GUILDERLAND — The school board was charmed Tuesday night with a presentation on teaching Spanish to the district’s youngest students. The program — Foreign Language Early Start — began this fall after a half-dozen years of parents and teachers pressing for it.

The point of the program, said the district’s foreign language supervisor, Albert Martino, besides developing proficiency in Spanish, is to develop cultural acceptance through understanding.

“We strongly believe in the word ‘acceptance.’ We don’t use the word ‘tolerance,’” said Martino.

All students, including those in special-education classes, receive instruction — 20 minutes a week for kindergartners, and 30 minutes a week for first- and second-graders.

The two Spanish teachers — Rebecca Frank and Delfino Camilo-Arroyo — travel to each of the district’s five elementary schools, where they wheel carts into the classrooms, so the regular classroom teachers participate, too.

Martino presented results from surveys of parents, teachers, and school principals — all showing strong support for the program. The students’ progress was assessed in January. According to unfinalized results, kindergartners showed 94 percent accuracy, first-graders, 89 percent accuracy; and second-graders, 95 percent accuracy.

A film produced by the district’s media specialist, Nicholas Viscio, captured the excitement of the children as they sang Spanish songs, counted in Spanish, and identified colors in Spanish. And it captured the energy of the teachers as they riveted their students.

“I’m sharing a little bit of who I am,” said Camilo-Arroyo who is from the Dominican Republic. She reported one student saying, “So, are you from this planet Earth?”

Another young student named James is captured on film, announcing, “There’s no way to say ‘piñata’ in English. My brother told me and he’s in sixth grade.”

“By teaching language,” Martino said, “culture is automatically imbedded.”

The plan is to expand the program by one grade each year.  The cost for the program this year is $129,060, which includes $120,000 in salaries and benefits for the two teachers as well as funds for materials, travel, and curriculum development.

Next year, 19 sections will be added as the FLES program is expanded to the third grade. The budget draft allows for two-tenths of a teaching position, and a cost of $11,080 for teaching the third-graders.

School board members, who have been divided recently over some contentious issues, spoke as one in praise of the program and requested — even demanded — that more hours be allotted in teaching time for the third-graders.

Martino said the original plan was for a half-time teacher.

“I’ll take responsibility for the .2,” said Superintendent John McGuire, stating the cutback to two-tenths of a job was “not ideal” but saying that, in drafting the budget, he used the “most conservative” approach.

Towards the end of the board discussion, McGuire said, “I am hearing very clearly and hearing no small amount of pressure to not be so stingy.”

“Our original idea,” said board member Barbara Fraterrigo, long a FLES proponent, “was an additional full-time teacher… Last year we revised it back; .2 I guess is off the board, so thank God, but even at .5,” she said of the half-time post. “If we’re going to do this, we might as well do it correctly.”

 The school board will have the final say on the budget, said President Richard Weisz. “Some of the staffing is considered light, not just in FLES…It’s a work in progress,” he said of the budget.

 Directory debate continues 

Catherine Barber, who heads the district’s policy committee, said that, while committee members had varied views on whether the district’s current policies on releasing student directory information are consistent, they all agreed “our goal is to protect this information from release.”

Barber said that the school’s attorney, Jeff Honeywell, will work to “harmonize” the language in the policies. “We want to be clear,” she said.

At their last meeting, board members, in a split vote, 5 to 2, adopted a moratorium on the release of directory information while policy is clarified.

McGuire had recommended the moratorium after board member Peter Golden raised concerns that releasing students’ addresses to the teachers’ union before last year’s school-board election was illegal — either in violation of state law that prohibits school districts from campaigning, or in violation of a federal act that protects students’ privacy.

The teachers’ union used the list for the last two elections to mail cards in support of candidates and the budget.

Board member Hy Dubowsky, who was absent at the past meeting due to “pressing personal matters,” said at Tuesday’s meeting that he would have voted against the moratorium. He said, after talking with various attorneys, he believed it put the district at risk of being in violation of state law.

Dubowsky also said he was troubled by the seemingly inconsistent versions of what took place in 2006 and 2007.

 “Above all else,” he concluded, “we must protect the children in the district.”

 “The story changes all the time,” said Golden, who again requested that the school’s lawyer address the entire board.

Wiesz said that would be in an executive session. He also said that the same list of names and addresses could be obtained from the assessor’s office.

Guilderland’s assessor, Carol Wysomski, said yesterday, “Anyone can come in and look at the roll. I do not produce a list. Insurance companies have asked for it and I won’t do it; that’s soliciting.

“This is all about the next election,” Weisz told Golden.

“No, it’s really not,” said Golden, whose term expires this year. “If the union can do that,” he said of getting parents’ names and addresses from the assessor, “why didn’t they?”

McGuire interrupted the debate to say he had spoken with the union president, Chris Claus, “who has agreed on a voluntary basis, the teachers would not use the list.”

“Then that’s the answer,” said Golden.

“I think it was a very honorable and ethical thing Chris Claus has done as the union president,” said board member Denise Eisele. “It shows a great deal of integrity.”

Meanwhile, Timothy Burke, a resident who filed a Freedom of Information Law request to get the same directory information the union had, called The Enterprise last week to say his request was denied because of the moratorium.

“I’ve appealed to the superintendent and I expect to be denied also,” he said. 

Burke said he is considering filing an Article 78 lawsuit against the district and also asking the state’s education commissioner for a ruling. 

Referring to the three board members who were elected after cards supporting them had been mailed out by the union, Burke said, “I don’t think anyone thinks Colleen [O’Connell] or Gloria [Towle-Hilt] or Dick [Weisz] should resign or the budget is invalidated, but they should admit a mistake was made.” 

 In other business, the board:

 — Heard from Christine Sagendorf, the district’s transportation supervisor, a request to purchase six 66-passenger buses, two 30-passenger buses, and two Suburbans at an estimated cost of $790,000. The board will vote at its next meeting on the proposition, which has to be approved by the public at the same time as the budget vote, May 20.

Guilderland has a total of 116 buses, which include 91 buses for 88 routes and 24 spares. The spares are needed for athletic events, preventative maintenance, and state-required inspections, she said.

Altogether 5,365 students are bused to district schools, 33 to private schools, 32 to special-education placements, and five to vocational education, Sagendorf said;

— Learned that on March 3, a shared decision-making district team met to review Guilderland’s shared decision-making plan, as required by the state. McGuire complimented Guilderland’ shared decision-making;

— Heard a proposal from Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders to put $250,000 in unallocated funds, beyond the 3 percent allowed by the state, into the retirement system reserve account, which would be used to pay the district’s share to the Employee Retirement System.

 The ERS is dependent on the stock market, Sanders said, describing the market as being “in a funk.” He said it would be “prudent financial planning” to ease the district’s future ERS burden.

The district already plans to use $1.5 million from the fund balance to reduce next year’s tax levy. The board is slated to vote on the plan at its next meeting;

— Heard a plea from Sanders to contribute to scholarships for Guilderland students, which are detailed on the district’s website. He noted the contributions would be tax deductible;

— Agreed to meet at 8:30 a.m. on April 21 to vote on the BOCES budget and board election;

— Agreed to support the town of Guilderland and the village of Altamont in applying for grants for sidewalk improvements near Pine Bush and Altamont elementary schools in connection with the Safe Routes to School program administered by the state.

Sanders said the program is to encourage children to walk or bike to school, improving health and preventing pollution.

Barber expressed her appreciation to Donald Csaposs, the town’s development director, for writing the grant;

—         Accepted two donated drum sets from Daniel Thuener; and

—         Met in executive session to discuss litigation.