State suspends grant to Roosevelt schools

The state has suspended School Improvement Grants for 10 struggling districts -- including Roosevelt, which could lose $1.9 million -- for their failure to show how they would meet requirements for a new teacher and administrator evaluation system.

State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. said in a statement Tuesday that Roosevelt, Poughkeepsie, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and Rochester "showed real progress toward meeting the requirements," but fell short.

"If these six districts get back to the table immediately to address the shortcomings in their plans, the hearings should go well for them," he said.

Roosevelt school board member Alfred Taylor said his district worked hard to meet the deadline, was told it had satisfied the requirements and is being unfairly targeted by the state. Still, he said, the district will do its best to comply.

"We have no other choice," Taylor said. "The one thing we are not going to do is to give them ammunition to say we are not doing what we are supposed to do."

New York State United Teachers President Richard C. Iannuzzi called the state's decision shocking.

The department and King "have demonstrated that they have totally lost their way in shepherding real, meaningful reform," he said, and the department "is obviously more interested in being a bully than providing leadership."

The grants are designed to help boost student achievement. Roosevelt was taken over by the state a decade ago and is slowly regaining its independence.

All 10 districts, the only ones receiving this funding, have 30 days to request a hearing to determine if the grants were suspended without merit.

King did not comment on the application status of the other four districts, New York City, Schenectady, Yonkers and Greenburgh 11.

He said, too, that the New York City system has "let the students down."