Melissa Hale-Spencer

GUILDERLAND — As the debate rages across the country and around the world over whether digital learning should supersede traditional teaching, Natalia LeMoyne is unperturbed.

Executives in Silicon Valley pay hefty tuition fees to send their children to a Waldorf school that banishes computers. Every student at a poor public school was given an iPad, yet test scores remained low. In a recent debate at Columbia University “More Clicks, Fewer Bricks: The Lecture Hall is Obsolete,” a professor who believed online courses could not replace the intimate interaction between students and their teacher argued against a professor who taught online and said he could reach more students in an online course than in 40 years on campus; the audience voted — electronically — to declare the clicks the winners of the debate.

Library Director Timothy Wiles says Guilderland's 22-year-old building "still looks fresh and new," but is in need of repairs so a $90,000 capital reserve fund is planned as part of next year's budget.

GUILDERLAND — A half-dozen music teachers objected to the cut of three-tenths of a post in their department, part of a $92 million budget proposal the school board adopted at its last meeting, which would eliminate roughly 35 jobs next year.

The current caretakers of the Federal home built by John Veeder feel they belong at Rose Hill and have invested themselves in its upkeep.

A State Trooper fled the scene after crashing into two parked vehicles on Altamont's Main Street; he turned himself in 15 hours later, which, police say, was too late to do tests for drug or alcohol use.

GUILDERLAND — Two incumbents — Allan Simpson and Judy Slack — and newcomer Christopher McManus are running for three seats on the school board. No one else turned in petitions by Monday’s deadline.

All of them support the $92 million budget, which district residents will decide on, on May 20, along with the election.

GUILDERLAND — Christopher McManus is making his first run for the school board because he believes “new blood” is needed.

GUILDERLAND — “I feel you need to give back to your community,” said Allan Simpson, explaining why he is running again for the school board. “I can offer expertise with my financial background,” he added.

Simpson works as director of accounting operations for the New York State Insurance Fund.

GUILDERLAND — Judy Slack is running for a third term on the school board because, she said, “I like feeling I’m doing something for the kids.”

Slack, who began her career as a high-school English teacher, worked for 24 years as a teaching assistant at Lynnwood Elementary School in Guilderland, retiring in 2008.

"It's really a philosophical question," says Principal Thomas Lutsic of boosting grades for students in advanced courses, and school leaders are divided on the issue.

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