MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR ...

Comm. Hodges: Mr. Chairman, I have one concern which I mentioned in the workshopand I am going to mention in the public for the very same reason on the early childhoodprogram.Comm. Sayegh: Are you referring to item A-1 on the agenda?Comm. Hodges: A-1. What has disappointed me in the past and continues todisappoint me is the lack of a clear focus on educating. It is wonderful to create lovingand nurturing environments for kids, but our primary goal here is to educate children.The primary goal and responsibility of the early childhood program is to provide a soundeducational basis or foundation from which they can start this educational process.While there are some tangential references to that in this plan, it does not state thatclearly and make it the primary reason for its being and that bothers me. If you do notunderstand that we are here to give to students a head start - that is why they gave usthe money for the program - then what is the point?Comm. Sayegh: Just to dovetail on some of the comments you just made, I think it isimportant to know the purpose of preschool, which is to properly prepare three-yearoldsand four-year-olds for the next level so that there is a seamless transition, that webuild a bridge from that preschool to kindergarten as we try to do with eighth grade tohigh school and high school to college. It all works that way. We must properly prepareour children and I think it is important to note that we should also challenge them. Ifother districts are challenging their preschoolers, I think we should be doing the same.You are a believer in best practices and so am I. We looked at different case studiesand if you were to investigate what other districts are doing I think you would see thatthey are challenging children and we should be doing the same.Comm. Atallo: I have similar concerns with A-1. Again, as I stated at the workshop, Iappreciate the hard work and time that went into developing the instructional plan. Butit is for almost $42 million and it was dropped on the Board of Education’s lap last weekat the workshop as we walked in. As I said the previous month when I talked about thelong-term facility plan, it is not that I disagree with the plan per se. I appreciate the hardwork that people put into the long-term facility plan. I appreciate the hard work peopleput into the instructional plan for the early childhood program. However, I think weshould establish a strong policy with this Board of Education that we get things in atimely manner. If we are going to get something the size of a telephone book in termsof material, we can’t get it at 6:00 on a Wednesday night and expect to vote on it thesame evening, or even the following week. We need time to intelligently discuss,debate, and dissect these programs. As you said Commissioner, let us look atcomparative data. Let us see what other school districts that are successful with earlychildhood are doing. Because I said it at the workshop and I will say it tonight, the earlychildhood program is like building a building. It is the foundation for educationalprograms. If you have a strong foundation you can build layer upon layer and hope tobe successful. If the foundation is shaky and not strong, no matter how many floors youbuild you will have a shaky institution and a shaky building. So we want to make surethat our foundation is strong. To ensure that it is we need to get documents in a timelymanner. I know from having spoken to the staff that they get things very late from thestate. The state is a very strong culprit in this in their timelines. We need to havegreater dialogue with the state. I know that supposedly there is an assistantcommissioner for Abbott districts. I have not seen him in about three years. I know heis out there campaigning and I guess he is happy tonight. But my point is I wantaccountability. While I am an elected Board member in Paterson, I am also a taxpayerand a voter like everyone else here and I want accountability for the millions of dollarswe are spending. So I think we need to have a meeting with the Department ofPage 25 11/9/05