Superintendent Reynolds to Retire

The Record: Rens. school chief to retire

Gordon Reynolds, the superintendent of Rensselaer City School District, will call it quits at the end of next June after a 33-year career in education.

Doane Stuart Chapel Dedication

The Record: Video: Doane Stuart chapel ecumenical

The Doane Stuart School’s chapel, which was dedicated on Tuesday, has relics from several different religions including Christian, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam.

A Green School Renovation

The Record (for Greenbush Life): Green where possible… Doane Stuart School’s new campus

The building at 199 Washington Ave. in Rensselaer won’t be sitting vacant anymore, which would most likely have been its fate, had Doane Stuart School not declared it its new home.
...
“One of the ‘greenest’ things we did was to move into the building…rather than build new"...

To see the renovated campus: Doane Stuart Pics

Doane Stuart Pics

The Doane Stuart School's Open House, Sept. 12 [click to enlarge]. See earlier post.










































































UPDATE: Press Coverage

Times-Union, Sept. 17: Doane Stuart moves across Hudson River - Private school took over former Van Rensselaer Elementary building

RENSSELAER -- Someone was listening to all that praying from Richard Enemark.

The Record, Sept. 17: Somethings old, new for Doane Stuart

RENSSELAER — It’s not often that Art Deco designs are highlighted in the hallways with school lockers or that a school official’s office has a Tiffany grandfather clock from the turn of the 20th century. But, then again, the Doane Stuart School is not a typical educational institution.

Doane Stuart Open House

The Doane Stuart school is holding a Community Open House on Sat., Sept. 12 (tomorrow) from 10-11:30am at the former Van Rensselaer high school building (199 Washington Ave, Rensselaer). Stop by and see the extensive and beautiful renovations.

Here's an earlier post with a link to their remodeling photo gallery: Doane Stuart Renovation

Football Training Stories

The Record: Brown turned pain into gain for Rams

Jason Brown’s team mates can kid him now about the worn footpath on the side of the hill leading up to the Rensselaer High School practice field, but he was not in a joking mood at the beginning of practice in 2008.

The Exponent: Purdue's Independent Daily Student Newspaper: Sophomore feels ‘great’ after dropping weight with diet, exercise

Fifty pounds can make all the difference in playing ability.

Just ask sophomore offensive guard Ken Plue. ... The Rensselaer, N.Y., native came to Purdue as a four-star prospect...

Doane Stuart Renovation

Check out the New Campus Picture Gallery to see the progress of the Doane Stuart school's renovation of the old Van Rensselaer High School building [199 Washington Ave., Rensselaer, NY]

Learn more at the Doane Stuart web site: Doors Open - September 2009!

For background, here is an old blog post with links to the initial news articles: Doane Stuart Site

Aug. 4, 2009

Keep Sick Kids Home

UPDATE: Times-Union: Swine flu at Rensselaer elementary school

RENSSELAER -- On the last full day of school, the city school district reported this morning that one of its elementary students has swine flu.

Times-Union: Rensselaer schools: Keep sick kids home

The city school district has no cases of H1N1 influenza but has two cases of strep throat.

Parents - please don't bring them to work with you either! (I've never understood why people think this is OK.)

nySTART School "Report Cards"

The 2008 "School Report Cards" are available from the New York State Testing and Accountability Reporting Tool (nySTART). Click to see the Report Cards for the Rensselaer City School District (low marks for Graduation Rate and Students With Disabilities).

The Accountability and Overview Report provides enrollments, average class size, demographic factors, attendance and suspensions, teacher qualifications, and staff counts. ... Accountability measures at the elementary/middle level are English language arts, mathematics, and science; at the secondary level, they are English language arts, mathematics, and graduation rate.

The Comprehensive Information Report (CIR) provides annual results on Regents examinations, Regents competency tests, second language proficiency examinations, New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Tests, elementary - and middle-level social studies tests, and New York State Alternate Assessments, as well as cohort performance results in social studies and science. The CIR also provides information on high school completers and non-completers and on post-secondary plans of graduates.

North End Meeting - School Budget

The North End Neighborhood Association meets this Thur., May 14 at 7pm. Guest speaker Gordon Reynolds, school superintendent, discusses the school budget.

From the Superintendent's current message on the Rensselaer City School District site:

The Board of Education, Budget Advisory Committee and the administration have been working long hours on preparing a budget for the 2009-2010 school year. As you are aware, resources are tight in this economy and so it has been a challenging year. ... The Budget Vote is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, 2009 in the foyer of the auditorium with the polls open from 12:00 noon until 9:00 p.m.

North End Neighborhood Association meetings are held in the basement meeting room of the First Baptist Church at 1101 Washington Ave, Rensselaer, NY. The Association covers the 8th and 9th Wards (represented by Rich Mooney and Pat Jackson).

Doane Stuart Remodeling

Page 5 of the Doane Stuart May 2009 Newsletter shows more pictures of the remodeling efforts at the former Rensselaer High School on Washington Ave. Recent steps include restoring woodwork and replacing the roof.

RELATED STORY: Times-Union: Tense day on Pearl Street

ALBANY — A section of South Pearl Street between Mount Hope Drive and Doane Stuart Road was closed for several hours Monday after man reported seeing an intruder with a gun inside his apartment, police said.
...
Richard D. Enemark, headmaster at Doane Stuart, said police did not notify the school of the incident... "It was right on top of us," Enemark said, noting he's looking forward to the school's planned move across the Hudson River this summer to Rensselaer in part because of concerns about the security of the neighborhood around the school.

Doane Stuart Remodeling

The Doane Stuart School's April 2009 Newsletter (PDF file) has a cover story called "The Transformation Continues, Finding the Soul of Our New Home". There are photos of the renovation of the former Van Rensselaer High School building [199 Washington Ave., Rensselaer, NY]

Federal Stimulus for Schools

Times-Union: $50M lift for kids in school

Schumer says badly needed stimulus cash should arrive at region's districts in a month

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Wednesday that federal stimulus money will narrow local school districts' funding gaps.
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Total federal stimulus direct aid by school district.
...
Rensselaer City School District $467,836

Rensselaer High Musical

From The Independent (Indenews.com): School musical at stake due to budget cuts

By ASHLEY SALVINSKI 01/11/2009

RENSSELAER--It has been 10 years since the Rensselaer High School Drama Club was founded. A few years ago, drama club advisor and founder Deb Sklar's picture was posted on the wall of character, a very high honor. But will the show go on?
...
Ashley Salvinski, the editor in chief of the Rensselaer Rambler, is doing an internship with The Independent.

The Rensselaer Rambler has an issue available online (October 2008), which includes an interview with the Mayor: "DWYER’S PLANS FOR RECONSTUCTION ON HOMES DAMAGED IN THE FLOOD."

Tech Valley High

Tech Valley High School is a small regional public high school located in the RPI Tech Park. The school partners with regional businesses and economic development organizations to develop an appreciation for real world technologies and local industries such as biotech, nanotech, alternative energy, etc.

Press Release: Wanted: Students for innovative regional high school’s third class

From the Times-Union: Find out about Tech Valley High

Tech Valley High School will conduct tours and informational sessions over the coming months for eighth-grade students and their parents in the Capital Region interested in being a part of the innovative school that teaches students through project-based learning principles and focuses on what students need to be successful in a 21st century work force.

School District Audit

The Rensselaer School District had a tough ride in a recent state audit. Check out this Times Union article: Audit faults $300G in school purchases. There's more detail on the auditors recommendations at EmpireStateNews.net: Rensselaer City SD financial controls weak, says state comptroller.

The next meeting of the Rensselaer City School District Board of Education is Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 7pm in the LGI - Room 125. I don't have kids, so I don't have much curiosity about what the school board does. But a quick search for "audit" in the 2008 meeting minutes shows that they have already engaged a CPA firm for audits, as the state recommended.

I notice that the New York State School Boards Association is holding a conference in Albany next month called Fiscal Management in Hard Financial Times, which includes the following seminar - hope someone is going:

Monitoring Your District’s Finances: Hard financial times require that school boards be particularly scrupulous about their fiscal management responsibilities, including keeping expenditures within legally authorized budget appropriations, and protecting investments. Hear how your board and staff can effectively monitor your district’s financial condition to protect its fiscal health.

Doane Stuart Site

The former Van Rensselaer School at 199 Washington Ave. is crawling with construction equipment - perhaps the renovation requires some foundation work. The empty building was sold to the Doane Stuart School last month, and according to their newsletter, the school plans to start the year on the Rensselaer campus in the fall of 2009.

Doane Stuart's September 2008 Newsletter (a PDF file) shows an architectural drawing of the planned streetside view, so you can see what they're planning with the landscaping. (Think big brick wall, but not in a bad way.)

In case you missed the earlier news coverage, here is a Sept. 26 Times-Union's article about the purchase, and last week's update in the Business Review.