A lesson learned by the Niagara Falls School District will result in new protocol and procedure in the monitoring of teacher certification, district officials said.
School District Superintendent Cynthia Bianco said the state Department of Education office of teaching initiatives has informed her that her daughter and district-employed teaching assistant Mia Bianco is certified and that her effective date has been retroactively dated to Aug. 1, 2002. This development comes less than a week after the Niagara Gazette reported that Mia Bianco had been working for the district for seven years without proper certification.
“The state’s system was incorrect, they deal with hundreds of thousands of certification-related issues daily and it was simply an oversight,” Cynthia Bianco said. “It was a missing piece of paper.”
On Monday, the state’s certification public inquiry Web site confirmed the claim that Mia Bianco has been certified, however, a representative would not comment.
“The New York State Education Department has informed this office that I am not authorized to release information regarding the status of an individual’s certification,” Nicole Bensley, a representative from the regional office of teaching initiatives said. “Requests for information regarding the certification status of an individual may be directed to the New York State Education Department.”
Despite providing information last week, the state Education Department said a Freedom of Information Request would be required for information pertaining to a specific person’s certification details.
News of Bianco’s certification is in stark contrast to information provided by district and state officials last week.
When contacted last week, acting Human Resource Director Barbara Joyce confirmed that Bianco lacked certification and said it is something she has been working toward.
“You are required to have a teacher certification to be a (teaching assistant),” Joyce said. “(Bianco) is working toward that now, as are other teacher assistants lacking certification.”
In addition, a state Education Department representative said last week that Mia Bianco submitted documentation applying for certification on Oct. 1, 2009, but the inquiry has not yet been approved.
School Board President Russell Petrozzi said it has been an embarrassing experience that the district will learn from.
“We are on top of it now and it will make our system tighter and better,” he said.
Petrozzi said the district is in the process of implementing computer software that will allow them to monitor teacher certification on an individualized basis. He said the new process will help the district more closely monitor each of its teachers, and prevent this situation from reoccurring.
Cynthia Bianco said she strives for the district to become accountable, transparent and efficient, all things she set out to do upon becoming superintendent last year.
“We are continually looking over records to ensure everyone is in compliance,” she said. “This was a wake-up call for the district and we will look at our polices to see if they need to be amended.”
Last week, the Gazette reported that an SED official said that Mia Bianco had reapplied for certification in October 2009, but had been working without required certification for seven years.
“In a public school district it is required for a teacher’s assistant to have proper certification,” the representative from the state Education Department’s Office of Teaching Initiatives said last week. “She is supposed to be certified now and was supposed to be certified for the past seven years.”
The Gazette also reported that along with Mia Bianco, teaching assistants Cassandra DiCamillo and April Downey has been working without certification.
Cynthia Bianco would not comment on the other two employees, but said in regard to Mia, that the misstep has caused the district to re-examine its policies and procedures and will benefit them going forward.
Certification can be tracked at: http://eservices.nysed.gov/teach/certhelp/CpPersonSearchExternal.jsp?trgAction=INQUIRY
