Editorial: Attention must be paid to the 2008 school board elections
April 18,2008
At this time of year—school board election and budget time—every resident of the Chappaqua Central School District faces an immutable reality: school board decisions impact the long-term economic strength of the district’s real estate market. Put simply, the value of your home is inextricably linked to the reputation of the school district, particularly Horace Greeley High School.
Decisions made by the current school board will materially influence, for better or for worse, the reputation of the school district ten years from now, when current elementary school-aged children will be graduating and their parents will be reexamining their commitment to New Castle and its real-estate heavy tax structure. No matter the age of your children—preschool, elementary, middle school, high school, college or flown the coop—who you elect to the school board is an important economic decision for your family.
How can we as a community assess how well decisions have been made by the school board this year? In particular, how can we assess the quality of the contributions to thoughtful decision-making made by the two members running for reelection, Janet Benton and Robert Gursha?
Evaluating decision-making
In his 2001 commencement address to Harvard’s graduating class, Robert Rubin, former Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, spoke on decision-making. In a nutshell he explained that decision-making is at the core of every citizen’s life, personal, public and professional, because life is about making choices. Since there are no absolutes, he explained to the graduates, all decisions are about probabilities.
“An important corollary to recognizing that decisions are about probabilities,” Rubin concluded, “is that decisions should not be judged by outcomes but by the quality of the decision-making, though outcomes are certainly one useful input in that evaluation. Any individual decision can be badly thought through, and yet be successful, or exceedingly well thought through, but be unsuccessful, because the recognized possibility of failure in fact occurs. But over time, more thoughtful decision-making will lead to better overall results, and more thoughtful decision-making can be encouraged by evaluating decisions on how well they were made rather than on outcome.”
Examination of the schedule change decision
Let’s consider how well decisions were made concerning the high school schedule change controversy that rocked the community this year. The decision to change the 35-year-old “mod” schedule to a modified block schedule was made by Greeley principal Andrew Selesnick. The board eschewed any direct responsibility. School board president Janet Benton has make it clear over the past year that the schedule change is a “curriculum matter” and therefore something for the administrators to decide.
The schedule change, in concept, was announced by Selesnick in January 2007, but no actual schedule was presented to the community for consideration until December 2007. And by then it was a fait accompli.
At the June 2007 board meeting then PTA President Jill Gold said to the board, Selesnick and Superintendent David Fleishman: “People don’t know about this. Parents have to have a chance to have input.” Fleishman answered her: “You don’t really get that much input until after you’ve made a decision.” But after a decision has been made, it’s not input you get, but reaction.
And with the release of an actual sample schedule in December 2007, high school parents immediately reacted. Many responded with vociferous opposition to rushing into such an overarching change. Students protested at the school. Teachers who were critical of the schedule change were mostly silenced by the high school administration.
At the first opportunity to be heard, the January 14 PTA meeting, parents pleaded with Selesnick and Fleishman for an open forum to discuss the change and ask questions. Selesnick dismissed their concerns, saying, in substance, that this might be a good turnout for a PTA meeting, but that a mere 100 parents from a school of 1350 students was not significant.
This was the time for the board to assume a leadership role. Instead, it remained disengaged. Only two out of five board members bothered to attend the January 2008 PTA meeting. Both left without addressing the concerned parents or the few teachers who dared to speak critically of the proposed schedule.
It was after this meeting that parents began discussing the possibility of voting down the budget in protest over the schedule change. How could the board let the community become this desperate to communicate?
What should the board have done?
As Professor J. Allen Queen advised in an article that Selesnick repeatedly referenced in support of block scheduling: “Boards of education should ensure that all stakeholders – including students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community organizations – have the opportunity to be involved in investigating, planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating the block schedule. See Block Scheduling Revisited.
What has the district done to get all stakeholders on board and thereby enhance the chances of success under this new schedule? Next to nothing. The school board needs to get real. It is not enough for them to sit back and say that their meetings are open and available on NCCTV and parents can email them with their comments.
The board should have taken over the process: actively sought input from parents, challenged the administration’s rosy picture of faculty support, and yes, even listened to the students’ concerns. But such outreach had to begin with dissemination of the facts, the kind of facts that only started to become available in December 2007. Otherwise, what would the dialogue be about?
The school board abdicated its responsibility to lead the community and help it weather the storm of controversy this year. What do you want from your school board next year?
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