BERNE — Three years after the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District shortened the term lengths of school board members, most members of the current board want it changed back.

At a meeting Tuesday night, the board voted, 4 to 1, to put the issue on the ballot for this spring’s election. If the voters approve the proposition, the term length for board members would increase from three years to five, starting next year. Current board members would complete the term for which they were elected.

Board President Janet Finke voted against the proposition.
"I think it rules out high school parents," Finke said.
"Why do your children have to be in class for you to be on the board"" responded board member Ed Ackroyd. "It’s all about the taxpayers."

In 2003, district voters approved a proposition to reduce the term length to three years. The purpose was to encourage more people to run.
"I’m not sure we’ve seen that that’s the case," said board member Joan Adriance. Adriance pointed out that she supported the change in 2003. Now, however, she supports a change back.

Each of the current board members ran for their positions unopposed, including the two with three-years terms, Ackroyd and Maureen Sikule.

Tuesday’s vote came out of a discussion of the positions of board president and vice president.

Traditionally, BKW board members become vice-president in the third year of their five-year term. The next year, a member becomes president, and in the fifth year, serves informally as an advisor to the president.

Ackroyd is slated to become vice president next year. However, if he loses re-election or decides not to run, he won’t become president in 2008, leaving the position empty.

Ackroyd said he supported passing the job onto the next person in line, Sikule, if he is not available.
"What I don’t want to see is someone who is president or vice president for the next 10 years," he said.

Adriance, the current vice president, offered to partially solve the problem by skipping her turn as president next year. The board rejected her offer.

If the term length returns to five years, the presidential rotation will be back to normal.

Also, the board would be made up of more experienced members. Adriance said that she originally thought three years was enough, but now that she is in her third year, she feels she finally has learned enough to be an effective board member.

Karen Storm, in her fifth year, said that, one day, Superintendent Steven Schrade will retire, and, if the board is made up of three-year-term members, the school could have an inexperienced board and an inexperienced supervisor.

Other business

In other business at the Feb. 6 meeting, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board:

—Voted, 4 to 1, to eliminate honors for the valedictorian and salutatorian, starting with next year’s ninth-grade class. The district has, for several months, been considering the move.

Last month, high school Principal Mary Petrilli reported that all the suburban districts in the area have replaced valedictorian and salutatorian honors with the recognition of a group of top students. There has been no community backlash in those districts, Petrilli said.

Also, she said, most colleges don’t give scholarships to students solely for being valedictorian or salutatorian.

Sikule voted against the proposal, saying she thought the positions shouldn’t be eliminated until the district has a plan to replace the honors with something else.

In a second vote, the board voted unanimously to appoint a committee to come up with an alternative by June;

—Heard recommendations on the lease of the Westerlo school building from real estate broker Kevin Broderick.

Currently, the district is renting the building to the Helderberg Christian School for $750 per month. The board asked Broderick if he thought it was possible to rent the building to someone else for more money.
"If it was my building and I had a tenant in my building who was keeping it up, I would keep that tenant," Broderick said.

The rural location doesn’t make the property commercially desirable, Broderick said.

The district put the building up for lease after closing it to students at the end of the last school year because of district-wide declining enrollment. The district hasn’t created a long-term plan for the building. The board has said that leasees are not allowed to alter the school.
"The thing that’s stopping you from doing business to gain the most financial advantage from this building is you don’t know if you need it or not," Broderick said; and

—Heard a report from the facilities planning committee. At the committee’s first meeting, Schrade said, three subcommittees were formed: one to discuss the Westerlo school, one to discuss moving the sixth grade from the high-school building to the elementary building, and one to discuss general facility needs, including additions or renovations.

The committee plans to have a recommendation for the school board by this summer or early fall, Schrade said.