The Following are Excerpts from Dr. Falco's address to the Board of Education on July 3, 2003.  The entire document can be downloaded here.

At a meeting of Commissioners of Common Schools of the City of Schenectady, held in the common council room, in said city on the 15th day of April 1854, the public school system for the children of the city was established.

For one hundred-fifty years of excellence in public education, the Schenectady City Schools have remained an institution since the presidency of Franklin Pierce.  As such, it has witnessed conflict from the Civil War through the current war in Iraq.  It has witnessed the sorrow of assassinations of great leaders from Abraham Lincoln through John . Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King.  It has witnessed great depression and great prosperity.  It is a school system that reflected and embraced the Industrial Age that has swept the nation and the world.

In 1854, and throughout most of the years that followed, the Schenectady school house was part of a conglomerate of cultural and institutional partners. Children were part of something larger than themselves and larger than the school.

In 1854, the family unit partnered with the schoolhouse.  The family unit has evolved over the past 150 years.  This is meant as a non-judgmental fact.  It is a suburban, as well as, an urban fact.  We are a society, for the most part of two parent working families and one parent working families.  School people always knew that children spent more time at "home" than at school.  This is still true.  However, the underlying assumption presumes more "quality time," to use the politically correct term, with adults . . . all parents, whether urban or suburban care for their children.  However, the partnership so vital to the child being a part of the whole had diminished.

In 1854, the Schenectady schoolhouse partnered with the religious community.  Children were part of the family, their religious denomination and the school.  Children were part of the whole.  The positive influence of religion on the individual lives of children has diminished substantially over the past 150 years.

In 1854, there was sense of community and government that promoted good citizenship.  It was fostered by shopkeepers, farmers, laborers and elected officials.  Children were part of the whole.

Recognize that education was not equitable in 1854.  Recognize that high aspirational standards for all children were never part of any educational agenda in 1854 and for most f the years that followed.

In 1854, children were part of larger caring eco-systems that included family, church, community and school that, for the most part, shared values.  Schools then, as they do 150 year later, reflect the culture they serve.

Tomorrow's challenge is to raise the level of conversation about public education.  We must begin framing the questions that will enable us to identify the root cause issues.  If, as a school community we cannot agree on the problem then it is apparent that real solutions are not in the foreseeable future.  Tomorrow's challenge is no less demanding than those faced by our forbearers.  Tomorrow's challenge is unique because it is ours.