Grains of Salt (v52): Syracuse's New Police Union Contract

Residency requirements. Leadership incentives. Longevity increases. Incentives for veterans, bilingual officers, and those with higher levels of education. 

These are the changes in the new Syracuse Police Department contract that's been approved by the rank and file, and is pending approval by the Syracuse Common Council. 

I have to say, I was excited that we even got to talk about this kind of thing in the negotiations, and thrilled that the union has agreed to the contract, which I anticipate will be passed by the Council. 

In Chris Baker's article from The Post-Standard | syracuse.com, we learn how this all came to be: an agreement on what the goals were, before the two sides even started talking about specific language. 

Frank Caliva, the city’s chief administrative officer, said the negotiation process, which was about six months long, was unlike many previous contract settlements. The two sides agreed to a series of objectives before deciding on specific contract points.

This is particularly important, given the relationship between Chief Kenton Buckner and union president Jeff Piedmonte and the rank and file.

I've long felt that city employees, particularly teachers, firemen, and police, should be required to live in the city. I grew up understanding that this was the right thing to do, with parents who passed on buying a house they loved because it was just outside the school district where my Dad taught. Instead, they lived in the village, and we grew up with a bunch of other kids who had parents with the same crazy idea.

There were consequences from that decision. Our house got egged a couple of times at Halloween; if memory serves, there was one year where no costumes were involved, so Dad knew who did it.  The kids knew he knew, and the eggs got washed off the house pretty quickly. My brothers and I took a little heat from other kids sometimes, people telling us Dad was a jerk and mean; and frequently we were asked for help on tests and stuff like that, as were the children of the French teacher, and the business teacher, and the science teacher, and the math teacher, and the English teacher. We all survived.

Now, I'm not suggesting that the potential threats to police officers and their families aren't greater than the potential threats to a social studies teacher and an elementary school teacher (my mom also taught in the same district) - but the benefits of having a police officer in the neighborhood, in the community, in the park, with their kids on Pop Warner teams and so on, are significantly greater than 'just' having a teacher down the block.

So, yes, I'm delighted that the next class of officers graduating from the SPD's academy will have to find a place to live in the city within six months of graduation, and meet the same residency requirement that our firefighters do. Honestly, I hope one moves into my neighborhood the next time there's a house for sale.

And I hope that officers will take advantage of the other contract provisions, including the longevity and leadership bumps, so that we don't lose our best people as soon as they become eligible for their pensions. We need to keep the good ones, and incentivizing them to stay is a good start.

Another thing that everyone's working on? Getting young people onto the force. In another of Baker's articles, we learn that the city's seeking state money to help build a program to get kids who are interested in becoming police officers into non-officer positions with the SPD. First Deputy Chief Joe Cecile pointed out the issue they hope to resolve.

At 18 you said you want to be a police officer, but we lost touch with you until you're 20 and a half. We're trying to fix that by bringing them on the department, giving them a job learning the department. 

The program, which will be housed at the SCSD's Fowler Public Service Leadership Academy (PSLA),  appears to expand upon the school's existing law enforcement education programs.

Another potential benefit? Improving the diversity of the force, which is not where it should be, based on the makeup of our community as a whole.

I'm hopeful about these changes, as I have been about many of the other positive changes we've seen with new leadership in the city and the county. This is exactly the kind of thing we need to be thinking about, and collaborating on, in order to move things forward.

Grains of Salt (v42): The State of the City (pt. 2)

Grains of Salt

In yesterday's post, I took things a little out of order and focused on what had been accomplished in Mayor Ben Walsh's first year in office.Today, it's all about the future, and the Syracuse Surge.

What's that, you might be wondering? The Syracuse Surge?  Well, here's how the mayor set the state:

As is customary in a State of the City address, I've prepared a report on the past year and information on plans ahead in 2019. Something exciting, though, happened earlier this week in Albany. In his 2019 State of the State, Governor Cuomo took special note of what is happening in our city. He reported on a "resurgence" occurring here. And he committed strong support for the Syracuse Surge, a new strategy to ignite growth and economic opportunity in Syracuse and the region. So, before going into what we accomplished in 2018, I'll begin with the story behind the Syracuse Surge and how we believe it will help us achieve our vision of being a growing city.

Walsh talked about technology, and how different things are generally ("the future promised in the Jetsons is finally here."), as well as specifically for Syracuse.

Change is hard, but we've risen to the task of embracing new technology before, and I'm certain we can do it again.

Those 'before' changes included the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, where Syracuse as a leader, Walsh said, but we lost ground in the Third Industrial Revolution as we "struggled to capture the progress offered by new technology" and that's had a decades-long impact on us. But it can be changed.

Today, Syracuse has a once in a generation opportunity to leap into the future, to avoid decades of further division, growing income inequality and declining quality of life. 

Enter the Syracuse Surge.

Quick Takes(v27): When Ivanka Came to Town

Quick Takes

The president's daughter made a stop in Syracuse yesterday, participating in a closed roundtable discussion with our congressman John Katko (NY-24), school district officials, educators and students who participated in the Syracuse City School District's P-Tech program at the Institute of Technology.

For those who are not familiar with P-Tech, students who complete the five-to-six year program end up with a high school diploma, a college degree and job training. Here's some info from the SCSD's website.

Students engage in a wide variety of real-world work experience including visits from industry experts, internships, shadow days, coaching and mentoring, part-time employment...

Students complete a rigorous curriculum in science, technology and math that enables them to meet all the requirements of a high school Regent's diploma... beyond this, accredited college instructions deliver... a course of study that empower students to earn an AAS degree in mechanical engineering...

Ivanka had a chance to credit her father's administration for driving a need for a well-trained workforce.

Now that tax reform has passed and we have deregulated so many industries, the biggest concern is the lack of a skilled workforce.

She also noted her passion for workforce development, and that

There are so many job opportunities, and many of those job opportunities don't require a four year degree. 

In addition to the tax cuts and deregulation, she pointed out her father's efforts in calling for increased spending for and access to STEM, including a presidential memorandum he issued.

...Trump recognizes the importance of expanding high-quality STEM and computer science education, especially for those in historically underserved groups, to better prepare the American workforce for jobs of the future. This Presidential Memorandum directs Secretary of Education DeVos to place high quality STEM education, particularly computer science, at the forefront of the Department of Education's priorities, and in doing so, establish a goal of devoting at least $200 million per year in grant funds towards this priority and explore administrative actions that will add or increase focus on computer science in existing K-12 schools as well as post-secondary education.

The head of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY), Randy Wolken, noted that local businesses are struggling finding people to fill available positions.

We have a crisis right now. We don't have enough workers. 

He referenced a five to ten percent vacancy rate at MACNY member companies, on average, and points to that as why employers need to invest in programs like P-Tech. (MACNY is one of the partners in the SCSD program, along with OCC.)

Funding is a key issue for these programs; at ITC, for example, tuition totals $102,000, with additional costs for books ($28K) and transportation ($18K), much of it coming from competitive grants. And that's to cover one year of the program.

Pushing a $200M in grant funding at the federal level falls way short of what's needed to truly build the 'workforce of the future' - which is why Wolken's statement about employers investing in these programs is critical. It's also worth noting that MACNY has lobbied in the past for state government support to create an apprenticeship program, which I talked about in this post from back in 2016.

With the $500,000, if it's added to the state budget, MACNY could run a central apprenticeship program that would reduce costs and administrative red tape for all local manufacturers. Much of the state money would pay for administrative costs involved in running the program.

At that time, I suggested that MACNY member companies, and of course the local labor unions, need to cough up their own money to fund these programs, as they would be the direct beneficiaries of developing the specifically skilled workforce they lament we're missing.

MACNY got the money for the program, and the group is actively encouraging their members to get moving on apprenticeships, which is a very good thing (even though I still think they should have funded it on their own).

But back to today.

We can surely disagree about Ivanka and what value she might bring to the Administration or the country, and we can surely argue about how we should define  "the biggest concern" resulting from the very generous corporate tax code changes and the massive deregulation we've seen during the Trump administration.

But I don't think there's a ton of disagreement that companies have benefited significantly, as was intended, as was promised. And as so many business owners have been so eager to tell us.

So, now more than ever, the same companies that have benefited so greatly from the permanent changes to the corporate tax code should be heavily investing not just in equipment and such, but in ensuring the viability and availability of our workforce.

Competitive grants are fine -- but $200M is not going to go very far given what employers across the country, their lobbyists, and folks like Ivanka Trump are telling us we're up against. And even if there is other federal and/or state money available for these types of programs, we can't afford to ignore a key source of funds.  Now is the time for the folks who got those great (and can I say again, permanent) tax cuts to step up.

Ivanka thanked everyone who attended the discussion, noting

I've learned a lot. I'll take your suggestions back to Washington with me.

I hope she takes away Randy Wolken's message - that employers need to be on the forefront of these efforts, and that she hears my message - that they need to be there with wide open wallets.

Grains of Salt (v33): Quietly, A Budget Passes

Grains of Salt

It's almost sad that I'm still catching up on things that happened at home when we were on vacation last month, but it's true.

One of those things that almost slipped by was the passage of the Syracuse city budget, unanimously and with no changes, by the Common Council.

This is in stark contrast to what has happened in the recent past; former Mayor Stephanie Miner's last budget, for example, saw the Council reallocate funding for the Greater Syracuse Land Bank (GSLB) to fund Syracuse Police Department recruits. The mayor's veto of the changes was overridden by the Council - which had a Democratic majority; the mayor was of their own party when all of this happened.

Ben Walsh, our new and improved mayor, ran as an independent, with strong support from Democrats, and as a collaborative executive willing to work with any willing partners to try and make things better for our city. According to council members, they were brought into the budget process early on, had meetings with the mayor's team, got answers to their questions, and helped craft the budget.  The goal of all of that?  I'll let the Mayor explain:

Our goal when we started this budget process was to make sure there were no surprises in the budget when it reached the councilor members' mailboxes, and I think we achieved that. 

Not only did he invite councilors to participate, he made a budget presentation to them, in person, instead of sending minions to do it for him. That kind of respect and cooperation between City Hall and the chief executive is what we'll need to solve our difficult challenges - something Walsh is not afraid of tackling.

His budget freezes salary increases and non-essential hiring; it also funds new firefighter and police recruits, and restores the GSLB funding, all of which make me happy. We will need to take another $11M from city reserves, and the school district budget, also approved, will tap Syracuse City School District reserves for $14M.

And, also important for us, a plan to have the state's Financial Restructuring Board review spending and operations and provide some non-binding recommendations for city leaders to review and act upon. If we do, there's state money to help implement the changes. I'm hopeful this review, coupled with the efforts of Walsh's Fiscal Summit Advisory Committee (a report is due in time for next year's budget planning), will identify what we can do to right our financial ship and keep the city moving forward.

This non-confrontational budget process is a really good start.

Grains of Salt (v29): SOTC, Part 1

Grains of Salt

Last night, Ben Walsh, Syracuse's new mayor, gave his first State of the City (SOTC) address. Starting with this post, I'll take a look at how he outlined his priorities and his vision.

As the first mayor that I can remember while with young children, it seemed appropriate that he chose the Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler High School as the location, and even more appropriate that he did a test-drive with some 60 students who are members of the Superintendent's Student Cabinet.  Walsh noted in his address that the kids were an impressive and inspiring group, that they "asked some of the most challenging questions" he faced while a candidate and as mayor, and

These young people are smart and passionate, and most important, I found them to be truly vested in the future of Syracuse. They want our city to succeed, so the challenge to all of us is to deliver a city that is attractive to them for the future.

After sharing several successes for the SCSD, including improving graduation rates, pre-k and career readiness programs, and outstanding teachers, he got right to the issues we face.

One of the highest hills we have to climb is the structural operating deficit that our city government faces. The financial reality we confront is precarious. Simply states, the city spends more than it takes in in revenue. None of us can live this way, and neither can the city.

He outlined the problem pretty succinctly:

• a stagnant revenue base
• no increase in state funding, called Aid and Incentive for Municipalities, since 2010, while the city's costs have gone up 12% or so in the same time frame 
• labor, health care, pension, utilities, waste and trash fees are all increasing 
• the very last Carousel Center - Destiny USA payment, over $3M, comes in March 
• eight labor contracts need to be negotiated 
• and, of course, there's the Cuomo 2% tax ceiling 

But -- boy, he's an optimist!

Everything I have told you is based on the realities that existed yesterday, not tomorrow. We can change course and put the city on a healthy fiscal path. 

That path will come, Walsh tells us, with the help of his Fiscal Summit Advisory Committee, a partnership with the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. The group will have recommendations due early this coming fall, in time for the 2019 budget. And, he says, the group is already seeing potential solutions towards solvency for the city.

What else is on his agenda for us? With 125 recommendations from this Transition Team, he's looking at stronger neighborhoods, better schools and inclusive growth, bringing the entire city along, allowing (eventually) everyone to Rise Above.  How will we get there?

Leveraging the work of the Office of Innovation (the I-team), which itself is leveraging our ideas; establishing accountability and measuring performance to continuously drive improvement; streaming Common Council meetings; leveraging the expertise of city employees who have ideas to do things better and more cost effectively and those types of things that are common in business, if less so in government.

Collaboration with other jurisdictions - including shared services with the County are also critical to our success, and Walsh advised he's already initiated these conversations at the local, state and federal level. One month in.

I-81 is going to be a huge key to our future, and our success, and Walsh seems to be looking at the big picture, not any one selfish interest.

When I hear discussions about a tunnel, or a new, wider viaduct, I fear the community is limited by thinking focused solely on moving cars. I challenge us to do our homework and place our focus on moving our community and our region forward.

I'll pick it up there next time.

Quick Takes (v13): Changing Times at The SCSD

Quick Takes

School starts Wednesday in the Syracuse City School District for most students.

Some - those who attend Bellevue Elementary - will have to wait a little longer, as there was some damage from a broken pipe that was discovered this week which needs to be fixed, according to a report on the news tonight.

Students at Grant Middle School started two weeks ago. According to this article, there are a number of changes for Grant.

The extra two weeks of school are part of Grant's ambitious campaign to improve. (Principal Pam) Odom is striving to turn a building known for behavioral issues and some of the worst test results in the state into a school where families want to send their kids for individualized, tech-savvy learning.

The early return is just one part of the plan. Other changes include extending the day by 40 minutes; personalizing curriculum to individual students; assigning eighth graders to mentor their younger peers; rearranging classrooms to better use technology; finding ways to get kids involved in the neighboring community: (and) providing incentives to students who behave well and don't miss class.

There are still many challenges - including funding, as always - to sustain the improvements that have been seen in test outcomes, reduced suspensions, and the other small successes that have been seen, and in turning Grant into a "21st century school for 21st century students" and I'm hoping they are able to keep things going in the right direction.

Not all that far away, another SCSD school has been removed from the "persistently dangerous" list, having been on it for two years. Lincoln Middle School, under the leadership of Principal LaJuan White, has been making changes as well.

Some of the changes center on a 'classroom hierarchy' which outlines expectations for students, and at the same time tries to keep kids in the classroom rather than meting out harsh discipline for little things. Per this article, another spotlight on the SCSD in the local paper, there were also changes made in how the building administration worked.

To start, Lincoln did away with a formal Principal's office last school year. Instead of having a suite of office for the administration, each principal or vice principal was assigned to a hallway and grade level. White also created teacher deans to monitor hallways during their free periods. That helped cut down on students who didn't go to (discipline rooms) when they were told. The teacher deans could also help defuse conflicts they weren't already involved in, and they started to form relationships with students they wouldn't otherwise teach. 

Another innovation? Principals making home visits. Those visits helped establish a relationship between the parents and the school, certainly, but also respect between students and the principals. White notes

I think that almost gave me some street cred -- like, 'she's crazy enough to go to your house, so don't even do it.' I'd say 'I'll see you at your house later' [Students would] say, 'yeah, right.' Then they would see, and it's like, 'oh you were serious.'

As at Grant, more work needs to be done, and some of the changes haven't been easy for everyone, including the teachers, to accept. Progress seems to be coming slowly in that regard, though, as everyone in the school community begins to build bonds that will help everyone be successful.

The biggest change for the SCSD this school year? Sharon Contreras, the embattled superintendent, she who did not have the confidence of the teachers or even some of the Board, is now gone.

In her place in the Superintendent's Office is Jaime Alicea, the district's chief operating officer and a former teacher, principal, and deputy superintendent. He has the respect of the teacher's union, and of the Board of Education; several members of the Board are new as well.

Grant and Lincoln are illustrations of what can be done, and of some of the things that need to be done, in many of the schools within the SCSD. But this seems like a truly new year, one that will bring hope to the students, the teachers, the staff, and the administration, and one where everyone is 'rowing in the same direction' as they say in the business world.

We've needed a start like this for a while.

A Time for Re-Education

If you've been paying even a little attention to the news over the past year or so, whether you're a parent of a school-aged child or not, you're likely familiar with at least some of the topics below :

• Common Core and Race to the Top (and before that, No Child Left Behind)
• Teacher evaluations, teacher effectiveness, teacher tenure
• Discipline, school violence, restorative justice
• Standardized testing, teaching to the test, treating all kids the same
• Property taxes, state aid, and education funding 
• Charter schools
• Drop out and graduation rates 
• Parent/guardian involvement

There are defenders and detractors for each of these, all of whom would tell you that they have the best interests of the students in their hearts and minds -- and most of them probably honestly think that they do. The problem is that, while the adults go back and forth on these issues, sometimes changing their minds with each shift in political winds (and money), millions of students are being impacted.

As I noted last fall, the students are the canvas on which all of the rest of us paint. 

Some of them really want to learn, really want to get an education, really want to have a career or go to college (or both), really want to be successful. At the same time, there's another portion of the student population that cares much less about those things, and may be only going through the motions, passively waiting to age out, or actively seeking to get thrown out. 

If you plot the students that thrive and the ones who truly don't want to be in school on a bell curve, they're likely going to be the top and bottom five-to-fifteen percent.  And in between them are the 70-90% for whom our educational process can be a deal maker or a deal breaker. The ones who could go either way.

The ones for whom caring, engaged parents/guardians, good teachers, a strong curriculum focused on concepts and practical applications of them, options for different learners instead of cookie-cutter programs, safe and well-designed classrooms and facilities, and fair educational funding, can truly change their lives for the better. The same students, when faced with the opposite of those things, can just as easily go the other way.

Most teachers, administrators, Boards of Education, and yes, even bureaucrats and politicians, know that not all students learn the same way, have the same aspirations, take tests equally well, come from equal socioeconomic backgrounds, or attend schools that offer equal opportunities.  And yet, it seems that what we hear about is exactly that, the cookie cutter approach that does treat all kids the same, setting many of them up for failure.

Locally, we face the challenges listed at the top of this post, as well as others. Many are common to other large urban districts, such as poverty, crime, school violence, higher than acceptable dropout rates and lower than acceptable graduation rates.  But there's more:

• The local teachers union has zero confidence in the superintendent, and demonstrated this very publicly by walking out of a school board meeting last year. City officials, on the other hand, tend to support the superintendent. And there's been some flux on the Board of Education as well. 
• The Syracuse City School District (SCSD) has been accused of institutional racism, with African American students suspended at rates much higher than their overall representation in the district. 
• About half of all properties in the city are tax exempt, and we've got a huge inventory of abandoned properties, seriously limiting property tax collection.
• Programs have been introduced to encourage teachers and other 'role model' professions to live in the city, but those programs, not surprisingly, face an uphill battle in the current environment.

Frustration is running high on all sides. And for those of us not in the official stakeholder buckets outlined a couple of paragraphs above, but who are interested in the future of our city and our schools, it's hard to discern if there is a 'right side' to these issues.

I'm not affiliated with the SCSD, not a teacher, not a politician, and don't have kids. I'm just a long-time city resident working with some others to get a better understanding of community sentiment around the SCSD, and perceptions around the key challenges the district faces and where to look for solutions.

A confidential survey has been created, and we are looking for feedback from parents, community members, district employees, students and former students -- all local residents are encouraged to participate, including those who live in any of the suburban school districts.

You can access the survey here.

For readers outside the immediate Syracuse/Onondaga County area, I'm very interested in the state of education where you are. What challenges are your schools facing? What successes can you share?  What are your opinions on the issues outlined at the beginning of this post? Has your district solved any of them?What scares you or encourages you?

Educate us. Re-educate us. 

Education: A Blank Canvas

Have you seen the latest Andrew Cuomo campaign ad?

You know, the one where he and his daughter are sitting in the kitchen, doing homework together. If not, you can take a look below, and then we'll talk.

 If you were to describe the ad in  one word, what  would it be?

 For me, it was 'white'. White  pumpkins, white  kitchen, white  sweaters, white paint.

 White white white white.

 I think the message tries to be  black and white;  however, I think  it misses the mark, because in  reality 'education' is not that  simple and doesn't  translate well  to a 30-second campaign ad.

It's not all white and shiny like Cuomo's kitchen, and it's not black and white. It's more like someone loaded up a palette with paint, dragged a brush through all of the colors and then splashed that paint onto a canvas.

When I talk about the color of education being something other than white, or black and white, I'm talking about the whole picture that is 'education' in New York and other states. Think of that picture as an actual painting and you'll understand that it is painted with many brushes, all having different hues and perspectives:

• It includes the teachers, unions, administrators, and local Boards of Education, who should be effectively collaborating on education at the local level. 
• It includes money: property taxes, school aid and the school aid formula itself, and the relative wealth of a district, which directly influences the completeness of the educational experience kids get. 
• It includes grassroots community groups, local faith-based initiatives, and large philanthropic organizations which interject themselves (welcomed or not) from many viewpoints and with varying degrees of influence and success.
• It includes law enforcement agencies, which not really by design but out of necessity engage with students, families and districts, particularly urban ones.
• It includes local, state and national elected officials, armed with their own agendas and, frankly, arms full of threats and promises, and a host of unelected bureaucrats at state and federal Education Departments.
• It includes parents, and those acting as parents, such as aunts and uncles, older siblings, and mentors.

It also includes perfectly decorated 'classrooms' in perfectly appointed kitchens, and twin daughters who are attending Harvard and Brown, as Cuomo's are; and teacher and school evaluations, and Common Core, and high tech classrooms, all of which are referenced in Cuomo's ad.

And, it sadly includes 911 calls, horrible test scores, low graduation rates and high dropout rates, and 'watch lists' and abject frustration and anger, things the Cuomo girls probably never experienced, things which no children should have to experience.

The students are the canvas on which everyone else paints. They absorb or reflect the colors that are put on them, some positively and some negatively.  The goal of everyone involved should be ensuring that the students' right to a safe, appropriately funded, fully evolved educational experience is not impeded by anyone's actions, and that their responsibility to participate actively, productively and fully in the educational process is encouraged, supported, and reinforced.

We'll take a look at some of these issues in more detail in upcoming posts.

Where Should a Teacher Live?

There's a beautiful house out near Memphis on Bennetts Corners Road; you may have noticed it if you've ever gone on one of those old-school Sunday drives, the kind we used to take with our parents back in the day.

The old white house has stood the test of time with grace. It's got a nice front stoop and a big back deck that always looked to me as if there might have been more house there at one point. There are big old trees, a nice yard, and a beautiful barn, always kept in good condition. I think the closest neighbor is a cemetery, itself nestled on a rolling hill, abutting a farmer's home field.

Over the years, I've often wondered what it would have been like to have grown up there, in that gorgeous setting. I wonder, because my parents had the chance to buy that house, but opted not to. Not because they were mean and didn't want my brothers and I to grow up there, but because the house was outside the Jordan-Elbridge (JE) school district, and  in their eyes, that was a deal-breaker.

Fifty years ago, when my dad first started teaching after a long career with Goodyear, there was no formal requirement that teachers live in the district, but my parents and many other teachers held a very strong belief living in the district where they taught, mattered. That having their children attend the same schools where their parents taught, mattered. That teachers being present and visible in the district, not just during school and for school events, mattered.

As a result, I grew up in the village of Jordan, in an old house that had hitching posts and a carriage step out front that made it look more important and significantly fancier than it was, instead of in the white house on Bennetts Corners Road.

There were consequences from that decision. Our house got egged a couple of times at Halloween; if memory serves, there was one year where no costumes were involved, so Dad knew who did it.  The kids knew he knew, and the eggs got washed off the house pretty quickly. My brothers and I took a little heat from other kids sometimes, people telling us Dad was a jerk and mean; and frequently we were asked for help on tests and stuff like that, as were the children of the French teacher, and the business teacher, and the science teacher, and the math teacher, and the English teacher. We all survived.

The larger consequence of course, was the lesson; sometimes it meant it took longer to get out of the grocery store if a parent wanted to talk. Sometimes it meant a knock on the door during dinner, or after dinner, when a student or parent needed help, and knew they'd get find a compassionate, non-judgmental ear at our house. This was repeated at other houses, too; my parents were not unique in that regard.

Fast forward to today, and I wonder how many of the teachers at JE district, or in the Syracuse City School District where we are, actually live there?  And if they don't, why not?  And what can we do to encourage them to?

Rightly or wrongly, people tend to question another's level of engagement if they can't see the person with their own two eyes. They'll project negatives, filling in the blanks where positives aren't obvious. Sad as it is, it's a fact. I see it in my company, where the majority of senior executives work out of the company headquarters down the Thruway and make infrequent visits to us here in the hinterlands. It's gotten better over the past few years, with a little more visibility, but there's still a lot of talk about how they're never seen in our neck of the woods, or how they don't understand what's going on, or how they're not committed. And these are just executives, people in the overall scheme of things who are not anywhere near as important as a teacher.

Believe me, I understand that being a great teacher is not directly correlated to any specific zip code; I get that. But communities are made up of zip codes; great communities are collections of zip codes full of great bus drivers, doctors, nurses, janitors, insurance company employees and executives, policemen, DPW workers, union leaders, retirees, engineers, planners, politicians, counselors, writers, artists, chefs, musicians, community organizers, lawyers, small business owners, religious leaders, barbers and beauticians, veterinarians, administrators, parents.... and, perhaps most critically, great teachers.

If education is the foundation of success, teachers are the contractors, the ones who put the blocks in the right place, who shore up the foundation when cracks appear, who make sure it's strong enough to support the students for whom that foundation is so critical.  They can't do it alone, obviously, but they are the ones we rely on for the heavy lifting.

I don't believe in ordering people to live in a particular place; I think, like my parents did, that when you earn a salary from the public, you should live where your salary-payers live. And when it comes to hiring teachers, I do believe that, all things being equal, preference should be given to a candidate who does live in the district over one who does not. I also believe, as I've mentioned before, that incentives (bonuses or in this case, even limited property tax breaks) should be given to teachers who live in the district where they teach.

Why?  Because if teachers are seen and heard, doing the heavy lifting right alongside the people who pay their salaries, it just might make a difference in how solid that foundation becomes. It might make a difference in how seriously the community takes education, in how much the community engages in the process, in how the community thrives and grows and succeeds. And it might just make a difference in the teachers' lives as well.

I would love to hear from teachers on this, who are willing to talk about their choice on where to live, and from others who have opinions on this subject. Is my thinking old-fashioned? Are there valid reasons why teachers don't live in their districts? Is it different if the teacher has kids?  Let me know what you think.

Good Teachers: Leaving a Lasting Impression

A little over a year ago, President Obama came to Syracuse, visiting one of our high schools to promote his plan to make college more affordable, and talking about the power of education.  As I noted in a post that day, I was a bit surprised that he barely mentioned teachers in his speech; I can't imagine anyone talking about the value and power of education without mentioning the folks who make it possible for someone to realize that value and power -- the dedicated teachers who give it their all to open the hearts and minds of kids to the world of possibility that awaits them.

I thought of Obama's visit Friday night, when I saw again the power of a teacher, the impact a teacher can have on a student.

My mother, who's been retired for 28 years, still lives in Jordan, a small community west of Syracuse, where she spent the bulk of her career teaching elementary school.  Friday night, we were strolling the grounds at the Jordan Fall Festival when all of the sudden we heard someone yell "Mrs. Drummond!" and then a young woman ran over to my mom and wrapped her in a bear hug.  Before long they both were smiling through tears, having a very animated conversation, while the woman's husband stood by, smiling along with them.

My Sweet Baboo and I walked away for a bit, bought our grand prize tickets, and sort of stood back and watched the conversation. Turns out, the woman was in Mom's next-to-last class, back in 1985. Her husband (also a child of a teacher), said that the only teacher his wife ever mentions, the one she remembers, is my mom.

When I see the teacher-bashing which seems so prevalent here, where the Syracuse City School District (SCSD) is undergoing more than its share of struggles,

• I wish that students and parents would stand up - boldly, loudly, proudly - and support the great teachers that have impacted their families
• I wish that administrators, and yes, the President, would stand up in support of the power of a good teacher, not just in the power of education.
• I wish that people understood that a long teaching career is not necessarily a bad thing, any more than it is in most other professions

I wish these things because in the last year or so, I've seen the impact my mom had on students from her first class, and a generation or so later, from a class at the end of her career. And because I know she's not alone.

There are thousands of great teachers out there, who have made a similar lasting impression on their students. They're here in the SCSD, they are in your district, they're everywhere.

They deserve our support, not our disdain.