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Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 21, 2014 6:34:55 GMT -5
As 100 people are losing their jobs on LI as Telephonics expands in Hunstville, Alabama, their President and CEO Joseph Battaglia made this salient observation: "Battaglia said that Telephonics, with an aging workforce, is struggling to attract young engineering talent. Almost none of the job cuts announced Monday were engineering jobs. "Schools need to do something to graduate more engineers and program managers" instead of software coders "who want to write apps for the iPhone," he said."
The converse would be for LI schools to not graduate students with engineering or program management skills, and watch the remaining LI jobs in technical research and manufacturing move to Alabama and points south. Perhaps YOUR kids can move down there, after they graduate. But, no, wait! Even if your kids move south to find work in technical fields, they will find themselves unqualified, compared to their peers who are receiving STEM education, down south. What do I mean?
What school was ranked first in Newsweek magazine's list of the top 1,000 public schools in the United States from 2000 to 2003? What school is the only school in the nation to have been in the top 5 every year from 2000-2011? What school did US News and World Report rank at ninth place on its 2008 list of America's Best High Schools? What Blue Ribbon School of Excellence has frequently ranked 1st in the United States in the number of International Baccalaureate diplomas awarded? Which high school was rated number 12 of the top high schools in the nation by US News and number 10 by Newsweek, in 2008? From 2000 to 2003, Stanton College Prep was ranked first in Newsweek magazine's list of the top 1,000 public schools in the United States, and is the only school in the nation to have been in the top 5 every year from 2000-2011. US News and World Report ranked Stanton at ninth place on its 2008 list of America's Best High Schools. It has frequently ranked 1st in the United States in the number of International Baccalaureate diplomas awarded. Stanton perennially leads the Jacksonville metropolitan area in the number of National Merit Scholarship recipients, and consistently ranks in the top three in the state. The school has been named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. As of August 2014, Stanton is rated number 12 of the top high schools in the nation by US News and number 10 by Newsweek.
Stanton has been called "one of the premier IB and AP public schools in the country" by Jay Mathews in his 2005 book "Supertest: How the International Baccalaureate Can Strengthen Our Schools." To many students, Stanton is known for its challenging academics and rigorous standards. Most Stanton graduates attend some form of college after graduation, whether four-year or two-year institutions, local, national, or international. In 2014, the Washington Post ranked the school as the 4th most challenging high school in the Southern United States.
Link to Source Materal
Stanton is located in Jacksonville, Florida. It was originally a segregated, all-black elementary school from its founding in the 1860's. Today Stanton Prep is a public secondary (7-12) magnet school serving all of Duval County in northeast Florida.
So, keep your kids here, they can work at Chicken Delight, or McDonalds. Technically inclined kids from Wantagh High can take jobs at Radio Shack or any of the cellular pop-up stores, selling smart phones, text & data plans, and stuff like skins, ear buds and replacement batteries. Wantagh High will never be a Stanton College Prep. Never? Chris Wendt
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 22, 2014 6:14:31 GMT -5
AP Courses offered at Stanton (26): Biology Human Geography Calculus AB Latin: Vergil Calculus BC Macroeconomics Chemistry Microeconomics Chinese Language and Culture Physics B Comparative Government Psychology Computer Science A Spanish Language English Language and Composition Spanish Literature English Literature Statistics Environmental Science Studio Art European History United States Government and Politics French Language United States History World History Computer Science AB International Baccalaureate (IB) courses offered at Stanton (28) Visual Arts I Visual Arts II Theatre Arts I Theatre Arts II Film Studies I Film Studies II Psychology I Psychology II Philosophy Computer Science I Computer Science II Chemistry Physics Biology History of the Americas History of the Europe and the Middle East Math Studies French IV French V Latin IV Spanish IV Spanish V Chinese IV Chinese V HL English Theory of Knowledge Standard Level Mathematics Higher Level Mathematics School Statistics: Four-year graduation rate: 99% Average ACT score 27.0 Principal's years of experience 26 Average SAT score 1,824 Enrollment 1,553 Age of school building 59 Students in special education 1% Students attending 4-year colleges 89% Other Information: Stanton is a 7-12 Secondary school, admission is on a quasi-competitive "magnet" basis, from across Duval County (Jacksonville), Florida. Stanton has 18 Varsity Sports, including Crew and Girls Weightlifting. There are two (2) academic programs: - AP/Honors
- IB
Both programs have very rigorous, mandatory course requirements. Now, let me suggest that you compare Stanton, a countywide secondary magnet school with Nassau BOCES. Nevermind. There is no comparison. Why is that? Hint: it is NOT because Jacksonville (Duval County), Florida spends more money than Nassau BOCES, NY! Astonished! Chris Wendt
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2014 5:35:29 GMT -5
Yeah, but their football team has the worst record in Florida, having lost every single game this season and scoring only one touchdown during the regular season to date.
Perhaps that is an indication of the community's priorities?
Just asking.
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 24, 2014 6:15:38 GMT -5
In 2011-12, Duval County Schools (including the entire city of Jacksonville) decided first to eliminate many lesser sports, but then decided to cut their entire sports program because of their educational priorities in the recession. Private funding enabled some sports to continue, and I believe football may have been one of them. This is not unlike what happened in Wantagh under our last contingent budget, only on a much larger scale. Duval County School District is the 21st largest in the nation with 125,000+ students. They have 7,200 teachers: starting salary: $37,300; top teacher salary is $71,301, PhD level. Priorities.
Chris Wendt
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 24, 2014 6:18:45 GMT -5
The following response was received via FB to the lead post in this thread: "This new push to bring "coding" instruction into K-12 is the result of software giants pushing their needs onto the educational system, and you can't blame them, even though I don't like the idea. Also many engineering and manufacturing companies have spent their own $$$ and resources to establish HS programs in their communities to try to increase their own talent pool. These coding and manufacturing apprentice programs are not originating in school systems, but from outside...you know, in the REAL world. If our kids are going to be ready for the jobs ahead it doesn't look like it will be because of the educational system, but in spite of it. You nailed this one!" .
Other thoughts? Regards, Chris Wendt
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 24, 2014 11:55:34 GMT -5
In response to this comment: "Also many engineering and manufacturing companies have spent their own $$$ and resources to establish HS programs in their communities to try to increase their own talent pool." This is known to be true in my own experience in manufacturing areas near Richmond, Virginia, Greenville, South Carolina, Fort Worth, Texas, and even up in Ontario, Canada. Real-world course work leading to real world jobs, partially funded by real world employers. There is at least one of these situations in Suffolk County, right in our own back yard, but Wantagh students have no access to that program.
Wantagh suffers from a combination of factors which operate to the detriment of the learning opportunities for our students: - Too small in geography
- Too small in enrollment
- Too small in tax base
- No industry "in" Wantagh; we are still primarily a "bedroom community" for NY City, where many of us still commute every day
- Unwillingness to partner with anyone* to develop leading-edge educational opportunities
- Myopic "vision" which has resulted in leadership paranoia, manifesting itself in the hoarding of money by over-taxation, yet producing no meaningful, trail-blazing, breakthrough educational opportunities, despite our leaders having squirreled-away $17 million of our money over the past 5 years.
* Some ideas about “partnering” potentials for Wantagh schools to consider: - A multi-district STEM Magnet School, like Fairchild-Wheeler in Trumbull, CT, or the STEM Academy in Downingtown, PA. However, the current BOCES half-day in class and half-day on a bus concept must be excluded from this model. Corporate funding sponsors needed.
- A flex-scheduling “arrangement” among Wantagh, Seaford, Plainedge, Island Trees, and Levittown to offer all available AP© courses, including the new AP© Capstone Diploma Program and its Research and Seminar courses. “Scheduling” could extend into the evenings, early mornings, or Saturdays, if necessary. Include the IB course of study, perhaps housing it in one specified building, like Forest Lake, for instance, by consolidating FL kids into Mandalay, or vice-versa. Think of this as "learning without district boundaries getting in the way of teaching".
- Deploy technology for guided self-learning in specialty or enrichment coursework either through distance learning or via emerging platforms like the Khan Academy, without strict adherence to outdated grade levels. Think of this as "teaching without union contracts getting in the way of learning".
Wantagh does a good job within the limits of our smallness, meaning our small scale, our small tax base, and the small-mindedness of some our leaders, and the small expectations of parents who are satisfied with dreaming too small about what to expect and demand for their children, from those myopic leaders. I could be willing to forgive and forget the $17 million we have been over-taxed during the past five years, if only that money went toward breakthrough educational opportunities. (Two new AP language courses next year is NOT what I am talking about!) But no, all we taxpayers and parents got out the past five years' money-hoarding is ever more enriched compensation for our faculty and staff, and a totally bullcrap audit report that would lead us to believe that everything is alright in Wantagh, when really all it says is that the numbers add-up, and that it does not appear that anyone has been stealing any of that money stash!
Did the President of the Board of Education hear a question, here? Shhhh..."mums" the word! This is not Jeopardy, where everything must be put in the form of questions. But it is a public school district, where every member of the public deserves absolute respect from every person elected to our Board of Education...even (especially) from its President. Mr. President, do we hear an apology here, for Mr. Netto? We could do so much better in the leadership department. Maybe we still can. Regards, Chris Wendt
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greda
Junior Member
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Post by greda on Oct 24, 2014 13:20:42 GMT -5
if he doesn't ask a question, then there is nothing to respond to
Maybe it's time for you to retire to Stanton
And your starting post misstated the facts once again as the article said they are not moving to Alabama and were in fact staying on Long Island. And that most of the lay-offs related to the finishing of a defense department project
But why let facts get in the way of one of your rants
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 24, 2014 13:36:15 GMT -5
Or why let what is printed in black-and-white have any meaning or significance to an anonymous, serial poster of ad hominem fallacy? I stated, accurately, that the company is expanding to Alabama, which is a direct reprise of the Newsday article, as is the headline quote attributed to the CEO of Telephonics. All words have meaning, not just the one's you like, or choose to use in your attacks against me. Chris Wendt
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Post by Phil Wendt (WHS '67) on Oct 24, 2014 14:31:04 GMT -5
I can really only speak to the issue of "partnering" here as discussed in the prior thread. I have too often seen the same issue develop in small or even mid-size municipalities where the reality of solving a problem extends well beyond political boundaries. Thus the development of many "Regional" governments so they can deal effectively with problems that expand over a broad landscape. Problems like water management, transportation, and digital infrastructure. I suspect that there are limits to what Wantagh can do within it's physical and political constraints and that a broader regional approach to some of these issues related to partnering might be in order. There just may not be enough 'partners' in Wantagh to make it work. This also means sharing power which is usually the rub in getting these things off the ground. That's where leadership comes in...is there any?
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 25, 2014 6:39:06 GMT -5
Is there any leadership? Phil (WHS '67) has cut to the chase with that question. Since leadership is quintessential to the success of any organization, I think the leadership question deserves it own thread, which I plan to start under the "District, BOE..." discussion area, soon. Here is a teaser question: "Is bullying a form of leadership?"
Chris Wendt
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greda
Junior Member
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Post by greda on Oct 28, 2014 6:32:45 GMT -5
Here is the article so please identify where it says Huntsville on how that relates to the 100 jobs
Defense contractor Telephonics Corp. is cutting almost 100 full-time, part-time and temporary jobs from its workforce, about one-third of those through voluntary retirement buyouts, officials said.
About 35 workers, age 65 or older, accepted the voluntary retirement packages, said Joseph Battaglia, president and chief executive of the Farmingdale-based maker of radar and telecommunications systems.
The other job cuts involved computer professionals, who oversaw the multiyear installation of a new enterprise resource planning software system completed in the summer, and about 35 temporary and part-time workers.
"We were able to streamline activities a little finer," Battaglia said Monday. "You have budget issues at the Department of Defense. Everybody's got to make sure we're getting the biggest bang for the buck."
The cuts, many initiated in September, leave Telephonics' head count at about 1,200, almost all on Long Island at the company's headquarters in Farmingdale and manufacturing facilities in Huntington. The company also employs about 80 workers in Columbia, Maryland, and six in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, he said.
In 2012 the company, founded in 1933, had its first job cuts in 17 years when 20 employees were laid off as the company consolidated manufacturing from three Huntington buildings to two, he said.
Battaglia said that Telephonics, with an aging workforce, is struggling to attract young engineering talent. Almost none of the job cuts announced Monday were engineering jobs.
"Schools need to do something to graduate more engineers and program managers" instead of software coders "who want to write apps for the iPhone," he said.
In third-quarter earnings announced in July, Telephonics' revenue fell 21 percent. Battaglia attributed a greater dependence on foreign sales for lumpiness in quarter-to-quarter sales. Foreign markets account for 25 percent to 30 percent of sales, Battaglia said, about 10 percentage points higher than five years ago.
Battaglia said the company's order backlog is at record levels: "We're doing very well."
Telephonics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Griffon Corp., whose other units make home and building products.
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 28, 2014 10:03:11 GMT -5
You probably had not seen this article, then: The electronics defense contractor Telephonics Corp., with headquarters in Farmingdale and three manufacturing plants in Huntington, has expanded in Alabama by leasing space for a new sales and engineering office near a major U.S. Army base, a company official said Thursday.
No Long Island jobs will be moved to the new Huntsville, Ala., office, Joseph Battaglia, Telephonics chief executive, said.
The company's Huntsville office is right across the street from Redstone Arsenal, a component of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. "It's gorgeous down there," Battaglia said.
Workers are already hired and on the job in Alabama designing and selling to the Army, he said.
Telephonics said the new office "will house engineers from its radar systems and communication and electronic systems divisions as well as its subsidiary, Systems Engineering Group (SEG) Inc."
The new Alabama location "will primarily provide air and missile defense threat systems analysis and engineering, high fidelity modeling and simulation, and missile, radar and combat systems engineering design and performance analysis," Telephonics said.
Battaglia said Alabama officials gave incentives, including tax breaks, for Telephonics to expand there.
The Southeastern states are "going gangbusters" providing incentives for companies to move there, he said. Still, Battaglia said he has no plans to move Long Island employees to Alabama. If sales efforts succeed at the new office, the company will expand through local hires in Alabama, he said. Local hires in Alabama... No LI employees be relocated to Alabama... 100 Layoffs on LI... "It's gorgeous down there!" I'll bet it is. "Schools need to...graduate more engineers...."Chris Wendt
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greda
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Post by greda on Oct 28, 2014 14:35:57 GMT -5
You used a quote from an article and did not give it proper contact and made it sound like the lost jobs were being moved to Sweet Home Alabama when in fact that was not the case (in this article). It is not an ad hominem attack as you stated by a serial poster. I pointed out once again how you use information without proper contact, which I have done numerous times in the past. Your point about lack of engineering students is factual and true but when you use misinformation to make your point, it kind of takes away from the point you are making.
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 29, 2014 6:11:12 GMT -5
Schools need to graduate more engineers, which is the thrust of comments by the CEO of Telephonics. They are having trouble finding engineers on Long Island...Long Island once was the Engineering Capital of the World. Our engineers designed and built the LEM, the Lunar Excursion Module, which put the first humans on the moon! Our engineers designed fleets and fleets and fleets of aircraft that fought in wars around the world, including the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and the Grumman F-14 Tomcat. Lunar Excursion Module F105 Thunderchief F14 Tomcat There was also the Republic P47 Thunderbolt and the Grumman F6 Hellcat, two of the most celebrated fighter aircraft of WWII. F6 Hellcat Here's the point, in full context. Long Island once enjoyed a "critical mass" of engineering jobs and engineers by the thousands. This has all unravelled, with many engineering jobs having moved south, effectively killing the "critical mass" of engineering jobs (and the manufacturing jobs they supported and made possible). This led to many engineers moving south to follow the jobs, especially Grumman engineers, who moved to St. Augustine, Florida. Without the critical mass of LI engineering jobs, the impetus for schools to produce engineers on LI dwindled. So a company, like Telephonics, set up shop down south, where there is a critical mass of both engineering jobs and engineers to fill them, and started "expanding" in a "gorgeous" place like Alabama, hiring local engineers from among that critical mass, down there. While perhaps some engineers could have been hired on LI by Telephonics, there were not enough candidates in the pool. When there are not enough engineers to design and support new products, then the jobs that rely on engineering development and support fade away, including layoffs. The results: -Expansion in Alabama, where there are engineers to fill jobs and design and support new products. -Layoffs on Long Island, where there are not enough engineers to support growth and development, including the retention and creation of other jobs, here. The South, especially Alabama, has an explosion of good jobs in a variety of technologies, but especially the automotive industry, including: - Mercedes-Benz
- M-Class
- R-Class
- GL-Class
- C-CLass (W205, since 2014)
[li] Honda Manufacturing[/li] [li] Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Alabama, Inc., which makes the engines for:[/li] - Tacoma
- Highlander
- Sequoia
- Tundra
- ...and the AR15, 4-cylinder 2.5 and 2.7 engines used in various Toyota models
[li] Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama ($1.7 Billion plant)[/li] - Sonata
- Elantra
- Santa Fe (production transferred to a new, $1 Billion plant in GA)
[/ul] America can lament and wring our hands over jobs having gone overseas, but some major foreign name plates have invested BILLIONS of dollars, right here in America; now it is up to America to educate and train people for those tens of thousands of jobs created, here, in America, by those foreign corporations. Such a bonanza of jobs will not come back to Long Island under the existing NY tax structure, and, until that changes in a massive way, a critical mass of engineering jobs will not exist on Long Island. Maybe...never. Chris Wendt
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greda
Junior Member
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Post by greda on Oct 29, 2014 8:21:45 GMT -5
Kudos on the pictures
And the South has risen again not just because of engineering jobs but because it is a right to work state. That combined with low taxes is what makes those state so attractive
And sadly you may be right that the Empire state has seen its best days in the past
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