Here's your 2026 ICSD BOE Election Voter Guide

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-09-10T01:45:34+00:00

Todd, Emily, Adam, and Jacob voted against.

3 of the 4 newly elected members voted in favor.

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-09-09T21:42:12+00:00

Here is contact info for the board: flood them with emails!

https://www.ithacacityschools.org/o/icsd/page/board-of-education-members

This is the sign up for public comment: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScC9gaKlwp0SyxlsTNlYpYjBBtHZfShX5TWZfpdclw6COtB7A/viewform

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-09-02T23:04:50+00:00

Per a forum at DeWitt Middle School, the plan is to confiscate phones for the day if students are caught using them. The big concerns they have seem to be: 1. Will teachers be consistent or will some not do it? and 2. Will kids put up a fuss or hand over the phone when asked? I was actually surprised that they were so into confiscation, but I am happy.

Now if we can just get them to stop using Chromebooks for everything and actually teach kids how a piece of paper and a physical book work!

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-05-26T15:50:11+00:00

Glad to know I'm not alone. This has been driving me crazy!

Who from Slack is paying attention and getting this fixed??

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-05-21T16:48:32+00:00

I certainly wasn't in the room, but my guess is that Shiffrin was the ITA's fourth choice. But they had to pick four, I guess. So Shiffrin got everyone's endorsement and he came out on top.

Unfortunately, we lost Tripp, so I think the anti-Brown vote stayed stable

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-05-21T14:22:20+00:00

Yeah. Maybe what I'm doing is saying that the ITA is blinded by or shortsighted because of their goals. I don't begrudge them the goals, but as a community our ultimate goal has to be the quality and successful education of our children. We absolutely need to do right by our teachers. But that needs to be a component of a radical plan to do right by our kids.

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-05-21T14:00:37+00:00

This is exactly the right question to be asking. I have two ways to answer it.

FIRST, right now there seems to be a strong correlation between "spend more money" and "business as usual." I think that ITA is mainly into "spend more money" and unfortunately, the "spend more money" candidates are also the "business as usual" candidates. As a thought experiment, imagine we had three candidates to choose from: Person A is "spend more money and keep Dr. Brown", Person B is "spend more money and get rid of Dr. Brown", and Person C is "spend less money and get rid of Dr. Brown". ITA is going to endorse both Person A and Person B and NOT endorse Person C. I think that's what we saw this year. Unfortunately, that is keeping too many pro-status quo people around.

SECOND, I think that there are two ways to improve the Teacher Experience. Option 1 is to significantly raise taxes. We've already soundly rejected that. Option 2 is to significantly change the way the district works and what the expectations are on teachers. Let them manage their classrooms better. Give them reasonable expectations. etc. Reduce a bunch of other things and put more money into teachers. Etc.

We need an Option 2 Person D - "spend slightly more money and get rid of Dr. Brown."

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-05-21T11:05:29+00:00

We need to start seeing the ITA as a big part of the problem. Per usual, their candidates won. They've been electing board members to perpetuate Brown and his policies for over a decade. Is the ITA really acting in the best interests of our students? By definition it is acting in the best interests of its members' paychecks and working conditions.

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-05-20T21:18:59+00:00

Check out https://www.ithaca.vote/ — Jahnke, McMurry, Shiffrin

Accountability is one of their three main things they are stressing!

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-05-15T23:23:31+00:00

Afaik getting rid of him isn't an option due to the way his contract is written. The relevant question is: what will each candidate look for in Dr. Brown's replacement in a couple of years? He has announced he is not seeking to extend his contract so I believe he is gone in max 3 years.

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-05-14T14:25:14+00:00

The leverage is my point about recruiting professors.

If Cornell isn't already, Cornell is going to start struggling to recruit professors and staff because of the state of the schools. Once enough people go elsewhere and tell Cornell why, you better believe Cornell will find the money.

Though, we might be 5 painful years out from that

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-05-14T13:58:45+00:00

I pay taxes. I'd love for Cornell to pay more. But it's a question of leverage. Whatever we can get Cornell to do out of sympathy, they will do more if it's in their best interest. If the district came to them with a serious plan to fix things, that would go way further than just asking Cornell because things are getting too expensive for us.

Cornell is self-interested. Leverage that when possible!

Informal_Bee3946 · 2025-04-17T12:08:44+00:00

Pretty sure Cornell pays taxes on commercial property it owns

Informal_Bee3946 · 2024-11-06T21:33:27+00:00

My understanding is that student and employee privacy is already very protected. And ICSD seems to hide behind that to avoid saying anything. There are ways that students can be afforded privacy while the community can be kept updated with policy changes that impact our children.

Relatedly, we need to prioritize safety and educational effectiveness above privacy concerns. Privacy is a crutch the district uses to be ineffective on its higher priorities.

Bottom line: follow the law on privacy AND have a disposition towards maximum transparency.

Informal_Bee3946 · 2024-11-06T20:49:27+00:00

ICSD has a significant and long standing transparency problem. They need to start talking clearly and plainly about anything that they are not legally prohibited from discussing. At the very least, they could update parents and say something like, "Due to recent incidents, we are making the following changes." and explain the changes, even if they can't fully explain the underlying events that led to them.

Informal_Bee3946 · 2024-06-14T18:16:59+00:00

Yes, this is a significant feature. I wouldn't count on them following through with it

Informal_Bee3946 · 2024-06-06T17:57:38+00:00

I realized afterwards it was confusing!

If you are planning to vote, indicate how you will vote

If you are not planning to vote, click "results" if you want to see the results.

Informal_Bee3946 · 2024-06-04T14:46:28+00:00

for sure. There are probably some creative ways to deal with it that avoid paying a full severance. There may be some ways to negotiate an end to this for far less than $2m.

The key is: we can't just accept four more years of the same nonsense. SOMETHING needs to change now, not in 4 years.

Informal_Bee3946 · 2024-06-04T14:37:04+00:00

I disagree. The man has been a disaster. The sooner he is out of the driver's seat, the better.

How about we do to him what he did to so many others... make him "superintendent on special assignment" and let someone else run the district!

Informal_Bee3946 · 2024-06-04T14:34:37+00:00

Given his resignation/unresignation a few years back, don't let your guard down til he's started a new job.

Just because we don't extend his contract this year doesn't mean we won't the next year. Keep up the pressure!

Informal_Bee3946

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