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BOCES leaders see brighter future ahead
November 18, 2004 After addressing leaders, NYSUT First Vice President Dick Iannuzzi chats with members of Southern Adirondack BOCES EA. From left: Treasurer Lynn Walsh; Iannuzzi; building rep Christine Centofranchi; President Bert Weber; and Linda Hughes, recording secretary. BOCES leaders seem to have found themselves in the unaccustomed position of feeling upbeat about the future. As they gathered in October for the 32nd Annual New York State United Teachers Conference for BOCES Leadership, activists cheered a list of recent accomplishments that included the restoration of BOCES aid in the ultra-late state budget. "The fact that we got aid restored - with a slight increase - is a good measure of our success," said Vito Rinaldo, chairman of the NYSUT BOCES Statewide Planning Committee and a member of the United Staff Association at Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES. In recent years, the BOCES committee has spearheaded an effort to step up political activism in the state's 38 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services. With their statewide union, BOCES leaders meet regularly with district superintendents; they're joining central labor councils and organizing lobby days during the legislative session in Albany. "It's part of a constant education," said NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin, who urged leaders in a speech to "give ownership of your BOCES to a friendly lawmaker. Bring them in to see what you're doing." Even the Albany conference itself was a source of optimism for committee members, who noted that attendance was up 12 percent and that about 20 percent of the attendees were first-timers. Challenges ahead Still, many longstanding challenges remain for BOCES, which provide their component school districts with programs and services that might otherwise be unavailable to districts and their students. At one workshop offered at the three-day session, leaders brainstormed ways to stem a growing trend of districts to contract out for services traditionally provided by BOCES, such as counseling and physical and occupational therapy. In alternative education, teachers report increasingly being pressed to teach in areas outside their certification, often replacing properly certified teachers who have been let go. "We lost four art and physical education teachers and now alternative ed teachers are teaching those classes," said Ted Zulawski, a member of Tri-County BOCES EA at Erie 2 BOCES. - John Strachan |
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