame, she said.

On top of gradual trims that had whittled down programs over recent years, the latest cutbacks meant that her oldest son, 9-year-old Ross Cagenello, was going to have little to nourish his artistic creativity.

But at his new school in Wilton, Ross has already been fitted for a cello. Ms. Johnston said the facilities there were beautiful, the electives plentiful, the class sizes moderate.

"I think that every child should have that," she said. "We're lucky because we can do that, but a lot of people in Yonkers can't."