At Guilderland
More for home-schooled"board to apply for EXCEL, hold klatches



GUILDERLAND — As the trend towards home-schooling gains momentum across the country, the Guilderland School Board is planning to offer more to its home-schooled students.

Currently, 47 children are instructed at home in Guilderland, says Nancy Andress, the district’s assistant superintendent for instruction who oversees home-schooling. The children come from 24 households; 15 are in secondary school and 32 are in elementary school. Two of the home-schooled students are learning disabled, she said, and receive special-education services from the district.
Home-schooling is "very tightly controlled" in New York State, Superintendent Gregory Aidala told the school board members last Tuesday as they reviewed the draft of a new policy. They are slated to vote on it at their next meeting, Jan. 9.
"This is less stringent than it used to be," said Aidala. "Previously, we didn’t allow any high-school students to participate in a school activity."

In the nine years Andress has overseen home-schooling at Guilderland, the numbers have remained fairly constant, she said. Last year, there were 47 home-school students and the year before, there were 45.

It is typical for the number to be cut in half as the students move from elementary school to the middle school. Home-schooled students cannot receive a high-school diploma, although most of the Guilderland home-schooled students do go on to college, Andress told The Enterprise. Many of them produce portfolios of their work, she said.
Asked why families decide to school their children at home, Andress said, "It’s a personal choice. Sometimes it’s religious," she said, noting curricula is available with a "Christian point of view."

Many families use on-line programs to teach their children, she said.

Andress reviews the Individualized Home Instruction Plan submitted by the parents in which they map out a year of study, and she reviews their quarterly reports.

In nine years, she said, there has never been a home-schooled student put on probation because of poor performance on an annual achievement test.
The Guilderland home-schooled students, she said, have "very rich experiences."
Andress concluded, "Often, the whole family is involved. It’s really remarkable the way they weave in the arts and physical education."

Guilderland’s new policy
The district, the policy draft states, "will attempt to cooperate with parents who wish to provide home schooling."

Home-schooled students are not awarded a high-school diploma and cannot play interscholastic sports, both state mandates.

The Guilderland policy allows students to participate in intramural sports when not related to physical-education instruction, such as for wrestling or gymnastics. They can also join clubs that meet before or after school as long as they can arrange their own transportation, there is room in the program, and there is no added cost to the district.
"We determined music lessons, chorus, and band were curricular," so home-schooled students cannot participate in those activities, said Vice President John Dornbush, who serves on the policy committee and presented the draft in the absence of Chairwoman Barbara Fraterrigo.

Additionally, the new policy states, home-schooled students in the Guilderland School District may attend, with a parent, general school-wide activities such as cultural fairs, PTA-sponsored events, or school assemblies.
"For some individuals, that may not go far enough; for others, it may go too far," said Aidala of the new opportunities.

Cathy Barber, another policy committee member, said that state law prevents home-schooled students in New York from becoming part-time students. Some other states, she said, allow home-schooled students to take, for example, just a math class.
The Guilderland policy states that the district is not required to loan textbooks and other materials to home-schooled students but may provide them "to the extent available."

The district does not furnish health services and is not responsible for providing remedial programs, the draft states.

Four-and-a-half pages of regulations accompany the two-page draft policy, outlining 10 responsibilities for parents. Parents must notify the district of their intentions to home-school and then must provide an Individualized Home Instruction Plan.

Course and attendance requirements are spelled out as are rules for quarterly reports and annual assessments. If home-schooled students score poorly on an annual achievement test, they are placed on probation during which home visits are made by the superintendent to determine methods of remediation.

While home-schooled students are not eligible for vocational programs or for programs for gifted students, the district does offer students with disabilities special-education services.

The policy also says home-schooled students may take Regents exams, although not for courses with laboratory requirements.
"The proposed policy is about as generous for high-school students as the law allows"" asked board President Richard Weisz.
"It’s more generous than what we used to have," responded Aidala.
"We spent a lot of time on this policy," said Denise Eisele, another board member on the policy committee. "This policy was not written easily or lightly."

Other business

In other business, the board:
— Praised its new meeting format, using a "consent agenda" so that many items, which are not discussed, are voted on as a group rather than individually.

Weisz urged using the format when he was elected president in July. Board meetings now also include committee reports. Board members meet privately in committees with less than a quorum that would require public sessions, then report back to the board.
Eisele praised the new format as "really streamlined," saying she liked reading about items ahead of time.
"We have to do things in public session," said Weisz, noting not everything can be done by e-mail. The board, for example, must vote in public, as required by state law.
"We’ve accomplished a lot in committees that used to go under board discussion," said board member Peter Golden, who chairs the business practices committee, new this year.
"I like the way the meetings move," said Dornbush;

— Approved, without discussion, hiring Barbara Nagler, district superintendent of the Capital Region BOCES, to serve as a search consultant in recruiting a new superintendent for Guilderland.

Aidala announced last month that he will retire next November from his $150,000 post. The board then met in closed session to discuss the process it would use to replace him.
"There was no basis to enter into an executive session," Camille Jobin-Davis, assistant director for the New York State Committee on Open Government, told The Enterprise earlier.

Weisz said at last week’s meeting that the board would meet in open session to come up with a profile of characteristics the new superintendent should have;
— Heard from Weisz that the state comptroller’s office, which is auditing all the public school districts in New York, has begun its audit of Guilderland and "will be here 10 weeks," presumably presenting a report by June.
Weisz called the audit "an opportunity to learn how to do things better";

— Heard from Golden that his business practices committee is looking at the $1.72 million in EXCEL (Expanding our Children’s Education and Learning) Aid for which Guilderland is eligible.
"If you don’t use it, you lose it," said Golden.

The district needs to hire an architect and apply, he said. Building needs consistent with school programs have to be identified.

The state’s program, a one-time offer, stipulates that EXCEL Aid can be used in addition to the district’s normal state building aid as long as the combined aid does not exceed the project’s total cost. Eligible projects include those related to education technology, health and safety, accessibility, and energy.

The committee decided it would be best to generate a request for proposals to send to architectural firms, said Golden, rather than just automatically using the district’s long-time architects, Dodge, Chamberlin, Luzine, Weber Architects.
"Maybe there’s a better way to do it," said Golden. Of the trend to generate RFPs, Golden said, "You’ll be hearing more and more of that";

— Heard from Cathy Barber, who chairs the communications committee, that letters have been sent to local organizations to see if they want school-district representatives to speak to them. Weisz and Aidala, for example, will be speaking to the Guilderland Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 28, she said.

Plans are also underway to hold a series of coffee klatches, where residents can approach school-board members to ask questions or make comments. Two have been scheduled so far — the first is at the Western Diner on Route 20 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10; and the second is in the lobby at the Guilderland Public Library on Western Avenue from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Jan. 20.
"Some people believe the board is not as accessible as they’d like," said Weisz.
Board member Colleen O’Connell stressed that the sessions are "not an attempt to do an end run around the chain of command." She said that parents should not use a coffee klatch to discuss individual student problems; those should be discussed with teachers and administrators;

— Reviewed a policy on student records, recognizing the legal requirement to maintain confidentiality and outlining the annual notification process;

— Heard from Andress that Mary Eoff, the Westmere Elementary School nurse, has been recognized by the New York State Association of School Nurses for her membership on its board of directors;

— Learned that Altamont Elementary School has been invited by the United States Department of Education to participate in the No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools Program. Principal Peter Brabant and his staff will complete a lengthy application before Feb. 9.

Altamont is one of 25 schools in New York State to be nominated by the commissioner of education; only 19 schools will be named Blue Ribbon Schools;

— Learned that Giuseppe Duca, a foreign-language teacher at Guilderland High School, was selected for Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers 2006;

— Heard that Deborah Drumm, principal at Westmere Elementary School, was selected as one of 15 area principals who will meet monthly as part of the National School Leadership Network;
— Learned that Mitch Hahn, high-school English teacher, and Jim Dillon, principal of Lynnwood Elementary School, were quoted in "The Geography of Bullying," an article in Vanguard, published by the School Administrators of New York State;

— Heard that Farnsworth Middle School, as part of a project initiated by science teacher Al Fiero, will breed the endangered Karner blue butterflies to be returned to the Pine Bush. The site was selected by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation and the Albany Pine Bush Commission;

— Heard congratulations for all of the fall sports teams for qualifying for the Scholar-Athlete Award. Each of these teams has maintained a 90 percent or higher team average: boys’ and girls’ cross-country, boys’ and girls’ volleyball, boys’ and girls’ soccer, girls’ swimming, girls’ tennis, field hockey, football, and golf;
— Heard from Andress a long list of school projects "remembering the less fortunate at the holidays." These "holiday social action" projects ranged from sending supplies to soldiers in Afghanistan (Operation Thank You for Our Freedom at Pine Bush Elementary School) to baking for the local Ronald McDonald House, which provides shelter for families visiting hospital patients (sponsored by the National Honor Society at the high school).
Weisz said it is "very satisfying to see the level of social action";

— Heard that Gloria Towle-Hilt, a Farnsworth social-studies teacher, is being honored as an Educator of the Week by Channel 13. Towle-Hilt was instrumental in building a local Habitat for Humanity house and has involved students in years of social action such as serving in the soup kitchen at St. John’s and St. Ann’s Center in Albany;

— Approved an agreement with the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of Albany-Schoharie-Schenectady-Saratoga Counties to host the Summer 2007 Reading and Writing Institute.
"This time, we’ll get paid," said Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders.
"In the past," Andress told The Enterprise this week, "we would pay for teachers to attend the workshops and they would reimburse us. Now we have a formal agreement."

Salaries for the reading and writing institutes each total $8,221; each runs for three days. Miscellaneous materials for each total $300. Consultant and travel fees for the reading institute total $1,326, and for the writing institute total $7,303;

— Appointed Michael Lazan as a hearing officer, effective Dec. 1, for a special-education case. He will be paid $100 an hour in accordance with the board’s policy and the state’s division of Budget.

Hearing officers are chosen from an approved list when there is a dispute between a parent and a school regarding the placement of a special-education student; the officer hears the case and makes a judgment, said Aidala;

— Approved a tax exemption, as allowed by state law, for school- district residents who are 65 or older with limited income. The new sliding scale allows a 50-percent exemption for those with an income of $26,000 or less annually, ranging to a 5-percent exemption for those with an income of $33,500 or more but less than $34,400;

— Approved the same sliding scale for property owners with disabilities;

— Accepted a monetary donation from Bruce and Julie Weeden for the purchase of a closed-circuit television network system for Lynnwood Elementary School.

Andress told The Enterprise this week that the system will be similar to those in the high school and middle school and involve younger children with the media. Asked if such a donation could create an imbalance with the district’s other four elementary schools, she said, "If it’s successful, we may want to replicate it";
— Approved an agreement with the Rensselaer-Columbia-Green BOCES to provide internal auditing services, which Sanders called "the final step" in complying with requirements set out by the state comptroller’s office about a year ago.

The estimated cost to perform this risk assessment is $9,750.
Dornbush said it was "clean and discreet" to use a BOCES other than the local BOCES with which the district does a lot of business;

— Agreed to buy 840 cases of copy paper from Ricoh Corporation for $19,630.80, the lowest of three bids; and

— Met in executive session to discuss negotiations with the Guilderland Employees Association, administrative personnel performance reviews, and a supervisory personnel performance review.