Kevin Whitaker

The New York State United Teacher‘s union task force has released a report calling for proactive school safety measures as disruptive and violent episodes in the classroom become commonplace.

The task force said in the report that the key areas most crucial to building safer school environments include addressing social-emotional needs of students, ensuring appropriate staffing levels, fostering community partnerships, and confronting the crisis of mass violence in schools.

Jamestown School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said JPS does have a commitment when it comes to social emotional support of students, “We, as a district, have committed to additional counselors, additional psychologists, additional, what I’m calling, behavioral first responders which are paraprofessionals who are specially trained in de-escalation.”

Whitaker said when it comes to school safety, in addition to increasing the number of School Resource Officer by one, about 60 teachers are part of the Crisis Emergency Teams in each building, “Those folks engaged in a multi-hour, multi-part training process called CSTAG, which is Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidance. It’s out of University of Virginia from a professor named Dewey Cornell. And it’s internationally recognized as a threat assessment model that is effective.”

Whitaker said the NYSUT report also mentioned the importance of involving teachers in the development of safety plans and in threat assessment, which is what the district is doing already.

He added that other than the report recommendation that schools hire more staff to help reduce class size, which is a regular budgetary issue for schools, that he’s on board with the safety concerns specific to the schools raised by the report.

According to a report in the Albany Times Union, speakers included representatives from the New York State United Teachers, the United Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers.

A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, in effect, that the state is already throwing a lot of money at challenged districts with New York currently spending three times as much per pupil in high-needs districts than it does on low-needs districts.

State aid per pupil in high-needs districts is currently $9,626 – compared to $3,371 in low-need districts. Average-needs districts receive $7,341 per pupil.

New York State Education Commissioner John King, Jr. speaks with reporters prior to a public forum on public education at Jamestown High School on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013.

ALBANY – The largest teachers’ union in New York State has publicly come out against the state’s top education commissioner, calling for his removal.

According to the NY Daily News, the board of the New York State United Teachers declared they had “no confidence” in the policies of John King, Jr.

In a prepared statement, NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi said, “The commissioner has pursued policies that repeatedly ignore the voices of parents and educators who have identified problems and called on him to move more thoughtfully. Instead of listening to and trusting parents and teachers to know and do what’s right for students, the commissioner has offered meaningless rhetoric and token change.”

Iannuzzi criticized King for not backing a three-year moratorium on high-stakes consequences for standardized testing. The NYSUT board also withdrew its support for the Common Core standards.

In a joint statement, Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and state education commissioner King defended the education policies, saying now is not the time to weaken standards. They also stated that they will make necessary adjustments and modifications to the implementation of the Common Core with the help of the governor’s office and state legislature.

King was in Jamestown in December 2013 to host a forum on the common core and public education in New York State and was meant with criticism from parents, teachers and students. Audio from the forum is available at our Soundcloud Page.