Affordable Care Act Seminar for School Districts Scheduled for May 29th

By The Editorial Team - Harris Beach is offering a complimentary seminar titled “De-Mystifying the Affordable Care Act: Practical Steps You Should be Taking Now” on Wednesday, May 29th…

Teacher Evaluation Law Analyzed

By The Editorial Team - Warren Richmond, a Harris Beach partner and member of the firm’s Labor and Employment Law Practice Group and Educational Institutions Industry Team, published an article in the New York Law Journal that focuses on the new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) plans for teachers…

Post-Sandy Land Use Issues

By Kenneth C. Beehler and Anita W. Laremont - As we have previously discussed, among the realities faced by southern New York state in aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, none may perhaps be as blunt as the fact that the region rests in a coastal area susceptible to flooding and harsh winds...

De-Mystifying Test Mania

By Howard J. Goldsmith - The recent administration of the New York State grades 3 - 8 English language arts (ELA) and mathematics assessments created tremendous confusion, parent uproar, and lots of press expressing frustration from all factions within the pro and anti-testing movements…

Strange Bedfellows – How the Commissioner’s Edict on “Quiet Agreements” Aligned Teachers’ Unions and School Districts

By Edward A. Trevvett - The New York State Education Department has managed to create quite a hullabaloo with its April 26, 2013 memo to school district and BOCES superintendents…

NYC’s Paid Sick Leave Bill Could Have Statewide Ripple Effect

By Anita W. Laremont and James E. Beyer - While employers, particularly municipalities and school districts, are getting ready for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to take effect next year, some municipalities, at the urging of coalitions supported by organized labor and other pro-labor groups, are taking their own measures to mandate that employers provide select employment benefits…

Everything you Ever Wanted to Know about Financial Control Boards But Were Afraid to Ask

By Mark W. Blanchard, Rachel C. Baranello and William Q. Lowe - As municipalities throughout New York continue to deal with the lingering effects of the recession, mounting sources of additional financial distress have placed the long-term fiscal viability of many local governments in jeopardy...

Revised 2013-14 School Aid Budget Allocations – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Shannon Buffum - The overall enacted school aid runs were significantly higher than the district-by-district aid runs proposed in the 2013-14 Executive Budget…