Click here for a copy of the three-page report from the State Education Department to Buffalo School District General Counsel Michael J. Looby, dated March 31, 2009, which is written about in today’s Buffalo News. The report is a response to a school board request that the state investigate alleged leaks from board members to Buffalo News reporter Mark Sommer, regarding remarks made during an alleged executive session that took place on January 29, 2008.

Evidence does not support the claim that it was a properly convened executive session in the first place, not to mention the fact that Hon. James A. McLeod and Hon. Craig T. Hannah resigned (on April 15, 2008) from the ethics committee that conducted the ethics investigation—the day after it was pointed out by Artvoice that they were serving in that capacity in violation of the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York.

Note that the school board is so concerned with controlling information that the first two paragraphs of the state report deal with board president Mary Ruth Kapsiak’s failure to include essential evidence to the SED when she requested an investigation back on April 25, 2008, and again on November 20, 2008. The State Education Department did not even receive the evidence supporting the board’s request for an investigation until February 10, 2009.

Once they were provided the information, it only took 49 days for the legal counsel of the State Education Department to offer a determination that “reflects only the practical difficulties inherent in conclusively proving the alleged violations of law, and not vindication of the handling of this matter by either the Board or Williams.”

Imagine the good that could be done for the schoolchildren of Buffalo if the superintendent and school board spent more time thinking about them than they do thinking about their travel itineraries and legal strategies?

Without waiting for the results of a State Education Department investigation conducted two weeks ago at Academy School 44, the Buffalo School Board voted Wednesday night to extend a lucrative contract to Maryland firm ResulTech, to continue ongoing technical support. The expected outcome is to “increase student achievement, attendance, literacy and out-of school suspensions.”

After two years of ResulTech’s help, which has already cost the district $5.4 million (the new extension makes a grand total of $7.1 million), this year’s test scores show the following: Speaking to the attendance issue, only one third of these 7th and 8th graders took exams. Of the one hundred students that took the tests, 79% of 7th graders failed English, while 90% of the 8th graders failed English. In addition, 91% of the 7th graders failed Math, while 100% of the 8th grade students who took that exam failed it.

Voting to extend the ResulTech contract were (shown left to right) Mary Ruth Kapsiak (Board President, Central District), Catherine Collins (at large), Vivian Evans (East District), Florence Johnson (at large), and Pamela D. Perry-Cahill (Ferry District).

At large board member Chris Jacobs ordinarily votes in step with superintendent Williams—who advocates ResulTech despite its performance—but he voted against the contract extension. Jacobs felt the results of the State Education Department report should be considered before moving ahead another year.

The vote had been delayed since May 14, when it was pulled off the school board agenda at the last minute as stories surfaced in the media about Academy School 44. Teachers there harshly criticized ResulTech, which prompted the State Education Department investigation two weeks ago. The contract extension passed quietly this week as school ended, and as the public was distracted by the district’s inept response to the Crystal Barton/McKinley scandal, and the District Attorney’s response to the bungled handling of reported sexual abuse at school 67.

On the bright side, after two years of trying, ResulTech now has literally nowhere to go but up when it comes to producing improved results for 8th grade math.

The Buffalo Public Schools have spent over $25,000 conducting an investigation into alleged wrongdoing at McKinley High School last year. Here is the official statement from school board president Mary Ruth Kapsiak, sent to Artvoice via fax at 10:55 pm last night, June 11, 2008.