CSEA community activist leading efforts for public education GLEN HEAD — Shortly after giving birth to her third child in 2001, Carolyn Mazzu Genovesi attended her local school board meeting and was appalled by what she saw. “There were bad decisions being made that were not in the best interest of the students or the community,” Mazzu Genovesi said. So the attorney and CSEA member employed by the state’s Unified Court System decided to do something about it. Mazzu Genovesi began by joining with like-minded people to elect new school board members at the North Shore School District. Before long, she ran for the district’s school board herself and was elected, eventually serving as the board president before stepping down last year. But Mazzu Genovesi has hardly ended her community activism. She is as involved as ever in the raging public debate over “education reform” and is an outspoken critic of changes in the recent state budget that she believes undermine local school districts. She recently wrote a guest opinion column for the local weekly newspaper and website challenging the state actions to impose new measures while disregarding the input of local communities and education experts. An excerpt appears on this page. “There has long been a lot of work underway by educators, school board members and other community leaders to bring about change in a thoughtful way,” she said. “Simply changing the direction now for politics is ridiculous.” Mazzu Genovesi is leading the opposition to the state’s changes in her community by urging parents to learn more about the issue, get involved and exercise their right to have their children in grades 3 through 8 opt out of the state’s standardized test. About 40 percent of students have opted out in her local school district and the momentum is growing statewide. “A lot of people have questions about how these changes will affect their kids and I think state lawmakers who went along with these changes really “There’s nothing more important that you can do in a local community because educating the next generation is in everyone’s interest.” misread how much the public cares about this situation,” she said. “People have to get good information and be involved, especially parents with young children,” she said. “There’s nothing more important that you can do in a local community because educating the next generation is in everyone’s interest.” During her time on the North Shore School Board, Carolyn Mazzu Genovesi was deeply involved with reforms to improve the quality of education and student performance. She is pictured here with, from left, New York State Regent Roger Tilles; Yong Zhao, an internationally recognized educator who is based at the University of Oregon and Hofstra University Provost Herman Berliner. Mazzu Genovesi is outspoken in her criticism of the state’s recent politically based education reforms, which she contends undermine local school districts. Education at crossroad Here is an excerpt from Mazzu Genovesi’s guest column in the NorthWord News: “New York state public school students are faced with antiquated notions of how to measure quality education during this test taking season. Our students this spring, will not Carolyn Mazzu Genovesi only be faced with standardized testifies before a state legislative tests based on the Common budget hearing. Core Curriculum, that are currently flawed in their design (as acknowledged by the New York State Education Department and the test preparation company) and developmentally inappropriate (as determined by early childhood experts across the nation) but most concerning, these students will be involved in a process that is based on the failed belief that these tests should be used as a strong measure in judging the value of public education.” Read Mazzu Genovesi’s full column at: http://www.northwordnews.com/opinion---carolyn-genovesi--- crossroad-for-public-ed.html 6 The Work Force May 2015
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