by Alex Brooks
At its meeting on June 18, the Hoosick Falls School Board enacted the things that they had proposed in their budget. A resolution was passed to approve a Bond for the purchase of school buses in the amount of $115,000. Four new positions were created, as contemplated in the budget approved by the voters. These were two Teacher Aide positions, which were filled by appointments of Deborah Kapron and Karen Sherman, and two School Counselor positions, which were filled by appointments of Katelyn Dobert and Jennifer Berry.
[private]The Board also appointed several new teachers. These included Joshua Wyan, Teacher of Math, Melissa Hartley, Teacher of Earth Science, and Steven Calabrese, Teacher of Science.
The Board granted tenure to English Teacher Christina Stebbins, and then took a short break from the meeting to hold a reception in her honor.
At public comment time Bruce Seney said he had brought up the issue of noise in the cafeterias four years earlier, and he doesn’t feel it has been addressed. Superintendent Ken Facin said the District has installed decibel meters in the cafeterias. They are set to turn red when the noise level gets to 80 decibels (the one in the elementary cafeteria is set lower than that), and he said “When it goes red, we ask people to tone it down.” Amy Netti said the meters work pretty well, because when the kids see the meters turn red, they know they need to quiet down a bit. Seney thanked them for the update and said he will continue to monitor the situation.
The PTA officers made a presentation to the Board about their budget for the upcoming year. This was delivered by President Susan Senecal, VP Sarah Bushey, and Treasurer Eliza Bouplon. Senecal also announced the PTA officers for next year, who are Nicole Hathaway, President, Eliza Bouplon VP, Susan Senecal, Treasurer, and Jonah Spiak, Treasurer.
The Board accepted numerous donations from the HFCS PTA. These included $200 for D.A.R.E. graduation t-shirts for the fifth grade, $100 each to provide an end of the year reward for third, seventh, and ninth grade students, $270 for an end of the year field trip to the Town Pool for second grade students, $500 for t-shirts for the Jazz Band, Symphonic Band, and Senior Chorus, and $500 for an end of the year field trip for eighth grade students.
The Board awarded the bid for the Universal Pre-K Program for the 2015-16 school year to the Commission on Economic Opportunity for the Greater Capital Region, Inc., in the amount of $60,896.
The Board approved a school tax refund in settlement of a Tax Certiorari case to MCI Communications in the amount of $22,024. With that case settled, the District was able to return $288,128.61 from the Tax Certiorari reserve to the General Fund. The Board approved that transfer by unanimous vote.
The Board approved raising the price of school lunch from $2.35 to $2.45 in the Elementary School, and from $2.60 to 2.70 for grades 5 to 12. Superintendent Facin said the District would like to keep the prices unchanged, but the Federal Government requires that the prices be raised to match their guidelines.
The Board’s Re-Organization Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 9 at 6 pm in the High School Cafeteria. [/private]