Greece Education Coalition

mailto: gec@GreeceEducationCoalition.org

The Greece Education Coalition is a partnership of community members in Greece who, through collaboration with the stakeholders of our community, work to ensure confidence in the Greece Schools, strive for academic excellence, celebrate our children's successes, and prepare our children and community to meet the challenges of the future.

Links from this site are provided for informational purposes only and
may not reflect the opinion or position of the Greece Education Coalition.

Issues

Inequitable distribution of State Aid penalizes Greece: With the current formula for state aid for education, our district is being under-funded by the State by $20 to $30 million each year. Our School Board needs to get our school district the funding to which it is entitled. (Residence forum address by Bob Mueller 4-Apr-06)
Why Greece pays high school taxes (GreecePOST 23-Mar-06)
The public's business must be done in the public's eye: We must confront the challenges in our district an open and deeply honest manner.
How will we as a community know what needs to be fixed, how to fix it, and if it has been fixed, if we are not given any information about the conclusions of the investigations such as those regarding EEOC complaints and other matters?
Actions must be based on facts not unsubstantiated opinion: The Greece School Board's agenda appears to be based on opinions, These opinions need to have evidence provided, if we are to have an effective school board that acts on facts, not rumor, accusation, and innuendo. "Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice."
We need to restore confidence in the Greece Schools: "The significant gains in student achievement in the Greece Central Schools, despite the negativity of the organizational culture, is a testimony of the extraordinary strength and resilience of the positive core of the district." —Kathleen Fitzpatrick in the Educational Audit (2005)
Deal with the brutal facts of the Educational Audit

Overwhelming negative perceptions about the Greece Schools - "While the Greece Central School System is a very good school system, there are significant missed opportunities for greatness due to energies that are drained and siphoned off within a culture of negativity."
Adversarial relationships within and across stakeholder groups
Significant levels of misperceptions about the district that are not based on fact.
There is strong reliance on hearsay vs. actual data
Lack of pride, despite a strong record of accomplishment on behalf of student learning
Lack of shared goals, values, and sense of purpose and mission
"There is significant disconnect between the extent and intensity of concern expressed in the teacher focus groups about the PPR process, compared to the analysis of the process and the data related to the percentage of teachers required to follow a plan for improvement and the percentage of teachers recommended for dismissal." (from Fitzpatrick's Educational Audit)

Ready of not here life comes -- the Future is not what it used to be: Change in the next 14 years may be greater than the last 100.
How do we prepare our children and ourselves to succeed in such an uncertain future?
The demographics of our community are changing: We must recognize the changes and adjust our approaches to education, community, and parent involvement for the best interests of our learners.
We need to bring our diverse community members together: We must identify shared values and create a vision for the district in the service of student learning
Honor the voices of hope: Build on what we're good at. Listen to the testimonies and vision of stakeholders. Focus on creating a community that recognizes the value of education, strives for academic success, and prepares our children and community to meet the challenges of the future.