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( C o m m u n i t y p o r u m views ofSchool Board Member Pleads With State To Change Election ProcessIT f t ll m d n g ic t o c f i m n n y K %u00ab ( a i w H i p K lo wYork State Assembly%u2019s Standing Committee on Education on June 5, when the body held a public hearing on Community School Board Election Reform.BYNORMFRUCHTERI%u2019m Senior Consultant to the Academy for Educational Development and Advocates for Children of New York, and a recently reelected member of Community School Board 15 in Brooklyn. Hopefully others have testified about the disenfranchising of potential voters through the ineptness, political manipulation and corruption of the New York City Board of Elections, one of the more flagrant examples of our city%u2019s propensity for sustaining 19th century institutions. I%u2019d like to concentrate on two related topics: how district superintendents and school board majorities can control school board elections through patronage and the resources of the district office; and some suggestions for how the low voter participation rates in community school board elections might be improved.Community superintendents or board members determined to preserve their incumbency have considerable resources at their disposal. Manipulating the appointments of school security guards, aides, para-professionals and teachers can quickly create a district-wide patronage machine. Even when those selected are qualified and competent, appointments made with the understanding that political support is expected often produce predictable electoral results. Given low turnouts in many districts, the appointments of 20, 30 or 50 school employees committed to turning their families, friends and neighbors into voters can secure the election of several candidates.The electoral resources of district offices can also be formidable. District personnelNorman Fruchter is a resident of Park Slope and has just been re-elected to his second three year term as a member of Community School Board 15, which oversees elementary, intermediate and junior high schools in Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace and Kensington.can organize an cutiic clcCuun, Iium mobilizing petitioners to staffing polling places on Election Day. District personnel can also be used to review and clean up friendly petitions, and to challenge opposition petitions. Moreover, the symbolic power of the district office can intimidate opposition candidates and their parent supporters, reducing their activity because of fear of retaliation against their children.It%u2019s difficult to know how to limit board members%u2019 uses of patronage and the power of district offices. Central Board regulations prohibit the electoral involvement of school and district office personnel on school property and during school hours. Yet enforcement of these regulations depend on superintendents and district office staffs, who may well be deeply committed to partisan activity. Moreover, any attempt to limit the after-school involvements of school employees will probably prove both unconstitutional and unwise.The electoral involvement of district office employees, however, might possibly be limited. Since they serve the entire district%u2019s children and implement overall board policy, district office staff could be defined as akin to the English civil service, both above %u2014 and necessarily removed from %u2014 district politics. Under this definition, any electoral involvement by district office personnel would merit swift and effective stricture %u2014 dismissal, for example.Opponents of board member patronage and district office power often depend on public exposure, through local press and an informed and active local constituency. But manipulation and dominance by a powerful board faction or superintendent may mollify the press and intimidate or suppress such local activity. Once a district machine is consolidated, the critical question is what institutions beyond the influence of the local board and district office can provide the necessary leverage to open up the electoral process?One potential source of such countervailing power, ironically, is 110 Livingston Street. Historically, the Central Board has consistently extended its domain by reducing decentralization and constraining the power of local boards. 110 has shown little interest ingenerating increased participation in senool board elections, and has limited its activity to monitoring the technical issues involved in registering and voting. But such minimal intervention could be changed.What if all schools were mandated by the Central Board to publicize upcoming school board elections, through repeated notices to parents? What if PTAs were required (or solicited) to provide substantial forums about upcoming board elections as part of their monthly meetings? What if the Central Board produced attractive posters aboutManipulating theappointments of schoolsecurity guards, aides, paraprofessionals and teacherscan quickly create a districtwide patronage machine.school board elections and displayed them not only in schools but in local government offices, hospitals and stores? What if the Central Board mandated and conducted voter registration drives, and particularly the registration of parent voters, within each school?Such a concerted citywide information and education campaign might significantly increase local awareness of school board elections. Central Board sponsorship and oversight would hopefully prevent the manipulation of these efforts by board members or superintendents committed to informing and registering only their partisans. But would such efforts significantly increase voter participation?Probably not. Potential voters need more than information about upcoming school board elections. They need to be convinced that school boards are worth voting for. Yet relatively few people know what school boards do or why they matter. Relatively few people know how effective, or ineffective, their local school boards are.Hiis, too, could be changed. Suppose the Central Board were mandated to perform and publish district-by-district assessment ofschool pertormance across a range of criteria %u2014 test scores, student and teacher absence rates, high school acceptances, vandalism rates, for example. Suppose districts with similar student populations were compared. Suppose the differing priorities of district expenditures were analyzed to discover whether significant investment in district office staff, or guidance couselors, or para-professionals produced differences in patterns of student achievement.I am not talking about a one-shot listing of test results by school in The New York Times. I am urging publication and dissemination of a thorough analysis of district expenditures and results, and a district-by-district comparison of academic effectiveness. Many educators know that there are real differences in performance across New York City%u2019s 32 community school districts. Many educators know that those differences are not solely attributable to student background. Many educators know that there are more and less effective superintendents, and more and less effective school boards. What would happen if such information was systematically provided to the general public?Since decentralization, the Central Board has shied away from providing comprehensive and comparative evaluation which would indicate the level of each district%u2019s performance. Perhaps, as Rogers and Chung suggest in %u201c110 Livingston Street Revisited,%u2019%u2019 the issue of inter-district evaluation is too politically charged for the Central Board to handle. Perhaps annual comprehensive evaluation of New York City%u2019s community school districts is an external task, for universities or state agencies to perform. What we need, at the local level, is assessment which indicates which districts are effectively educating our children and which districts are failing to. If such information was reliably produced and widely disseminated, potential voters would know not only why school boards are important, but also how to judge the performance of their local board. With such information, significant voter participation might reward effective boards and remove scoundrels.OR THE mwECORD h e w s of the political sc e n eOfficials Say No To NavyBrooklyn%u2019s four Democratic Congressmen %u2014 Charles Schumer (10th District), Ed Towns (11th District), Major Owens (12th District) and Stephen Solarz (13th District) %u2014 voted against a proposal to create nuclear homeports, one of which was planned for a site on Staten Island.The proposal, to authorize $799 million for the dispersal of the navy fleet to homeports all over the country, was defeated in the House of Representatives by a vote of 241 to 190.In a statement released after the vote, Towns said, %u201cNew York is already the number one Soviet nuclear target, with nuclear weapons in our harbor, we are putting ourselves in further danger.%u201cI feel I am representing my constituents%u2019 interests by stopping a nuclear danger before it reaches our shores. New Yorkers don%u2019t want nuclear bombs in our harbor, there are better ways to use the $188 million to provide New York jobs.%u201dCongressman Guy Molinari, a Republican who represents Bay Ridge and all of Staten Island, voted for the proposed funding.Nicaraguan Parade PlannedSome downtown Brooklyn area residents will be celebrating the seventh anniversary of Nicaragua%u2019s independence with a %u201cCelebrate the Victory of the Nicaraguan People%u201d parade on July 19.The parade, commemorating the 1979 overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship, has been organized by the Brooklyn Sister City Project, founded this spring to establish a relationship with a Nicaraguan city. Project members will ask Brooklyn%u2019s Community Board 6, comprised of Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Red Hook, and part of Boerum Hill, to endorse the sister cityproject formally this September.The parade starts at 10am in Carroll Gardens on the comer of Smith and Union Streets. It continues to Park Slope, culminating with a picnic in Prospect Park. Live music, speakers and activities are planned for the park. Transportation for food (coolers, etc.) will be provided from start to finish of the march. For more information call 797-3946.Golden Helps EnvironmentBorough President Howard Golden says that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Franklin W. Morton, Jr. has upheld his suit seeking that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) be required to perform an environmental assessment on the toll changes it put in effect on the Verrazano Bridge.%u201cThis is a great victory for Brooklyn, and for all who are concerned about protecting the environment,%u201d says Golden. %u201c The Court agreed that the MTA must follow state environmental law by determining whether one-way toll collection at the Verrazano Bridge may have a significant impact on the environment.%u201dThe Court did not enjoin the MTA from continuing the one-way toll collection until the environmental review process is completed, however, and Golden says, %u201cWe plan to appeal on this point and ask that the court immediately provide relief for commuters by instituting the two-way toll collection while the environmental impact statement is being prepared.%u201dGolden filed suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court on March 24, calling for the MTA to perform an environmental assessment of tollrhanefis on thp V p rrarn n n RHHsa in n rrW inconsider the quality of life in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, and to provide decision makers with alternatives. The suit, in which Golden was joined by the Soho Alliance,Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityChairman Robert R. Kiley (left) and ParkSlope Congressman Charies Schumer onboard one of the new R-68 subway carsthat are in service on the TransitA utnority s \entire order of 225 subway cars will bedelivered to the Transit Authority and willreplace alm ost all of the cars now on thatline, the MTA says.followed the MTA%u2019s implementation, March 20, of one-way toll collection to satisfy federal legislation to eliminate Brooklyn-bound tolls on the Verrzano Bridge. Currently, Staten Island-bound vehicles pay $3.50, double the amount to two-way collection. Truck drivers can pay up to $20 depending upon the number of axles on their trucks.Towns Helps HomelessCongressman Ed Towns (D-llth District) was joined June 20 by Jesse Jackson, Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins and other leading black political figures at a conference on homelessness at New York Technical College, in downtown Brooklyn.The conference, sponsored by the Black Agency Executives, Inc., was planned to call attention to the plight of the black homeless and the leadership roles blacks are taking to solve the problem.%u201cBlacks head up many social service agencies that do great work in helping the homeless,%u201d said Towns. %u201cSince most of the homeless are minorities our community can feel their pain directly. The contributions made by many black agency executives and government leaders, who give their time so generously should be recognized.%u201dOther speakers at the conference included: State Senator Velmanette Montgomery (D22nd District); Arthur Barnes, the president of the New York Urban League; and Dr. Rosa Maseory of the Human Resources Administration.Voter Registration Info HereThe league of Women Voters reminds the public about its telephone service providing information about voter registration, where%u2666 a %u00ab*/%u00bb%u2666%u00ab omsl >%u00bb>V%u00bbA KAnmOAVlIfi m kni in*v * WOVJ MMW %u00bb *