HFCS Terminates Teacher

by Alex Brooks
At its meeting on Thursday, March 17, the Hoosick Falls School Board passed a motion terminating the employment of Lawrence M. Haskell, Jr. effective March 18, 2011. The District brought charges against him alleging “misconduct, insubordination, incompetence and conduct unbecoming a teacher,” and three hearings were held before Hearing Officer John Trela in November and December of 2010. Trela rendered his decision March 7, and the Board is now acting based on his report.
2011-2012 Budget
The Board has decided not to fill Haskell’s position, so the District will discontinue one elementary school AIS math position. It will also leave two positions vacated by retiring teachers unfilled, so the District will make do with one less 7-12 math teacher and one less k-6 reading teacher. In addition, there will be some savings from what school districts call “breakage,” which refers to when a senior teacher retires and is replaced by a young teacher. The District pays less for the same position because a beginning teacher is paid less than a senior teacher.
These decisions have changed the budget picture over the last month. The budget now shows a tax levy increase of 2.92%, and overall spending by the District is now $276,813, or 1.3%, less in next year’s budget than in this year’s.
Superintendent Ken Facin said the Board has one more budget workshop, on April 7, at which they will tackle the question of whether they can bring the tax levy down further. He noted that 1% on the tax levy is about $85,000, so they are just under $250,000 away from a 0% increase.
Retiring
The Board accepted, with regret, resignations for retirement reasons from math teacher Sarah Stetson, reading teacher Debbie Tudor, elementary school teacher Dale Ninivaggi, teaching assistant Catherine Denerley, bus driver John Hickey, head cook Mary Waytkus and food service helper Lois King.  Superintendent Facin said these dedicated members of the school community will be missed and a farewell ceremony for them is planned for a subsequent meeting.
Presentations
The meeting began with presentations to students who made the Principal’s List for academic excellence and to students who qualified for Drama Scholar and Scholar Athlete awards. This winter, four of the Hoosick Falls sports team qualified for the NYS Public High School Athletic Association Scholar-Athlete Team awards – Boys and Girls Basketball, Bowling and Wrestling.
Donation To Football Team
One of the volunteer assistant coaches for the football team, Mark Folgert, has put in enough volunteer hours helping to coach the team to qualify for his employer’s incentive program, so Verizon sent him a check for $750, and he donated it to the football program at HFCS, adding an additional $250 donation from his own pocket to make it an even $1,000. Coach Ron Jones accepted the checks with many thanks on behalf of the Hoosick Falls High School football program.
Public Comment
At Public Comment time a representative of NYSARC, which provides services for kids with disabilities, questioned the wisdom of the Board and the administration completely eliminating the NYSARC program at HFCS. He said, “I’m not sure if the Board understands what we do and who it affects.” He said he would like to make a presentation about what they do at the school in the program, which has been in place since 2004.
Superintendent Facin said the program costs $40,000 a year, and he felt the task had to be accomplished for considerably less than that. Facin said he didn’t envisage getting rid of the program and then not providing any of those services to the kids with disabilities. Instead, said Facin, “I see us taking it on internally. We have to do it in a creative, cost effective way, for much less than $40,000.”
The fellow from NYSARC said it might be possible to revise the program to serve the District’s needs, and Facin agreed to meet with him to explore the possibilities.
School Board President David Sutton remarked that however the matter comes out, it should be noted that the letters of support that NYSARC provided to the Board are an impressive testimonial to the value of the work that they do.
The other speaker at Public Comment time was Ken Marbot, speaking on behalf of Hoosick Falls Youth Football, which plays its games on the High School field on Sundays. Recent discussions about banning Sunday activities on the School grounds had him worried. He said, “I’m asking you not to lock us out of this facility.”
Marbot said they use the same referees as the high school, and those officials are doing high school games on Saturdays, so the Pee Wees can’t schedule their games then. He also said the kids get a charge out of playing on the same field as the high school players that they look up to.
The Board seemed moved by Marbot’s plea. They have not taken any definite action yet on the issue of Sunday practices or Sunday activities on the school grounds. Both John Helft and Rick Ferrannini made a distinction between school activities scheduled on Sundays and outside activities that use school grounds being scheduled on Sundays and said they are inclined not to ban the latter.