Report cards don’t tell the tale

By DAVID HULSE

ELDRED, NY — Reports cards are a worthwhile tool for demonstrating progress within a program, but they are not being used in that way, Eldred Central School (ECS) Superintendent Dr. Ivan Katz told the district board of education on March 10.

“We had some low points…some areas were weak and others were at the absolute top, but the compiling of numbers doesn’t mean anything when the graduates march out in June. They don’t tell the story.”

He said they don’t tell about the schedule changes and the recent faculty contract that provides extra hours to work with kids.

In the mid-level grades, the tests put “undue pressure” on kids, he said. The testing was initially designed to preview the regents and identify areas where improvement can be made, but Katz said now “fourth and eighth grade testing have become as important as the tests needed to graduate.”

Katz said ECS had been trying to keep the original ideas in mind. “We have risen above that educationally here and gotten together in dealing with what’s important. We’ve been upfront with our successes and our failures,” he said.

“The individual results are really what I consider our report card to be,” he said.

Board member Robert Burrow, a retired teacher, agreed with Katz and added some concern about media coverage of the state statistics.

“I remember report cards. You could follow them and see the ups and downs in marking periods, but these report cards have no comparisons to last year,” he said.

Instead the districts’ results are put in adjoining tables as if in competition with the other districts. “That’s not what we’re doing,” Burrow said.

MacKenzie septic system

Craig Lamoreaux and engineer Jason Bellis of the Thomas Group fielded questions from the board and audience prior to the board’s decision to adopt the cheapest of three alternatives to repair the failed septic fields at the MacKenzie Elementary School.

Lamoreaux estimated that work would cost approximately $300,000 and would likely be completed in the summer 2006. Repairs will include removing the soil cover and installing a sand filter base to replace impermeable soil that was erroneously used in the initial construction in the early ’90s.

Treated and chlorinated water would be discharged to an adjacent stream.

Other alternatives included the installation of six entirely new beds at $500,000 or the construction of a permanent water treatment plant at about $650,000.

The engineers recommended the cheaper alternative. In this case, the cheapest is the best, Lamoreaux said.

While the board was satisfied, residents in the audience remained skeptical about additional work at a building, which has seen more than its share of faulty construction in past. “Will there be a guarantee? There are lot of people upset already,” one woman asked.

Bellis said the system type has been used countless times, but there is no guarantee.

Board president Vin Zike said the system design was never the problem. The problem had been improper installation by a builder who has since gone out of business. This project, he said, will be bonded and “if it fails we’ll go to the insurance company.”

In other business, Stephan Glasser, joining the board for the first meeting following his appointment after the death of his wife, Marsha Hunter, spoke briefly thanking the community for its support. “The outpouring only reinforced our original decision to move to the area,” he said.

The district will be introducing the latest draft of the 2005-06 budget at a workshop meeting on April 7 and the board will adopt a budget at the April monthly meeting the following week.

With some exceptions, Sullivan West fared well in report card statistics. Next week The River Reporter will talk to Superintendent Alan Derry.