CBS television reports that Hempstead’s ABG Schultz Middle School is in chaos. A month into the new school year classes were uncovered, rosters were inaccurate, and students didn’t know where to go. In some overcrowded classrooms students sat on bookcases and window ledges. According to Nicole Brown, head of the school district’s teachers union chapter, “We have been asking that a total clean, total wipe of the master schedule be done and rebuild it. A lot of staff have had several different groups of students since the start of the school year.” District officials blamed the problem on the arrival of new students who were largely from immigrant families and cuts in state funding.
But problems go much deeper and are not new. Political divisions in repeated elected school boards means the district has repeatedly had multiple Superintendents on the payroll. It is currently trying to dismiss one, Shimon Waronker, who is involved in a long legal battle suing the district demanding he be reinstated.
A current board member pleaded guilty in March to charges that he forged a letter of recommendation when applying to become a Hempstead Village police officer and stole from the village fire department The Hempstead school board never acted to remove him. The district's former chief of facilities also pleaded guilty to participation in a kickback scheme.
With over 8,000 students, Hempstead is the largest K-12 school district in Nassau County, New York. While located in the suburbs, its schools are expected to deal with the problems faced by large urban minority school districts. Almost every student is Latino (65%) or Black (35%), seventy percent of its student population is from economically disadvantaged families, and forty percent are English language learners. The four-year high school graduation rate is half of the state average. Higher performing students from more economically stable families in Hempstead are pulled out of the public school system by state-authorized charter schools and local religious schools.
The districts problems are exacerbated by expanding charter schools in the community that are pulling away students and tax dollars. District Superintendent Regina Armstrong anticipates that the charter schools will cost the Hempstead School District $45 million in the 2019-20 school year, which means additional cuts in teaching and support staff. Hempstead’s charter schools have had their own recent problems. A recent state audit of the Academy Charter School found undocumented use of school credit cards.
This summer the New York State legislature passed legislation (A08403/S06559) sponsored by local representatives Assemblywoman Taylor Darling and State Senator Kevin Thomas, but Governor Andrew Cuomo has refused to even accept the legislation for review. The bill would authorize the State Education Commissioner to appoint two oversight members for the Hempstead School District with a third selected by the State Comptroller. If signed by the Governor it would go into effect immediately and the oversight members would serve until June 2024. Roger Tilles, who represents Nassau and Suffolk counties on the State Board of Regents responsible for education in New York, endorsed the bill because the Hempstead school board is in "constant disarray" and needs an independent monitor to make better fiscal, education and policy choices. Betty Rosa, chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, also endorsed appointment of a Hempstead monitor.
According to Assemblywoman Darling “We need to do something drastic. Our kids deserve excellence. I am done with our school district being a piggy bank for a lot of people. We sat here for decades. It’s time to do something, and on my watch, it will be done.” A Change.org petition supporting state intervention was posted by Melissa Figueroa, a local activist who works in Darling’s office.
A Newsday editorial also endorsed appointment of oversight monitors. The current state appointed advisor for the district stepped-down recently with the expiration of his two-year appointment. His reports to the State Education Department show limited progress by the district and continuing dysfunction in the school board.
Why won’t Governor Cuomo sign the Hempstead oversight bill? His office reports they are studying it, but that is an excuse to postpone putting it on his desk so that it will expire.
Why is Cuomo ignoring the children of Hempstead? Education is a state responsibility delegated to localities. Possible answers are that Cuomo does not want to establish a state intervention precedent for political reasons. First, there are other school districts, including larger school districts like Buffalo, Rochester, and Albany, where students are performing poorly and state involvement is desperately needed. There are also districts like Lawrence in Nassau County and East Ramapo in Rockland County where religious groups control school boards and the public schools and public school children are suffering as a result. Cuomo has a history of support for charter schools and improving public education in Hempstead might undermine his charter school allies. Last, if the state intervenes it might have to really address the problems of Hempstead by ending the checkerboard pattern of small racially, ethnically, and economically segregated school districts on Long Island, consolidating Hempstead with neighboring more affluent and largely white school districts.
Addressing these issues would bring the Governor political heat, but that is his job. The state Constitution mandates New York maintain and “support of a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this state may be educated” -- all children. Governor Cuomo has no right to ignore the educational needs of the children of Hempstead. It is time for him to step up!
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