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Parents were made aware of this issue this week when interim Superintendent Magda Parvey sent a letter detailing the issue at hand. The problem was discovered in December and district officials by the school’s lawyers.
In the letter, Parvey pointed the finger at the former administration, which was helmed by former Superintendent Brian Osborne, who abruptly left his position in the district last year. Parvey said that there are new state rules for calculating instructional hours that the previous administration failed to adjust to or address.
Last summer, the New York State Education Department created new rules that were implemented for the current academic year. The new requirements include 990 instructional hours for middle school students over a minimum of 180 days.
When June rolls around and the academic year nears its conclusion, approximately 2,400 students in Albert Leonard Middle School and Isaac E. Young Middle School will be nearly 100 hours short of state requirements because the district planned poorly.
According to the Education Department, New Rochelle is believed to be the only district in the state that will fail to comply with the new requirements. All other schools in the district complied with the new mandates.
Parvey said that while they cannot make up all of the lost hours, the district is taking steps to “minimize the potential impact on future state aid.” To make up for lost time, the district announced that Middle School students will complete their final exams on June 26, not June 21 as originally scheduled.
The Education Department will now calculate how many hours middle school students in New Rochelle will fall short to determine how much aid the district will lose. Check Daily Voice for updates.
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