Sound Shore

Port Chester Village Clerk Joan Mancuso is resigning next month after working for the village for 15 years.

She held the position of clerk for the last three years—an eventful time. Port Chester introduced an unusual trustee election system in 2010, the result of a successful lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice over Hispanics’ voting rights.

(In the photo, Mancuso holds a sample ballot from the election for six trustees, when Port Chester became the first municipality in New York to use a cumulative voting method.)

Mancuso, 50, said the time was right for her and her husband to move to North Carolina, where they own a home.

Mancuso will serve as clerk through May 31. The village board began a discussion this week on how to fill the position.

Property owners in the Town of Rye – Port Chester, Rye Brook and part of Mamaroneck – are receiving updated assessments that will become the basis for property taxes this year. The  assessments reflect market value as of July 1, 2011.

Town Assessor Mitchell Markowitz sent this letter to the media explaining how the numbers are reached and how to contest them if need be:

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This week all property owners in the Town of Rye were mailed Preliminary Assessment Notices of their proposed 2012 assessment. The Town is fully committed to getting its data and values correct and I would like to outline upcoming activities to insure fairness and equity for all residents.

 

The notice provides information on two important items: the proposed value of your property and; a description of your property characteristics.

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A Port Chester High School teacher who teaches a small-business curriculum created by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship is being recognized by that organization this month as an “Enterprising Educator.”

The 25-year-old network and its approach are the topic of this BusinessWeek story.

The Port Chester school district says:

Mr. Josephson has taught economics and history at the high school since 2003 and has been teaching NFTE’s entrepreneurship curriculum for the past two and a half years.  “Teaching is a rewarding career because you get the opportunity to refine and improve your effectiveness,” he says. “I enjoy teaching economics and business concepts to my students and always look for creative ways to teach their concepts.”

An experienced entrepreneur who ran his own company for many years, Mr. Josephson shares with his students real world anecdotes from his years as a businessman.  He stresses the use of spreadsheets as an essential tool.  He also integrates technology as often as possible in his classroom – using web sites including Facebook, Zipskinny and Surveymonkey, as well as unique interactive games, software and even Flip video cameras.

“I always had my Econ classes build a business plan,” said Mr. Josephson, “but the resources provided by NFTE make the experience that much more meaningful for my students. For example, I’ve had the former CEO of Snapple present to my students numerous times since my affiliation with NFTE.”

Nine-year-old Henry Lojano flew a kite for the first time today in Columbus Park in Port Chester at the start of a holiday weekend and a spring recess.

He yelled “I did it!” before that tree cut the flight short.

Nearby at the Port Chester Yacht Club, Joe Knowlton of Katonah was painting the propeller beneath his 35-foot Catalina sailboat, with a material that keeps barnacles away.

He was looking forward to launching the boat in a couple weeks and being on the open water. “It does take you away from all the things that are annoying, like work,” he said.

Port Chester had another long, emotional discussion tonight about school budget cuts. This time parents spoke against the planned layoffs of as many as 14 teachers who provide reading assistance in classrooms across the district. Those cuts are envisioned as a preferable alternative to the  earlier plan to cut back to half-day kindergarten—an idea that brought out equally passionate protests at a meeting March 8.

The latest cut is smaller in terms of money and layoffs; but it’s costly to the academic program, said parents and teachers during a board meeting at the middle school. They questioned the effect it would have on test scores, special-needs children, and older students who need reading skills to learn advanced subjects. The school board members and administrators blamed the tax cap and Albany politics for putting the schools, and schoolteachers, in the desperate situation of having to cut into the academic program. Board member Carolee Brakewood, describing reading teachers as the current victims of the budget crisis, said it was like having to choose which body part to cut off.

Children spoke out too, including Jonathan Cisneros, a fourth-grader at John F. Kennedy Magnet School who went to that school’s Early Learning Center for kindergarten and first grade. Jonathan (pictured at left, with his mother Carla Espinoza) is an avid reader of Harry Potter and Greek mythology, and he delivered a very elegant speech. Some of his comments:

Good evening. I’m Jonathan Cisneros … I have loved this school since the beginning when I studied in the ELC program in kindergarten. This school has taught me many things, but one thing stands above all others. This school has taught me to love learning. Everybody in the school has helped me, encouraged me and taught me to read the best that I can.

He spoke about being in school “before this catastrophe started” and worried about whether others would have the opportunity to learn in their native language of Spanish, as he did.  “Also, what about the kids that need extra help?” he said. He worried whether his teacher would be laid off, saying, “this is her first year and maybe her last.”

So please, hear my voice, I’m asking you, I’m even begging you to help us. I thought you were supposed to help the kids. Because if you are, right now has got to be a good time to start.

 

The Port Chester school district just announced that the teachers union has declared an impasse in their labor negotiations. The contract for about 350 teachers expired on June 30, 2011.

Here is the news release:

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At a time when the Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District is facing a multi-million dollar income shortfall due to the new New York State property tax levy cap law and insufficient state aid, its Board of Education and Port Chester Teachers Association (“PCTA”) have reached an impasse in their labor negotiations.

The PCTA unilaterally declared impasse and the District then joined in selecting a mediator who will assist the parties in trying to reach agreement.  PERB recently appointed Louis Patack to serve as mediator based upon that joint request.  In responding to the declaration of impasse, Board President Blanca Lopez said: “We value our teachers.  They are dedicated and work very hard to ensure an excellent education for our students.  The District and the PCTA have been engaged in collective bargaining for a new agreement since 2011, meeting on a regular basis since July 30, 2011.  The Board has always wanted to reach a fair and equitable settlement with the PCTA, while taking steps to deal with the massive reductions in funding that have been imposed upon the district.  Unfortunately, the economic conditions have made this agreement difficult to settle.”

Under the state’s Taylor Law Triborough Amendment, teachers continue to receive salary increases under the terms of their expired contract.

Budget analyses clearly show that wages and benefits are by far the largest expenditure for any school district.  The district recently concluded negotiations with its administrators’ bargaining unit and its CSEA bargaining unit upon terms that are reflective of current budgetary constraints and that included significant cost savings in the area of health insurance benefit costs.

“The PCTA is privy to financial data that lays out both the short and long term financial challenges facing the District,” said Ms. Lopez.   “Given the limited resources of our taxpayers and the considerable challenges resulting from the new tax levy cap law and reductions in state aid, it is critical that teacher wage and benefit cost increases reflect a sustainable pace.”

“We have a responsibility to balance the economic needs of our educators with our obligation to provide an excellent education for our students,” said Ms. Lopez.  “While the Board and the PCTA are still far apart, we are working hard and are hopeful that we can find a fair and just result for all concerned through the mediation process.  We look forward to having mediator Patack join the process to help the parties reach a mutually agreeable settlement,” Ms. Lopez concluded.

“As the new Superintendent of Schools for the district, I have been very impressed with the quality and professionalism of our teaching staff” said Dr. Edward A. Kliszus.  “We hope to resolve this contract as soon as it is practicable to do so under the circumstances.”

Port Chester school officials are restoring full-day kindergarten to the budget plan for next year, after threatening a switch to half-day to meet the tax cap. The district has found alternative savings for 2012-13 in the form of a health-insurance change for civil service employees. It will also scale back on non-mandated reading assistance throughout the district, a change that will require up to 14 teacher layoffs.

Parents and teachers have been pushing to save full-day kindergarten and avoid a shutdown of the Early Learning Center, a building for kindergarteners and first-graders and a part of the John F. Kennedy Magnet School. The lobby effort has included a letter-writing campaign for more state aid.

The district’s CSEA employees – 154 teacher aides, custodians, clerical employees and nurses – will receive only one health plan at current reimbursement rates instead of a choice of three. The administrators union has agreed to the same change under its new contract agreement.

Thursday night’s meeting starts at 7:30 in the Port Chester Middle School auditorium.

Students in the diverse Port Chester school system do not have to go far to practice Spanish. But an exchange program with a school in Spain, now in its fifth year, aims to broaden the middle-schoolers’ horizons through a cultural immersion.

Twenty Port Chester Middle School students traveled to Spain earlier this month. Their counterparts are now visiting from I.E.S. Gerardo Diego, a middle school located in Pozuelo de Alarcón outside Madrid.

The visitors are getting the grand tour of NYC, including the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Chinatown and Little Italy. I spoke with both groups Friday before they headed for Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and asked them to share their impressions.

Eva Mazario Garcia, 13, (in the photo at right, seated at lower left) was trying to absorb the American sense of scale —from real estate to food portions. “The houses are like a big palace,” she said. “The food is very, very big.”

They had arrived the previous day, and had yet to travel to the city. “For me, the houses made of wood surprised me a lot,” said Julia Perez-Nievas de la Riva.

Michael Bansey, a 14-year-old Port Chester student (in the photo at left, standing in back at the center), said the overall atmosphere in Spain made a strong impression. It was his first trip to Europe. “In America we sort of lose our religion and our traditions along the way,” he said. “They eat dinner together and they spend a lot of family time together.”

The two groups bonded through music, and stayed in each other’s homes. On Thursday, they will have a “multicultural dinner” with members of the community.

“Hopefully they can create a bond in the future,” bilingual teacher Esteban Guijarro said.

The northern end of downtown Port Chester, near the bridge across the Byram River to Greenwich, Conn., has been a very busy place in recent years—a major foodie destination with Tarry Lodge, Tarry Market and Tarry Wines on the same block, plus the growing Kneaded Bread Bakery across Mill Street on North Main. That has brought up certain parking challenges.

A proposal before the village Planning Commission would take down much of this dark-gray warehouse building, a former foundry from the 1800s, and create a parking lot.

Plans are still under discussion. But the current version would demolish the part of the structure stretching from the flat-roof section at far left to the first gable. Planning Commission members voiced support for the idea, though one member noted the historic trusses inside the building and suggested preserving the building for indoor parking. A public hearing is set for Monday night.

The warehouse building was until recently a Columbia Elevator factory, one of the last vestiges of Port Chester’s industrial past.

Read more in today’s Journal News story.

Corpus Christi-Holy Rosary School in Port Chester won’t have quite the same star power for its fund-raising dinner this year after launching the tradition with David Tutera, the celebrity party planner. He grew up in the Corpus Christi parish and gave the tradition a stylish start last year.

In any case, the spotlight at the March 24 dinner is really on the honorees. Barbara Kelly, an organizer of the event, provided this info:

Awards will be presented to three individuals who have displayed outstanding service and generosity to CCHRS:  Fr. Peter Granzetto, SDB, one of the most beloved priests at Corpus Christi Parish for the past 27 years, Nicholas Mecca President of the Holy Rosary Alumni Society and Receiver of Taxes for the Town of Rye and posthumously, Frank Cordella, friend and benefactor of Corpus Christi Church.

This year’s event planner is Anthony Valbiro, a Port Chester native who has “a unique theatrical approach to design.”

The dinner is in memory of Father Peter M. Rinaldi, who founded the school in 1959 and was pastor from 1948 to 1993.