SCHENECTADY New PAL to soften sports focus Police volunteer group funded BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The city’s new police athletic league, which will start this fall, will no longer focus on the sports aspect of the traditional program, Chief Mark Chaires has decided. “It’s an activities league now. That’s where PAL has gone over the years,” Chaires said. “We don’t want this to be totally about athletics. There will be academics as well.” gazette.com There may be reading programs, homework help or a chess club. Chaires, who loves to read history books, is particularly interested in a reading program. “I love to read,” he said. “I work out, but I’m not big into sports. Reading, though, that’s key. That’s just so important in every aspect of life. If you get a young kid to love to read, who has good reading comprehension, that just sets you on a good course for life.” But police will also be involved ................>>>>..........>>>>...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....1&Continuation=1
Is the schenectady school system so bad that the cops have to teach the kids academics now?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Is the schenectady school system so bad that the cops have to teach the kids academics now?
ahhhhh, YUP.....it's all over NYS.....maybe the NYS 'Little Bit O'Luck' from the NYS Lotto could get the kids to learn math via the odds of the NYS lotto and edumacate them on how NYS functions dysfunctions
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
EDITORIALS If you want to volunteer . . . then volunteer
Schenectady Police Chief Mark Chaires has proposed resurrecting the dormant Police Athletic League and expanding its focus to include academics and other activities beyond sports. An excellent idea, but for one little problem: The officers would be given time off for spending some of their off-duty time with kids, one hour for every hour. That’s something this department — which often runs short-handed or must resort to overtime because officers take so many days off — cannot afford. Most people are in favor of PAL and similar programs, which many cities have, because positive interactions and relationships between police and kids can change attitudes and even lives. Kids, especially inner-city ones, need mentors and role models. And the police can benefi t as well — not only personally, but in their work: Their jobs become easier if kids know, trust and will talk to them, including providing information that can help them stop or solve crimes. This is clearly the thinking behind Chaires’ proposal. And we would happily support it if the situation were as we, and probably everyone else, naively thought it was with Schenectady’s PAL — i.e., the police were truly volunteering. But it turns out that in the past, officers in Schenectady were given time off for volunteering, and Chaires says, as he negotiates new rules for PAL volunteers, that he’s hoping the police union will accept the traditional arrangement. The chief says the program would be strictly controlled and officers would be allowed to take time off only when it will not affect coverage or result in overtime. But with the department’s manpower problems, slow response times and all, that would be a neat trick. Chaires also denies the officers would be paid to volunteer — “we’d be giving them time off,” he says — but that seems a distinction without a difference. In nearly every other company or organization, including other police departments with PALs, when employees volunteer, they do so on their own time, with no expectation of recompense. Occasionally their employer might give them a few hours, or a day, off for some special occasion related to their volunteering. That’s the most the city of Schenectady should offer its cops.
The officers would be given time off for spending some of their off-duty time with kids, one hour for every hour.
This is one of the most ridiculous ideas I have heard of yet! Cops are not our PALS! They are our protectors. It is not their job, nor should it be their job to teach kids to read or anything else to do with scholastics. Talk to Mr. Ely about that one. That's what he's paid the big bucks for.
Schenectady is riddled with crime and gun shot where no officer can be spared. Just ask them! Funny, the city does not have the manpower to monitor their thousands of dollars worth of cameras, but they can have their cops teach kids to read and then take time off.....WTH?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
This is one of the most ridiculous ideas I have heard of yet! Cops are not our PALS! They are our protectors. It is not their job, nor should it be their job to teach kids to read or anything else to do with scholastics. Talk to Mr. Ely about that one. That's what he's paid the big bucks for.
Schenectady is riddled with crime and gun shots where no officer can be spared. Just ask them! Funny, the city does not have the manpower to monitor their thousands of dollars worth of cameras, but they can have their cops teach kids to read and then take time off.....WTH?
WTF? This is a taxpayer funded affair! Instead of police work they can teach reading? If you want to volunteer {for free} great. PAL is for sports only. They haven't fired anyone yet-just like the worst schools in the State. If you get caught in corpus delicito with your gomare in the girl's locker room you are allowed to resign. Only at the pathetic Schenectady City Schools.
Where is stunad Son of Sam on this outrage? Still trying to disband the SPD? lol!
I am shocked that the chief even agreed to this. What was he thinking?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Schenectady council no pal to PAL plan Police say they won't volunteer if they're not paid Thursday, September 17, 2009 By Kathleen Moore (Contact) Gazette Reporter
SCHENECTADY — Schenectady’s new Police Athletic League may be dead on arrival. City Council members have turned a cold shoulder to the officers’ proposal that they be paid comp time for every hour they volunteer on a PAL activity. Police, however, insist that they won’t run PAL activities for free. If neither side budges, PAL is dead. “It’s a shame and a disgrace if that’s what it comes down to,” Councilman Joseph Allen said, but he added that he’d vote against the comp time even if it killed PAL altogether. “They’re volunteering. I do a lot of volunteering and I don’t get paid for it,” he said. “It doesn’t happen and it shouldn’t happen.” Councilman Thomas Della Sala added that the city can’t afford to pay for officers to work overtime while their colleagues teach children how to play sports or read. “Overtime is a major issue for the department. It seems counterproductive to allow more of it,” Della Sala said. “I just don’t understand why you would expect to be compensated for volunteering. If you’re volunteering, you’re volunteering.” Every other council member expressed similar concerns, as have some members of the public. Regular critic Vincent Riggi said at Monday’s council meeting that compensation for volunteer work was “the craziest thing I ever heard of.”..................>>>>...........................>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/sep/17/0917_volunteers/
Given the Schenectady Police Department’s highly publicized problems with staffing and overtime in recent years, it seemed rather odd last month to hear that Chief Mark Chaires was considering a nonessential program that would have inevitably aggravated both: a value-added Police Athletic League for youth that would include academic tutoring as well as non-sports activities — where participating cops would be rewarded with time off from work. Fortunately, members of the Schenectady City Council made clear their scorn for the idea of compensating the cops at a meeting Monday night, so unless they agree to take on the responsibility as volunteers — the way most police departments do it — there won’t be a PAL in Schenectady. ................>>>>............>>>>..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00703&AppName=1
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WTF? This is a taxpayer funded affair! Instead of police work they can teach reading? If you want to volunteer {for free} great. PAL is for sports only. They haven't fired anyone yet-just like the worst schools in the State. If you get caught in corpus delicito with your gomare in the girl's locker room you are allowed to resign. Only at the pathetic Schenectady City Schools.
