The Journal News
November 10, 2009

Hannan Adely
hadely@lohud.com

NEW ROCHELLE — The city manager is calling for freezing 31 vacant jobs, suspending raises, and delaying equipment spending under his $144 million budget proposal for 2010.

Despite cutting $9 million in spending, the city still plans to raise property taxes 8.9 percent. The increase means taxes for the average home, valued at $700,000, would go up $257.

Like other municipalities, the city has less revenue due to a drop in sales and property tax income and also is seeing an increase in pension costs, said City Manager Charles Strome.

The city would save $3 million by keeping 31 positions vacant. Those include nine positions in the Police Department, eight in the Department of Public Works, seven in the Fire Department, four in administration, and three more in Buildings and Parks and Recreation departments.

New Rochelle fire union president Byron Gray worried about the vacancies, which he said actually amounted to nine firefighters. He said fire department staffing has not kept up with new development in the city.

"We have a lot of high-rise buildings and we just need more men on duty," Gray said.

The city also expects to save an additional $1 million by planning for 10 to 12 new vacancies next year that will be left unfilled.

I am beginning to explore the possibility of opening a public charter school in New Rochelle. I'm currently a NYC school leader and former charter school director (also of a school in NYC) who resides in New Rochelle. The idea of a charter school in New Rochelle intrigues me, especially in light of the changing demographics of New Rochelle and the apparent unrest amongst our community with the direction of the New Rochelle School District. A well run charter school could bring innovation to education in this city, as well as provide competition to the established schools, thus improving the overall quality or our schools.

In the long run, lower property taxes could result as well if charter schools prove to operate more efficiently. From what I read in these blogs, some of the positions/expenses that this city is incurring are outrageous. Is it true that we employ a full time locksmith AND a carpenter (obviously, these are functions that can be outsourced rather easily)? If this is true, is waste also occurring within the schools themselves and the administrative offices?

A case of swine flu has already been confirmed by the Westchester County Health Department at the Davis Elementary School and now comes word of a possible case at Jefferson Elementary School.

It's hard to imagine there could be a dumber class of citizens in this city. Much like the troll from a few weeks ago, everytime you attempt to string a coherent sentence together to rail against this site, you wind up providing more and more support for the site. In a simpleminded way you keep blaming Mr Cox for the voices of people who want to express a different point of view. Instead of blaming Mr Cox, maybe we should blame Al Gore for inventing the internet. The more you and your ilk open your mouths, the more importance you give to this site by showing the public just how sheepish and narrow minded some folks can be. That is why a site like this is so important. YOU are why this site exists. Joe Stalin and Ho Chi Min would be proud of you all. (hold up your little red book now). Everything posted on this site by Bob, and others has been, at the very least, as true as anything you read in the Journal News. In fact, there are stories here that the JN is afraid to print, or have been told not to print. Isn't that better for the community? (Oh , that's right, you have to check with someone before you answer). Anyhow, to jump up and down and brag how your "side" won shows the mentality of a gradeschooler who just won their first dodgeball game. It's not about who's side won, it's about what's right for the city and the kids and many people have different opinions about that.

Did, in fact, Deirdre Polow commit a crime by not reporting information about nude photos of a minor? It's pretty cut and dry as far as the law is concerned. If she had any knowledge, or suspicion of the incident, the law demands that she reports to the Law Enforcement authorities. That's it. You don't go to the school board and say "what do you want to do about this?". I don't know all the facts surrounding the issue, but if any of what's reported here is true, she is guilty of failure to report, and can be held responsible in both criminal and civil courts. The law is designed specifically to prevent cover-ups and allow people to come forward and do the right thing to protect children. Unless, of course, this is what she means when she says "its all about the children." Keep an eye on your kids and talk to them. I don't know if she is guilty but it is my opinion that there are to many "isolated incidents" like this going on.

In my opinion,watching Ms Polow's tirade when someone had the gaul to ask a question only reinforces how out of touch this woman is with the responsibility of her position. But, then again, should we really be asking questions? I don't know if we could really understand the complex numbers and all that "stuff". Right? Do we really need to know what they do with our money. I'm just glad they're willing to let us give it to them. They shouldn't be expected to explain to us common folk how it's divied up. Right? What would we do with that info, what could we do with that info? I saw Ms Polow get really mad at the man with the question about the bond debt. He said on the Bruce Negrin show that he was really upset/apalled with her behavior. She was really mean and, as she pointed out, the man is the one who should know the answer, not her. She apparently is very busy and we shouldn't bother her with questions like that. Right? She's very busy spending our money and she does it well. So well, in fact, she told a bunch of other people, in public, that the district needs to spend more money. She said this is how they'll attract more people to the city, with more kids. Does anyone have some extra rooms in their house, you see , the schools are full and they'll need them for extra classrooms.

Here goes another "isolated incident" in the New Rochelle School system. In the 3 or 4 months I've been visiting this website, there have been an awful lot of these "isolated incidents". I don't think any of them have been reported in the Journal News thanks to Aman-asleep at the wheel -Ali. I did see a news 12 reporter interviewing parents about the sexting incident, so, I guess as soon as Talk of the Sound uncovers a story, the local news will pick it up. It seems as if WE have become the only local news for New Rochelle these days. If the sexting incident is true as reported, where are the mandated reporters? SOMEBODY transferred this person, so they violated the mandated reporting laws. Virtually any person working in a school or in administration IS, by law, a mandated reporter. If any part of this story is true, it's not just the security guard who's guilty of a crime. This is how the school board protects our children, by classifying every incident as "isolated". By moving people around to get them out of the limelight until the heat dies down. Didn't the Catholic church do that with the child molesters? There are SO many good people in the schools it just isn't fair that they get painted with the same brush. That is solely the fault of higher ups.

According to a reliable school administrator within Jefferson Elementary School, NY State Testing scores are being falsely reported. Cindy Slotkin, the principle at the school, intentionally did not forward tests of children that are known to have low grade averages. This illegal trickery has been going on since she was appointed the position of principle over 5 years ago.

This practice is highly used in under performing schools in order to unfairly mislead the districts residential community into thinking that the school is performing better than it really is. According to this source, Cindy Slotkin is also aware of a large number of students that are attending Jefferson Elementary School who do not reside in any of the New Rochelle Districts.

Do not be misled. Cindy Slotkin isn’t alone in this manipulation. The New Rochelle City School Board along with all the Superintendents are very much aware of these infractions and are just as much to blame as Cindy Slotkin.

I for one would like to see resignation letters drawn up by Cindy Slotkin as well as Richard Organisciak and their termination made effective immediately for this illegal deception to provide false information.

I’m sure that the Mayor’s and City Manager’s hands are involved with this deception as well, but I don’t have a reliable source, at this time, to confirm their involvement.

With the ongoing corruption that has been going on between developers and Elected City Officials since 1992, New Rochelle “Sucks Ass” according to many New Rochelle residents that freely answered questions regarding the conditions that the City is currently under.

There were short simple questions:

What do you think of the New Rochelle Public School System?
1. Great 2. So-So 3. Sucks Ass 4. No Comment

What do you think about the City of New Rochelle?
1. Great 2. So-So 3. Sucks Ass 4. No Comment

What do you think about Mayor Bramson?
1. Great 2. So-So 3. Sucks Ass 4. No Comment

What do you think about All Elected City Officials?
1. Great 2. So-So 3. Sucks Ass 4. No Comment

Do you think New Rochelle City Officials are corrupt?
1. Yes 2. No 3. No Comment

Do you think Mayor Bramson is corrupt?
1. Yes 2. No 3. No Comment

Do you think New Rochelle needs an enema to rid itself of all its corrupt politicians?
1. Yes 2. No 3. No Comment

Do you think New Rochelle politicians have been “PAID” by developers?
1. Yes 2. No 3. No Comment

Do you think County Clerk Idoni ruined New Rochelle when he was mayor?
1. Yes 2. No 3. No Comment

If given the opportunity to live anywhere else in Lower Westchester, would you?
1. Yes 2. No 3. No Comment

Based on stimulus package allocation figures recently released by the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. New Rochelle may be looking at an astounding $19 mm windfall from New York State's share of DoE allocations under the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 -- none of which is accounted for under the recently proposed New Rochelle school budget which is up for vote in May 19th.

New Rochelle schools may also be getting millions for infrastructure projects. The City School District of New Rochelle has so far refused to provide the public with its list of infrastructure requests although John Quinn, Assistant Superintendent for Finance, did reveal at a recent budget workshop that a multi-million dollar request to replace all the roofs at New Rochelle public schools had been submitted to Albany.

This would be in addition to the $8 million in new spending requested by the City School District of New Rochelle under their newly released "preliminary budget". Further, the District has squirreled away millions of dollars in reserves as a "rainy day fund" and has expressed some optimism that $4.2 million in state aid cuts by Gov. David Paterson maybe returned to the District.

School Tax Increase May Double District's "Conservative" Estimate