The Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District and its Board of Education manipulated the timing and the vote to again shortchange RCS taxpayers and deprive them of their votes when, on Tuesday, January 13, 2015, they pushed the vote on two proposals totaling and additional $30 million in tax burden on an already faltering tax base. So, Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Social Services Recipients and Friends of New York State United Teachers, the Teachers-Union-Owned-and-Operated Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District approved an additional $30 Million dollars in indirect tax assessment they’re calling “Capital Improvement” for the RCS Schools. Let’s watch and see who gets the contracts for the so-called “capital improvements.”
New Baltimore Taxpayers Sucked In Again
May be business as usual in Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk but New Baltimore doesn’t have to put up with it! Or do we?
We have just one question: When will the Town of New Baltimore smarten up and leave the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District, a failing group of schools with a corrupt board of education under a corrupt superintendent and move on to join the Greene County success story? When will the Town of New Baltimore town board finally get its act together and take the necessary steps to ensure that New Baltimore taxpayers are not playing the fool for a failing district that knows no bounds when it comes to spending and taxation. The RCS district is losing tax base a mile-a-minute and attracting non-taxpaying population. More properties are either going up for sale, being abandoned, or vacant in the case of commercial properties with more of the tax burden falling on Guess Who?!?!
Ravena has enough money to allow Cathy Deluca’s unlawful and failing Ravena Health and Fitness Center to continue losing taxpayer dollars to the tune of more than $6000 a month, and the town of Coeymans can give half the town away in concessions to carpetbagger business with nothing in return. But can New Baltimore continue to pay for Raven-Coeyman’s debauchery and free-wheeling spending addictions? We say NO!
Don’t be a Newbaltimoron
(First used by Joan Ross, pseudosophisticate of New Baltimore, to describe her neighbors.)
The Editor
Articles in Press
Stay Tuned and Stay Informed!
Retaliation in Local Government: Ravena Village council/board Violates Law & Dismisses Planning Board Member without Due Process or Public Hearing! and New Baltimore Highway Superintendent Denis Jordan removes Deputy Highway Superintendent vanWormer Because vanWormer admits he’s planning to run against Jordan. Ethics violations and retaliative human resources action = lawsuit!
Ravena-Coeymans Taxation and Water-Sewer Rates: Continuing indifference and unlawful billing! Should the NYS Attorney General, Comptroller, Inspector General get involved to straighten out residents’ dilemma? Another resident writes to this blog for help.
Albany NY a.k.a. Smalbany 
Bob Abrams
January 22, 2015 at 10:35 am
The RCS District needs a working and transparent Code of Ethics that is structured, working and fair to the District, the Taxpayers and, in the end-actually for our kids.
We should not have people on the payroll who have a Personal Interest and/or so-called ‘blood relatives’ of those who hire and fire. Also excluded should be those directly related by marriage or those involved in business with those who, again, hire and fire.
We deserve the best and brightest.
__________________
sample School District Codes of Ethics-partial and portions:
“Personal interest” means, for the purpose of disclosure of personal interests in accordance with this Code of Ethics, a financial interest of the official or employee, or a financial interest of the
official’s or employee’s spouse or child living in the same household, in the matter to be voted upon, regulated, supervised, or otherwise acted upon in an official capacity.
….and this from Cobb County School District:
PERSONAL/PRIVATE GAIN:
Teachers and other educators shall not:
• Solicit sales or services, advertise products, or endorse one product over another in their relations with students, parents or employees. (Board Policy BCB [Conflict of Interest]; Administrative Rule GBEA [Staff Ethics] and KH [Solicitation and Advertising on School Property].
• Use classroom instruction to influence students, or through them, their parents, regarding any one political or partisan side of an issue. (Administrative Rule IMB [Controversial Issues])
• Coerce students to adopt a particular religious belief or set of beliefs or to disavow a particular religious belief or set of beliefs. (Administrative Rule IHADA [Theories of Origin])
• Interject their personal faith-based beliefs or lack thereof, into classroom discussions.(Administrative Rule IHADA [Theories of Origin]).
And/or this from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development:
In most established civil services, traditionally Promotion and recruitment to the civil service has been based on merit, not political or family connections, and is protected by law.
Patronage and favoritism in public employment is generally prohibited by law, and protectedby effective independent appeals mechanisms. Increasingly, attempts to employ friends relatives and cronies contrary to merit-based procedures required by such laws are being
treated as a serious form of corruption, and have led to dismissals and prosecution for public officials (including Ministers) who engaged in such practices. Arbitrary dismissal from the IMPLEMENTING EFFECTIVE ETHICS STANDARDS IN GOVERNMENT AND THE CIVIL SERVICE 12
civil service through the intervention of a Minister, is unlawful, and may likewise be regarded as a form of abuse of office or corruption.
______________________________________________________________________
While we are at this point, how about including this:
DRESS:
See Administrative Rule GBEBA (Employee Dress Code).
Teachers and other educators, while on District property or at a District-sponsored activity whether on or off campus, shall not:
• Dress in revealing, tight-fitting, low-cut clothing or garments.
• Wear clothing with slogans or product advertisements that promote the use of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sex or that advertise establishments that are age-inappropriate for students.
• Display tattoos or brands anywhere on the body that are obscene, advocate sexual, racial, disability or religious discrimination or that are of a nature that tends to bring discredit to the District.
• Attach, affix or display objects, articles, jewelry or ornamentation to or through the nose, tongue or any exposed body part except for earrings worn only on the ear(s).
I offer the above as food for thought and discussion.
Thanks for the time and opportunity.
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MacGregor
January 20, 2015 at 7:10 pm
Actually, I can draw cultural comparisons from many different school districts, having spent my earlier years at the Christian Brothers Academy. While there I met a plethora of students, as well as, staff from all around the area, and some beyond. The only difference in culture/morals I can remember was the military/catholic standard held at CBA. Admittedly while there I was too young to get into finances, taxpayer money and the like. But I think you’ll find that my concern lies beyond those issues.
Now, in terms of the product of today’s RCS district, I can’t seem to understand painting the entirety, or even majority, of current RCS graduates in such a negative light. I say that while also taking into consideration your distaste(for lack of a respectful term) for the RCS BoE/staff. I say I can’t understand the generalization because I, as a “product” of RCS, am bettering myself, while at the same time have many peers who are doing the same.
I get the distaste for this district, I really do, as it does have it’s problems. Maybe it’s the sad state of today’s world in general. Because, let’s face it, the world is going to hell in a hand basket. However, yes, I do get defensive when I see the generalizations about my “old alma mater”, not even in defense of the school, but in defense of myself and those whom I studied with that are “products” of the district and are doing what they can to better themselves. Be it in a lackluster, flawed, broken, or whatever system you want call it. I know RCS has produced some real gems in terms of graduates, believe me, I know.
I also know I can’t sway you from your convictions, as this blog has been around for quite some time now and countless people have wasted their breath(or characters) trying to debate with you. But I will ask that you have just a tad more faith in humanity as a whole, in that there are a lot of us who come from this district that are wholesome, good standing people.
With that, I bid you farewell, as I don’t often comment on this type of thing. I hope, at least, that I was able to alter your vision on the general product of RCS graduates, not change it, but alter it. Take care, and keep God close.
MacGregor
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Tom
January 15, 2015 at 3:58 pm
You folks are ridiculous. I have never seen a town like yours before in my life. About all the graduates I have seen come out of your school system are either doing time or pushing baby carriages. Why do you let these people buffalo you like this. It is time to stand up for your rights. Get rid of the school bus system, and make those who really want an education get there the best way they can.
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MacGregor
January 16, 2015 at 3:13 pm
“About all the graduates I have seen…”, where have you been looking? Coeymans? Oak Brook? You need to expand your sample size my friend, many RCS graduates, myself included, have gone on to earn a college degree or begin working on one(And I mean beyond an Associates). Pure cynicism, buddy. Pure cynicism. Though, given the less than stellar state of this area, I guess you can be pardoned for your cynicism.
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RCS Confidential
January 19, 2015 at 6:47 pm
Hi, MacGregor:
Not as cynical as you appear to assess him, I’m afraid.
Let me say this: I am an alumnus of the RCS system and have an outstanding academic record and reputation based on objective criteria. That having been said, I do not feel I am being cynical or vindictive when I look at today’s product both of RCS and our colleges and universities and am very, very disappointed more with those, to whom these kids were entrusted by local taxpayers with the reasonable expectation that they (the kids) would receive value for taxpayer money. Instead, we see crops of dunces, devastating graduation rates (that is, before they dumbed down the curriculum to up the grad rates), a majority of teachers motivated by self-interest and greed, and administrators and a school board who have no sense of accountability or responsibility for their spending and half-assed mismanagement. We are very serious when we say “owned and operated by NYSUT.”
That’s not cynicism, my friend, that’s fact. Anyone exposing their children to that environment where there are no ethics, no morals, no civics, no chance to learn from failure, and only devil-may-care denial and pats-on-the-back, should be tarred, feathers, and taken out back and given a good whoppin’. The kids are dull, ignorant, anti- and asocial, socially inept, can’t read or write (just read their and their parents’ Facebook posts!), and when they’re turned out into the real world carry the RCS stigmata burnt into their foreheads.
It would be unfair the the freaks among them, that is, the kids who want to and actually manage to do well, because they, too, have to carry the stigma. That’s not to say that even if, when they get to and manage to finish any education after high-school, that they are anything to crow about or have the wherewithal to either succeed or be grateful for the learning of failure.
Admittedly, it is or should be difficult for you as an RCS graduate (and noting your defensiveness), to be anything but subjective when assessing the RCS schools; after all, you are one of them and it’s only reasonable that you would come out swinging should anyone have anything less than positive to say about the old alma mater. What would you have as a comparison, anyway. You certainly, true to RCS nature, would not have looked at any other schools in the area and compared them, would you? We know our RCS BoE and municipal administrators (Ravena, Coeymans, New Baltimore) live in the bubble of a Twilight Zone episode, so why would we expect anything different from one of their fruits?
But then we have to remember the proverb that bad trees don’t bear good fruits.
Keep reading this blog and you may ultimately acquire a scintilla of wisdom.
The Editor
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