December 1999/January 2000

Traditionally, my December message is one of well wishes and good cheer. It is a time to be thankful and to remember how much we all have in common as part of the PDS community. Far too often our differences are what tend to stand out. Someone once pointed out to me that this dynamic is not unlike that in the closest of families. We all tend to pull together and to solve big problems – like the need to move from Vassar’s campus and to find the resources to do so. Many thought it couldn’t be done. Yet here we are; here because of what we have done together.

Whether the holiday season is a religious event, a celebration of an ethnic or cultural tradition or simply a time to relax after a busy and sometimes stressful autumn, I ask and hope for only one thing. May the spirit of the season endow us with greater understanding and bring us closer together in our mission to do the best job we can for our children. This is ever more important as we grow in size, know each other a bit less intimately and see each other less often.

I do have a bit of business to add to this, my last letter of 1999. You may have heard that the Board of Regents is attempting to mandate testing requirements for our graduating seniors. Though we are rigorously evaluated every ten years, including a five year interim assessment, by the New York Association of Independent Schools, the Regents are seeking to establish an additional level of accreditation. Presumably this would be done by a “third party” whose job it would be “to make a judgment that the school’s study requirements in the aggregate enable students to meet the State learning standards and graduation requirements.” In other words, they will test our students based on a state-mandated curriculum.Last Friday, approximately one hundred heads of independent schools met in New York City with Deputy Commissioner James Kadamus and a representative of the Regents. I was not encouraged by the meeting. It was a classic case of the Regents saying they had come to listen, but then refusing to acknowledge the validity of our “bottom line” as it were. Fred Calder, Executive Director of the New York Association of Independent Schools, has been meeting with the Regents for more than a year. He has negotiated in good faith on our behalf, while steadfastly insisting on maintaining our independence. Evidently the Regents either do not believe him or are trying to circumvent Fred by appealing to each school individually. They understand all too well that our strength comes from our collective numbers and resolve to maintain our independence.

I have written to Commissioner Kadamus. My letter is enclosed. I am also enclosing a copy of his address as well as the address of all members of the Board of Regents. Please find the time to write and to let these folks know how important our independence is to you and your chldren.

I will schedule a meeting sometime during the first two weeks in December at school to discuss this further. Rumors abound, such as the article in last week’s Poughkeepsie Journal and the news report on Channel 4 that suggested this was a done deal. It is not. It is far from over. But, as I said in my November letter in response to the Hirsch-Gardner debate, complacency is a dangerous vice.

Sincerely,

Tony Buccelli