POB Response to Ct. Shooting Not Enough

I work in a neighboring school district. Within 24 hours of the horrific tragedy in Newtown, CT, all staff where I work received an email and automated phone call advising us of the tragedy and calling for mandatory early morning staff meetings on Monday morning to review safety procedures, codes, etc. The superintendent posted a notice on the district's website advising parents of our heightened security measures with links to various information relating to all of this. It's possible parents also received an automated call but I really don't know.

Why is it that we have heard nothing from the Plainview School District on this? Nothing has been posted on the website. No automated calls to the community. I'd feel better knowing the staff has been contacted but as of yet, I haven't heard anything about that.

Hey LIPA Why Plainview-We're Not Even in the Flood Zone!!!

LIPA- What is it about Plainview?

What is it about POB and LIPA? Why does it seem we are ignored, last to get power on, etc? Have you seen Lipa trucks? My neighbors and I surely have not. Despite no evident damage, we are still without power over 1 week later with little/no information from LIPA. 90 percent of power restored Wed. isn't very helpful when you don't know if you will be the 10 percent. And...if you are the 10 percent, how much longer will it be. Do people literally need to freeze to death in their homes before someone will do something. Rise up, people and let's get LIPA to POB N-O-W!

What Do I Do When a Teacher is Abusive Toward a Parent?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What to Do About a Teacher with Unprofessional Beh...":

What should I do about a teacher who physically and verbally attacked her ex husband in front of the school where my child attends? This was a horrible example for a teacher to set. This is teaching violence and bad language. I told the principal and he said it was a personal matter.

Dignity for All Students Act A Must Read by All Parents

Please let all of your friends know about this:

 

The New York State
Dignity for All Students Act (Dignity Act):5‐24‐12
Guide for School Administrators &Faculty

 

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/dignityact/documents/DignityForAllStudentsActGuidance_POSTING.pdf

As of July 1st 2012, the Dignity for all Students Act is being enforced in New York State. I have attached the 80 page document which all parents should make them selves familiar with. Below I have touched on the general essence, but it should be read buy all. It encompasses many slurs that occur in school everyday to all types of children not just the obvious abuses. The law covers everyone and is intended to keep all children in a safe environment at school, free of name calling, sarcastic remarks, or more physical actions, from other children as well as teachers, administrators in short, anyone employed in the school district. Please make sure to discuss this with your children as well, not just from a victim's point of view, but make sure they are aware that if they are trading nasty things about someone in their class and that child hears it, he/she can make a complaint that will need to be investigated, and reports must be filed, by law. While I know that here in the Plainview OldBethpage neighborhood, there is no child or teacher that would ever ever do this, but I think it's not a bad topic for discussion anyway. We all know that kids, parents and teachers, not meaning to be, can be very mean, sarcastic or demeaning to or about other children. It is a call for all to step our of our petty, ridiculing and teasing ways.

Overview:
In all cases, schools should have well-publicized policies prohibiting harassment and
procedures for reporting and resolving complaints that will alert the school to incidents
of harassment.
When responding to harassment, a school must take immediate and appropriate action
to investigate or otherwise determine what occurred. The specific steps in a school’s
investigation will vary depending upon the nature of the allegations, the source of the
complaint, the age of the student or students, involved, the size and administrative
structure of the school, and other factors. In all cases, however, the inquiry should be
prompt, thorough, and impartial.
If an investigation reveals that discriminatory harassment has occurred, a school must
take prompt and appropriate steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment,
eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent the harassment from
recurring. These duties are a school’s responsibility even if the misconduct is also
covered by an anti-bullying policy, regardless of whether a student has complained,
asked the school to take action, or identified the harassment as a form of discrimination.
Appropriate steps to end harassment may include separating the accused harasser and
the target, providing counseling for the target and/or harasser, or taking disciplinary
action against the harasser. These steps should not penalize the student who was
harassed. For example, any separation of the target from an alleged harasser should be
designed to minimize the burden on the target’s educational program (e.g., not requiring
the target to change his or her class schedule).
In addition, depending on the extent of the harassment, the school may need to provide
training or other interventions not only for the perpetrators, but also for the larger school
community, to ensure that all students, their families, and school staff can recognize
harassment if it recurs and know how to respond. A school also may be required to
provide additional services to the student who was harassed in order to address the
effects of the harassment, particularly if the school initially delays in responding or
responds inappropriately or inadequately to information about harassment. An effective
response also may need to include the issuance of new policies against harassment
and new procedures by which students, parents, and employees may report allegations
of harassment (or wide dissemination of existing policies and procedures), as well as
wide distribution of the contact information for the district’s Title IX and Section 504/Title
II coordinators.

Suzala

TOO Much Testing!!

Have you all noticed there was a new sweep of testing on your children this year.. I believe part of it is for Pearson Publishing to evaluate their tests, and part of it is to evaluate the teachers. It was explained to me that in the future there would be Pre-testing of a subject and then post testing as well. This is to ensure that  the teachers are teaching. Unfortunately it holds no baring as to whether you child has learned. For example: If a child's pretest yields a score of 20% and post test he gets a 60% then it is assumed the teacher has taught as the student has "improved", however it does not say if the child has had any mastery of the subject. (in this case clearly not). Tests which do not benefit students and are using hours of precious class time which could be otherwise used for... Teaching?!
Please review these websites and sign the time out from testing petition to help fight NY States new testing requirements.

http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution/

http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/

http://timeoutfromtesting.org/

Thank you, suzala, editor.