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Haldane Presents High School Pitch at Garrison School Board Meeting
Budget deliberations beginning, more parent involvement at the committee level sought
by Kevin Foley
Attendees at the regular meeting of the Garrison Union Free School Board of Education on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 had to walk a silent gauntlet of teachers, staff and supportive parents all dissatisfied with the prolonged absence of a new contract for school personnel. The picketers stood on both sides of the hallway outside the entrance to the school library, allowing their signs and tee shirts to express their messages on the value of a child's education and the rightness of their contract demands.
Neither the demonstrators nor members of the school board had anything to say during the meeting about their negotiations, in which at last report a mediator had been brought in to help break the impasse. The group of about twenty-five protestors stayed for the first hour of the meeting and then exited.
The first half of the board meeting was taken up by a presentation on Haldane High School by Haldane District Superintendent Dr. Mark Villanti and the school's new principal, Brian Alm. The two educators took turns outlining the school's attributes including academic offerings, athletic programs, planned physical plant improvements and ideas for the future.
The purpose of the presentation was to familiarize board members and parents in the audience with Haldane as eighth graders prepare to make their choice for high school later this year. Another presentation for parents and students is scheduled for February 7 at 6:30pm at Haldane High School.
"We're neighbors, we want Garrison to have confidence in our leadership and our school," declared Dr. Villanti as he introduced a slide show complete with music that displayed Haldane students in a variety of upbeat settings.
Dr. Villanti emphasized the similarity between Haldane's and Garrison's approach to education and the willingness of Haldane to work closely with the Garrison educators to ensure the success of Garrison students. He also highlighted plans for a new capital project, an excellent audit record as well as his district's commitment to moderating tax increases.
Principal Brian Alm, who arrived at Haldane last Thanksgiving, spoke of adding French language offerings to the existing Spanish along with more programs aimed at promoting global citizenship. He also said he was very impressed with the teaching staff he inherited, underscoring that many were local working artists and scientists with success outside the classroom as well as in.
In response to a parent's question about students seen on Main Street in Cold Spring during lunch hour Alm said he was working toward "a captive lunch for tenth graders as well as those in the ninth grade." He said he is also exploring the possibility of a unit lunch wherein the entire student body would have lunch at the same time with tutoring and other student activities scheduled, "so there is less moving around at that time."
Dr. Villanti told Garrison Board member James Cannon that he recognized there were some differences in the two school systems' approaches to math and science but he did not think Garrison students entering Haldane High School would be disadvantaged in any way.
At the end of the presentation the audience emptied out and the Board continued with more routine business.
Board member Frances DiSarro reported that the Arts and Education committee had met with representatives of the Mighty Theater Company to discuss ongoing curriculum development using theater work with students. This spring will see a number of student theatrical productions at all grade levels according to DiSarro. "The benefits of this approach are many including developing skills such as logic, presentation, memorization, and many others. "The shows are what people see but the program itself works well with the entire curriculum," said DiSarro.
Superintendent Gloria Colucci reported that she will be joining officials from other schools at an upcoming meeting with state legislators to impress upon the representatives the burden unfunded state mandates have on local school districts.
On personnel matters, Colucci said the district was ready to hire a part-time purchasing clerk for $11 an hour and was looking to find a part-time ESL teacher.
Teacher's aides at Garrison recently received training on dealing with bullying among students and related matters. And kindergarten registration is scheduled for February 5 and 6 at the school according to Colucci.
The Finance Committee believes the current budget is on plan with fuel oil costs coming in as expected according to chair Carol McCullough. "It's too early to say what might be left over in the budget by the end of the fiscal year, she said.
The state government is studying the question of accounting for retirement benefits and McCullough said this represented a potential liability for the school district's balance sheet beginning next year.
McCullough also reported that the Budget Advisory Committee had met and had begun to examine various programs for their financial impact. She said the absence of a teacher's contract had to be taken into consideration in planning the budget for the next year. She also said that while there are 11 members there were no parents yet on the committee and hoped there would be soon.
Board chair Anita Prentice reported on the first meeting of a group being formed to plan the celebration of the school's 100th anniversary during the 2008-09 school year. Discussion centered on getting more people involved, the need to plan multiple events, capturing the stories of alumni and former employees as well making the celebration an educational experience.
Gloria Colucci said the Education Committee had reviewed the school's Spanish program and found its use of verbal and visual techniques with no testing to be going quite well. "They are looking to bring it down to the third grade level," said Colucci.
The Board ended the meeting with a general discussion of new signage possibilities for the school property. Member James Cannon said, "maybe we could have an informational sign to bolster communication with the community. "We'd have to price it of course," added Cannon.
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