RYE, RYE BROOK

& PORT CHESTER

LEAGUE OF
WOMEN VOTERS ®

Press Release

League of Women Voters to Sponsor Issue Forum

“Teachers, Tenure & Tomorrow”
A Conversation about Classroom Quality

RYE, NY – October 7, 2009 – The Rye, Rye Brook & Port Chester chapter of the
League of Women Voters will be sponsoring an Issue Forum on the subject of lifetime
teacher tenure and its correlation to classroom quality.

This Issue Forum will take place on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 8:00 PM in the
Community Room of the Rye Free Reading Room, 1061 Boston Post Road, Rye, NY.

The topic of lifetime teacher tenure is a constant theme in discussions related to our
schools. Four distinct perspectives on this thorny issue will be presented by a panel
comprised of leading experts from the New York education community.

This event is designed to foster a better understanding of all perspectives, facilitate the
exchange of ideas and with any luck, raise the level of discourse on this important and
thought-provoking issue.

Our featured panelists will be:

• Ellen Hur – serves as Policy Project Director for The New Teacher Project (TNTP).
Her recent work includes coordinating district and state level research for TNTP’s
widely-acclaimed 2009 report The Widget Effect and human capital assessments of
Minneapolis and New Haven Public Schools. In her prior role as Director of Marketing
and Recruitment for TNTP’s NYC Fellowship Program, Ellen oversaw the
implementation of recruitment campaigns that each year drew thousands of new teacher
applicants to high-need New York City schools.

• Dick Iannuzzi – has served as President of the New York State United Teachers since
April 2005, leading the union through a period of tremendous growth, with membership
now at more than 600,000. Dick is a leading voice in the labor movement at both state
and federal levels and serves as a vice-president of the American Federation of Teachers
and the New York State AFL-CIO.

• David Little – has served as Director of Governmental Relations of the New York State
School Boards Association for the past 10 years. Dave previously served 17 years in the
New York State Legislature as legal counsel, first in the Assembly and then in the Senate.
He is a nine year school board member, having served seven of those nine years as
president of the Brittonkill Board of Education, Brunswick, NY.

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• David S. Shaw – is the founding partner of Shaw, Perelson, May & Lambert, LLP. The
firm represents more than 50 school districts, primarily in the Hudson Valley region.
David has negotiated thousands of collectively negotiated agreements for school districts
over the past 33 years. David has served as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Suny New
Paltz for the past 25 years instructing School Finance Law and Labor Relations for
Administrators and is a frequent lecturer for the New York State School Boards
Association, New York State Association of School Attorneys, New York State
Association of School Business Officials and the Mid-Hudson School Study Council.

This is an open program for both League members and the general public. Everyone is
encouraged to attend this Issue Forum to hear, question and interact with the panelists.

The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization whose mission is the

informed participation of citizens in government.

Contact:
Debbie Reisner, LWV President, (914) 698-7166
LWV.Rye.RyeBrook.PortChester@gmail.com

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