Absentee Ballots for Dec. 10 Bond Vote

The District's bond vote is scheduled for Dec. 10, 2019 from 7am-10pm at North Shore High School. If you are not able to vote in person, you can still cast an absentee ballot. To do so, you'll need to fill out an application for the ballot first.

The application is on the district's website along with these instructions:

If Ballot is to be Mailed: Must be RECEIVED NO LATER THAN SEVEN DAYS BEFORE ELECTION OR May be filed IN PERSON through the day before the election (December 9, 2019) to The District Clerk, North Shore Central School District 112 Franklin Avenue, Sea Cliff, New York 11579

The application can be downloaded here, picked up from the district office or mailed to you by calling the district clerk.

The district's bond information flyer posted here indicates that once you have the ballot, "The deadline for receipt of absentee ballots by mail or personal delivery is December 10, 2019 at 5 PM."

North Shore has highest learning growth rate in Nassau County

This analysis out of Stanford University calculates that students at North Shore's schools learn 20% more per grade than the national average. This map of Nassau County shows how we are out performing our neighbors although Garden City and Merrick are also at 20%.

School Rankings and Niche.com

Of the various school rankings, you often see Niche.com's cited on social media.  For their 2020 rankings of Best School Districts in New York (nb: they have many different versions of these lists), North Shore CSD came in at #35 out of 693 results.

So what's the difference between North Shore and some of our neighbors who ranked higher? Here are their Niche.com "report cards." All get an A+ in Academics (as with Teachers and College Prep). Why a range of 35 in the rankings?

How can this be? Look at their methodology. It's described here and and every one of these factors, to some extent, includes 'self-reported by Niche users', er,  data....where they appear to have very few data points given the number of surveys cited..

Niche.com is a commercial site running real estate ads. Want an alternative? This measure of student growth from Stanford shows North Shore outperforming many of these districts. This site ranks us second in Nassau County (only just squeezed out by Jericho). It's called School Digger and only uses test scores from NYSED.

The Case for Air Conditioning

This recent article from the Washington Post is a great summary of the issues and the research:

Answer Sheet: When is it too hot to go to school?

As a local example, on June 17 and 18 in 2018, the temperature hit 90F --  our high and middle school students were taking Regents and other final exams. Our fifth graders were having graduation ceremonies, our auditoriums full of family members and a couple of fans. Eight days that month crossed the 85F mark before school ended for the year. Our aging buildings unfortunately trap and hold that heat.

Temperature has been tied to productivity generally and academic achievement specifically.

It is true that we do not need air conditioning for most of the school year but it's also true that we don't want to lose multiple days of learning or face the possibility of closing school before or during AP, IB or Regents exams. Likewise, we do have students who need summer school and other services in our buildings during the hottest months.

Here's a picture from just this past June from inside one of our elementary school classrooms:


Yes - it says 101.8F.

Here's the weather almanac for Sea Cliff as another way to think about temperatures:

Source: https://weather.com/weather/monthly/l/11579:4:US

New Online Tool Measures Economic Impact of N.Y. Districts on Communities, Regions, State

Education Week recently published the fascinating article, New Online Tool Measures Economic Impact of N.Y. Districts on Communities, Regions, State which describes how important our schools are to our local economy based on new research here in New York.

The economic impact calculator itself can be found here on the Association of School Business Officials New York site.

Here's the local economic impact alone of the North Shore School District (see more at ASBONY site):

Why hold the bond vote in December?

Why hold the bond vote this December?

By voting in December, we hope to be able to start work this summer rather than the summer of 2021. If the voters of our district approve the bond, the district then has to begin the (often long) process of securing NYSED's approval. Scheduling infrastructure work in such a way that school is not disrupted is obviously important nor do we want a further delay in these improvements. Likewise, given the time needed to plan this bond, the timing of the retiring debt, and legal notices and procedures required, scheduling the vote for significantly earlier in the year was not realistic for the district.

And yes, there will be plenty of parking on Dec. 10. The district worked very hard last May to secure ample, convenient parking for all voters.

Test Scores and Rankings

For those interested in school rankings and test scores, here's some interesting data.

Here are North Shore's most recent state testing results:

North Shore clearly outperforms the state average. But what about our neighboring districts?

Here are our math scores:

North Shore's proficiency of 89% compares well to our neighbors' 81, 88 and 82%.

On the ELA portion:

North Shore's proficiency is 82% and the neighbors are at 80, 85 and 78%.

According to Niche.com's 2020 rankings, these neighboring districts are the #1, #2 and #7 best school districts in New York state, respectively. Read more about their rankings here and check out some alternatives, too.

Research out of Stanford shows that this measure of student growth has North Shore outperforming many of these districts. Another rankings site lists North Shore as second in Nassau County (only just squeezed out by Jericho). It's called School Digger and only uses test scores from NYSED. Finally, here's another view of the Stanford data showing the students in the best districts in Nassau County learn 20% more each year than the national average -- and that's North Shore.

Test score data source: https://data.nysed.gov/lists.php?type=district
Niche.com's 2020 Best School Districts in NY: https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-school-districts/s/new-york/

A Tax Neutral Bond

How can North Shore's proposed bond be "tax neutral"? Basically, as older debt is paid off, we can replace it with new debt, and the district has older debt retiring now in a low interest rate environment. Here are several options for additional explanation:

1.  You can watch this description from a financial advisor at Capital Market Advisors from a previous bond forum. Click here and and scroll to the 2019 June 18 - Bond Video. If you like, skip ahead to the 1:11:30 mark. 
2. The district has posted bond information here including a link on 'tax neutral.'
3. Read Superintendent Dr. Giarrizzo's recent email posted here. If you do not receive North Shore CSD's emails but would like to, click here.

From: Peter Giarrizzo
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2019 12:27:13 PM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
To: Jones, Sara
Subject: Tax Neutral- Say What?! Bond Question of the Week!!

Dear North Shore Parents, Community Members, and Faculty,

December 10, 2019 will be the day that we ask our taxpayers to vote upon the proposed bond referendum. From now until then, I will be publishing the answer to a weekly question of the week that is important for you to understand and one that we hear of frequently within the community.    

Q. What the heck does tax neutral really mean and how can it possibly be that the proposed North Shore Bond is tax neutral?

A. The primary assumption made in planning this bond has been to achieve a payment schedule that remains flat from year to year. The bond payments from the 1999 Bond Referendum retired in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. In addition, two more bonds will retire in 2022-2023 and then again in 2025-2026. Our Board directed us to keep the projected principal and interest payments from this proposed bond AT or LESS than the amounts that are being retired. By doing so, the projected new annual bond payments will be at or less than all three of the retiring bonds combined.

We now have a very unique funding opportunity that will allow us to address significant and substantial needs in infrastructure, safety and security, health and wellness, and our use of instructional space. Here is how the funding will work over the next five years. You will see that on balance, the impact to the taxpayers is essentially flat or neutral.

This proposed referendum is a major investment in our schools and facts are important. It is a process that has involved years of planning, research and much community input. The implementation will involve even more planning and a competitive bidding process to ensure that we get the most value for our spending. As always, if you have a questions, please contact me directly or join me at any number of upcoming events. This week, there is Coffee and Conversation at my office at 9:30 am.  If you would like to join me on a building tour this Saturday, November 2, 2019 at 10 am, please RSVP to Betty Ciampi at ciampb@northshoreschools.org by Thursday morning, at 9 am.  For more information on the bond, please visit http://www.northshoreschools.org/boe/bond.html

Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, November 13th at 7 pm at North Shore High School where our parent organizations will host a information night on the bond via a short presentation in the Theatre and small group break-out informational sessions in the Cafeteria.  I hope that you can join us!!

Stay tuned for more information and next week's Bond Question!

Very truly yours,

Peter Giarrizzo, Ed. D.

Superintendent of Schools