What’s Happening in the NECSD?

At 5:15am I was reading some scripture and as I was looking for one of my other bibles to look up something I stumbled upon a flyer that I had made for last year’s (2014) school board election. (Newburgh Community News Bulletin~May 2014). It reads: \”What’s Happening? Newburgh School District Teachers Endorses All White Candidates!\” Taking into consideration that the Newburgh Enlarged City School District’s student population is 75% minority, how is this possible? Not one of the Black candidates were endorsed by the NTA (Runston Lewis, Sheila Murphy, George Bowles) nor did they win in that election.\” Now coming back to the 2015 election, the NTA once again endorsed three white candidates. But to their dismay the one Black candidate (Philip Howard) won in spite of their not endorsing him. The reason why this is so prevalent in my mind this morning is because this past Tuesday evening I was at the school board meeting and as I sat there listening and watching it saddened my heart that we almost wound up with an all-white school board in a school district that has a majority minority school population. This was the last board meeting for board members Ed Lawson and Pamela Freeman Resch whom always strove for the same things that board president Philip Howard and a few others have also been striving, which is to make things better for all of the students in this school district. In July the board will be electing a new board president. Taking into consideration what this last school board election was like and the new board members that will be sitting on that board, it’s a known fact that Mr. Howard will no longer be the board’s president. What will that mean? How will this affect the direction that this board is presently moving in? And what direction is that?

Under Sup’t. Dr. Roberto Padilla and this present school board’s leadership an ‘historic\” initiative has been launched which is an unheard of collaboration which will be very beneficial to the entire Newburgh Enlarged School District. And what is that? This collaboration is with the Newburgh Armory Unity Center (NAUC), Orange County Community College (OCCC), Mount Saint Mary’s College (MSMC), Suny New Paltz and Marist College which is called the Higher Education Consortium. This Consortium has started an Early Literacy Initiative which is designed to help impact reading in the lives of children ages 0-4. The Newburgh Enlarged school District has also been selected by the Panasonic Foundation to be one of seven Districts nationally that they will partner with. This relationship partners Panasonic with public school districts and their communities to break the links between race, poverty, and educational outcomes by improving the academics and social success of All Students: All Means All. Sup’t. Dr. Padilla, along with the present Board have also undertaken the \”Redesign\” of the High School, which will enable the District to increase High School graduation rates and lower the drop out numbers. Will the new board president and new board members go along with the direction that Sup’t. Dr. Padilla and the Board are presently moving in? Will they continue this direction or will this forward movement be dismantled? Only time will tell and that’s why a magnifying glass must be kept on this school Board.

My major question is \”how many on the new board are going to be concerned about all of the students in this school district? How many of the board members are going to be supportive of the direction that Sup’t. Dr. Roberto Padilla and the present Board are guiding this school district in which will be beneficial to all of the students. They are most definitely trying to reverse the high drop-out rate in this school district which has been in existence for many years and the minority students are the highest number in that category. There’s so much more that is being developed that will be beneficial to this school district but will it be allowed to continue? Only time will tell. It’s going to be very interesting to see which way new board members Joseph Minuta and Debra Zambito will be voting, taking into consideration that they were endorsed by the NTA. Will they vote the way that the NTA wants them to or will they vote for what’s going to be best for all of the students and the Newburgh Enlarged School District? Will they try to get rid of Sup’t. Dr. Padilla or will they be supportive of him? These are some of the major issues that should be very seriously watched.

The NAACP should be very attentive to all of this and should make sure that they have serious representation at the school board meetings on a regular basis supporting Philip Howard, the only person of color on that board. The minority community should also be preparing for the next election which is only one year away. They should be seriously looking for candidates to run next year and it should be an organized effort so that there will be no conflict. We should be looking for individuals that will not be about running for anything except for our children. We must not forget that many who say that they are for the community only mean it until they’re elected and then once elected their true colors start to show. We can no longer afford to allow those types of people to be our representatives. Truthfully, we need to stop allowing our selves to be continuously hoodwinked. If the new Board starts reversing the direction that the board is presently moving in I seriously suggest that the Consent Decree be put back on the front burner and very seriously reviewed. I also feel that the NAACP should be the ones to do that. If not, why not? Last, but most definitely not least, accolades go out to Pamela Freeman-Resch and Ed Lawson for their very significant contribution and support to the Newburgh Enlarged School District. You will be sincerely missed!

This is Lillie’s Point of View and I’m just having my say!