Schenectady City School District


The Schenectady City School District is a public city school district in the city of Schenectady in central Schenectady County, New York. The district has 20 operating school buildings and is a component district of the Capital Region Board of Cooperative Educational Services. It was established in 1854 and served 9971 students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade in the 2008-09 school year. That same year the district employed 728.8 FTE faculty members and the student-to-teacher ratio was 13.1. As of 2009, the district had the largest population of any school district in the Capital District.

Administration

Board of Education

The Board of Education is the authoritative legislative body of the school district. It approves policy and funding; sets committees and district priorities; and approves employment within the district, among other things. The BOE is made up of seven members. The BOE members for the 2014—2015 school year are Kathy Lewis, John Foley, Andrew Chestnut, Dharam Hitlall, Tanya Hull,Cheryl Nechamen and Ann Reilly.
Members are elected by district residents that are registered to vote. The election takes place on the third Tuesday in May annually. This is the same day as the budget vote; legally, it is known as the Annual Meeting. Any resident may run for a board seat once they deliver to the Board Clerk a petition containing a minimum number of signatures from district residents and meet specific requirements set forth by the state. Board members are not paid for their services to the district.

Superintendent

The Superintendent of Schools is Laurence T. Spring who began his tenure in 2012
. The Superintendent is the Chief Administrative Officer of the district and is responsible for the day to day operations of the district in addition to administering policies of the Board.

School buildings

Schenectady operates 15 elementary schools: ACC at Pleasant Valley, Elmer Avenue Elementary School, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Elementary School, Fulton Early Childhood Education Center, Hamilton Elementary School, Howe Early Childhood Education Center, Katharine Burr Blodgett Elementary School, Keane Elementary School, Lincoln Elementary School, M.L. King Magnet School, Paige Elementary School, Van Corlaer Elementary School, Woodlawn Elementary School, Yates Magnet Elementary School, and Zoller Elementary School; three middle schools: Mont Pleasant Middle School, Oneida Middle School, and Central Park Middle School; one high school: Schenectady High School; and one career and technical school: the Career Center at Steinmetz. The former Franklin School was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and the former Brandywine Avenue School in 1999.

Student body

Ethnicity

Students during the 2008-2009 school year:
Students during the 2008-2009 school year:
Data of passing rates for students taking Regents exams in the 2008-2009 school year:

Other statistics

According to reports, more than 75% of the class of 2009 intended on attending either a two-year or four-year college after graduating high school, about 40% of which planned on attending a four-year institution. The following is additional data for the 2008-2009 school year:
The district follows the general curriculum set forth by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, under the direction of the Commissioner of Education and the New York State Education Department. To graduate, a student must have at least four credits each of English and social studies; three credits each of math and science; two credits each of physical education and foreign language classes; one credit of fine art; and one-half credit of health. The student must also have at least 22 credits overall and pass a prescribed amount of state tests to receive a Regents diploma. For all subjects except physical education and health, a full-year course is equal to one credit. Each year of physical education is equal to one-half credit and one-half year of health class is equal to the required amount of health credit.