Chautauqua County Teachers' Center

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Information About the Chautauqua County Teachers' Center

Policy Board Members

Center Description

The Chautauqua County Teachers' Center is located in the most southwestern region of New York State. The Center serves teachers, administrators, support personnel and other educational stakeholders from 28 school districts--21 public school systems and 6 private school districts. All but two of the districts in this consortium are classified as rural. The remaining two school districts are classified by the state as small city school districts.

Chautauqua County is an economically depressed area. Many businesses have downsized, closed or moved out of state. Due to the fiscal constraints of the region, districts often find it difficult to maintain quality programs, let alone focus on the implementation of new state initiatives. As districts in rural western New York continue to face severe fiscal challenges, more and more of them are investigating the possibility of merging with neighboring districts or sharing as many services as possible. Recently, two of the districts is the CCTC consortium merged.

Two of the non-public schools and two of the public districts are non-traditional. They serve only students who are considered "At-Risk." Gustavus Adolphus is a boarding school for students with emotional disorders. The Cassadaga Job Corps is also a boarding facility, franchised by the US Department of Labor, whose clients are "drop-outs" primarily from the metropolitan New York City area who are attempting to complete the requirements for a high school diploma. The third non-traditional school is Randolph Academy Union Free School District. This is a residential facility which serves only special education students in grades K-12. The Center also serves the Lakeview Shock Incarceration Facility. This facility provides educational/vocational programming in a military boot camp atmosphere to young, first offenders with felony convictions, an innovative concept in detention.

The Center office, housed in the Alltel building in the southern end of the Teachers' Center Consortium, is located within the Jamestown Public School District. Jamestown has provided the Center with half of the fourth floor plus a training area that is shared with Jamestown staff developers. Currently, there are three staff members--two full-time professionals (director and assistant director), and one full-time support staff person (teacher center assistant).

The CCTC consortium is predominantly rural and serves a large geographic area that basically extends south of Buffalo to the Pennsylvania line. No single newspaper/publication, television station or telephone company serves our entire geographic area. Therefore, the role of the school districts becomes paramount in disseminating information regarding state initiatives, legislative news and legal mandates. Our building representatives play a crucial role in ensuring that state information, Center activities and services available are communicated to the appropriate personnel in a timely manner. It is important for Center services to be accessible to its constituents within reasonable driving distances. Most Center activities are housed in districts throughout the county. The Center is open during the school day as well as one evening per week until 7 PM so that participants are able to more easily take advantage of special technologies and services housed in the Center office. Teachers on the north side of the county may use the Instructional Media Services Center (Thompson Hall--second floor) at SUNY College at Fredonia. Ellison Lettering Machines, a laminator and a spiral binding machine are available to use in this location.

Fourteen of the twenty-one public school districts have full-time superintendents. The superintendents in the remaining seven public and all of the non-public school districts serve a dual function of superintendent and building principal. There are 73 building principals and assistant principals in the Center consortium. Recently, there has been a tremendous turnover in leadership in both superintendent and building principal positions in our member districts.

As a result of the fiscal constraints of the region, information regarding the needs of teachers in the consortium does not always indicate a need for staff development on the current state initiatives in a timely manner. In some districts, it appears that the new state initiatives have assumed a lower priority given daily operations and fiscal concerns. Often teachers in the area respond to new initiatives after they have been confirmed, rather than act proactively when they are proposed.

STUDENT PROFILE

The Chautauqua County Teachers' Center serves approximately 28,000 students from twenty-one public and six non-public schools. A statistical analysis of the students in the consortium indicates that 91.5 percent are Caucasian, 4.8 percent are Hispanic, 2.2 percent are black, and the remaining students are primarily Native American or Asian. In interpreting these statistics, one must consider the student demography of specific school districts. Several of the districts in the consortium have large concentrations of students from multicultural backgrounds (e.g., Dunkirk, Jamestown, Silver Creek).

District students have a 95 percent average attendance rate. Consortium school districts' dropout rates range from 0 to 5 percent, with the average being 2.2 percent. Approximately 39 percent of the students in the Chautauqua County Teachers' Center consortium receive Regents diplomas each year. Seventy-five percent of consortium districts awarded more Regents diplomas in 1994 than they did in 1989. In several districts a significant number of students come under the classification "economically deprived." An average of 43 percent of the students in Chautauqua County qualify for free or reduced lunches. According to the recent Report to the Governor and Legislature on the Educational Statusof New York State's Schools, approximately half of the districts in the consortium have unusually high numbers of disadvantaged children who have not been given an adequate opportunity to learn and succeed. Summer programs, designed specifically for migrant children whose parents are itinerant crop harvesters, are a serious priority. A significant number of preschool children in the consortium participate in Head Start programs and are designated "economically deprived." Economically disadvantaged preschool children are provided with early educational experiences through grant funded pre-kindergarten programs. A number of districts have programs established to deal specifically with "At-Risk" students, such as the Alternative Education Program and the School to Employment Program (STEP). The Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES offers Alternative Education Programs with students enrolled from fourteen CCTC districts. In addition, two programs (Growing Together and TEAM) also via BOCES shared services, serve pregnant teens from twelve school districts. There is also a GED course, offered at the BOCES LoGuidice Center, serving students from four Chautauqua County Teachers' Center districts. Supplemental Services to At-Risk students are provided by the Liberty Partnerships, Upward Bound, Jamestown Community Schools, SAFARI, and the Tutoring Program sponsored by the Education Club at SUNY College at Fredonia.

HIGHER EDUCATION FACULTY

There are two institutions of higher education involved in teacher preparation within the consortium: State University of New York College at Fredonia and Jamestown Community College. SUNY College at Fredonia offers undergraduate programs in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, and Secondary Education. Graduate programs include Curriculum and Instruction and School Administration. SUNY College at Fredonia offers undergraduate and graduate programs in Special Education in cooperation with SUNY College at Buffalo. Twelve full-time faculty members have been charged with the responsibility of teacher training. Recently a new president was hired at SUNY Fredonia. The higher education representative on the CCTC Policy Board sought input from Policy Board members regarding this matter.

Jamestown Community College is a two-year liberal arts college. The Human Services Division has a State Education Department approved one-year certificate program in Early Childhood Development. Credits earned in this program are transferable into two-year and four-year degree programs. Jamestown Community College also offers a two-year degree in human services with an early childhood focus. Fifty percent of the graduates of this two-year degree transfer to four-year institutions. The program has three full-time faculty and fourteen adjunct faculty.

PARENTS

The parent population in the Chautauqua County Teachers' Consortium is diverse, paralleling that of the student population. Due to the agricultural focus of the county, there is a significant migrant population. Current data indicates that there are approximately thirty-eight thousand parents in the Center Consortium.

CENTER MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Chautauqua County Teachers' Center is to build a support system which will promote the exchange of educational programs and materials for all educational stakeholders within the consortium. By providing programs along with other agencies, the Teachers' Center will be able to meet the professional and personal needs of educators and other school personnel. (Revised by the Policy Board September, 1996.)