The Gloversville and Johnstown school districts haven't scheduled mass viewings of President Barack Obama's recent speech to the nation's schoolchildren, but some teachers may show it in their classrooms.
Local schools had not yet opened when the president gave his speech live Tuesday. People across the nation have had various reactions to the speech. Some opponents of Obama voiced fears the president intended to indoctrinate children.
In the speech, Obama gave a pep talk to students, saying, "Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer."
The president added, "The circumstances of your life - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home - that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying."
Schools in the area opened Wednesday, the day after Obama's speech was broadcast on cable TV network C-SPAN, but the speech can still be viewed online.
Geoffrey Davis, superintendent of the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery Board of Cooperative Educational Services, said Thursday BOCES didn't get involved in whether the member districts wanted to show the president's address.
"I didn't provide any direction to the districts on the president's speech," Davis said. "They channeled it internally."
Davis said he viewed the speech on the Internet and found it "totally appropriate" for schoolchildren.
The administration of the Greater Johnstown School District decided earlier this week not to have elementary school teachers reshow the speech to their children in grades kindergarten through six, Superintendent Katherine A. Sullivan said Thursday.
She said her administration did decide to allow secondary teachers from grades seven through 12 to reshow the speech if it was "related" to their curriculum, such as part of a social studies or government class.
"There are teachers who may have felt it was related to the curriculum," she said.
But Sullivan said the district wants any teachers who show the speech in class to send a note home to the parents of their students telling them they can sign a waiver to not see the president's speech.
Sullivan said the decision in Johnstown not to show Obama's speech to elementary schoolchildren was made after consultations between the three elementary principals and district Director of Curriculum, Testing and Personnel Patricia Kilburn. She said one of the principals - whom she declined to identify - "received concerns" from either a parent or parents about reshowing the speech to city elementary children.
The city's elementary principals are William Crankshaw at Glebe Street Elementary School, Jeffrey Vivenzio at Pleasant Avenue Elementary School and R. Scott Ziomek at Warren Street Elementary School.
After hearing Kilburn's report, Sullivan said she made the decision not to show Obama's speech at the elementary level.
"Initially, I had no problem," Sullivan said. "Presidents have spoken to children before."
She said Knox Junior High School Principal Michael Satterlee and Johnstown High School Principal Michael Beatty were "making arrangements" last week to allow students who didn't want to see the speech at those schools to be placed in a different class setting.
But Sullivan said she wasn't sure Thursday or Friday morning if any secondary teachers planned on showing the Obama speech in class.
Greater Johnstown School District Board of Education President Robert Curtis said Thursday he didn't know the district was sending notes home to secondary students to opt out of watching Obama's speech.
He declined further comment until he learned more about the situation.
Gloversville Enlarged School District Superintendent Robert DeLilli said Thursday that since school wasn't in session Tuesday, "we really didn't have to deal with it."
He said his district was "neutral" on the speech, opting not to make it mandatory viewing, but allowing teachers to use it later in class from a "historical" perspective in their curriculums.
Michael Anich covers Johnstown and Fulton County news. He can be reached at johnstown@leaderherald.com