Sachem School Board News & Notes

Bruce Singer, Sachem's Assistant Superintendent of Business, gave a brief budget update at Wednesday night's Sachem Central School District board of education meeting.

He presented a list of cuts totaling $2 million to the board to prepare for possible mid-year cuts at the state level when Gov.-elect Cuomo takes office. None of the actual cuts were discussed.

"Stopping some spending will put us in a better position," he said.

One area the district is considering cutting is summer school. Representatives from the district's budget advisory committee, including who ran for the school board last year, spoke about costs of summer school, which total $452,000. The kindergarten through second grade reading program costs $250,000 and the secondary summer school program costs $237,000. 

Board trustee Anthony Falco asked if numbers can be presented stating how many students attend summer school because of missing physical education courses, or failing other academic courses. The committee will be looking into certain percentages before the next meeting on Jan. 5.

Other notes

Jessica DePasquale, an administrative assistant for instructional support in Sachem, spoke about Academic Intervention Services. Across the board Sachem is spending $88,930.40, DePasquale said. The number is tentative based on transportation and materials costs.

"We're working with a company to provide some staff development," she said. "We want to provide materials that help teachers target skills in the areas students need."

Administrators around the county are dealing with state standards and financial issues.

"People are in a state of panic," said Sachem Superintendent James Nolan. "Everyone has their own unique plan. I don't know if we realize as a Sachem family how fortunate we are to have the people we have in this [AIS] group. This has been a very trying and stressing time because you have the unknown, different curveballs thrown our way at the last second. I think we're going some place we've never been before. Folks are really making an effort for one reason, to benefit our children."

Recognitions

Sequoya Middle School Student Cynthia Brand was honored as a Long Island Young Scholar of Mathematics. She competed against 850 top ranked students in various math related topics. Other students, some of whom performed for the board Wednesday, were honored as All-State student musicians. A handful of them performed live for the board and audience, including members of North's Select Vocal Jazz Group, "Image": Danielle Mannino, Laura Laureano, Marissa Girgus, Matthew Pedersen, Grant Lindeman and James Stumper.

Presentations

Laura Amato and Danielle DeLorenzo made a presentation about the Sachem has recently embarked on. They said the students have been using the book "7 Habits for Happy Kids." Students are reading examples of assignments they have worked on in school to the school board to show early leadership skills. Ten students read various examples of things they've done to be leaders, then concluded the segment with the seven hand signals that coincide with Covey's seven laurels.

Notable Action items

• The board approved an agreement between the district and Interactive Procurement Technologies by BidNet to provide on-line bidding services, including maintenance and support services at no cost to the district. According to the agenda, it is a web-based system and no special hardware or software is required.
• The board approved an energy proposal offered by National Grid to transition to firm gas. Schools will transition from temperature control rate to firm rate for a three-year period. These schools include Lynwood, Merrimac, Tecumseh, Hiawatha, Wenonah, Cayuga, Waverly and Nokomis. According to the agenda, the program will: Provide gas main for Samoset Middle School to accommodate the switch to firm gas. National Grid will absorb the $80,000 construction costs; National Grid shall install 465' so Grundy can convert from oil to gas. National Grid will absorb $30,000 construction cost; National Grid will provide a $10,000 rebate for the Grundy Elementary AERCO boiler and National Grid shall offer the construction of $120,000 at no cost to the Sachem Central School District.
• The board approved Academic Intervention Services representatives at all 12 elementary schools in the district. Certain districts needed more instructors based on their numbers. All positions were posted.