& Albany County Post - The Altamont Enterprise

6 The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, December 20, 2012
GCSD to name facilities committee to consider next bond project
By Melissa Hale-Spencer
GUILDERLAND — The meeting
after the school board approved
its last change order for
a $27 million project, members
were enthused about establishing
a committee to consider the
district’s next bond project.
Assistant Superintendent for
Business Neil Sanders proposed
a facilities committee be set up to
work with an architect and report
to the board on whether a capital
project should be undertaken
and, if so, to recommend the size
and scope of the project.
The last facilities committee,
he noted, was set up in 2007.
In November of 2007, voters
approved a $27 million project
to upgrade Guilderland’s five
elementary schools, improve
technology across the district,
and move the district offices to
the high school.
Because of the economy, bids
came in lower than predicted
and so, in the fall of 2009, the
board added close to $2 million
in projects — all for the same $27
million voters had approved.
The added items came from
what the facilities committee had
termed its “wish list.”
The additional work included
roof replacement at Guilderland
and Lynnwood elementary
schools; toilet upgrades, sidewalk
repairs, and drain work
at Lynnwood; acoustical tile
replacement in the Westmere
Elementary School gym; and
refinishing the gym floor at Pine
Bush Elementary School.
At the high school, work included
resurfacing the track,
making concrete walk repairs,
replacing lockers and outside
doors, and roof replacement.
Sanders told the school board
at its Dec. 11 meeting that it
would take a minimum of 18
months to study and bond the
new project and to get approval
from the State Education Department.
The earliest that work
could start, he said, would be in
the summer of 2015.
Board President Colleen
O’Connell suggested that, as
with the last facilities committee,
its members include people from
the different buildings, community
members, and workers from
the maintenance department.
Sanders said there would be “a
variety of stakeholders.”
“Doing it in increments makes
it more manageable,” said board
member Allan Simpson of having
a series of smaller bond issues
rather than waiting and having
a large one. “It lets us maintain
our buildings,”
said Simpson.
“It’s less destructive
to the
e d u c a t i o n a l
process,” agreed
Sanders, adding
that small projects
completed
more frequently
contain costs
and are better
managed.
O ’ C o n n e l l
agreed, too, citing
other Suburban
Council districts that
wait a decade for a $100 million
project.
The board was so enthused
that O’Connell asked if it wanted
to vote to waive its regular wait
untill the next meeting and instead
take action immediately.
Sanders recommended waiting
until the January meeting
when he will have the resolution
ready.
The plan will be to have the
facilities committee start meeting
in January or February and
work through the school year.
Other business
In other business, the board:
— Agreed to refinance bonds
issued in 2006 for construction
at the middle school, for a savings
of $320,000 over eight years.
The current interest rate, said
Sanders, is 1.5 percent, whereas,
when the bonds were issued, it
was over 4 percent;
— Heard from Timothy Burke,
who had served on the Citizens’
Budget Advisory Committee
before it was dissolved, that
honoring an agreement on the
middle-school schedule means
larger class sizes, that the reason
Guilderland now has more
students isn’t because of the
economy but because of full-day
kindergarten, and that board
members should be nonpartisan
and should not endorse political
candidates;
— Heard congratulations
for Alan Fiero, a Farnsworth
“Doing it in increments
makes it more manageable.”
Middle School science teacher,
who received a $5,000 Bender
Scientific Grant for students to
begin a research project monitoring
the restoration of the Albany
landfill;
— Learned that Guilderland’s
program for teaching English as
a second language will partner
with the University at Albany
so that all pre-service teachers
in the university’s program for
teaching English to speakers
of other languages will have to
do their 100 hours of work in
Guilderland, which has seen
an influx of foreign students in
recent years;
— Approved an agreement
with the Rensselaer-Columbia-
Greene Board of Cooperative
Educational Services to provide
internal auditing services for the
2012-13 school year;
— Approved an addendum to
the district’s contract with TRAC
Services for additional physical
therapy. Sanders said there
was “greater student need than
anticipated.” The district pays
$52 for each 30- to 60-minute
session;
— Declared as surplus or
obsolete a list of items, including
furniture, storage cubbies,
televisions, a typewriter, and
eight buses. Sanders said the
items would be put out to bid.
The board will receive the sealed
bids on Jan. 4;
— Awarded W.B. Mason Company,
the lowest of five bidders,
a $59,900.40 bid
for 2,520 cases
of white paper.
S a n d e r s s a i d
the district is
locking in the
price for a year
because prices
are expected to
increase;
— Accepted
donations of a
guitar and keyboard
from Joan
McGrath, and
$700 from the
Class of 1985;
— Approved a trip for April
2014 to Vienna, Venice, Florence,
and Paris led by high school
social studies teacher Robert
Baker;
— Approved a new Italian club,
named Ciao, at the middle school.
The advisor, Piera Camposeo-
Iaia, won’t be paid. Students of
all cultures will meet twice a
month “to learn about the Italian
history, music, literature,
art, language, and food,” says the
request form;
— Heard from Wiles that the
Guilderland Elks, as they have
for years, gave each third-grader
a paperback dictionary. “Each
year, the dictionaries magically
appear and I know our students
greatly appreciate them,” she
said;
— Learned from Wiles that
a plan has been drafted for “a
systematic review of all our programs.”
This will assure quality
and relevance, she said, and also
help with allocating resources
and planning for the future.
Three reviews are to be competed
this year: technology for
grades 6 to 12, self-contained
special education, and teaching
foreign languages and English
as a second language;
— Reviewed policies on parental
involvement, board hearings,
board policy, academic intervention
services, English language
learner proficiency instruction,
admission of foreign students,
disposal of district property, and
student transportation;
— In a split vote, agreed to
a resolution urging Congress
“to mitigate the across-theboard
cuts to education that are
scheduled to occur January 2,
2013.” New York is slated to lose
$164 million in federal funding,
largely for students with disabilities
and students in poverty;
cuts would average $243,000
per district but, in reality, poor
districts would lose more.
Board member Barbara Fraterrigo
had proposed an addendum
to the National School
Boards Association resolution.
“Every interest group is going to
say, ‘I want to preserve my piece
of the pie’…We all have to share
in the sacrifice to get the country
out of the doldrums,” Fraterrigo
told the board. Not enough board
members agreed with her to include
the addendum.
“It’s not our role to…take a
position on how to get there,”
said board Vice President Gloria
Towle-Hilt.
Ultimately, the original resolution
passed 8 to 1, with Fraterrigo
casting the sole dissenting
vote; and
— Met in executive session
to discuss a potential tenure
appointment, and to discuss negotiations
with the Instructional
Administrators’ Unit, the Noninstructional
Supervisory Unit
and other Management Personnel,
and the Guilderland Office
Workers’ Association.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Wearing smiles and bearing gifts: For the fourth year, Guilderland teaching assistants collected toys for needy children in the community. Last week, from left, Michelle
Farison from Westmere Elementary, Lisa Weaver from Guilderland High School, Lynne Haley from Westmere, Georgianna Pennacchia, and Mim Dvorscak from Lynnwood
Elementary gathered to wrap the gifts. Pennacchia, president of the Saint Vincent De Paul Society, said she had 17 foster-care children who, without the teaching assistants’ toy
drive, would not have gifts this year. “Because of all of you,” she told the TAs, “I look forward to the party and giving all the gifts you provided.” An anonymous donor this year
gave $1,000 for the purchase of big gifts like a bike and a keyboard.