In These Otsego Hills

June 19, 2008 01:14 pm

— This week we have learned of yet another wedding of note. Paul A. Clark, son of Joan P. Clark and the late Gerald E. Clark, former mayor of the Village of Cooperstown, married Mary Claire Majka of Whitesboro, N.Y. on June 7 at St. Mary’s Church. Mary Claire is the daughter of Helen M. and the late Fred J. Majka of Whitesboro, N.Y. Not only was the wedding a very special ceremony, it was also held on a most significant date. The nuptial took place on the wedding anniversary of Paul’s grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Paul A. Clark. They were wed the same day in 1924. Our congratulations and best wishes go out to Paul and Mary Claire.

áLast week we received a telephone call from the adult home in Richfield Springs that our friend Dorothy was being sent by ambulance to Bassett here in Cooperstown. We were told she would probably be arriving about 12:30 p.m. so we could meet her there then. We arrived at the hospital at almost exactly the same time as the ambulance. We greatly appreciated the fact that the ambulance crew was kind enough to fill us in as to what they knew about the situation. We were most impressed by their caring and concern for Dorothy and wish to salute the Richfield Springs Emergency Squad for doing such a great job. We cannot thank them enough.

We also must commend the Bassett ER staff for the work they did on Dorothy’s behalf. Although the whole process seemed to take forever, they nonetheless were very careful to explain what they were doing and why which we found to be helpful given our uncertainty about the situation. Dorothy was finally admitted to the hospital to receive the care she needed.

By the next day, it was beginning to appear that she would not be able to return to the home in Richfield Springs and that we would be in the rather unpleasant position of finding her new living arrangements. Fortunately we had help with this somewhat difficult undertaking. Dr. Michael Bauer put us in touch with Maria Syke, who was the case manager for Dorothy. And she was wonderful. We cannot say enough about the way in which she handled the situation and got us on the right track. Almost immediately we were rushing off to Sharon Springs to check out a home there that would be able to accommodate Dorothy’s needs. Once we determined that it appeared to be a good fit, Maria then set about getting all the necessary paperwork in order for the upcoming transition. She also put us in touch with Betsy Jay, Chaplain at Bassett, who helped with the updating of a health care proxy. Interestingly enough, Betsy was able to find Dorothy’s health care proxy from 1993, which listed the he-we as the health care agent and us as the alternate agent. With Betsy’s help a new health care proxy is now in place. We also must thank our good friend Betty Giffin who volunteered to help us move Dorothy’s things out of Richfield Springs and then on to her new home in Sharon Springs. Without the help of Maria, Betsy and Betty, we never would have been able to have made the move. Of course, we must also thank the all the staff at Bassett for their caring and compassionate care during Dorothy’s stay there.

And we are now happy to report that Dorothy has taken up residence in Sharon Springs. We did tell her that while the move from Richfield Springs to Sharon Springs was acceptable, we were not inclined to have her thinking she needs to live in every “Springs” in New York State. We certainly don’t want her thinking her next move should be to Saratoga Springs.

In the midst of all the flurry of activity swirling around Dorothy, we did manage to get to the CCS board meeting for the discussion of the Regents exams. Regents exams are certainly not new to the students of New York State. The first CCS class to graduate under the Regents was in 1880 so they are indeed a long standing tradition. In the he-we’s days, the grade on any Regents exam was the final grade in the course. By the time the weewe was in high school, the Regents exam grade counted for 20 percent of the final grade. And now there is a move afoot to not count the Regents exam grade at all in the final grade for any given course. When we first heard this we were somewhat taken aback.

However, if our understanding of the current Regents exam scores is correct, there would appear to be little validity to the scores representing mastery of the subject at hand. The example we were given at the meeting was the chart for converting total test raw scores to final examination scores (scaled scores) for the Regents examination in Mathematics A in January 2008. That particular test had 84 questions. If they were all answered correctly, the Regents grade was 100. However, if 76 questions, 90 percent of the total, were answered correctly, the Regents grade was 95. If 70 questions, 83.3 percent of the total, were answered correctly, the Regents grade was 91. This continued down to answering 34 questions, 40.5 percent of the total, resulting in a Regents grade of 65, the grade needed to pass the Regents exam.

We are completely clueless as to what one is to make of this. It was pointed out that this particularly chart was only good for the specific exam mentioned, and that each Regents exam would have its own chart for figuring the Regents grade. However, if one is allowed to pass an exam having only answered 40.5 percent of the questions correctly, we simply do not understand the purpose of the test. We are not inclined to think that a mastery level of 40 percent is acceptable. And it makes us think that the Regents program has been desecrated to the point of being meaningless. Yet it continues to be the standard measurement for education in New York State. It all makes us think that educationally we are indeed in deep lasagna. Obviously someone needs to do something. And unfortunately, we do not think that Cooperstown’s eliminating the use of the Regents grades is going to solve the underlying problem. We tend to think the help is needed somewhere higher up the ladder.

In closing, we note that one of the area’s many scholarships, which is given based on an essay, has the topic this year of “America’s Most Perfect Village? What’s Wrong with Cooperstown and How to Fix It.” We must admit that we really don’t see the challenge in this particular essay. Anyone and everyone, ourselves included, can list in great detail everything that is wrong with Cooperstown, most of which could be fixed with an infusion of money. In our opinion, not that we were asked, the far more challenging and interesting essay would be “America’s Most Perfect Village? What’s Right with Cooperstown and How to Keep It That Way.” Now those are the essays that we would want to read.

We remain, In these Otsego hills,

The Ellsworths

The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer St., Cooperstown, N.Y. 13326, by telephone at 547- 8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com. They look forward to hearing from you.