GUILDERLAND — The school district here wants to understand the "why" and "how" behind the budget vote this year.

After voters cast their ballots on the $79 million budget proposal May 16, they’ll have a chance to fill out an exit poll provided by the district.

Filling out the survey would be both optional and anonymous.

School board members had mixed reactions on reviewing a draft survey last Tuesday.

Superintendent Gregory Aidala presented a one-page draft with 10 questions that could be answered by checking boxes. Voters would be encouraged to write additional comments on the back.

The first two questions asked how — yes or no — the voter cast his or her ballot on the budget and bus propositions.
The third question offered a list of reasons to be checked off for a "yes" vote on the budget and another list for a "no" vote.

The fourth question asked voters to check off their sources of information, and the fifth and sixth questions asked specifically about the district’s newsletter and website.

The next three questions focused on demographics — which town the voter lives in, age of the voter, and whether the voter has children in the school district.

The final question asked the voter to rate the overall quality of education in the district — A, B, C, D, or F.

Mixed reactions
Board member Richard Weisz said he had no problem asking people about the quality of information or where they got information on the budget, but it is "intrusive" to ask how they voted, he said.
Board member Peter Golden questioned the statistical significance of responses and warned about "people quoting it as scripture."

He said he’d be more comfortable with a survey away from the polls.

Board member John Dornbush said the length of the survey would discourage people from filling it out and that, to insure confidentiality, the district would need to provide tables and chairs away from the voting booths.
"We’d be prepared to do that," responded Aidala. "We think it’s very important to protect confidentiality."
"I think it’s worth doing," concluded Dornbush. "If you don’t ask the questions, you aren’t going to have any information."
Board Vice President Linda Bakst objected to the final question, grading the quality of the schools. "That one gives me pause," she said.

Board member Barbara Fraterrigo questioned the need for separate questions on the district’s newsletter and website.

Board member Catherine Barber criticized the length of the draft, saying it would take four times as long to fill out as actually voting.
"I think the survey is a good idea," said board member Colleen O’Connell. "This is one of the few times we kind of have a captive audience."

Aidala said he’d present a revised version of the exit poll at the board’s May 9 meeting.
Other districts feel the information they get from such surveys is helpful, he said. Students could get involved in analyzing the information as part of "instructional practice," he added.
"I think the fact that we even offer to do this is a good thing," said board member Thomas Nachod.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Heard Timothy Burke, a member of the Citizens’ Budget Advisory Committee who had been critical of the budget draft, express support for the final proposal.
"I’m going to support this budget and ask that people in my community support the budget," he said of the $79 million spending plan.
While Burke continued to oppose "excessive" spending, he said he appreciated the "change of conversation" he has heard at school-board meetings.

He singled out board member Golden for praise, citing his work on containing health-care costs, and he complimented Bakst, who is retiring from the board at the close of her term in June.
"I often disagree with your perspective and philosophy but no one is better prepared for these meetings than you are," he told Bakst, stating discourse will suffer with her absence;

— Heard that the PTA will host a Meet the Candidates session on May 3 at 7 p.m. to be broadcast on Channel 16. Five candidates are running for three seats.

Their names, chosen by random selection, will appear in this order on the ballot — Timothy Forster, Denise Eisele, Richard Weisz, Hy Dubowsky, and Raymond McQuade. (See related story.);

— Honored 51 staff members for being awarded tenure;

— Heard from Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Nancy Andress that students in third through 12th grades will be given the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire during the week of May 22.

The district, which launched an anti-bullying campaign several years ago, based on the Norwegian Olweus model, first administered the survey in 2003 and will use the results of the current survey to measure the effectiveness of the bullying-prevention efforts.

Elementary students will be given the survey in class with their teachers. In the middle school and high school, students will complete the survey in English classes.

Parents will receive a letter about the half-hour-long survey. If they do not want their children to participate, they may contact the school principal. Andress said that the surveys will be filled out anonymously;

— Heard from Andress that a recent workshop on Internet safety was attended by about 75 parents of middle-school students, who listened to advice from the two school resource officers, police officers who work in the high school and middle school.
Weisz said the district should "devote resources to teaching kids" about Internet safety since it is a "problem of such proportion and so many parents are unable to give guidance to their kids.
"It’s clear this generation of children don’t perceive it’s risky to put personal information on the net," he said.
"It looks like the Internet is becoming the shopping mall of the next generation," Weisz said, meaning it is a meeting place for kids. "Time at home with the computer is a public time," he said, adding that many parents were surprised to learn how intrusive and invasive it can be.

Weisz concluded that the district needs a comprehensive program at every level;

— Heard congratulations for Altamont Elementary fifth-graders who carried on a 15-year school tradition by performing one of William Shakespeare’s plays in its original Elizabethan English. This year’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was performed on April 10 and 11.

Students were involved in every aspect of the play — acting, costuming, designing sets, lighting, and publicizing. The students worked until 4:30 p.m. on most school days for two months, Andress said, preparing for the performances.

Christine Saplin, an educational consultant from the New York State Theatre Institute, helped them as did fifth-grade teachers Steve Freeman and Alan Lockwood;

— Heard congratulations for Farnsworth Middle School physical-education teacher Frank Cacckello, who was selected by Suburban Council athletic administrators to chair girls’ basketball for 2006-07;

— Learned that the butterfly house will return to Farnsworth Middle School this summer after a two-year run at Pine Bush Elementary while the middle school was under renovation.

The program, founded by science teacher Alan Fiero, is in its eighth year; it features free student-led tours of a native-plant garden filled with home-grown butterflies. The tours and related activities will be offered from July 5 through Aug. 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays.

This year, the program is funded through Learn and Serve America, the PTA, and the National Audubon Sanctuary Program sponsored by Pine Haven Country Club;
— Heard that a workshop, "What Parents Need to Know About Youth Safety and Gangs in Suburban Communities," will be held on May 8 at Farnsworth Middle School from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Senior gang prevention specialist, Ron "Cook" Barrett of the Capital Region Gang Prevention Center in Albany, will lead the workshop, which is open to the public;

— Learned that the Guilderland High School student newspaper, The Journal, under the direction of advisor Aaron Sicotte, won first place for General Excellence in the New York Press Association’s 2005 Better High School Newspaper Contest.

Also, Katie Matthews won third place for News Story for an article on the budget process.

The combined points from those two awards put The Journal in fourth place in the overall competition of New York schools;

— Heard from O’Connell that the Wellness Committee is going over its final draft for presentation to the school board. Federal No Child Left Behind legislation requires a plan be adopted by July 1, 2006, she said;

— Accepted the donation of a percussion kit and stand, a clarinet and two folding music stands from Patty Buss. The percussion kit will be used at Westmere Elementary School and the clarinet at Farnsworth Middle School; and

— Met in executive session to discuss negotiations with the Guilderland Employees’ Association and the Guilderland Office Workers’ Association.