Lew's Views

I was channel surfing the other night and spotted Scarsdale's Lew Leone on the screen. Temporarily confused, I looked again and realized I was not watching Channel 77 and this was not a Board of Education meeting! I usually see Lew, who is a member of the Scarsdale Board of Education, sitting around the large table at Scarsdale High School, but here he was presenting "Lew's View" on Fox 5 where he is the Vice President and General Manager.

And what were Lew's views? Last night he was comparing the State of the State addresses of Governor Christie and Governor Cuomo. He called Governor Cuomo's 78-minute speech "mind-numbing" and then went on to compare the approach of the two on gun control, saying,

Andrew Cuomo was actually ranting and raving. New York already has some of the most strict gun control laws in the country but Andrew wants to do more. "We must stop the madness, my friends," he said. "And in one word it's just enough -- it's been enough." He used some flawed logic by linking the Second Amendment to hunting but he wins on this topic because gun control didn't come up in Christie's speech. The New Jersey governor says gun control is not a priority for him. That's because he has national aspirations and gun control doesn't go over well with Republicans.

Interested in learning more about Lew's Views, I looked up a few more of his statements on the Fox website where he often speaks about the same issues that face the Scarsdale School Board.

Here are just a few of the comments I found:

Mandate Relief: (From the January 14 statement)

Cuomo laid out plans for full-day preschool in high needs districts. The self-described chief lobbyist for students left out any mention of mandate relief for the many districts choking on state-required payments and he was also mum on the fact that New York City does still not have a teacher evaluation plan.

Teacher Evaluations  (From April 18, 2012)

It has been interesting to hear teachers unions and administrators complaining about the new system to rate job performance on a 100-point scale as part of the federal Race to the Top program. Most of the opposition to the rating system relates to how it is not fair to the teachers because there is no perfect system to evaluate teacher performance and effectiveness. In New York City, the United Federation of Teachers has filed suit to fight the release of teacher ratings to the public.
... Take a look at any union contract and you will see that we, the taxpayers, have bent over backwards to reward teachers with high pay, tenure, terrific benefits, summer vacation, huge pensions, and favorable work rules. In return we deserve and demand accountability.
So what if the ratings aren't perfect? It's time for the unions to step up, stop protecting the adults, accept that our system is failing and embrace reform to help put us on the right track.
Teaching is noble and valuable profession but it is not for everyone. Given the current state of the economy and our education crisis we have to ensure that we are able to reward the best teachers, develop the promising ones and help the worst ones find a new job.

Teacher Tenure: September 2010

Tenure is an antiquated process whose time has come to an end. Tenure was established when few protections were afforded to teachers. Now there are many employment laws and regulations that protect teachers and tenure is an added level of security that is no longer necessary. Most people agree that no one should be guaranteed a job for life.
It is my view that tenure reform will happen sooner than later and I believe the tenure process should be completely abolished. The teachers unions are going to fight tooth and nail to oppose tenure reform but they will do so with public perception turning against them.

Since it appears that the Scarsdale Board of Education holds their more controversial discussions in executive session, it's interesting to know what at least one of our School Board members really thinks.