Thoughts on Gov. Cuomo's education "reform"

I am not looking forward to a return to school on Monday.  This is not the usual "wow, I've been on vacation and have to get used to my school schedule again" kind of not looking forward.  It is going back to an environment rocked by Gov. Cuomo's education "reforms" that are designed to completely destroy the urban public school system that I have worked in for 10 of the past 12 years.

The plan is for greater "accountability" for teachers, so he has developed an evaluation system that is based 50% on state test scores, 35% on "outside evaluation", and the remaining 15% is local measures.  There are four scores:  "Highly Effective", "Effective", "Developing", and "Ineffective".

There are some serious negatives attached to those deemed "Ineffective": Teachers who receive "Ineffective" two years in a row start termination proceedings, and a third year of "ineffective" means you are fired.

Tenure has been extended from three years to four, and if you receive anything less than "Effective" more than one year out of those four, you will be denied tenure.

This hits home especially for teachers in urban schools, where test scores have always been low, even before the new Common Core standard tests.  Study after study has shown a direct link between poverty and test scores, and Rochester has the 5th highest per capita child poverty rate in the country.  Ergo, our test scores suck.

So with 50% of your evaluation as "ineffective" due to test scores, the absolute highest evaluation you could receive overall would be "developing".  And if you happened to not impress the "outside evaluator" that day (there's still no word on who those people will be), you will be stuck with "ineffective", no matter how incredible your rest of the year is.

Veteran teachers will barely scrape by, but most of us will be gone in 3-5 years.  It's all a roll of the dice.

More worrisome, though, is the number of new teachers I expect to apply to the Rochester City School District for September if this isn't fixed:

0.  None.

If you need to maintain "Effective" for three out of the four years of your tenure track, why would you even bother applying to a school system that guarantees you will get nothing higher than "Developing" EVER?  You wouldn't.

So we are going to have a staff of veteran teachers terrified of losing their jobs, anyone retiring who is even remotely able to, stressed inner-city students completely burned out on test prep, and absolutely no new blood coming in.  Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse schools will implode within two years.

Though given Cuomo's push toward charter schools, I'm sure that's not a design flaw.

I left education after the first five years because of testing, among other reasons.  I had to proctor a first grade exam, and a very sweet kid who always asked the best questions during library time asked for my help on a tough question.  When I told her I couldn't help her, she gave me a look like a kicked puppy.  I, of all people, couldn't help her?

After calculating that the library had been closed for a full quarter of the year due to testing, I split librarianship for law school.  There were a multitude of other reasons, which I'll get into in another essay, but that was one of the major ones.

However, I came back after two years, mostly because I honestly couldn't imagine doing anything else.  But the new regulations are going to make working with students difficult to near impossible with teacher turnover and more slavish devotion to the test than in previous years.

So I'm watching all this with a "heavy heart", as all those legislators claimed they had when they voted for this.  I have hope for the "opt-out" movement that is growing.  I have hope that there is absolutely no way this attack on my profession will pass without pushback.  New York has one of the finest educational systems in the country, and I can't believe that people will stand by and watch Gov. Cuomo break it.

But almost 42 is young enough for me to consider a career change if I must.  I want to fight the good fight, but I am tired.  It will be interesting to see how the next few months pan out.

Going (kinda) full Luddite

So, on Saturday night, the screen on my iPhone went completely blank.  Pressing the button resulted in a grey box, even when I could still hear the "bing" for a text message or the ringing for a phone call.

I logged in to my verizon site to see about an upgrade to the iPhone 5, which they told me I could do as soon as I paid the back balance of my phone bill of Significantly More Money Than Is In My Bank Account Right Now.

I made it several years of my life without a cell phone, and certainly many years without a smartphone.  Looking over my bill, it is awfully expensive.  Do I really need it?

No, I decided.  I have an unused line anyway, so I ordered a flip phone to add to the blank line.  I would suspend my smartphone line, saving myself a decent chunk of change every month.

Then Sunday night....it started working again.  Which is convenient for me, in that I can now make phone calls again, as well as play cards, surf Facebook, emails....

I am sticking by my resolution.  As soon as I get the flip phone in the mail, I'm going to put a hold on my smartphone line and go with the dumb phone.  I don't need the smartphone, and I do need to trim expenses.

Today I left my phone at home as a test run of how I'd manage without internet, since the phone is a distraction to me at school (and for all the wrong reasons).  I have to admit...I went through a bit of withdrawal.

OK, a lot.  It was very difficult to not check in constantly to different things.  Like, really oddly twitchy.

So I'm still at school, but heading home to check in on things.  Like Facebook.  And see if I make it through the week without the smartphone.

A first post for 2015

So I am now solidly in Apartment A, former apartment of Dan and Wendy and all the drama that came with the place.  Some assembly required.

The new guy is moving in upstairs today – he looked kinda shocked when he first got out of the car.  “Oh God – this place!”  He pointed across the street.  “I lived over there two years ago.  These people were out of control over here!!!!”

Beth (Kevin’s girlfriend and now manager of the apartments) opened her eyes wide at me.  I laughed. “Yeah, two years ago was the ‘peak crazy’ around here.  They’re all gone now though.   Mary is quiet.  I’m a librarian.”

He’s moving in from the local boarding house down by the railroad tracks, a very “special” kind of place here in town.  (Last time it was in the local paper, it was for a guy hitting another resident with a vodka bottle while stoned on meth AND getting blown by an underage girl.  Talk about multitasking.)  Needless to say, the new resident (Brian?  Barry?) of Apartment C is more than happy to have a place of his own.

So, just short of five years into what was supposed to be a very temporary move, I’m now downstairs and trying to fix this apartment.  I run into Josh every once in a while – he’s living in a tiny trailer down a back road in town, and I see his van swerving all over the road, or running up the street with his four-ways on as smoke pours out. 

I’ve got some old stories I still need to write, but honestly I’ve been enjoying the relative peace and quiet of late.  Just need to get things in order, write on a more daily basis, and get things moving.

And now get your crap out, too.

So a few Thursdays ago I called in sick to preemptively head off a really nasty bout of flu.  I was feeling human by about noon, so I set about fixing the window (pins had sheared off so it had to stay locked), and then going over to chat with the neighbors.

While I was there, Josh pulled in to the driveway, followed closely by Kevin (the landlord).  They had come to an agreement on Josh getting his crap out of the apartment, and Kevin came over to chat about the state of things.

Josh has one month (until October 18) to get his crap out of the apartment.  We all have keys to the front door, and Kevin asked if I could possibly let them in if I happened to be home.

"So, you want to fix up the downstairs apartment?"

I laughed.  "All depends on the terms."

"Well, let me know what your terms are, and we'll make it happen."

I told him I'd have to look over the place, see what it all looked like, and come up with it.  He had places to go, so I said I'd watch them take stuff out of the place for the day.

The neighbors told me they were told Josh got a DHS rental place out on a back road somewhere in town, and he was just moving everything out as soon as he could.

I came back home with Sam on Friday to find the front door wide open, along with the front door of Josh's apartment, and so sign of Kevin.  I walked around the building with Sam, and saw a ladder leaned up against the back of the house.

I was pretty sure it was Josh, and I texted Kevin.  He told me to call the police if I felt like it.  I texted Josh instead, asking if it was him, or if I needed to call the cops about a break-in.

Around 11:30 that night, I get a phone call from Josh.  I didn't answer, but texted him that it was late and I had Sam.

He called again.  Twice.

I answered the second one.  He asked me if I'd called the cops, and I told him I hadn't, as I'd figured it was him.

He asked me if I'd be around that weekend, so he could move more stuff.  "I'll be there at like 8am - gotta get it all out."

I'd thought about doing stuff with Sam, but figured we could both use just a mellow weekend and agreed I'd be hanging around the place to watch the moving.

He stood me up - never showed.

After some discussions with Kevin, I went in to the apartment to make sure everything was locked down, including taking the air conditioner out of the window (which I how I think he got in before).

He hasn't been around, except to pick up mail, since.  I sent him a text to get him to commit to getting his stuff out, but haven't heard.

I gave Kevin my offer based on the condition of the apartment, and what needs to be done.  His girlfriend has taken over management of the apartments, and we talked about my offer.  Rent same as what I'm paying now, end of the year to make the change, and I would hand over my apartment in perfect condition and repair the downstairs apartment on my own schedule for cost of materials.

She's hesitant about the rent, and she told me they'd let me know by the 18th.  So now we wait and see.

And STAY OUT!

So I got a text from the landlord shortly after the window incident, asking how long it had been since Josh and crew had been here.  I told them I hadn't seen them since the window incident, and they hadn't spent the night since I put the locking plate on the power outlets.  He said that was good to know, and he was going to chat with his lawyer about the possibilities from there.

On Monday the 8th (yeah, I've been delinquent about updates, sorry), as I was coming home, I got a text from my landlord telling me he changed the locks and warning me to keep an eye out for things downstairs.  "Curious to see how long it takes them to realize they've been locked out.  That will help with my case for evicting them."

I asked him if he wanted me to speed up the process by telling them, and he said no, he wanted to see how long it took them to find out.

Three hours later I hear screaming out in the front yard.  I look out the window and there's the minivan, with Josh screaming into the phone at somebody, spelling out his last name.

"And I can't get in to my fucking apartment.  My landlord changed the goddamn locks!  I live here!  A...u...g.."

I texted Kevin about the blowup in the driveway, and then I saw the cops arrive.  Great, I thought.  One last go-round with the police over Josh going batshit in the driveway.

But no.  After the conversation went on for a bit, it turned out he called them.  "I mean, I didn't want to just kick in the door without you here.  The address is on my driver's license - that's my mail in the box.  I live here!  This is my apartment!"

I texted Kevin that he'll be getting a phone call soon, and Kevin told me he'd already called the cops and was waiting for them to call him back.

The police politely told Josh that this was a civil matter, and that if he wanted entrance into the apartment he needed to either call the landlord or call a lawyer.  And with that, they all left.

I told Kevin I was going to start locking the front door, and get Mary a key to do laundry.  Apparently Josh's mother told him about the lockout to simply rub it in his face, and I was worried about how things were going to go from here on out.

More later...I promise to get everyone up to speed.

The cleanup kinda sorta begins

In one of those "ain't life funny" coincidences, the Mayor's Corner column in the Pennysaver newspaper (yes, I read it) mentioned two things that caught my eye - tree suggestions (in front of my apartment, please and thank you), and also strengthening the Village Code for "unkempt properties".

"It hardly seems fair that the 97% of people who take pride in their homes should have to put up with those 3% who don't."  The plan itself will be developed over a period of several months.

I disagree with the Mayor's numbers - in the Village, at least, I think even a 90/10 might be generous. And I say that living in one of the properties that has LONG been a massive thorn in the side of any sense of aesthetics for the Village.

My contribution to maintaining decency has been the back yard.  It's been a long project, and finally looks good.  I get lots of compliments on it from complete strangers, which is always nice.

The front yard I had no control over due to the downstairs neighbors.  It has always looked like a pit, with divots and trash and general obnoxiousness when they're out there.

But with Josh and company finally looking like they are really really gone, and the success of getting the side yard finally cleaned up, my next door neighbor has been making subtle suggestions about how the front yard would look so much nicer with a little weeding.

So I've been weeding.  Leaving the daisies that I absolutely hate, because I don't want to get into a full reconstruction of the front yard yet.  But a few of them are coming back, and it really is improving the look of the place.

But there's a lot to be done.  Some final foundation work, the back section final repairs, gutter work, etc.  I don't know how much of it will finally get done before the snow hits, but I'll make the progress, and keep a sharp eye on the Mayor's column.  Living right by the path, I'm sure we'll be on the radar screen soon enough.

File under "massive miscalculation"

So I missed one very important detail about Josh and the apartment of late, which is how he's been getting in.  He lost his key at one point or another, and he's been climbing in through a window he leaves perpetually cracked in the living room.  I'd missed this, since I don't make a habit of watching him walk into the house, but I had it pointed out to me by the neighbors.

I've been working this past week, so I haven't been home during the day.  However, Wednesday when I got home there was a green card in the door from CPS informing him that they "missed" their scheduled appointment that day and to please get in touch with them Thursday or Friday.  He's been cleaning like a fiend the past few days I've been at school, but there's only so good that place is gonna get.

Thursday I ended up responding to a couple of work emails and got bogged down, so I resolved to spend the morning doing work from home that needed to be done.  As I was in the kitchen getting a second cup of coffee, I heard a crashing sound.

I looked out the window, and a car had just pulled into the driveway.  The woman from CPS I'd spoken with was getting out, along with a large, burly, bald man.  Josh's van was in the driveway - I'd missed him coming in, but he couldn't have been here that long.

I sipped at my coffee and stayed at the window.  I was ready to head out, but couldn't with the way that CPS and Josh were both parked in the driveway.  And I didn't want to miss this.

However, I didn't have to wait long.  CPS was in the apartment a grand total of three minutes before they went back out to their car, got in, and left with a great deal of haste.  Josh slammed the door, got back in his van, and blasted a rap tune as he rolled out of the driveway.

I went down to my car and headed off to school - I had Parent Information Night for Leadership Academy that evening, and I was prepped for a long night at school.

Around 7pm, I got a text from my next door neighbor's daughter showing a window from my building tipped off the track and falling inside.  "Send these to the landlord.  We called the cops, but they can't do anything."

"Holy crap!" I texted back.  After a few texts, the group of parents I had in the library moved on to a different section of the school, and I was able to call.  Turns out Josh had knocked the window off-track while climbing in frantically to beat CPS to the door so they didn't have to watch him break in.  I'm guessing the three-minute visit didn't go well, and that's why he stormed off without fixing the window.

"Can you fix it?  No one can get in touch with the landlord."

I'm at parent night for at least another hour, I told her.  I can't do anything.

"Well that sucks.  Any ideas?  That busted window is really freaking my mom out."

I told her I'd leave the landlord a message at his DJ gig that night, and I'd take a look when I got home.

I finally made it home about 9:30, and found the window was back on track and pushed into position.  That's odd, I thought.  So I texted the daughter, and told her it seemed to be fixed.

"Yeah, his mom came down after the landlord called her.  She shoved it back into place while he watched.  She just doesn't want to be charged for broken stuff."

I don't blame her, I said.  I'll keep you posted if I see anything else.

I was about to go up to my apartment, when something occurred to me.  Closed.  For the first time in recent memory...

I pushed up against the window.  Locked.  Solid.  As were all the other windows.

Well, that should quiet things down here for a bit.  A serious miscalculation that could make the drama take a turn.

Epilogue - they did stop by today, but only to get their mail.  Should certainly be interesting to see where it all goes from here.