Eastchester NY Super Lays Guilt Trip on Parents

The latest numbers The Crack Team has gotten via the Journal News is that 155,000 students across New York State have opted out of the ELA exam. Many parents have been cajoled, bribed, pleaded with, and have had major guilt trips thrust upon them. No where as The Crack Team seen anything worse than those parents of the Greenvale Elementary School in Eastchester, NY.


Knowing of the strong surge of parents not wishing for their children to partake in such tests the Eastchester Schools Superintendent Dr Walter Moran III tried to lay on some Jewish guilt to the parents of Greenvale.

In a nutshell he warned parents that the New York State Education Department had notified him that because the amount of students taking the exams will fall below 95 percent that Greenvale's application to be a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence will be denied. Even though one would be hard pressed to find such a reason to disqualify Greenvale here. Having won this award in 2009 the parents of Greenvale are going boo-hoo-hoo.

This is akin to Dean Wormer punishing Delta House by not allowing them to have a float in Faber College's Homecoming Parade (About 39 seconds in).

Whilst examining the qualifications for being a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence The Crack Team was unable to find nary a word that a school with less than 95 percent participation will lose out. In fact The Crack Team came across this little known codicil (With apologies to Dean Wormer).

The performance of all tested students in the school in the most recent year tested in both reading (English language arts) and mathematics must be in the top 15 percent of all schools in the state when schools are ranked based on the performance of all tested students. 

Seems they base the performance only on tested students. So who is fibbing? Who is truly doing the guilt trip? The SED or Dr Walter Moran III?

Anyway the letter from Dr Walter Moran III is just below and to the parents of Greenvale, you deserve a blue ribbon, but a different type of blue ribbon as you can see up in the right hand corner.

Keep up the struggle!

Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2015 10:55:09 -0700
From: districtnews@eastchester.k12.ny.us
To: SoupySales@hotmail.com
Subject: Greenvale Blue Ribbon Status - IMPORTANT UPDATE

Pasted below, and attached, please see important letter from Dr. Moran regarding the Blue Ribbon Award status for Greenvale.

 

April 15, 2015

 

 

Dear Greenvale Parents/Guardians,

 

I hope this letter finds you well and enjoying this beautiful spring day. 

 

This morning I was informed by a New York State Education Department official that the Greenvale School’s Blue Ribbon Award application will be disqualified as a result of our not meeting the participation threshold on the New York State exams at Greenvale School.  As you may know, New York State requires schools to have 95% of their students take the state assessments, and the number of test refusals we received this year placed us below that threshold. 

 

I am writing this letter to simply share information.  Ultimately, I respect parents’ rights to advocate for what they believe in, and make decisions that they determine are in their child’s best interests.  I also recognize that the National Blue Ribbon Award is a significant acknowledgement of the extraordinary work of our children, teachers, administrators, and families.  The National Blue Ribbon Award is a source of great pride for our school district and community because it recognizes that Greenvale Elementary School is among the best schools in the nation.  

 

We were advised by an official at the State Education Department that parents could still have their children participate in the English Language Arts assessments that are taking place this week.  Book 3 is set to be administered tomorrow and the three-day make-up window (April 17-21) is an option for students to complete Books 1 and 2.  If any parent whose child did not take the ELA assessment over the past two days should wish to reconsider, please contact Mrs. Casey.

 

Clearly, this is a parent’s decision.  As superintendent, I felt it my responsibility to share the information we have received from NYSED in a timely manner. 

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Walter R. Moran III