BERNE — During a four-hour session Tuesday night, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board overturned recommendations made by Superintendent Timothy Mundell and backed by the newly re-elected president, Matthew Tedeschi, and vice president, Nathan Elble.

Randy Baswinger, Berne’s highway superintendent who ousted incumbent Lillian Sisson-Chrysler in the May elections for school board, was sworn in at the start of the reorganizational meeting. He joined board members Helen Lounsbury and Kimberly Lovell in a 3-to-2 vote during the regular meeting that followed.

Mundell recommended hiring Advanced Therapy to provide teachers — three full-time and one half-time —  for special-education students, largely for speech but also for physical and occupational therapy. Lounsbury said that Mundell had disregarded the board’s earlier directive to hire a therapist in-house.

Although Mundell said, “We found two viable candidates,” he also said, “My concern, if we have our own people, is, if they choose to leave, we have nothing to fall back on.” He said, too, that BKW had a 15-year relationship with the company and that it was the least costly option.

All parties agreed that there had been a problem last fall when Advance Therapy hadn’t provided the needed therapists, and a mother had complained to the board that her child was forced into ineffective back-to-back sessions to make up for the lost therapy.

“They know the dire situation they created and are doing their best to make good on it,” Mundell said of Advanced Therapy.

Susan Sloma, director of pupil personnel services, agreed with Mundell. “We had a lapse in the fall,” she said. “It was corrected through several difference procedures. New people came on.” She described the current staff as “stable.”

Bashwinger said that, when he was out campaigning, he heard “many, many people complain about this company.” Like Lounsbury, who lauded a BKW therapist who had taught at the district for 30 years, Bashwinger said, “I would like to see a permanent person here.”

Lovell, who teaches in a neighboring district, said, “If you have it in-house, it’s a huge resource.”

“We always have them at needed meetings — sometimes by phone,” said Sloma of the Advanced Therapy staff.

“There are no second chances for kids that don’t get the right services,” said Lounsbury, a retired BKW teacher. She also talked about the importance of therapists developing ongoing relationships with students.

“The sins of this school affected my kids severely,” said Tedeschi, referring to budget cuts that he said forced his daughters to take study halls instead of added classes their senior years.

Stacy King-McElhiney, the district’s business manager, noted that Advanced Therapy specialists are currently teaching during BKW’s summer session without a contract.

“If we force him into amending the agreement, if there is a lapse, we may be at the bottom of the barrel,” warned Mundell.

“I don’t think we’ll be destroying the relationship,” said Lovell.

“They’ll still get a piece of the pie,” agreed Bashwinger.

“They probably will not work for the rest of summer school,” warned Tedeschi of the currently hired  Advanced Therapy staff.

Sloma, too, said, “As of tomorrow morning in summer school, they could pull out.”

“This process puts us in a corner,” said Lovell. “If we don’t say yes to everything … it’s the end of our relationship.” She noted later, “We’re still going to pay them for their service.”

“My concern was our directive wasn’t followed,” Lounsbury reiterated.

“I’ve made a recommendation on what I believe is the best for the students,” said Mundell. “That’s my job.”

Lounsbury responded that the superintendent works for the board.

“Do you have two candidates still available?” asked Bashwinger.

“I’ll make those calls tomorrow,” said Mundell, who conducted the interviews three weeks ago.

With a 3-to-2 vote, the board agreed to seek one full-time therapist for the district to hire and to try to work out a contract with Advanced Therapy for the remaining two-and-a-half posts.

On Wednesday, The Enterprise spoke with Peter Scotto, the owner of Advanced Therapy, about the concerns raised by Tedeschi and Sloma that his company could pull out in the midst of BKW’s summer school. He noted that summer school started two weeks ago and has four weeks to go. “My staff is still there,” Scotto said.

Scotto said it is not unusual with school budget issues and monthly board meetings to have his staff work without a contract. “We’ve never not continued the service,” he said. “None of the staff would leave. The staff would continue to be paid,” he said.

Asked, if BKW goes to using 2.5 staff members from Advanced Therapy as opposed to the 3.5 in the proposal the board considered on Tuesday night, how that would affect Advanced Therapy’s relationship with BKW, Scotto said, “This is a decision the board and the district need to make. They know what is best for their children. All I do is sit back, listen, and accommodate within the law and the RFP process.”

He concluded, “Advanced Therapy is 100 percent behind Berne-Knox-Westerlo decisions.”

Hiring Carli Elble postponed

In another split vote, the board postponed a decision on hiring Carli Elble to teach for a year, filling in for two married elementary-school teachers who are having a baby. Rebecca Dergosits, a sixth-grade teacher, will take off the first half of next year and her husband, Bill, a third-grade teacher, will take off the second half.

The substitution post runs from Sept. 4, 2018 to June 26, 2019 and pays $40,506.

Nathan Elble, Carli’s husband, abstained from voting, and, ultimately, so did Lounsbury and Bashwinger. Questions were raised about the hiring process and not answered to the satisfaction of some of the board members.

Mundell said he would provide the requested information right away and the board scheduled a meeting for Thursday, July 12, at 7 a.m. to decide on the matter.

The elementary school had several teaching vacancies and Mundell said that 175 people responded to postings. A team of staff and administrators screened the applicants, paring the list to 15 to interview, and ending with six viable candidates. The group then watched the candidates perform “demo lessons” for the grades they would be teaching, Mundell said.

Lounsbury said that teaching second grade was vastly different than teaching sixth grade and asked, “Why not re-post?”

“The committee felt very strongly about the quality of the candidates,” Mundell responded.

Elementary school Principal Annette Landry said a rubric was used to score the candidates. “They should be able to teach at any level,” she said of elementary-school teachers.

“We have to trust in the process,” said Tedeschi.

“Trust, but verify,” said Lounsbury, quoting the Russian proverb that Ronald Reagan made famous.

“We want the best of the best,” said Lovell, asking if all of the candidates scored near the top.

Bashwinger asked of all of the final candidates had taught before.

Mundell cited the backgrounds of the candidates that had been hired for the full-time posts and said, “The long-term substitutes have been TAs in our building.”

“If we posted for temps, do you think we’d have gotten as many quality candidates?” asked Elble.

“By not re-opening, we don’t know,” responded Lovell, adding later, “I just think it’s protocol to post for different jobs.”

“You have to think like a business,” said Tedeschi, who works in the insurance business. He said that re-posting would be “inefficient and costly.”

“Experience tells me we would not get 175 candidates in July,” said Mundell, stating that April and May are the best months to seek applicants. “As chief executive officer, I made a call on the fly.”

After Tedeschi and Lovell voted yes on the appointment, Tedeschi said, “Two yeas, three abstentions — does it carry?”

Lounsbury said to Elble, “Legally, you’d be allowed to vote.”

“Legally, but I’m not going to vote,” said Elble.

When someone in the gallery asked why board members needed further data on hiring Carli Elble and not the other candidates, Lounsbury said, “We don’t want to be accused of nepotism.”

“I can get the information out to you in the next 24 hours,” said Mundell.

Reorganization

The reorganizational meeting started with Lounsbury nominating Elble for president, which he declined, saying he wouldn’t have the time since he was in the process of moving. Lounsbury said she had hoped to reinstate the former long-time tradition at BKW of board members rotating into the vice presidency and then the presidency.

Elble then nominated Tedeschi as president, to which the other board members, save Lounsbury, concurred.

Lounsbury next nominated Lovell for vice president, seconded by Bashwinger. The board members filled out paper nomination slips for vice president and board Clerk Anne Farnam announced the vote was 3 to 2.

Ultimately, all the board members elected Elble vice president.

The longest discussion in the reorganizational meeting was over Mundell’s recommendation that the Times Union be named the district’s official newspaper, meaning it would carry the required legal notices, replacing The Altamont Enterprise. He presented no figures on district circulation of either paper or on relative costs.

Lounsbury said The Altamont Enterprise had been BKW’s paper of record since at least 1960. She asked Mundell the reason for his recommendation.

Mundell, who has expressed his displeasure with Enterprise coverage, told the board he was inspired by comments seniors had made at the graduation ceremony on “being international citizens.” He said, “There’s a role beyond the Hill” and that it would be good to be part of a regional newspaper.

“That’s an absurd rationale,” said East Berne resident Victor Porlier from the gallery.

“How many people get the Times Union?” asked Lovell. “If people subscribe to Altamont, not the Times Union, we’re blocking a section out.”

“One of our goals is to keep our citizens informed … The Enterprise does that, not the Times Union,” said Lounsbury. She displayed recent editions of The Enterprise, pointing to many pages of Hilltown coverage, and of the Times Union with a single article on a Greenville drive-in.

Bashwinger asked the cost to publish legal notices in each paper to which Mundell replied the Times Union costs more than The Enterprise.

The Enterprise rate is 39.5 cents per line for a single insertion; the Times Union’s is 75 cents per line.

Mundell called the Times Union designation “symbolic.”

“I believe it’s the superintendent’s job to set the expectation and establish a regional relationship,” he said.

Molly Tiffany, who taught at BKW for 35 years and is now retired, said her parents, herself, and her children attended district schools and her grandchild soon will.

She displayed what she described as a “sampling” of laminated Enterprise article she had collected over the years — a dozen or so — and concluded, “There is something to be said for positive coverage of all the wonderful things that are happening at Berne-Knox-Westerlo.”

“I believe in supporting local business,” said Porlier, noting that the Times Union was part of the Hearst “conglomerate.”

“I’m a business consultant,” Polier went on. “I’ve never heard about doing something that cost more money to be symbolic.”

He said he was “blown away” by the idea that students would get a “global sense” by having district legal notices printed in the Times Union.

“I would like to see a cost-benefit analysis … that goes beyond symbolism,” he concluded.

Ed Ackroyd of Knox said, “I get the Altamont Enterprise every week and it cost me a dollar.” He said he wouldn’t know what day of the week a BKW legal notice would be printed in the Times Union. “It would cost me and members of the community,” he said.

Ackroyd also reminded the board that when he was lobbying for tax breaks for veterans he was told the district couldn’t afford it, but the switch for legal notices would cost more.

A woman in the gallery asked, “Since this involves the entire community, shouldn’t the community have a say and not just the board?”

“I personally appreciate Dr. Mundell’s thoughts and appreciate comments for the community speaking … .,” said Tedeschi.

Ultimately, all but one of the board members voted to keep The Enterprise for legal notices. Elble opposed the measure, but, when asked why after the meeting, he declined comment.

Finally, some board members questioned the designation of Guercio & Guercio LLP as the school district’s attorney.

“We have a responsibility to BKW to be fiscally responsible,” said Lounsbury, recommending the district make a request for proposals, an RFP.

Lounsbury asked Tedeschi why, with the contract with Guercio & Guercio expiring on June 30, he had not brought that to the attention of the board earlier.

“It’s not the president’s job,” said Tedeschi, stating it would fall to the superintendent to make a recommendation. “The rates are low … There’s been no issue,” he said.

Lounsbury noted that the contract can be terminated with 30 days’ notice. Ultimately, the board agreed to stay with Guercio & Guercio while putting out an RFP.

“We may end up finding out they are the best,” said Lounsbury, concluding, “We’re responsible to the taxpayers.”