Capital Project Vote Postponed
By Alex Brooks
At its regular monthly meeting on March 15, the Hoosick Falls School Board decided to postpone holding another vote on the District’s proposed capital project until some time in the next school year because there is too much anger, uncertainty, and stress in the community coming from the revaluation.The date of the School Budget vote is just a week before grievance day when people will be asking to have their valuations adjusted, so at the time of the vote, many people will still not know just how much tax they will have to pay. The Board felt that in such a climate people may be inclined to vote down the only property tax that they can vote on, that of the school.
Superintendent Ken Facin said since the letters from the revaluation company have been arriving at homes in Hoosick, his phone has been ringing with people asking the District to hold off for now on the Capital Project vote. Board Vice-President Rachel Boisvert asked Facin if the District can wait another year, some of the projects being very urgent. Facin said he thought they would have to find a way, but he said the vote would have to be held some time during the next school year. If it didn’t happen by then, the District would have to move ahead with some of the projects and do things piece by piece (which would be much more expensive). The Board apparently remains committed to putting the project up for another vote, but was non-committal about when that would be.
Board President Greg Laurin reported that the letter about school safety that was discussed at last month’s meeting, in response to the Florida shootings, was written and sent out to lawmakers around the region. Facin noted that the national student walkout demanding action on gun violence was stymied at Hoosick Falls because of a snow day. He said his team found it offensive that other school districts were making plans to penalize their students for taking part in the event. He said Hoosick Falls encourages its students to speak out and engage with the issues of the day. He said a contingent of students from Hoosick Falls will be traveling to Washington D.C for the March 24 March For Our Lives event, and they will report back to the school community when they return.
School Business Administrator Pam Hatfield gave reports on budget considerations for BOCES services, Athletics, Buildings & Grounds, Transportation, and Debt Service. David Breese gave a budget presentation on Technology.
Hatfield also presented a new revision of the budget. Since last month a school resource officer was added at an additional cost of $80,000, and an Executive Secretary position was abolished, at a savings of $44,140. as well as trimming $9,500 from the budget for conferences and travel, and $37,800 from the materials, supplies, and equipment budgets. Overall spending in the latest version of next year’s budget is $158,904 lower than this year’s budget. The goal is to get the tax levy below the tax cap, which this year requires the tax levy to be reduced by 0.15%. The current version of the budget is still over half a million dollars away from that goal. Some of that will probably come from an increase in state aid from the Governor’s proposal to the final budget, which is supposed to be completed by April 1. Where the rest of it will come from has not been determined yet.
Prom Proposal
Junior Class officers presented to the Board their plans for the Prom, to be held this year on May 12. The venue will be Lakota Farms in Cambridge. The Grand March will start at 4 pm at the School, and the prom itself will be 6 to 11 pm with dinner and dancing, then buses return the students to the school, where they stay until 7 am, with a hypnotist, a DJ, laser tag, a movie, other activities and breakfast. At 7 am they board the buses to Six Flags New England. A prom ticket will be $50. The Board accepted the prom proposal, and commended the students on their planning.
4th Grade Book
Many on the Board were excited about the book written by the HFCS 4th graders entitled Memory Moments. Rachel Boisvert, whose daughter was one of the authors, and Katie Brownell, the teacher who was one of the leaders of the project, spoke about how much energy and excitement was generated by the project.
Pam Hatfield spoke during her presentation on athletics about a cross-country running course that is being laid out on the Hoosick Falls campus. Some of the course is on the neighboring Wysocki Farm, and Facin said he was very happy to have such generous and cooperative neighbors that make possible a full 5k course. Facin also described a collaborative project between students, faculty and Building and Grounds to build dugouts on the softball field. A dedication ceremony of the newly renamed Charlie Weeden Softball Field will be held at noon on Saturday, April 21. A front page story in the School Boards Association newspaper On Board last week described the Hoosick Falls program on Social/Emotional development in great detail. The Hoosick Falls District has become a state-wide leader in this area. Superintendent Ken Facin will be presenting at the NYSSBA Conference in New York City in October jointly with Caitlin McCormick of the PEAR Institute at Harvard on this topic.
In other business, the Board
• Appointed Andrew Nolan as District Treasurer, replacing Emily Sanders, who has been promoted to School Business Administrator.
• Appointed Michael Apostol as a long-term administrator. He will be filling in for Amy Netti while she is on a short leave of absence.
• Approved a 2 year employment agreement with Superintendent of School Ken Facin, from July 2021 to June 2023.
• Accepted two bids for internet service, one for $18,858 per year and one for 527.88 per year, both from Charter Communications.
• Rejected all bids for telephone service. The District received only one bid, which was double the cost they have been paying, and the current provider did not submit a bid. There will be a new round of bids, scheduled to be opened on March 19.