by Thaddeus Flint
If you are wondering what the 2105-2016 budget might look like for the Berlin Central School District, you can join the School Board and the school’s administrator in that wonderment. BCS began work on that budget months ago, but some of the most important numbers–how much aid the District will be getting (or not getting) from the State–”are still not available,” said the District’ Superintendent Dr. Stephen Young at the March 17 Board meeting.
[private]Should the District end up with no aid all, the budget would be running at a $450,000 deficit. That is however, a “gloom and doom” scenario and unlikely to happen, said Dr. Young.
In fact a bill in the state Assembly would provide for a $1.8 billion aid increase for education, which is about $700 million more than Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal of $1.1 billion. The budget deadline in Albany is April 1, and if all goes well “we should be in pretty good shape,” said Dr. Young.
One proposition that will appear on the May 19 school budget vote, will be the proposal to purchase three 66 passenger buses, one 28 passenger van, two 7 passenger suburbans, and a snow plow. The total sum would come to not more than $518,000. Should this proposition pass, according to Business Manager, Karen Capozzi, the District would not be looking at another bus purchase for three more years.
Transportation became a minor issue for four students looking to attend Tech Valley next year. While there is currently a Suburban going out to Tech Valley each day, there would only be three seats on it, should it even continue, next year. One parent stated she would drive all four of them if she had to, it was that important. There was still some discussion about the possible costs of transportation.
“We have four high achieving students who want to attend a high achieving school,” pointed out Board Member Jim Willis. “Why are we even talking about transportation here?”
Meanwhile at least two of the students, and their parents, had been waiting all night to find out if their Tech Valley dream was ever going to come true. And for how many of the four? The District apparently has no set number of slots, so students don’t really know what their chances might be of getting one.
At the suggestion of Board Member Gina Goodermote, it was decided to vote on whether or not to accept all four students, but with no promise of transportation. Bussing of some kind might happen, but if it doesn’t happen, nobody can complain that the District promised and then went back on the deal. Based on that, all Board members voted to allow the four students to attend Tech Valley next fall. This, however, will be the last time that there is no set way to accept students. “From now on, we are doing things differently,” promised Goodermote.
The night started off on a strange note. The auditorium, usually rather empty for most Board meetings, had a large audience of students and a few teachers. Opportunity for public comment was moved to the head of the agenda and Middle School Home and Careers Teacher Diane Mosher spoke first. “It’s not fair for anyone to work in a hostile environment,” she said, adding that she was “not perfect, far from it.” The details of what she was speaking about were not completely revealed. Mosher said that her room had been a topic of discussion that had become “excessive.” She says she has organized the room but still feels that an atmosphere of “retribution” exists within the middle school.
Resident JoAnn Kellar then got up and spoke in support of Mosher. “One big item in the District is bullying,” said Kellar. “This issue has been directed only to the bullying among students. How can anything be done about this when the students witness bullying by the administration against the instructional and non-instructional staff?” The problems of Mosher’s room largely stem from her generosity, believes Kellar. Mosher collects clothes to help those who can’t afford them. Apparently this collection of clothes was seen as a “mess” by some and friction occurred. However Kellar said that this “bullying” is not an isolated incident. Kellar said she used to substitute teach but she does not anymore. “I feel that the bullying at the administrative end has to stop before we can do anything about the bullying among students,” she said to a large applause from the mostly student audience.
Neither the Administration nor the Board chose to respond to the comments of either Mosher or Kellar.
The next regularly scheduled Board meeting will be held Tuesday April 21 at 7:15 pm in the Middle School/High School Auditorium. Those looking for something a little more amusing are reminded that the Berlin Elementary School Third Annual Lip Sync Concert will be held Friday, March 27 at 6:30 pm in the same venue. [/private]