GUILDERLAND — The president of Guilderland’s Muslim Student Alliance told the school board members at their Oct. 25 meeting that one of the objectives of the alliance this year is to get Eid al-Fitr recognized as a school holiday.

Areej Naina described Eid as “the day after the month of Ramadan, where we fast from sunrise to sunset, and we celebrate it with family and friends.”

In February, a group of Muslim students made a similar push with one of them, Arishma Ahmed, writing to the school board, “First of all, Eid is like Christmas for us. Imagine having to go to school on Christmas. It is as simple as that.”

On Oct. 25, Seema Rivera, the school board president who also serves on the district’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, said a subcommittee was looking at the regional calendar produced by the Capital Region Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

“The discussion is being had,” said Rivera.

In 2023, Eid al-Fitr starts at sundown on a Friday “so missing school won’t be an issue” for the Saturday celebration, Superintendent Marie Wiles had said in February.

The state requires 180 school days; for each day less than that, the district would lose aid equivalent to one teacher’s salary, Wiles said at the time. Also, schedules have to be aligned with other districts in the area for shared programs like those run by BOCES.

Naina noted the holiday is based on the lunar calendar and in 2024 falls on April 10, which is a Wednesday.

Naina also said, “The district strives to promote diversity and inclusion within the community. With the growing population of Muslim students, recognizing Eid as a school holiday for the school year of 2023-24 will promote the idea of inclusion and diversity.”

Naina said that the current school policy is to give Muslim students an excused holiday for Eid “but it doesn’t eliminate the problem we have of trying to make up homework and classwork.”

Budget process

The Oct. 25 meeting was to be the public’s first chance to tell board members about their priorities for the 2023-24 budget but no one signed up to speak about it.

On Sept. 13, indoor track-and-field athletes, parents, and the team’s three coaches urged the school board to hire more coaches for the more than 175 students on the team.

Several school board members said then they were unaware of the staffing issue and Nathan Sabourin said, “This is clearly an issue and I didn’t know about it till now … The cat’s out of the bag on the budget.” Speaking to the coaches sitting in the gallery, he said: “I wish you guys had come to us when we were doing the budget … We’re kind of hamstrung.”

Wiles said at the Oct. 25 meeting, “We have found we do have some potential to add at least one more coach.” Ongoing “twists and turns” may lead to more funds becoming available, she said.

Winter coaching appointments will be made at the school board’s next meeting, on Nov. 15.

Gloria Towle-Hilt, who chairs the board’s communications committee, said the committee had discussed activities to get the public involved in the budget process.

A ThoughtExchange will be set up for the community as well as for the school board, she said. A ThoughtExchange is an online survey that allows people to anonymously state their views.

Towle-Hilt also said that the back-and-forth discussion board members had on Sept. 13 with the people speaking about the need for more indoor track coaches went against guidance in the district’s handbook.

She reiterated that guidance, saying it allows solely the school board president to respond to public comments to correct a misstatement of fact, to refer the speaker to a policy, or to perhaps place the item on a later agenda.

“I violated it,” said Towle-Hilt of herself and other board members coming up with ideas about hiring track coaches without having background information.

“Can it be changed?” asked board member Blanca Gonzalez-Parker of the guidance that board members not interact with people addressing the board.

“This went through three years of thought,” said Towle-Hilt, adding that the policy was guided by advice from the New York State School Boards Association.

“I don’t always agree with them,” said Gonzalez-Parker.

“We need to have a discussion about it,” said Towle-Hilt, adding, “It’s not a law.”

Other business

In other business at their Oct. 25 meeting, Guilderland School Board members:

— Heard a written complaint from Heather Murphy, the parent of a Farnsworth Middle School student, because she received only an email on Oct. 25, saying that students were being sent home. The email, sent at 8:33 a.m. that day, said that contractors working on the construction site across the street from the school broke a water main, causing the water department to shut off the water supply to Farnsworth and that, without water, the school had to be closed for the day.

“Buses will be returning students to their pick-up points,” the email said. “Parents and guardians who have already dropped students off at school should pick up their children as soon as possible. Building staff will remain at FMS until all students have been picked up.”

“As working professionals,” Murphy wrote to the board, “we are not checking our incoming personal emails when working. A phone call from the school or district, as well as a voicemail, would more likely be checked and received during the day.”

Wiles responded that Murphy was right and offered apologies.  She said that parents can sign up for three kinds of messages — emails, texts, and phone calls.

“We don’t know why we didn’t get the phone call out ….,” said Wiles. “We’ll get it right next time”;

— Adopted, in an 8 to 1 vote, a policy to allow video conferencing during board meetings as before when absent board members are in an advertised public space but also now “under extraordinary circumstances” when a board member is not in a public space — for example, sick at home.

The board held a public hearing on Oct. 11 on the new policy, but no member of the public spoke.

Guilderland’s new policy defines “extraordinary circumstances” as including “disability, illness, caregiving responsibilities, or any other significant or unexpected factor or event which precludes the members’ physical attendance at the meeting.”

After the vote, member Rebecca Butterfield, who was attending the meeting remotely, was then able to vote;

— Heard from board member Judy Slack that Guilderland’s school buses will soon have cameras to record the license plates of cars illegally passing stopped buses.

In September, Albany County announced any school district in the county could join the program. Slack noted there is “no cost to the district” and said, “They prosecute as they see fit”;

— Set the daily salary rates for non-unit substitute teachers this year, effective Oct. 26, ranging from $95 for a district-approved non-certified substitute to $170 for a long-term certified substitute who teaches 15 consecutive days, substituting for the same teacher;

— Approved two new clubs at Farnsworth Middle School. Members of the Basketball Club will “have fun and learn how to play basketball” while members of the Scratch Club will learn “how to use Scratch coding and have an environment to code and explore with classmates across grade levels,” according to applications submitted by students;

— Approved the establishment of a Guilderland Garden Club Scholarship Award for a graduating senior planning college studies in horticulture, floriculture, landscape design, botany, plant pathology, conservation, forestry, agronomy, environmental studies, city planning, land management, wildlife science, or allied topics;

— Approved these three books for fifth-graders to read: “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” by Paul Curtis, “Ashes to Roses” by Mary Jane Auch, and “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park;

— Heard from Towle-Hilt that the communications committee looked at the exit poll from the May 22 budget and school board votes and discussed refining questions to show relationships beyond being a parent, exploring what information might be meaningful to target specific initiatives, and encouraging young voters to respond; most respondents were between age 31 and 50.

Towle-Hilt suggested focus groups to see what barriers to voting might be.

She also said that the Westmere catchment area had a lower-than-usual turnout, which Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders will analyze;

— Heard from Sabourin, who chairs the policy review committee, that the committee wants to involve students in developing policies; and

— Went into executive session to discuss matters related to potential litigation.