More grounds for removal of Paladino: violating student privacy

Austin Harig and Carl Paladino

On  June 22, Commissioner MaryEllen Elia will hold a hearing on the legal petition of the Buffalo Board of Education to remove Carl Paladino from his seat on the Board.

Though Paladino has made many outrageous and even racist comments, including most recently about former President Obama and his wife Michelle, the best legal grounds for removing him, according to the Board's attorney, is for violating law or specific Board policies.  Thus the Board is focusing its appeal on the basis of Paladino's breaching the confidentiality of discussions while the Board was in Executive Session.

Yet unmentioned so far in terms of these proceedings is how last spring, Paladino violated several student privacy laws, both federal and state, in breaching the privacy of a Buffalo high school student, Austin Harig, who ran against him in the School Board elections and lost by only 132 votes.  On election night, Paladino revealed to the media that Harig had been recently suspended, which is personal student information barred from disclosure by education officials such as Paladino by the federal law known as FERPA as well as two state laws.

See the letter below that we sent yesterday to the Buffalo Board President, Dr. Nevergold, on this issue, on behalf of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and NYS Allies for Public Education.

___

Dr. Barbara Seals Nevergold
President, Buffalo Board of Education

By email: BANevergold@buffaloschools.org

April 21, 2017    

Dear Dr. Nevergold and the Buffalo Board of Education:

We support your efforts to remove Carl P. Paladino from the Buffalo Board of Education for official misconduct in breaching confidential discussions that occurred in the Board’s executive sessions.

We would like to add that Mr. Paladino breached the confidentiality of education records when he announced to the media that his opponent in the recent school board elections, Austin Harig, an 18-year-old high school student, had recently been “suspended from school for tardiness and not showing up while he is running for office.” ^[1]

This disclosure is a clear violation of student privacy, by revealing sensitive information from education records for unauthorized purposes and without the consent of the student or his parents. 

As an education official, Mr. Paladino’s disclosure of this information to the media is a violation of the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) passed in 1974, as well as the NY Personal Privacy Protection Law (Public Officers Law, Article 6-A, sections 91-99) passed in 1984, and the Student Privacy law approved as part of the New York budget in 2014 (Education Law SB 6356 § 2-d. Unauthorized release of personally identifiable information.)

We urge you to include this egregious violation of student privacy and of federal and state law in your testimony and legal appeal to the Commissioner for Mr. Paladino’s removal. 

We also strongly support the thousands of Buffalo community members and New Yorkers who are calling for his removal based on his many racist statements, including his comments about the former President and First Lady. 

Yours sincerely,

Leonie Haimson, co-chair, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Lisa Rudley, Executive Director, NYS Allies for Public Education

CC: Buffalo Board of Education members: ppierce@buffaloschools.org, quinn@buffaloschools.org, sbelton-cottman@buffaloschools.org, TAHarris-Tigg@buffaloschools.org, HJay@buffaloschools.org, JMecozzi@buffaloschools.org, PWoods@buffaloschools.org

Commissioner Maryellen Elia: Commissioner@nysed.gov

Chancellor Betty Rosa at Regent.Rosa@nysed.gov  

Frank W. Miller Esq. at fmiller@fwmillerlawfirm.com   

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^[1] http://news.wbfo.org/post/teen-threatens-sue-paladino ; see also http://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2016/05/paladino-not-celebrating-narrow-school-board-re-election/

How you can advocate for an Opportunity to Learn index to be included in the new NY accountability system!

In December of 2016 President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced NCLB and requires states to develop a new accountability system for their schools.  ESSA mandates that schools be rated mostly on academic factors, including test scores and graduation rates. But it also allows the inclusion of a non-academic factor that would assess school quality in a more holistic way. 

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is currently circulating a survey soliciting feedback from the public on what “school quality indicator” should be included in our state’s ESSA accountability system.  Class Size Matters and NYS Allies for Public Education have proposed that an Opportunity to Learn (OTL) Index (here and below) should be included in the new accountability system.  

Our Opportunity to Learn Index incorporates evidence-based factors proven to work to improve student outcomes, and that most parents want to see in their children’s schools, such as smaller class sizes,  arts education, and low teacher attrition and student suspension rates. The NYSED survey  mentions an Opportunity to Learn option, but includes only a few of its potential components. Instead, many of the options on the survey involve mostly academic, test-based factors. Not only are these factors redundant (they are already included in the other indicators), they do little to address the conditions that must be offered our students for true and meaningful education to occur. 

Please complete the state’s survey by March 20th, and also consider attending a regional NYSED ESSA meeting to have your voice heard.  The times and places for the NYC meetings are below, as well as the web address to RSVP. 

Here are some of the factors  that we include in our OTL index and we urge you to mark “Support” in the survey:

●       #2. Chronic Absenteeism

●       #7. Student Attendance

●       #15. Student Suspension Rate

●       #17. Teacher Attendance 

●       #19. Teacher Turnover

●       #23. Parent and Community Engagement

●       #34. Student access to arts education

●       #35. Student access to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math

●       #36. Student access to early learning programs

●       #37. Student access to a full educational program that includes Science, Arts, Music, and Physical Education.

In addition, we urge you to mark “Strongly support” # 22. Opportunity to Learn Indicators (e.g., class sizes; guidance counselors; many other possibilities) even though the factors mentioned here  are only a few of those we have included in our proposal.

The other options offered in the survey we do NOT support because:

●       They are academic and/or test-based, especially since the rest of the accountability system will be based on these factors, or

●        They are too hard to objectively measure or

●       They would tend to violate student privacy (as in tracking students’ post-secondary outcomes).

What Can YOU Do?

1. Please take the NYSED ESSA survey NOW. Survey closes March 20th.

2. Please also share our Opportunity to Learn index with other parents and community members and discuss what you want for your schools.

3. Attend a regional NYSED ESSA meeting to have your voice heard. You can bring a copy of our OTL index with you to share.

Thank you!

 Opportunity to Learn Index for the NYS Accountability System by Leonie Haimson on Scribd

Class Size Matters 7th Annual "Skinny" Awards Dinner

Leonie Haimson and Diane Ravitch,

Patrick Sullivan and Monica Major

Emily Horowitz, and Cynthia Wachtell

invite you to

Class Size Matters 7th Annual "Skinny" Awards Dinner

When: Tuesday, June 9 at 6:30 PMWhere: Il Bastardo/Bocca Di Bacco
191 7th Ave (21st St)
New York, NY 10011

A fundraiser for Class Size Matters

This year we are honoring the NY leaders of the Opt-Out movement:

Change the Stakes

NYC Opt Out

New York State Allies for Public Education

Please join us for an opportunity to enjoy a four course dinner to celebrate three organizations that led a historic movement resulting in 200,000 students refusing to take the NY state tests this year.

Ticket Information:

http://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=8217

$250 - Defender of Public Education

$150 - Patron

$75 – Supporter

Thank you for your support and we hope to see you there!

If you can't attend, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Class Size Matters, to help support our work

Parents Demand More Accountability in the Appointment of Members of the Board of Regents

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 25, 2013

More information contact: 

 
Eric Mihelbergel (716) 553-1123; nys.allies@gmail.com
Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com
NYS Allies for Public Education - www.nysape.org

Parents Demand More Accountability in the Appointment of Members of the Board of Regents

Parents across New York State are demanding that members of the Board of Regents up for re-appointment this March, Regents Christine Cea, James Jackson, James Cotrell, and Wade Norwood, publicly clarify their positions on the current education reforms.

“Those members of the Board of Regents who do not support an agenda that includes an immediate moratorium on high stakes Common Core testing and the sharing of student data must be replaced with new members who will recognize their responsibility to protect our children and our schools,” said Eric Mihelbergel, a public school parent in Buffalo and a founding member of the NYS Allies for Public Education. Mihelbergel went on to say, “the people of New York have lost confidence in Commissioner John King, Chancellor Merryl Tisch and the current Board of Regents to call a halt to these destructive education policies.”

Lisa Rudley, a public school parent in Ossining and a founding member of NYS Allies for Public Education, said “As evidenced in the Albany Times Union, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013, the Regents’ policy on allowing privately funded fellows with little to no public education experience to drive curriculum calls into question the integrity of the system.  We need an educational plan in New York not a marketing plan.”

The process of electing Board of Regents members has long been an elusive process that has not been widely understood by the public.  Persons wishing to apply for a position submit a resume to Assemblywomen Catherine Nolan, Chair of the Education Committee, and Deborah Glick, Chair of the Higher Education Committee, by January 31, 2014.  In-person interviews are then conducted in Albany in February by Nolan and Glick.  

Although all legislators vote in early March, the process is controlled by the Democratic Majority of the Assembly.  Many Republican members abstain from the voting process altogether, because it is so strongly controlled by the Democratic Majority and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Legislators are typically given less than 24-hour’s notice of the vote, and up to now, a current Regent is almost automatically re-appointed until they resign or retire. 

"As a parent of four school-aged children, I am shocked at how the majority of Regents members have not listened to the protests of their constituents -- parents, educators and members of the communities whose interests they are supposed to serve, and have been silent while the Commissioner imposes one damaging policy after another. It is time for REAL change at the Board of Regents and at the NYS Education Department" said Tim Farley, a parent and a principal of the Ichabod Crane School in Kinderhook, New York.

NYS Allies for Public Education is proposing parents adopt an Action Plan to lobby their legislators to appoint four Board of Regents members who will support a call for a moratorium on high-stakes testing, data sharing, and the Common Core modules and curriculum.  In alignment with this goal, the organization will be sending out a survey to the current Regents members whose terms are up, as well as other applicants for these positions, to seek and publicize their views on these critical issues.

Jeanette Deutermann, public school parent in Bellmore and Long Island Opt-Out Facebook founder, says, “Parents will no longer allow Board of Regents members to be re-elected when they are not doing their job for children.  We will hold legislators accountable for their votes for or against individual Regents.  New Regents must be elected that support a moratorium on current practices.”

Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters and a founding member of NYS Allies for Public Education said, “Many educators have pointed out the high costs and low quality of the Common Core modules adopted by the NYS Education Department.  These critics include Carol Burris, an award-winning NY Principal who in the Washington Post, pointed out that NYSED paid more than $14 million for faulty math modules produced by a company called Common Core Inc.  At the same time, this same company has received millions from the Gates Foundation, which also spent $100 million to fund inBloom Inc., a corporation that is collecting highly sensitive and personal student information without parental consent, and putting it on a data cloud, so that it can more easily be shared with for-profit vendors.” 

Though seven of the nine original inBloom states have pulled out, Commissioner King says he is determined to go ahead with this data-mining project, and is sharing the personal information for the entire state’s public school students with inBloom, despite the protests of parents, school board members, and Superintendents, as well as a lawsuit filed in court two weeks ago.  The Gates Foundation is also helping to pay for the salaries of the Regents fellows who have been placed in charge of implementing the Common Core and this data-sharing project.

“This evident conflict of interest calls into serious question who is controlling education policies in this state, and whether private funders have been allowed undue influence over our children,” says Bianca Tanis, a public school parent in New Paltz and steering member of Re-Thinking Testing Mid-Hudson Region.

New York State Allies for Public Education represents forty-five grassroots parent groups from every corner of the Empire State. The organizations are proud to stand with the parents, community members and fellow educators in NYSAPE to call for a change in direction and policy beginning with new leadership at the New York State Education Department.

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