10 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JULY 2018
HEMSPTEAD SCHOOL CRISIS
QUESTIONS LINGER
STATE TAKEOVER COMING?
BY ALAN KRAWITZ
Despite persistent struggles with
declining graduation rates, violence,
alleged corruption, and overall
school board turmoil, the verdict
is still out on whether the New
York State Education Department
(NYSED) will step in and appoint
an outside “receiver” or manager
to take operational control of the
district.
A letter from the NYSED’s Office
of Accountability late last month
revealed more disturbing details
about the district’s problems with
accurately reporting data, citing
numerous instances of errors and
discrepancies. Officially, the department
said the situation in the
Hempstead District was still under
review.
However, sources within the
department say the decision about
a takeover may be made this fall,
after the district submits data from
the 2017-2018 school year. Previous
data examined was from the 2016-
2017 school year.
A spokesperson for the department
also noted that special legislation
would have to be passed before
any takeover could occur, which
means it would have to wait until
the next legislative session starts
in 2019. The only time New York has
taken control of a school district was
in the 2002 takeover of the Roosevelt
School District.
Among the numerous problems
noted by the SED included inaccuracies
in reporting, where student
performance was vastly overstated,
such as a district report that said
that 90 percent of students who entered
grade 9 in the 2014-15 school
year earned five or more credits
during the 2016-17 school year (one
credit equals a yearlong course).
But a department transcript review
found that only 57 percent of
those students earned five or more
credits.
Other reporting issues included
inflated graduation rates that could
not be verified by state officials as
well as troubling student attendance
data.
The New York State Education Department in Albany is eyeing the
Hempstead School District.
Further, the letter also warned
the district to “please note that if
the district again reports inaccurate
data to the Department, the
Commissioner MaryEllen Elia
may be unable to determine that
the school has made Demonstrable
Improvement, which would result in
the appointment of an Independent
Receiver to the school.”
As a school that has not met state
and federal standards for at least 10
years, Hempstead High School has
the dubious distinction of being the
only school on Long Island classified
as “persistently struggling,” by a
three-year-old law targeting troubled
schools.
At the direction of Education
Commissioner Elia, the district has
been working with a state-appointed
adviser, Dr. Jack Bierwirth, and
has also been instructed to submit
monthly progress reports on various
areas of concern including
school safety and security, high
school instruction, and budgetary
and fiscal operations.
The question of state control at the
Hempstead District has been a fluid
one, at least since this past February
when the NYSED said it would not
take control of the district, mainly
due to a timely improvement plan
that was submitted and deemed
acceptable by the NYSED.
Moreover, state control is not
generally seen as a panacea for the
Hempstead District’s many ills.
Alan Singer, a professor of education
at Hofstra University, told The
New York Times that the takeover of
the Roosevelt School District was an
“expensive disaster” that achieved
only moderate progress.
The United Federation of Teachers
said any plan to use “receivership” to
fix low-performing schools has had
two decades’ worth of “unimpressive
results.”
Examples of those unimpressive
results include in 2002 when Pennsylvania
turned 45 low-performing
Philadelphia schools over to private
managers. Teacher departures at
those schools were as high as 80
percent, according to the Pennsylvania
based Perspectives on Education
Journal.
Education experts argue that
alternate strategies, such as intervention
programs, trained support
staff, enrichment, and access to opportunities
might prove to be more
productive approaches to failing
schools than state takeovers.
RAYNOR CHALLENGES HOOPER
Deputy Assembly Speaker Earlene
Hooper (D-Hempstead), who has
represented the 18th district for the
past 30 years, may finally have some
competition in the Sept. 13 primary
as political neophyte Taylor Raynor, a
34-year-old business analyst, throws
her hat in the ring.
Raynor, who lives in Hempstead
and holds a masters’ degree from
Hofstra University in Industrial
Organizational Psychology, is petitioning
to get on the ballot by the
July 10 deadline. She says besides
being visible in the community, she’s
also concerned that Hempstead High
School is not ranking higher than it
is, adding that a major reason may
be that school funding isn’t being
properly allocated.
“I feel that we really have an absentee
assemblywoman right now,”
says Raynor. “Our zip code should
not define our resources.”
The last time Hooper secured
funds for the Hempstead School
District was in 2009, when she
allocated $200,000 for the district,
along with funding for Roosevelt
and Freeport.
Hooper, who has had few credible
challengers in the past few years,
seemed unfazed when asked about
the Democratic challenger. She said
she was “aware of someone who may
be on the ballot.”
The question of state control at the
Hempstead District has been a fluid one.
Taylor Raynor is challenging
New York State Assembly
Deputy Speaker Earlene Hooper
(D-Hempstead).