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Putnam Valley Board of Education Evaluates "State of the Schools Reports"
by Edward Paul Greiff
After listening to the "State of the Schools Reports" presented by each of the principals, Paul Lee's financial report, Krystal Miranda's student's report, the PTA and PTSA reports, and the reports by Dr. Barbara Fuchs and Dr. Guy Cohen, the listener has a complete picture of the Putnam Valley School District. The evaluations and conclusions reached by these presenters is that the Putnam Valley Schools are innovative, progressive, and financially sound. They provide a fertile learning environment where Putnam Valley students seem to excel and the school community is definitely a service-oriented part of the overall Town community.
Prior to the State of the School reports, Superintendent Dr. Marc Space presented the "Pride of Putnam Valley Awards." Dr. Space said, "In a sport that is near and dear to my heart, the students, staff, and community of Putnam Valley take pride in recognizing Jonathan Bootenan for his hard work and dedication which resulted in his selection for the second time in two years for the NYS Cross Country Championship." He also recognized two other athletes Ashley Morgan and Brittany Kinsley who were selected for the all-state, all-section Field Hockey team.
Louise Frangella, Assistant Principal of the elementary school, began by comparing their enrollment from September until now; K=117, 1=126, 2= 129, 3=138, 4=147, total=657 students. She said that when kids leave the district in the summer and transfer to another school it is not recognized in their records until the school gets a request from the other school for the student's records. "What is interesting to note," she said was that, "although they had a reduction of eight students overall we had 30 enrolled from July to September. Not only do we have a lot moving in, we have a lot moving out."
Ed Hallisey, Middle School Principal said, "Take a look at our changes you will see we are down twenty but it's not twenty in one place so it has very little impact on class size. We change our enrollment daily: no rhyme or reason, people move in people move out; 5=135, 6=156. 7=145, 8=138, total=577 students."
Dr. David Fine, Assistant High School Principal, said, "But in the high school they move in. We had a net change of one; our numbers are very stable. The incoming class for next year is 140, outgoing is 149; 9=145, 10=144, 11=187, 12=149, total=625.
Louise Frangella explained to the Board, "Our Character Education and Diversity Committee of teachers and support service personnel meet on a monthly basis to do different activities in the school, to raise awareness, mostly about our expectations. They have done an incredible job. Some of the things they do is they purchase about 4 or 5 books a year that they provide to each and every classroom in our school that really speaks to one of our topics 'Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible.' So it ends up being a positive experience that everyone in the school shares. They were also responsible for our peace gallery, which was a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King but more so a celebration and recognition of peace. Each class created their own poster about peace and they are currently being displayed in our gym."
Louise Frangella on curriculum updates told the Board that they have adopted a revised edition of Investigations in Number, Data and Space. The book is a constructivist's-based approach to teaching mathematics and it's very much about manipulating different materials to get a conceptual understanding of mathematics. She said, "What we are finding is that the activities or games that they play in Kindergarten build upon each other for games in fourth grade. "It's really the first time we have had a consistent math program in the elementary school," she said.
Ed Hallisey reported that there are 103 students taking a Regents level or better of a High School Earth Science class. He said that they still offer two sections of Earth Science General for those students who are not ready for the Regents level challenge.
"Each of the students in grades 6-8 has laptops. This year we just started in the Fifth grade with laptops. We have approximately 450 laptops out in the building. All the teachers and students are using Study Wiz to learn. All of their homework is coming to them via laptop and they can do their homework on the laptops. We are finding that the Fifth graders are picking it up very quickly and the tempo at which they pick up the skill is increasing.
"Our Read 180 program is new this year. We have 15 students in the program. They range from grades 5 through 8; all readers are below a minimum of two grade levels. They're completing their first check point of data collection which is called an SRI, Student Reading Inventory. Each year the program will drop a grade and eventually the program will become the fifth grade reading program."
"We run 28 Clubs and 6 different sections of intramurals. We use student athletes from the team sport to help out coaching the intramural players. We do have a large population of students who elect to participate in after school activities which is great because there is not a lot to do in Town outside of the school and the more we can keep the kids with us the better it is for both them and us. We have bus transportation for all these activities in the morning and after school."
"Another new thing we started is a before and after school tutoring club which was really Dr. Fine's idea. We now have 11 athletes who have paired up with varsity athletes to help those athletes who are struggling academically to keep them on the team and make sure their homework is done. We have an after school program that has 25 students in it that we have paired with High School Juniors who are potential Honor Society candidates."
Dr. David Fine reported that at the recommendation of the Board, community service be a graduation requirement. The steering committee wants to be sure that there is ample opportunity for the student to accomplish this. They are also concerned with how it impinges upon an individual's time when he or she already has a busy schedule. The idea is still being worked on.
Assistant Superintendent Paul Lee presented the 2nd Quarter budget overview. "So far we have collected more than $31 million of our projected $41 million revenue. Our three major sources of revenue are taxes, State Aid, and STAR. So far we have collected 89% of our tax levy or 24.5 million dollars. The State Aid we have collected is 34% or $2.8 million dollars, STAR funds we have received are 80% or $3.5 million. This is normal, we usually collect about 90% of our taxes by this time. The bulk of the variance is from the tuition we charge other schools. So overall we are projecting that we will have a positive variance of a shade less than $200,000."
"In the area of expenditures I will treat it as one large block. General Support we are running pretty much on target and are predicting a slight positive variance. Instruction we will end up with a positive variance of 3.7%. Most of the positive variance is made up of $280,000 in teacher salaries and tuitions, and $500,000 in special education tuitions and the high tuition cost."
"In the area of transportation, it is a crapshoot at this moment because of rising fuel prices. So far we have seen fuel prices rise at the rate of 35%. We currently pay $2.64 per gallon for gas and $2.95 per gallon for diesel fuel. We buy off a State contract so these costs are significantly lower than what you would pay at the pump. But the State contract allows for a cost escalation and we see these costs going up every week.
"Benefits show a positive variance of $333,332. This is attributed to teachers getting married and falling under their mate's benefit package. They can opt out of the family plan and choose a single plan so we also share in the savings.
"To cap it all off we are expecting a positive variance of $1.25 million that represents 3% of our budget. What this all translates to at the very end is if you add the positive revenue variance ($194,175) with the positive expenditure variance ($1,254,813) and you subtract out what the county encumbrances are (-$900,297) we are projecting a positive variance in our Fund balance at the end of this fiscal year of $548,691. If you add that with our current 3% unreserved fund balance of $1,031,000 that would place us in 3.8% retention; we are allowed 4% for next year, and that would put us in pretty good shape."
Krystal Miranda, student representative to the School Board reported on a myriad of activities taking place in the schools and highlighted the activities of the Make a Difference Club, Smoking and the Power Against Tobacco displays, and the Dangers of Eating Disorders lecture. She also mentioned the successful results of the Putnam Valley "Challenge" team and their victory over Roosevelt High School. Their next competition is against Croton on March 5th and will be televised at the High School for those who would like to see the competition.
Assistant Superintendent Barbara Fuchs posted on the web site two new curriculum maps, one for art and another for music. These are available to the public by accessing the site.
Board of Education Vice President Dr. Guy Cohen reported on his attendance at a Westchester/Putnam teachers conference. He said that he was disappointed that Putnam Valley was the only school district in Putnam County that attended, but he was pleased to say that most of the other school districts were behind PV in their strategic planning, curriculum and technology development, and were i
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