GARDEN CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

On The LineOn The Line E-Newsletter www.gardencity.k12.ny.us Vol. 1 • No. 1

Online...OnlineIn keeping with Garden City Public Schools’ administrative goal to enhance district communications with the community it

serves, the district is piloting a new electronic format newsbrief for periodic release to the community to supplement its hard copy newsletter, On The Line. If you have a topic you would like explored in an online newsbrief, please email:knightc@gcufsd.net.

Superintendent Rolls Out 2011-12 Budget The first budget meeting for the 2011-12 fiscal year was held on Wednesday, February 9th to introduce the superinten-dent’s budget recommendations to the Board and community. Facing unprece-dented and painful fiscal challenges, Su-perintendent Feirsen explained he “tried to create a balance - retaining the high level of performance the community ex-pects and developing a budget the com-munity can support.” The proposed overall budget of $101,117,058 represents a budget-to-budget increase of 3.19% and a projected tax levy increase (with STAR) of 2.71%. It is important to note that, with the ex-ception of mandates, all expenditures are flat. “Wherever possible,” Dr. Feirsen noted, “we have used zero-sum logic; if something was added, an equal amount had to come out.” In other words, the net increase is entirely attributable to lost revenues and mandated costs outside the district’s control. For example, Garden City faces new challenges from local government as Nassau County cost-shifts expenses and New York State dramatically cuts aid to education, while not delivering promised mandate relief. County cost-shifting alone adds a $100,000 water usage fee to the budget. Other significant budget drivers include mandated contributions for employee pensions, a 13+% rise in health care costs (even though district employee contribute more than almost all other dis-tricts), and required increases in special education. At the state level, Governor Cuomo’s budget, due by April 1, cuts aid to Long Island school districts by 10.1%, as op-posed to a state average of 7.44%. Gar-

den City Public School’s decrease would be 13.61%. As noted by the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association (February 2011):• Long Island schools enroll approxi-mately 17% of the students in the state but receive only 12% ($2.292 billion) of all school aid ($19.129 billion).• Long Island schools absorbed a dispro-portionately large share (14.5% or $223 million) of the statewide school aid re-duction ($1.537 billion).• Long Island school aid was reduced by 8.9%, which is 22.6% greater than the 7.2% cut to the rest of the state.• Long Island school aid per pupil is re-duced to $4,246, which is 31.7% lower than the rest of the state ($6,216). At the federal level, American Recov-ery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) fund-ing for Garden City is ending - $904,619 in ‘09-’10 and an anticipated $364,682 in ‘10-’11 - creating an additional loss of revenue for the district. State aid to Garden City Public Schools has decreased by 25% in the past five years from $5,870,490 in ‘07-’08 to $4,331,046; a loss of $1,539,444. The Governor recommended that all school districts use their reserve funds to make-up for lost state aid. Garden City’s pro-posed budget includes using $1,092,422 ($300,000 from the workers compensa-tion reserve and $792,422 from the em-ployee retirement system reserve) to help offset the shortfall. Garden City is well known for the qual-ity of its schools, extensive co-curricular, extra-curricular and athletics programs. “There is something for every child in every discipline,” Dr. Feirsen comment-ed. “The district is committed to continu-

ous improvement, has a history of sound fiscal management, and provides an ex-cellent ‘return on investment.’” The 2011-12 budget outlined in the overview meeting was the first step in a comprehensive review and discussion of the administration’s proposed budget. The district urges all taxpayers to attend budget meetings, follow the issues, and keep informed as the budget is honed over the next three months prior to the May 17th Budget Vote. The budget development calendar and the budget overview presentation are posted on the district’s website: http://www.gardencity.k12.ny.us/board_of_education/budget_information/ The next budget meeting - Non-Instruc-tional areas/Administrative and Capi-tal Components - and a Regular Board Work Session will be held on Wednes-day, February 16, 8:15 p.m. in the high school.

The Power of Misinformation

The district is committed to trans-parency and citizen involvement as it moves forward with the budget pro-cess in one of our most challenging years ever. The district urges taxpay-ers to follow the issues, attend Board of Education Budget Meetings, stay informed from primary sources, and weigh all information as fact or opin-ion when pondering budget decisions in the months ahead. As recently not-ed in Education Week, the Informa-tion Age “is also the Misinformation Age, for the equally quick and easy access to inaccurate, misleading, and biased ‘data’ and poorly informed opinion.”1

1. Haas, J. (2010, Sept. 29). Education Week. pg. 28.

Colleen E. FoleyPresident

Barbara TrapassoVice President

Laura BrownTrustee

Angela HeinemanTrustee

Laura HastingsTrustee

Robert Feirsen, Ed.D.Superintendent

Catherine KnightCoordinator of Public Information

Garden City Public Schools56 Cathedral Avenue Garden City, New York 11530www.gardencity.k12.ny.us

March 8: Building condition survey; short- & long-term capital projects plan.April 6: New procedures for evaluation of teachers & principals mandated by New York State; budget.May 10: Cyberbullying initiative update; budget.June 8: English Language Arts curricu-lum review. (June 14, Regular Meeting: Differentiated Instruction.)

BOE Work Session Topics

Raising Awareness to Empower Parents & Students

The very technology that enables you to receive this e-newsletter has the poten-tial to be used anonymously as a weapon against students. “Cyberbullying” is char-acterized by repeated student-to-student bullying utilizing the Internet and can have devastating academic, social and behavior-al consequences for student victims. The Pew Research Center has posted an infor-mative presentation about media use/mis-use in teens/young adults at: http://www.slideshare.net/PewInternet/cyberbullying-2010-what-the-research-tells-us-4009451. Garden City Public Schools has orga-nized a cyberbullying committee led by Director of Technology, Dr. Rita Melikian, and Assistant Superintendent for Person-nel, Dr. Fino Celano, to address the issue. The district has implemented community and school presentations to raise aware-ness about cyberbullying. For example, on March 2, 2011, from 7:30 - 9 p.m. at Garden City High School, Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Anne Donnelly will be presenting S.T.O.P. THEN SEND, an Internet safety program that provides concrete advice about monitoring your child’s electronic communications and social network activities as well as offer-ing the legal perspective of Internet “Do’s and Don’t’s.” This presentation, open to all Garden City residents, was presented for high school students on February 2nd. For schools, much of the focus on bul-lying and cyberbullying has focused on

school-wide approaches that set the tone for expected behaviors. For example, the primary and elementary schools have ad-opted the concept of “Bucket Fillers” based on the books by Carol McCloud. Using the metaphor of an invisible bucket contain-ing good thoughts and feelings, those who add to our buckets are bucket fillers, while those who take away from these good feelings are bucket dippers. The concept is easy for children to understand and for teachers to implement in the classroom.

More information about this approach is available at: http://www.bucketfillers101.com/about.html. The middle school emphasizes students’ socio-emotional growth and embraces the principles of the Olweus program, a com-prehensive school-wide approach that sets clear guidelines for expected behaviors. Daily meetings in “Home Base” are pro-vided to discuss student issues and work on team-building projects. Parents should be aware of bystander in-tervention strategies for students adapted from the program:L - Leave no one outE - Empower yourself/stand up to the bully A - Amuse with humor (lighten the mood) D - Distract the bully (change the subject) E - Enlist help (guidance, school, parents)R - Rumors stop with you (don’t spread them) S - Support the victim (show you care) For more information visit: http://www.olweus.org/public/index.page. As further incentive, middle-schoolers “caught” in an act of kindness by a teacher are given a Kindness Counts bracelet to acknowl-edge making good choices. In turn, these bracelets are visual reminders of good deeds to every student, further reinforcing positive behaviors. In the high school, programs are periodi-cally offered to students and parents. “Spe-cifically,” commented principal Nanine Cuttitta, “we take bullying/cyberbullying very seriously. If an incident comes to our attention, we investigate it and address it with student and parent conversations and meetings, and a formal written warning to the alleged bully. If the incident warrants further disciplinary action, then it is taken. We do not hesitate to contact the Police De-partment for their assistance.” “We addressed our students about this topic at our opening assemblies in Septem-ber,” Ms. Cuttitta explained. “In addition to the Internet safety program by the Assistant District Attorney’s office, we are bringing in Stories of Substance, a program that ad-dresses a myriad of relevant topics of inter-est to high school students, including social networking.” Remember to mark your calendars for the March 2nd Internet safety program: Being informed is a parent’s best weap-on against cyberbullying.

Stratford students recently culminated a week’s-worth of bullying awareness with a pledge recited while ev-ery student held on to a single string woven through the

school hallways.

Long Island Blood Services will be holding a Blood Drive on February 17th, from 8:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Stewart School and from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Stratford School. As-sisting at these drives will be fifth-graders trained as “Little Doctors.” For more information about what to expect when donating blood, visit: http://www.nybloodcenter.org/what-toexpect/index.do?sid0=2&sid1=15

Blood Drives at Stewart & Stratford