GUILDERLAND — As school board members discussed their priorities for the year, technology, early foreign-language study, health, distance learning, and integrating the teaching of history and English were all contenders.

The new board president, Richard Weisz, had pushed the eight other members to come up with a few items to guide staff — a first for the board. He’d like the group to reach consensus next month.

Board Vice President John Dornbush recommended beginning a long-range planning process for science, math, and technology.
Given the local Tech Valley initiative, he said, "We owe it to our students to be preparing them for the kind of training they need...We are being tromped by other countries...Most of our engineers are coming from other countries."

Catherine Barber spoke of the widespread support for starting foreign-language study in the elementary schools. She also spoke of teaching languages other than the traditional French, Spanish, German and Italian, such as Chinese and Arabic.
She urged, "Don’t abandon it just because it’s difficult."
Thomas Nachod said distance learning is "really critical," especially since high-level courses could be taught that way through BOCES or with universities.

He also suggested summer school could be more than remedial, offering honors courses or other courses so students could avoid scheduling conflicts during the regular school year.

Peter Golden said he had found a qualified Chinese teacher. Foreign-language study has to be done seriously, he said, and he did not favor teaching a child a song once a week.

Referring to discussions going on among members of the social studies and English departments, Golden said he’d like to see writing expanded in history classes rather than reduced in English classes.

Denise Eisele suggested distance learning that would involve mentoring. She said, for instance, that students could partner with nanotech companies in the area.
"I’d like to see it not only with the gifted and talented students but also with the students doing vocational-type things," said Eisele. "I think people would step up and help us."
Barbara Fraterrigo continued to voice her long-term support for early foreign-language study and also said of technology, "We’ve got to get ahead of the curve on that."

Colleen O’Connell favored technology as a long-term goal and recommended distance-learning courses shared with other Suburban Council schools.
O’Connell, who served on a committee that came up with the district’s wellness policy, also said, "We’ve got to continue to be serious about healthy choices...We should continue to make it meaningful."
Hy Duboswky said exercise is a part of the school day and work day in other countries. He urged, "Practice what we preach."
He also talked about linking technology studies with local institutions to meet the needs of industry in five or 10 years. "Instill that as a culture," he said, concluding, "The real accomplishment in learning is doing."
"Now comes the hard part of coming up with an order of priority," said Weisz, after he had called on each board member. "Your next homework assignment...is to rank the most pressing, for one or two this year."

Police in schools

The district will be paying a larger share of the costs of having Guilderland Police Officers stationed in the schools.

As part of the School Resource Officer program, Carl Duda is stationed at Farnsworth Middle School and Brian Forte is stationed at Guilderland High School.

When the program started, a portion of it was funded by a Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) grant through the United States Department of Justice. Guilderland Supervisor Kenneth Runion told The Enterprise this week that the funding from that grant ended last year; it had covered about half of one salary, he said.

The total cost for the two officers — both benefits and salaries — is about $151,000, Runion said. The school district this year is paying $5,000 per officer, as it has in years past.

The school board agreed Tuesday to increase that amount to $15,000 per officer next year, and, in 2008-09, the district will pay $25,000 per officer.

The school board discussed the School Resource Officer program in executive session at its August meeting, but had little public discussion of the matter at its September meeting, when it passed the fee schedule as recommended by the superintendent.
Vice President Dornbush said, "Having these two officers available has been a real positive."
Runion said that the town, too, is pleased with the program. "There’s a lot of literature on how it’s beneficial for a community to have police officers in the school," he said. "There’s a rapport issue that’s good. There are problems that can be solved that are difficult to deal with in other ways. It’s beneficial to all of us."

Other business

In other business, the board:
— Heard from Superintendent Gregory Aidala that the school year had a "smooth opening." Total enrollment is 5,435, down from 5,551 last year, and less than the 5,512 the district had predicted.

There are 47 new teachers this year. A third of them are long-term substitutes, mostly for teachers on maternity leave, said Aidala;

— Heard from Nancy Andress, assistant superintendent for instruction, that results are not yet in on state-wide tests for students in third through eighth grade.
"Parents won’t be able at this time to access student records on-line as we thought," she said. The process has been slower than expected because of the "vast data-warehousing system across the state," said Andress;

— Appointed two board members — Cathy Barber and Barbara Fraterrigo — to a task force on the school day. Four board members were interested, so Dornbush drew names to decide on the appointees.

Last year, the board hired a consultant on transportation efficiency; the report recommended looking at restructuring the school day.

After a lengthy discussion, the board decided to have two, rather than one, school-board member on the task force, bringing the total number of committee members to 16.

Superintendent Aidala said that the high-school student who two years ago, as a sophomore, spoke to the board about research showing high school students do better if they sleep later will serve on the committee as a senior;

— Heard from Fraterrigo, who chairs the policy committee, that the committee recommends keeping the rules the same for voting at board meetings. If six of the nine board members agree a vote can be taken on a motion at the same meeting where it is first proposed, the vote goes forward.
Weisz had recommended changing the rules. He said, "I don’t think we look our best...when we have pop-up motions. I don’t think we help ourselves or our constituents".I would urge everyone to make the process meaningful; it’s helpful to us all to know ahead of time what motions will be made."

Barber said that, with the current system, if the majority of the board members are surprised and don’t know what a motion is about, they won’t agree to vote on it.
"Democracy is messy," said Golden, who recalled a vote last year where the procedure hadn’t been followed.
"Things get lost in translation," said Fraterrigo;

— Watched a Disney video on Westmere Elementary teacher Robert Whiteman;

— Accepted a television from Edward Drucker, the custodian at the district office; he made the donation to the office in honor of his mother and father;

— Appointed Joseph L. Ferrandino as internal claims auditor at a rate of $15 per hour;

— Agreed to purchase 840 cases of copy paper from Ricoh Corporation for $19,521.60, the lowest of three bids;

— Agreed to contract with Durin, Inc. for $26,720, the lowest of four bids, to transport a special-needs student to the Adirondack School in Greenwich for the school year; the contract is eligible for state-aid reimbursement;

— Extended its agreement with Bell’s Driving School to provide driver education. The behind-the-wheel service costs $285 per student.

The board also appointed Roderick MacDonald, a Farnsworth Middle School technology teacher, as the in-class instructor for the program. He will be paid at the contractual rate of $44.80 per hour;

— Heard from Andress that workshops are being offered to staff this fall on preparing for open houses and parent conferences; on child abuse prevention, and on creating a positive environment;
— Reviewed and heard praise for a new handbook for parents published by Farnsworth Middle School. Eisele said the handbook is "very readable and makes sense";

— Heard that Alan Fiero’s Pine Bush Project and Butterfly Station at Farnsworth won an Environmental Stewardship Award from Audubon International;

— Learned that Amy Zurlo, BOCES communications specialist, won an award from the New York School Press Association for the February, 2006 district newsletter;

— Heard that Nikki Branchini, a Guilderland senior, was honored as Dunkin’ Donuts High School Player of the Week; she is a member of the field hockey, lacrosse, and basketball teams. The school will receive a $500 donation to its athletic program;

— Learned that the public input session for next year’s school budget will be held Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. in the high school;

— Met in executive session to discuss administrative personnel performance reviews, the appointment of a health-insurance consultant, and a student issue.

Aidala told The Enterprise this week that, after the closed session, the board reconvened in public session and passed a motion to appoint UHY Advisors to act as consultants in connection with the district’s evaluation of health insurance options.

Nachod and Weisz abstained because of conflicts of interest, said Aidala, and the other seven board members voted in favor of appointing UYH Advisors.