GUILDERLAND — The school board last week unanimously adopted an $82 million spending plan for next year, after being divided on two budget items.
"It does what we always say we want to do," said Vice President John Dornbush of the budget. "It maintains the program and balances it with what the community can support."
"This is an unbelievable budget," said Thomas Nachod, the board’s longest-serving member at 12 years. "Not only does it have the lowest tax rate I can remember, but it supports the priorities of the board...Let’s just do it."

In a 4-to-5 vote, the board decided to hire a district-wide technology and career supervisor. And, in another 4-to-5 vote, the board agreed to combine the supervisors’ posts in social studies and English at the high school.

Both were part of the superintendent’s proposal for a $81,942,000 proposal, a 3.76-percent increase over this year’s budget. If voters adopt the spending plan on May 15, the district predicts a tax-rate increase of 2.48 percent for Guilderland residents.

This would be $19.40 per $1,000 of assessed value, Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders told The Enterprise; so a Guilderland homeowner with a $200,000 house would pay an estimated $3,880 in taxes next year.
This will be the lowest tax-rate increase in "many, many years," said Superintendent Gregory Aidala in presenting the plan. His initial proposal had been for $82,305,000 with an estimated tax hike of 3.81 percent.

The biggest change since the plan was reviewed by a citizens’ committee was on the revenue side; figures released last week after the state hammered out its budget indicated the Guilderland district will receive $400,000 more in aid than initially calculated.
Aidala also outlined $420,000 in reductions made since the citizens’ review. This included "breakage" in instructional salaries, largely from retirement, totaling $55,000; savings in special-education BOCES placements totaling $100,000, savings in gasoline for busing students totaling $15,000; and a savings in health insurance premiums totaling $250,000.

Based on recommendations made by citizens on the review committee and by school board members, Aidala also added $7,000 to transport struggling elementary students to a summer reading program, and added $50,000 for instructional computer hardware.

Combined supers
Aidala proposed combining the supervisors’ posts for English and social studies at the high school to save $67,000. This was part of his original budget proposal, presented to the citizens’ committee on March 1. The social studies supervisor is retiring and Aidala said the district should "try it for a year."

Patricia Hansbury-Zuendt, the English supervisor, was watching from the gallery during last Tuesday’s meeting. Moments after the board voted to combine the two posts, The Enterprise asked her how she felt about doubling her workload. "I’m excited about working with the social studies faculty," she said. "They’re a great group of teachers."
Hansbury-Zuendt said she has no formal background in social studies but has a "personal interest" in the subject.

In 2005, the school board ratified a three-year contract with the district’s nine supervisors, which included a 3.85-percent raise each year; in the first year, salaries ranged from $75,000 to $95,600.

In February, a committee made up of both social studies and English faculty adamantly opposed combining the posts. The committee proposed creating a writing center and phasing in a modified course load — so that English and social-studies teachers would, after three years, each teach 4.5 courses, rather than carrying the five-course load most other high-school teachers carry; this would allow them to focus on improving student writing. The budget, as proposed by the superintendent and adopted by the board, does not accommodate this plan.

Rather, English teachers will continue to teach four courses and social studies teachers will continue to teach five.

Hansbury-Zuendt has supervised the English Department at Guilderland High School for 13 years. She majored in English at St. Lawrence University and went on to get a master’s degree in English at the University at Albany and supervisor certification from The College of Saint Rose. She has completed her Ph.D. requirements, except for writing her dissertation, she said, at the University of Albany.

Hansbury-Zuendt taught English for 16 years before being hired by Guilderland to supervise the department. She currently teaches a class in 11th-grade English as well as supervising 21 teachers.
"I like being able to work directly with students," she said of teaching a class. "It gives me common ground with the teachers I’m supervising...I see myself as a teacher of students and a teacher of teachers."

Last year, as part of a presentation on the role of supervisors, Hansbury-Zuendt went over a 10-item list of supervisors’ responsibilities.
Teacher evaluation, curriculum and assessment, and professional development, she said, are tightly linked and "take up the great majority of our time."

Other duties include hiring; budgeting; scheduling; meeting with parents; communicating with administrators, the guidance office, custodians, the community, and local colleges; participating in activities beyond the school; and networking with other professionals.
Hansbury-Zuendt would give up teaching a class to become a supervisor for both departments since the workload would "just about double," she told The Enterprise last week; there are 18 social-studies teachers.
"This really wouldn’t be my first choice," she said of the combined posts. "In an ideal world, we’d have supervisors in their own disciplines." But, she said matter-of-factly, "That’s what the district can support."

Hansbury-Zuendt said she has no plans to retire.

Aidala told The Enterprise last week that it was premature to assume Hansbury-Zuendt would be the supervisor for the combined departments.
"We have to wait for the budget vote to take place," he said. "Then we will abolish the social-studies supervisor position to create a combined English-social studies position. From there, there may be some legal issues," he said. "We’re not going forward tomorrow to begin the hiring process."
Asked, then, if the district would open a search and interview a number of candidates, Aidala said, "We’re not 100 percent sure yet."
He said he hadn’t yet had a chance to meet with the English and social-studies teachers who "will undoubtedly have questions."
"I’m not going to discuss this in the newspaper before I have a chance to discuss it with them," he said.

At last week’s meeting, board member Barbara Fraterrigo said she strongly believed each discipline needed its own supervisor and suggested, if posts were to be combined, that there could be a single English supervisor for kindergarten through 12th grade and a single social-studies supervisor for kindergarten through 12th grade.

Asked about this, Hansbury-Zuendt pointed out that the district discussed this approach several years ago when replacing math, science, and technology supervisors at the high school and middle school and decided then on the site-based approach.

Ultimately, four board members — Hy Dubowsky, Fraterrigo, Peter Golden, and board President Richard Weisz — voted to keep two separate supervisors at the high school while five board members — Cathy Barber, Dornbush, Denise Eisele, Nachod, and Colleen O’Connell— voted to combine the English and social-studies posts.

Tech additions

The board set two priorities for this year — to start teaching foreign language in the elementary school and to develop an enhanced technology program.

The budget includes $120,000 to hire two Spanish teachers to teach kindergartners and first- and second-graders at the district’s five elementary schools.

Increased costs for math, science, and technology total $319,000. This includes a math-science enrichment teacher at the middle school and a 20-week technology course for sixth-graders. At the high school, it includes sending a student to the new regional Tech Valley High School, introducing a digital photography course, and returning the honors physiology course and the Advanced Placement computer programming course.

The Enterprise received a letter, however, from Thea Reed, the mother of a high school junior, who last year raised the issue about the AP course being dropped. (See letters to the editor.)
While the AP computer course is included in the budget, Reed says her son was told it will not be offered and describes him as "disappointed and frustrated."

He plans on majoring in computer science in college, she told The Enterprise, and having the course last year would have given him a "leg up" on college admissions. Reed suggested that, if the district hired someone from outside the school, with hands-on computer knowledge, it could inspire more students to take the course.

A decision has not yet been reached on whether or not to offer the AP computer programming course next year, Aidala told The Enterprise. He had assumed that, if the course were offered every other year, enough students would sign up for it, he said. Last year, he told The Enterprise, that, to be cost-effective there should be 10 or more students in the course.
"Only six students signed up," Aidala said last week. "We haven’t made a decision. We’ll see if more students sign up."
Asked if the course would be offered for fewer than 10 students, Aidala said, "That hasn’t been determined yet. We’ve talked so much about technology and expanding our options."

Aidala will consult with the high school principal and the math, science, and technology supervisor to make a decision by the middle of May, he said.

The AP computer course was not discussed at last week’s board meeting.

There was lengthy discussion, however, on the new supervisor’s post.

Aidala’s proposal called for adding three-fifths of a position, at a cost of $45,000, to create a career and technology supervisor position for the district. This would take the current post from a coordinator level to a supervisor position.
"We’re taking an aggressive approach," said Aidala.
Board member Denise Eisele said she "wholeheartedly" supported creating the new post, stating the supervisor would be the "go-to person" for the district as it developed its technology programs.
Board member Colleen O’Connell supported it, too, saying it "honors" the priorities set by the board.
Board member Barbara Fraterrigo opposed creating the new post, saying the responsibilities were "too unclear"; she suggested putting the money instead towards more computer hardware.

She said, too, that the architects the district has chosen to advise a facilities committee have expertise in technology.
"We don’t want to be paying double," said Fraterrigo.

Guilderland has been allocated $1.78 million in EXCEL (Expanding our Children’s Education and Learning) Aid to be used for projects related to education technology, health and safety, accessibility, and energy.

The committee is charged with developing a plan that emphasizes the needs of the five elementary schools and district-wide instructional technology; it is slated to present recommendations to the school board in June. The committee may recommend using just the $1.78 million or may recommend using that as seed money with additional funding.
O’Connell, who is a member of the facilities committee, which, she said, will be finished by July 1, asserted, "I’m not willing to wait."

Eisele, a nurse, described a new pediatric unit that was built on a hospital under the guidance of a well-trained architect, but without the guidance of nurses or patients’ parents. She said the result was a unit that was not functional for the needs of children.

Ultimately, four board members — Barber, Dubowsky, Fraterrigo, and Golden — voted for abolishing the new position and five — Dornbush, Eisele, Nachod, O’Connell, and Weisz — voted to keep it.

Dubowsky proposed waiting to hire a career and technology supervisor after a new superintendent is selected. Aidala is retiring in the fall and the board is currently in the midst searching for a new superintendent.
"When a new CEO comes on board," said Dubowsky, "they have the opportunity to pick their executive staff."

The board agreed to vote on Dubowsky’s proposal at its next meeting.