SIX NEW YORK STATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS TO RECEIVE BUSINESS COUNCIL'S
PATHFINDER AWARDS IN SEPARATE CEREMONIES IN APRIL
Business Council's Prestigious Award Honors Schools for Educational Improvement

ALBANY—Elementary schools in Albany, Brooklyn, Erie, Oswego, Tioga, and Westchester counties will receive The Business Council's 2005 Pathfinder Award in separate ceremonies in April. The award honors schools that show the most improvement from one year to the next as measured by their students' scores on state tests.

The schools scheduled to receive the awards are:

P.S. 11/the Purvis J. Behan School of New York City Community School District 13 in Brooklyn will receive its award at a ceremony Friday, April 5, at 9:30 a.m. The event will take place at the school. For more information, contact the school principal Linda D. Nelson at 1-718/638-2661. This school was selected from all public elementary schools in the state's judicial district 2, which includes Kings and Richmond counties.

School 5 of the Yonkers School District in Westchester County will receive its award at a ceremony Monday, April 4, at 10 a.m. The event will take place at the school. For more information, contact the school principal, Dr. Geraldine Pisacreta, at 1-914/376-8320. This school was selected from all public elementary schools in the state's judicial district 9, which includes Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties.

The Thomas S. O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology of the Albany City School District in Albany County will receive its award at a ceremony Monday, April 4, at 12:45 p.m. The event will take place at the school. For more information, contact the school principal Dr. Rachelle Salerno at 1-518/462-7262. This school was selected from all public elementary schools in the state's judicial district 3, which includes Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster counties.

Cleveland Elementary School of the Central Square Central School District in Oswego County will receive its award during a ceremony Wednesday, April 6, at 7 p.m. The event will take place at the school. For more information, contact the school principal, David Redmore, at 1-315/668-4213. This school was selected from all public elementary schools in the state's judicial district 5, which includes Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego counties.

Candor Elementary School of the Candor Central School District in Tioga County will receive its award at a ceremony Tuesday, April 26, at 2:15 p.m. The event will take place at the school. For more information, contact the school principal, Richard Quest, at 1-607/659-3935. This school was selected from all public elementary schools in the state's judicial district 6, which includes Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Madison, Otsego, Schuyler, Tioga, and Tompkins counties.

P.S. 3 of the Buffalo City School District in Erie County will receive its award during two separate ceremonies Thursday, April 26, at 6 p.m. and Friday, April 29, at 8:30 a.m. Both events will take place at the school. For more information, contact the school principal, Evelyn Pizzaro, at 716-816-3120. This school was selected from all public elementary schools in the state's judicial district 8, which includes Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans, and Wyoming counties.

Here is a complete list of the 2005 Pathfinder Award winners:

Background on the Pathfinder Awards: The Pathfinder Award program is in its fifth year. Winning schools are chosen by The Council. The awards are based on a range of criteria, including improvement in scores and the number and percentage of students tested. In addition, at least half of a school's students must meet or exceed state standards on the fourth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests before the school can quality for the award.

The Business Council generally gives Pathfinder Awards to one or more public schools in each of 12 different regions across the state. These regions represent the state's judicial districts In some regions, if two schools show nearly identical levels of improvement, more than one may be recognized. Schools that win the award receive $1,000 for the school's programs, and a trophy in recognition of the achievement.

The employers that have provided support to the Pathfinder Awards are: Anheuser-Bush, Inc.; Apple Computers; Buck & Pulleyn; CH Energy Group; ChevronTexaco; Golub Corporation; Consolidated Edison, Inc.; Fleet Bank; Frontier Communciations; HSBC; KeyBank; KeySpan; Metropolitan Life; Pfizer; The Pike Company; The Pioneer Development Company; Racemark International, LP; Security Mututal Life Insurance Company; and State Farm Insurance Company.

Background on The Business Council's advocacy for education: The Business Council has long been an active and forceful advocate of policies to strengthen the performance and accountability of the state's public schools, and has encouraged businesses and business leaders to become active partners with schools in their efforts to improve.

For example, The Public Policy Institute used state data to design the prototype for the state's school report cards. Today school report cards are released annually to give schools, teachers, parents, and students a sense of how their schools are doing compared to schools in similar circumstances and their own performance of the previous year. The Council has also supported the state's new academic standards and state tests based on them that measure the performance of students and schools.

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