— Melissa Hale-Spencer

GUILDERLAND — Thomas P. Farrelly, a beloved high school math teacher and long-time girls’ softball coach, is being memorialized with a scholarship in his name.

Farrelly died on April 21 after battling leukemia.
Last Tuesday, the school board created the $100 Thomas P. Farrelly Memorial Scholarship to be awarded annually to a senior on the girls’ varsity softball team who "is involved in school activities and community service, possesses athletic ability, and has a positive attitude."
Board member Barbara Fraterrigo praised Farrelly’s "technical skills" as a coach, calling them "fantastic" and, she said, "His love for the girls was unbelievable."

In 1997, the year Farrelly’s players were the Section II champions, he was named the New York State Softball Coach of the Year.

The district announced this week that a school-wide memorial service will be held to honor Farrelly on Tuesday, June 14, at 1:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

Students, staff, family, and friends are invited to attend the service. They will be invited to share or write down their favorite memory of Farrelly. The written messages will be placed on a tree being planted in his honor at the high school’s memorial garden. A softball game will follow the ceremony.

Farrelly began teaching at Guilderland High School in 1985 and retired in June of 2004. This school year, he taught on a part-time basis.

Two years ago, Guilderland’s graduating seniors chose him for their commencement speaker. Farrelly’s speech that June day took the crowd of excited graduates and their proud families from the off-hand and humorous to the depths of angst — where he shone a bright light on what could have been a dark fear.
Farrelly began by taking off his mortarboard and putting on a Yankees’ baseball cap. This was before the Curse of the Bambino had been broken. "For you Red Sox fans, I have two words...1918," he said, referring to the last year the Sox had won the World Series. The audience roared.
Farrelly said that, as a child, he wasn’t the most cooperative student. He recalled how a sister in his Catholic school told him he would go to hell. "I said, ‘Good, save me a place,’" he reported.
Farrelly particularly disliked Latin and recalled having to translate a passage from Seneca, which he thought at the time might be the name of an Indian chief. Later, he learned Seneca was a Roman philosopher and writer. The passage said, "Men do not care how honorably they live, but only how long. Although it is within the reach of every man to live honorably, it is in no man’s power to live long."

Later, when his father died young, Farrelly said, he drew comfort from that passage; it was what kind of man he was, what kind of a father he was that had mattered, not how long he had lived.

Farrelly drew on Seneca’s words again when he faced his own mortality.

At 4:07 on June 11, 2001, he received a call from his doctor, telling him he had acute myelogenous leukemia.
"My first reaction was, ‘I’m going to kick this thing in the butt’...I had to face the reality; the jig was up," Farrelly said.
He looked at his life and realized he had "done all right," he said, naming the people who loved him and would care for him as he battled leukemia — his wife, his two kids, his brothers and sisters, his 80-year-old mother, and a community that rallied around him.
He concluded his list of assets with a line that made the audience laugh: "A job where I could make 140 kids’ lives miserable every day."

The graduates gave him a standing ovation.

Retiring staff

The school board also honored 27 retiring employees last Tuesday.
Susan Tangorre, the district’s personnel director, sent them off with an Irish proverb: "May you never forget what is worth remembering or remember what is best forgotten."
Board President William Brinkman, who is retiring from the board himself this month, had some lighter words. "Some of you had my kids...What’s really surprising is how young you all look...That’s a good time to retire," said Brinkman.

Those being honored were:

— Sandra Angerami, senior stenographer, secretary to the high school principal, who has worked for the district 16.5 years;

— Deborah Biondo, teaching assistant, Westmere Elementary School, 15 years;

— Sandra Cascini, senior typist, special-education office, 19 years;

— Frank Chmielewski, offset machine operator, district office, 29 years;

— Daniel DePersis, physical-education teacher, Farnsworth Middle School, 32 years;

— Floyd Dederick, head custodian, Farnsworth Middle School, 29 years;

— Eleanore Dunham, first-grade teacher, Pine Bush Elementary School, 34 years;

— Beatrice Fox, speech teacher, Guilderland High School, 14 years;

— Thelma Hildenbrandt, school bus driver, five years;

— Vala Jackson, senior typist, maintenance department, 29.5 years;

— Diane Kingsland, music teacher, Farnsworth Middle School, 32 years;

— William Lynch, special-education teacher, Farnsworth Middle School, 32 years;

— William Maffia, social-studies teacher, Farnsworth Middle School, 29 years;

— Diane Martiniano, first-grade teacher, Pine Bush Elementary School, 33 years;

— Annmarie McCarthy, teaching assistant, Guilderland Elementary School, 14 years;

— Barbara Mitchell, special-education teacher, Guilderland High School, 21 years;

— Laurie Ostroff, math teacher, Farnsworth Middle School, 33 years;

— Nancy Schaefer, fifth-grade teacher, Guilderland Elementary School, 20 years;

— Harry Simmons, custodial worker, Farnsworth Middle School, 16 years;

— Carol Snyder, custodial worker, Westmere Elementary School, 16 years;

— John Sole, administrator for human resources, district office, four years;

— Claudia Summers, music teacher, Lynnwood Elementary School, 32 years;

— Paula Swartz, teacher’s aid and cafeteria monitor, Farnsworth Middle School, 24 years;

— Barbara Tallman, custodial worker, Guilderland High School, 31 years;

— Grace Tierney, typist, district office, 12 years;

— Angela VanDerLinden, teaching assistant, Westmere Elementary School, 32 years; and

— Barbara Westcott, fifth-grade teacher, Pine Bush Elementary School, 21.5 years.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Authorized the issuance of not more than $6 million in Tax Anticipation Notes; the money is to be recouped in taxes levied for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders said this is what the district typically needs to borrow over the summer;

— Approved a memorandum of agreement with the teacher’s assistant unit of the Guilderland Teachers’ Association to allow contribution to a 403(b) Plan, effective June 1.
"This doesn’t cost us any money," said Brinkman.

It’s a way to shelter money for retirement, agreed Sanders;

— Appointed a new firm to serve as legal counsel for the district — Girvin & Ferlazzo of Albany, effective July 1. The firm replaces Hancock & Estabrook of Syracuse.

The change is a result of the board’s asking the district to submit requests for proposals for its auditor, bank, and legal counsel.

Girvin & Ferlazzo will be paid an annual retainer of $35,000 for the 2005-06 school year; the agreement covers three years, through June 30, 2008.

School board member Linda Bakst, who initiated the idea, asked the superintendent if the RFP process had worked to the district’s advantage.

Superintendent Gregory Aidala said, although it was time-consuming, he thought it had.
"In the long run, it’s best to have a locally-based firm," he said, adding that Girvin & Ferlazzo came highly recommended from other school districts.

Sanders said nine firms responded; three were interviewed;

— Scheduled the annual reorganizational meeting for July 5 at 7:30 p.m. New school board members will be sworn into office and the board will elect its officers for the year;
— Heard from Sanders that the annual fire inspection conducted by Donald Albright, from the town of Guilderland, resulted in "no areas of non-compliance."
The "extensive walk-through," as Sanders termed it, is required by the State Education Department;

— Heard from Bakst that the high school’s Parent-Teacher-Student Association lacks officers for next year. If no one comes forward before the June 13 meeting, she said, the PTSA will dissolve and money it raised for mini-grants will go to the national organization unless the district office will serve as custodian.
"We will lend our support from the district office...in any way we can," said Aidala.
Brinkman seemed unalarmed. He said, "We’ve had this issue in the past; people always step forward";
— Heard from Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Nancy Andress that, on May 20, Cathy Beadnell, elementary teacher; Kathy Oboyski-Butler, staff developer; and Chris Claus and Lisa Nissenbaum, high-school reading teachers, gave presentations at "Literacy Day" at the Owen D. Young Central School District;

— Learned that the high-school math team, coached by Jacalyn Stein, placed 17th in the state out of 205 participating schools.

Sophomore Beth Schaffer tied for 25th in the state;

— Learned that eighth-graders Samantha Smith and Gabriella Vega were among 31 state-wide to receive awards for special recognition from the National Council of Teachers of English as part of its Promising Young Writers’ program;

— Heard that senior Jen Crowley received a GE/STAR Award. Her English teacher, Aaron Sicotte will receive $500 as part of the award, which will be celebrated in a ceremony at General Electric in Schenectady on June 10;

— Learned that Westmere Elementary School kindergarten teacher Debra Wing has become a member of Phi Delta Kappa International; and

— Learned that eighth-graders Kevin Engelberg, Kevin Ghizzoni, Eric (Gangate) Kim, and Jason Lawrence have been accepted into a summer science program at Brown University.