BOCES leaders confront challenges
Crowded classrooms, budget cuts among concerns at annual conference
Among the first-time participants in the 36th annual NYSUT Conference for BOCES Leadership are, from left, Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES teacher aides Catherine Pascarelli, Jemale Palevic and Debbie Vertucci. Steve Whitney Photos.
Nearly one-third of the union activists attending NYSUT's BOCES Leadership Conference were first-time attendees who quickly got a look at the many challenges facing the state's 37 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services.
The BOCES committee's new chairman said the group successfully reached out to newcomers as it did several years ago to School-Related Professionals.
"Committee members and the BOCES presidents made a special effort to encourage new leaders in their locals to attend the conference," said Cliff Brosnan of Saratoga-Adirondack BOCES Employees Association.
A new workshop designed for first-time attendees was one of a dozen provided to help BOCES faculty and staff deal with concerns ranging from managing student behavior to helping SRPs win a stronger role in instructional teams.
"I always tell my people that knowledge is power," said Anthony Palazolo, president of the Rockland BOCES Staff Association, whose delegation included first-timer Kevin Connell.
The 36th annual BOCES conference opened just hours after President Bush signed a historic $700 billion bailout bill for Wall Street - which shrugged off the news with a triple-digit drop in the Dow - and Gov. Paterson announced he was calling the Legislature back into session to seek to cut $2 billion from the current state budget.
Target for cuts
When funding is tight, BOCES programs and services have historically been targeted for cuts at the state and local level - a concern that NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi and Vice President Kathleen Donahue both acknowledged in addressing the 140 conference attendees.
"Too often, cuts come in the programs we know are most effective," said Donahue, whose office oversees BOCES issues for NYSUT.
Assuring leaders that the statewide union remains "in fine shape" financially, Iannuzzi said NYSUT "has taken some hits, but nothing we weren't prepared for."
However, he said the union is painfully aware of the budget problems facing a state that relies on Wall Street for one-fifth of its revenue.
Some successes
Iannuzzi and NYSUT legislative representatives outlined a series of measures the union championed over the past year to benefit BOCES members, including:
- A $78 million increase in BOCES aid in the current state budget;
- An easing in the language of new regulations on tenure;
- Blocking a plan to remove "resource officers" from BOCES sites; and
- Winning Assembly passage of a NYSUT-backed "circuit breaker" plan to reform property taxes, and blocking a move by the Senate to cap school property taxes.
- John Strachan
BOCES issues
Here are some of the issues on the minds of BOCES leaders:
- Crowded classes in Career and Technical Education programs that mean less supervision of students using potentially dangerous equipment.
- Medicaid requirements that call into question the qualifications of state-certified school counselors, speech teachers, social workers and others.
- A long-awaited statewide Individualized Education Program form to minimize differences in IEPs from component school districts for students with disabilities who attend BOCES.
- Confusion over student eligibility for GEDs and whether they are counted as dropouts.
NYSUT Vice President Kathleen Donahue, whose office oversees BOCES issues for the statewide union, greets conference-goers. Donahue also hosted a roundtable discussion with BOCES local presidents.