Category: Daily News Reports

YONKERS PROUD: The Charter School of Educational Excellence (CSEE) serves children in #Yonkers, the Bronx and Westchester County, and already is one of the region’s highest performing tuition-free, public schools.

YONKERS, NY – Now the Charter School of Educational Excellence been recognized by the New York State Board of Regents as a “recognition school” for the sixth straight year. #CSEE is continuing to accept applications from outside Yonkers for the 2020-21 school year.

QUOTE: “These are exemplary public schools that demonstrate that all students can achieve at high levels with the right supports and resources,” Board of Regents Chancellor #BettyRosa said in a news release late last week.

“Recognition Schools help to ensure equity for all children across New York State. The Regents and I are grateful to all of the teachers and administrators who, in concerted effort with their school communities, are guiding our students toward success.”

“Recognition schools are the highest performing and rapidly improving schools across the state,” Interim Commissioner #ShannonTahoe said in the same news release.

“Recognition Schools across the state demonstrate the relentless commitment of teachers, administrators, staff and parents, without whom this growth would not have been possible.”

This is the 6th straight year the Regents have recognized CSEE in this select group. (Note: the designation was changed this year from Reward School to Recognition School.)

The award comes as CSEE continues to deliver strong remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 shutdown, with average student attendance at 95 percent.

All academic and extracurricular programs are continuing, including CSEE’s unique partnerships with the Giants, Jets, Knicks and the nation’s top orthopedics and sports medicine hospital, the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.

CSEE has ensured that all students have access to educational technology, including laptops and WiFi.

“We thank the Board of Regents, Chancellor Rosa and Interim Commissioner Tahoe for this honor,” CSEE Board Chair and Founder #EduardoLaGuerre said.

“It’s a tribute to our hard-working teachers, school leaders, coaches, board members and all our staff, and of course to our scholars, their parents and entire families. Everyone in the CSEE family is dedicated to learning, growth and development of the whole child.”

CSEE Superintendent Cindy Lopez, in an email to staff, said: “It is because of you and your dedication and unwavering faith in our work as a team, faith in our students and families that CSEE has once again received recognition from the state as being a highly effective school. I cannot wait for us to be together, back in our buildings so that we may celebrate.”

To be identified as a Recognition School under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, a school must:

● have an accountability status of Good Standing;

● have a Level 4 for the Combined Composite Performance and Growth indicator for elementary and middle schools or a Level 4 for the Combined Composite Performance and Graduation Rate for high schools for the All Students group;

● not have a Level 1 for any accountability indicator (English language arts (ELA) and mathematics progress; Chronic Absenteeism; English language Proficiency; College, Career, and Civic Readiness for High Schools) for the All Students group;

● not have any subgroups that were identified as Potential Targeted Support and Improvement (PTSI) based on 2018-19 school year results; and

● not have a 2018-19 Participation Rate for ELA or Math for the All Students group that is less than 95%. If a school did not have enough students to receive a participation rate, the school is still eligible to be identified as a Recognition School.

CSEE educates some 850 students in grades K-9 and will grow to K-12 in the next three years.

Upon completion of its new, privately funded high school campus, CSEE will be serving approximately 1,150 students.

Parent demand is very high, with some 500 students on CSEE’s waiting list.

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ABOUT CSEE: Like all charter public schools, the Charter School of Educational Excellence is tuition free.

#CSEE is one of the highest-performing charter public schools in New York State, outperforming the #WestchesterCounty and statewide averages in every academic category.

Last year, 97% of CSEE 8th graders scored proficient on the ELA assessment and 100% of 8th grade students took the high school level math and science exams.

More than 92% passed the Algebra I Regents and 90% passed the Living Environment Regents, earning credits towards high school graduation.

Only 13 percent of New York’s public schools merited Recognition Award status this year.

www.charterschoolofeducationalexcellence.org/

Follow The Charter School of Educational Excellence On Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/cseeowls/?hl=en

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At St. Peter and Denis parish in Yonkers, a group of women have been sewing protective masks in their homes for needy families as a way to help protect them from the coronavirus pandemic—a gesture that has been met with gratitude from families receiving the masks and meals at the parish food pantry.

The venture began three weeks ago.

“The women are using their skills and creativity to help in this crisis.

Ms. Hernandez is the day laborer organizer for CCCS Westchester. The 12 women who sew, most of them Hispanic immigrants, are members of a years-long sewing class conducted in the church basement before the crisis safety restrictions began.

The class is headed by Agueda Zavaleta, a volunteer sewing teacher; she and most of the women in the group are wives of day laborers.

Each woman uses her own sewing machine at home, with donated cloth and thread to carry out their good deed via Catholic Charities, which distributes the protective masks to people who are most in need in the Yonkers area.

Catholic Charities organizers said three members of the group were among parish women who made altar cloths used by Pope Francis during Masses he celebrated during his visit to the archdiocese in September 2015.

This is about helping to save lives and they pray for the sick, that they recuperate quickly.

Ms. Marroquin, a married mother of three, noted that in 2015, “we made five tablecloths for the pope; there were about 12 of us.”

She said she learned a lot about sewing back then, later left the group and eventually returned to improve her skills even more.

Her husband, Umberto Lopez, is a day laborer.

Esmeralda Hoscoy, regional director of CCCS Westchester, said that of the several hundred masks that have been made, some have been given to frontline CC volunteer staffers doing community work and working the food pantries at the parish and the nearby CCCS Westchester office—and many masks have been distributed to families who go to the food pantries, by request.

There are also masks that have been sold as a way to raise funds to pay some of the women in the sewing group who are out of work because of the coronavirus crisis.

The sales have been mostly to persons interested in supporting the Catholic Charities mission, in lieu of buying masks at a for-profit business. CCCS Westchester plans to sell some masks to businesses, and to nonprofit organizations.

“These masks are helping to protect and possibly even save lives,” Ms. Hoscoy said. “On Wednesday alone when we distributed food (at the CCCS office), each volunteer was exposed to 300 persons between the two-hour timeframe.”

The parish church is on Ludlow Street; its food pantry is typically open on Tuesdays. The CCCS office is about three blocks away on Hawthorne Avenue; its pantry operates sporadically, mostly on Wednesdays in recent weeks.

“They (the sewing group women) are doing it to help protect others,” Ms. Hoscoy said. “It also keeps them busy. These are women who, like everyone else, are stuck at home. This gives them a goal. This gives them a challenge, and they’re proud of their work.”

Information or to donate material: (888) 744-7900.

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Day laborer and other advocacy groups are calling on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to provide COVID-19 relief funding for undocumented immigrant workers across the state, pointing to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent announcement that California will designate $125 million in relief funds to its undocumented workers.

“It is critical that New York provide safety net support to all individuals, regardless of federal immigration status,” wrote the the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in a letter delivered to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office on Friday and signed by some 48 organizations that the group said work closely with day laborers and low wage workers in New York, including a sign-on by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The letter added, “Thousands of immigrants across NY have lost their jobs and have no income to rely on or income support.

Still, tens of thousands more continue to work in frontline work without access to health care or income support, although they are doing the very work that allows many New Yorkers to stay safe at home.”

On Thursday, Andrew Cuomo was asked by media about Newsom’s decision to provide $500 to 150,000 to illegal immigrants in his state that do not receive any assistance under the $2.2 trillion recent stimulus package approved by President Donald Trump and Congress, according to The New York Post.

“We’re looking into it but we have real financial problems,” Cuomo said when pressed, the Post reported, adding that he also said, “The federal government should have a more inclusive policy.”

For the advocacy groups who signed onto the letter delivered to Cuomo, his answers have not been good enough.

The National Day Laborer network said in one of its news releases Friday that Cuomo, in its view, is “deflecting from questions” on the issue, and said that the media call giving personal accounts and stories was another way that immigrant workers could talk about “the impact of coronavirus and demand that Governor Cuomo ensure that undocumented workers have access to sick leave, unemployment insurance, necessary protective gear, and all testing, treatment, and relief.”

In the letter to Cuomo signed by the dozens of groups, they wrote that “the coronavirus pandemic is bringing the dangerous hypocrisy of trumpism into full focus.

The crisis makes clear that undocumented workers – including day laborers, janitors, restaurant workers, healthcare staff, domestic workers, farmworkers, factory and construction workers – are all essential workers.”

The letter continued, “In order to address our current economic crisis and effectively spur demand in our local communities, it is critical that New York provide safety net support to all individuals, regardless of federal immigration status,” and the groups in the letter said that among various options for relief, New York State could:

Create a “Temporary Wage Replacement Program” for workers excluded from unemployment insurance. “This fund should provide income replacement for individuals who have lost wages due to COVID-19 but are excluded from unemployment insurance using a fund of state dollars, or unrestricted federal funds,” said the groups.

Allocate funds to community-based organizations and partner organizations within New York to distribute food, service, and other supports for workers and families

Provide immediate cash relief for those affected by the pandemic through organizations and trusted partners. “This emergency funding, like stimulus funding, should be available quickly, in order to allow community members to stay,” the groups added in the letter.

The network said in a news release that New York State has nearly 750,000 undocumented immigrants, with about 1 in 12 U.S. citizen children in New York living with at least one undocumented family member.

It also claimed that “undocumented workers pay an estimated $1 billion annually in state and local taxes in New York, and yet they are currently left out of federal and state relief programs”—including, according to the letter to Cuomo, federal stimulus payments, state unemployment benefits, federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) and most temporary leave and disability payments.

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Legislative leaders have vowed to keep working laws until now and the end of the legislative session in June, possibly working remotely to do the people’s business.

Some worry that New York lawmakers are not ready to properly protect and provide for the well-being of residents needs.

Last week legislative leaders established a system for remote voting, but it appears to be mainly for voting on the governor’s initiatives.

Currently, four members of the Assembly and one senator have tested positive for COVID-19.

Governor Andrew Cuomo doubts that the Democratic-led legislature will get things done with remote voting.

Yonkers’ Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says the session is not over, but the governor thinks that it’s effectively over.

Governor Andrew Cuomo had several policy wins in the budget as the legislature rubber stamped his desires during the pandemic.

Voting advocates say in light of the ongoing pandemic the legislature and governor should expand absentee voting.

Many voters think that now that the budget is finalized its time for lawmakers to address urgent policy issues and COVID-19 related legislation like expanding absentee voting.

Following a planned post-budget two week break, lawmakers only have 19 session days remaining on the calendar.

There is no word on if legislative leaders intend to work past the scheduled conclusion of the session on June 2nd.

Last week, Stewart-Cousins made clear, for the moment at least, she intends to continue working.

“We’ll be meeting again, and we’ll be accomplishing so much more.”

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Yonkers residents are already reeling from County Executive George Latimer reporting Saturday that there are 1,160 confirmed coronavirus cases in the city, especial since it was up from 969 cases the day before.

UPDATE: As of Sunday, COVID-19 has infected 1,273 Yonkers residents

However, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has been suggesting that data suggests the number of confirmed cases will flatten out in a week to ten days.

On Sunday Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that New York state has seen its first drop in daily coronavirus deaths.

Andrew Cuomo also said New York also experienced a slight drop in intensive care admissions and the number of patients who need breathing tubes inserted.

However, no one is sure if this slight drop in the number of deaths indicates that the New York State, Westchester County or Yonkers is at an apex of coronavirus fatalities.

This could simply be a brief plateau before the cases rise again.

Yonkers City Hall Insiders are still predicting that we’re going to continue to see an escalation and they say that social distancing measures, are even more necessary to decreasing the number of new cases in the city of hills.

It is going to be very disturbing to some, that’s what’s going to happen till rate of new cases flattens out.

Yonkersites need to continue to do the physical separation, because we got to get through this coming week.

Hospital workers tell the Yonkers Newswire that the Westchester County death toll from COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, was almost certainly higher than reported, due to a lack of testing as well as some reporting errors.

The good news is that the number of beds at Yonkers Hospitals doesn’t really seem to matter anymore, there are currently more than enough beds in place and patients are not being stacked up in the hallways.

But, Yonkers patients could potentially be taken from a hospitals that reaches capacity to a hospital that still has room, but that hospital may not be in their community,

Hopefully it would not be at Westchester’s temporary hospital at the county center

But the remaining troubling issue is still the ventilators and then there is the worry the staff on the front lines.

What is hard for some members of Yonkers society to grasp is that many people may have the virus but not experience any symptoms, while still being able to infect others.

Some Yonkers residents have argued in favor of implementing a city lock down.

Social service agencies in Yonkers are urging residents not to gather with family members who they do not live with as the holidays of Easter and Passover come upon us.

One thing President Donald Trump has backed is federal guidelines that call for social distancing through April 30th.

The federal government has protected 100,000 to 240,000 will die in the U.S. even with stringent social distancing measures.

However, they say that number would likely be much higher – from 1 million to 2.2 million – if the policies were not implemented.

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Starting immediately, residents can upgrade their skills set as many residents are in need of jobs as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

“As COVID-19 precautionary measures include encouraging residents stay at home as much as possible, Metrix provides residents with an invaluable opportunity to make productive use of their time by learning skills that employers value,” said Mayor Spano.

“I encourage those who are looking to sharpen their skills and jump back into the workforce once the pandemic subsides to take these courses.”

Residents can complete online classes, explore career pathways and prepare for industry-recognized certifications to upgrade existing skills or learn new skills, whether an individual is looking for a first job, a new job, or to advance in their chosen field.

“Skill Up Yonkers” also provides Westchester County residents free access to the nationally recognized SkillSoft courses. The access will be valid for six months or 180 days and residents can complete as many courses as they would like.

The Metrix E-learning system has a catalog of over 5,500 courses that include topics such as: business, information technology, manufacturing, customer service, retail, finance, and much more.

The “Prove It” feature in Metrix offers assessments which can be used by job seekers to evaluate and document knowledge and skills in a given area.

The Metrix System is accessible around the clock to anyone with internet access. People can work at their own pace through a variety of courses that teach both technical and soft skills; and users receive a personalized training plan.

Residents who previously signed up for a free account have earned certificates and digital badges in areas such as Project Management, Microsoft Word & Excel, HIPAA, Human Resources, Accounting, Food Industry Standards, Leadership and Team Building.

Certificates were also earned in computer and IT fields such as Networking, CompTIA, Windows, Adobe and Information Security.

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Yonkers Assemblyman Nader J. Sayegh is encouraging the City of Yonkers and the Yonkers Parking Authority to suspend on-street meter parking enforcement for the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The City of Yonkers already makes accommodations for residents who have to park their vehicles overnight under the presumption that they’re home,” said Assemblyman Sayegh.

“Now more than ever, Yonkers residents are staying home to help flatten the curve. Suspending parking enforcement for the duration of this outbreak is an extension of longstanding courtesy that has always been made to our residents. More importantly, it’s the right thing to do.”

Assemblyman Sayegh noted that many other major cities in New York State have also suspended on-street meter parking enforcement including Syracuse, Rochester, and Albany.

Other cities in Westchester that have also suspended their enforcement include New Rochelle and Mount Vernon.

“We’re hearing from constituents who are trying to be responsible citizens and do the right thing but unfortunately being penalized for it,” said Assemblyman Sayegh.

“One essential worker reached out to my office after they parked in the vicinity of St.Joseph’s Medical Center to get tested for COVID-19, only to return to a parking violation on their windshield. Some things are more important than revenue, this is one of them.”

Assemblyman Sayegh also urged the City of Yonkers to retroactively dismiss tickets which were issued from the beginning of Governor Cuomo’s PAUSE Executive Order on March 20th, 2020.

“During this unprecedented crisis, we should be coming together to do everything in our power to make the lives of all residents easier.

In a time of sudden economic insecurity, social isolation, and great anxiety, this is one less concern our residents should have to think about.”

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A City Hall source says that more than 15 percent of the Yonkers Police Department are are out sick amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the city of hills.

The city hall insider working from home says approximately 90 Yonkers PD officers and other department workers are unable to come to work

Last week Yonkers Tribune publisher Hezi Aris wrote that 30 YPD officers have now tested positive for the potentially deadly virus.

During a Q&A session streamed live from police headquarters on Facebook Yonkers Police Commissioner John Mueller said he has ended two man patrol cars.

Yonkers’ top cop also noted that Mayor Mike Spano’s Health Advisory Board Chairman Dr. Ammir Rabadi had provided each precinct with thermometers for daily officer readings in an effort to combat the spread of coronavirus.

As reported last week in the Yonkers Free Press, the short staffed YPD is able to perform with less officers, because crime is down now that more and more people are off the street.

The Police Commissioner also disclosed that calls to Yonkers Police Department dispatchers are down.

The Yonkers PD has not been tough on officers calling out sick amid the coronavirus crisis.

Keith Olson the President of the Yonkers Police Benevolent Association said in a YouTube video that one officer will be cleared to return to work in a couple of days.

During the Facebook Q&A session, Yonkers Police Commissioner John Mueller said YPD officers were practicing social distancing protocols in the precincts and if possible asking civilian complaintants to meet officers outside of buildings.

Just south of Yonkers Five NYPD officers have already died as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Meanwhile, the Yonkers Office of Emergency management is asking for donations of masks, gloves and packets of hand sanitizer for the police department and other first responders in the city of hills.

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