GUILDERLAND — The school board’s longest-serving member, Thomas Nachod, is not seeking re-election.

The two other board members whose three-year terms are up — Barbara Fraterrigo and Colleen O’Connell — will run for re-election to the nine-member board.

Petitions began circulating last week for the May 15 election.

Nachod has served on the board for 12 years, three of them as president. He is proudest of the fact the high school was expanded and renovated under his leadership, he said.
"It was such a battle to get that approved," Nachod said, recalling the bond vote came not long after a budget defeat. "It was a rocky time...It passed by just four votes. We all campaigned hard to get it approved."

A banker, Nachod is leaving Guilderland to be president of a new bank on Long Island.
He has some worries about leaving the board now. He wrote in a letter to the Enterprise editor this week, referring to the divided citizenry a dozen years ago: "It was a challenging time, yet I cannot recall a time when the board behaved in a manner so disrespectful, of each other, the administration, and the spirit that guides our district forward, respect, as has been the case this academic year."
"There are some very good people on the board," Nachod told The Enterprise this week. "As a whole, the board tries to do a good job. They have to re-assess their mission. They should be overseers, not management."
During his tenure, Nachod has frequently cautioned the board against "micro-managing."
"My business philosophy," he said this week, "is you have good people and then you get out of their way."
In his letter, he alludes to three parents who told the board last month of the school’s failure in teaching their children to read. Nachod writes, "Three cases came before us; I’m confident that the staff working with these and many other students will continue to tirelessly strive to find the best way."
Nachod concluded that he has enjoyed his 12 years on the board and considers it a "privilege" to have served.
"We’re one of the top districts in the state," he said. "We sometimes forget that. We tend to find fault. But most of the time, things run well, students succeed."

Fraterrigo

Barbara Fraterrigo, who has served on the board for a decade, is most proud of the improvement in communication with the public during her tenure.
"We started televising the meetings and added an extra [public] comment period. We started having an early meeting on the budget," she said of a citizens session in the fall. "And now we have coffee klatches," she said of a recent initiative where pairs of board members talk to the public at a diner or a library.
Asked why she is running again, Fraterrigo said, "I enjoy trying to do everything we can to keep kids on the right track and be mindful of the taxpayers. I just love doing it."

Asked about her goals, Fraterrigo cited collective goals: The board this year set two priorities — to start foreign-language instruction in the elementary schools and to enhance technology education.
"We proudly proclaim we’re preparing our children for the 21st Century," said Fraterrigo, referencing the district’s slogan. "We’re on the right track. We may be slow and plodding, but we have our eye on the prize."
Pressed for her own personal goals, Fraterrigo said she would like to see community involvement with curriculum, perhaps having citizens serve on cabinets. "My father always said two heads are better than one," said Fraterrigo. "I like to hear from people and gather ideas."
Asked if she shared Nachod’s concerns about a recent lack of respect on the board, Fraterrigo said, "I think some people misinterpret aggressive questioning as negativity."
Referring to a recent board discussion on reading, after the board had heard the three parents’ complaints, Fraterrigo said, "In one meeting, voices were raised over questions not answered over time." But, she went on, boards change over time and coalesce.
"It’s a growing process," Fraterrigo said of being a board member. "Debate, to me, is a fine thing. You have to be courteous and respectful...It’s a matter of learning the rules."
Referring to recent comments made by the president of the teachers’ union, Fraterrigo went on, "We were castigated by Chris Claus for being a raucous board...We are elected as a conduit for the people, to share their viewpoints — their frustrations and happiness. We can research things and present data. Questions shouldn’t be seen as an attack."
Fraterrigo, who works as a manager of a doctor’s office and is both a mother and grandmother, said of her tenure on the board, "Lots of times, I had points of view not shared by anybody."
She was, for example, the only board member to initially vote against the continued employment of a teacher and coach whom some parents said had repeatedly called their daughters "sluts." Later, after considerable public outcry, the board reversed itself, offering the teacher a settlement to leave.

And, three years ago, Fraterrigo was the only board member who did not reject the idea of setting up an advisory board to study reading curriculum, as proposed by a group of parents whose children struggled to read.
"So many things that group researched and brought forward were then mandated by the state," Fraterrigo said this week. "They were slammed down because they came forward with the idea of making different modalities available for kids....I’ve learned so much in life by being a good listener."
She concluded, "I have great hope for the board. Whoever is elected I’m sure will work together in grand fashion."

O’Connell
Colleen O’Connell is running for a second term because, she said, "I think the learning curve on this job is steep. I feel I almost owe it to the community. I’ve learned a lot about what it is to be a school-board member."

Also, she said, she wants to be part of the search this summer for a new superintendent. The current superintendent, Gregory Aidala, has announced he will retire in the fall after seven years at the helm.

O’Connell considers choosing Aidala’s successor to be the board’s most important task in the upcoming year.
"There’s no replacing Greg," she said. "But in choosing his successor, we need someone who has the curriculum and business sense he has brought to the job."
She went on, "We need someone who is not going to be a steward of this district but will lead us into the future."
In her three years on the board, O’Connell said, she is most proud of "advancing the discussion on nutrition, wellness, and good health practices."

Her first year on the board, when a routine vote on a snack food came up, O’Connell raised objections, stating she wouldn’t vote for it when the district, as part of its curriculum, taught that such foods weren’t healthy. The motion was tabled.
"We really started to have a dialogue," said O’Connell, a lawyer who decided to stay home to raise her three children. The district ultimately took the risk of losing profits on its self-financed lunch program by replacing some of the popular snack foods with healthier alternatives.
"Then the federal government required a wellness policy," said O’Connell, and she served on the committee that drafted Guilderland’s policy.
O’Connell also said she was pleased with the district’s recent change in bidding for services from professionals like lawyers and architects. "It’s important for residents to get the most bang for the buck," she said.
O’Connell named two goals for her second term. The first, she said, is "better communication amongst school-board members, the community, and parents."
Recent letters to the Enterprise editor from school-district residents, many of them critical of the reading program, show that "people don’t have all the information they need," she said.
The second goal, she said, is "a return to civility."
"In my opinion, it began with our re-organizational meeting in July, 2005," she said. At that meeting, a new school-board member who favored spending on increased security measures made a motion that board members who didn’t support the measures would, in the event a student died at the hands of an intruder, be required to tell the student’s family of his death.
"It continues to the present," O’Connell said of the lack of civility. "There have been lapses of courtesy, and rudeness to fellow school-board members and administrators.
"We have a code of conduct in our schools," she went on. "Our conduct needs to be above reproach."