Guilderland School Board
Raises for administrators, a clean audit, no idling buses



GUILDERLAND — School administrators and supervisors will receive raises of under 4 percent for the next three years, according to two contracts ratified last Tuesday by the school board.

The agreements were ratified by the board unanimously and without public discussion.

Susan Tangorre, administrator for human resources, went over the details of the contracts for The Enterprise after the meeting.

Both contracts will run from the 2005-06 school year through the 2007-08 school year.

The contract with the Guilderland Central School Administrators’ Association, a bargaining unit not affiliated with a union, applies to 12 administrators — assistant principals, principals, and the special-education administrator.

The percentage increase for the first year of that contract is 3.95 and salaries that first year range from about $68,000 to $93,500. The percentage increase for the second year, and again the third year, is 3.75.
"We are asking all units, as we negotiate, to agree to direct deposit," said Tangorre; this is in keeping with recommendations made by the state comptroller and applies to both new Guilderland contracts.
"No other significant pieces" were changed in the administrators’ contract, said Tangorre.
Next to administrators’ salaries at other comparable Capital District schools, those in the Suburban Council with Guilderland, Tangorre said, "We’re in the low middle." Comparable Suburban Council administrator salaries range from about $68,000 to $102,000, she said.

The newly-ratified agreement for the Supervisory Unit of the Guilderland Teachers’ Association applies to nine supervisors, Tangorre said.

This includes two supervisors at the middle school — one for English, reading, and language arts, and the other for math and science; supervisors at the high school for English, social studies, and math-science; and district-wide supervisors for foreign languages, art, and music; as well as the health, physical education, and athletic director.

The percentage increase for each of three years will be 3.85. In the first year, salaries for the nine supervisors range from about $75,000 to $95,600.

It is difficult to compare the salaries to other supervisors in the Suburban Council, Tangorre said, because seven of the Guilderland nine work for 12 months of the year; the other two work 10 months.

The salaries for supervisors at other Suburban Council schools range from about $74,000 to $106,000, Tangorre said.
About other changes, Tangorre said, "We agreed to look at use of secretarial time."

The brunt of meeting new testing requirements falls on supervisors, she said, and some share secretaries.
"We may not be increasing time or staff, but realigning so it’s efficient," said Tangorre. Such discussions will be part of the annual budget process, she said.

Other business

In other business, the school board:

— Reviewed the draft, not released to The Enterprise, of a state-required independent audit, and heard comments from two employees of Dorfman-Robbie CPA’s PC, the firm that conducted the audit.
They said Guilderland received "a clean audit report" and went over the new requirements legislated by the state at the comptroller’s recommendation after fraud at a Long Island school district.

The board had previously discussed the changes. It agreed last Tuesday to form a five-member committee — made up of three board members and two volunteers from the community — to guide the audit process;

— Heard from Guilderland High School senior Kaitlin Jewell that the Class of 2006 is hosting Trick-or-Treat Street at the high school on Oct. 29.

Kids from the community can trick-or-treat safely, she said, as they go from room to room in the school, each sponsored by a different club or team. Pre-sale tickets cost $3;

— Accepted a donated viola from Cynthia Englehardt and a gift of two speakers from Lori Hershenhart, district music supervisor. The viola and the speakers will be used at Farnsworth Middle School;

— Reviewed policies on student complaints and grievances, on energy conservation, and on not letting school buses idle.
"We basically do this anyway," said school board member Barbara Fraterrigo of not letting buses idle.

Fraterrigo, who chairs the board’s policy committee, went on to say not idling saves money and is also better for the health of children.
"Diesel exhaust is difficult for kids to cope with," she said; and

— Went into executive session to discuss administrative performance reviews, and to be updated on litigation and on the selection of a high-school principal.