GUILDERLAND — An online survey shaped the superintendent’s $95 million spending proposal for next year and now another online survey will let school district residents weigh in on how any additional state funds should be spent.

“What I included in my draft was pretty skimpy,” Superintendent Marie Wiles said as 30 or so people worked through the survey during an hour-long session before the regular school board meeting on Tuesday night. About half of those people were school board members or district staff.

The superintendent’s budget stays just under the 0.12-percent tax levy limit and maintains current programs and staff with a few additions, for an overall increase in spending of 1.42 percent.

Wiles was conservative in figuring state aid, using the governor’s proposal of about $25 million, just over a quarter of her budget revenues. A legislative proposal, combining the two houses, is far more generous to education. The state budget is to be adopted by April 1, and school district voters have their say on May 17.

Those who fill out the online survey (at guilderlandschools.org) are asked to label a list of items as priority 1, 2, or 3. Priority 1 choices would be included in the budget if Guilderland got an additional $350,000 in state aid. If the district got $350,000 to $700,000 more in aid, both priority 1 and 2 items would be included. Finally, if Guilderland got a million dollars more in aid, items numbered 1, 2, and 3 would be included in next year’s budget.

The list was generated by school leaders. Survey takers may also add items that are not listed; they are to identify themselves as being district residents or employees, and to note if they have children currently attending Guilderland schools.

After Tuesday’s “community conversation” segment, the board heard comments from two teachers, two parents, and a recent Guilderland graduate on budget items before discussing their own views for three hours.

Wiles told the board, “We made tough decisions about what we can fund…My wish list includes things that would address an immediate student need.”

Inclusion

The board, in a wide-ranging discussion, called on various staff members to answer their questions.

For example, they heard from Michael Piscitelli, the math and science supervisor, about plans at the high school to do away with the two-year course in Algebra 1, which used to have “a good mix of regular and special education students,” in ratios of 60 to 40 or 50 to 50, according to Piscitelli. “They’ve primarily become special-education classes,” with about 90 percent of the students having special needs.

Next year, six sections of Algebra 1 will be team taught by a special-education teacher and a regular math teacher; no more than seven to eight students who need support will be in each of those classes. That inclusive model is part of the superintendent’s budget. However, an added item would be one-and-two-tenths of a post, for $91,000, to have a teacher — called an Academic Intervention Services, or AIS, teacher — who could help struggling algebra students during study halls or after school.

“There’s a tremendous amount of research, in a heterogeneous class, all students do better,” said board member Gloria Towle-Hilt. “They learn from each other and they learn better.”

“The AIS teacher would be an add-on,” said board member Barbara Fraterrigo. “Why not build it into the budget to begin with?”

“We didn’t have many resources,” responded Wiles. “We built our budget very conservatively based on what the governor gave us,” she said, adding, as she did with several items, “It would be at the top of my list.”

Board Vice President Christine Hayes recommended not proceeding with the one-year-only algebra program without the AIS teacher.

Near the start of the meeting, Erin McNamara, president of the Guilderland Teachers’ Association, had said of inclusion, “We’re embracing it with our eyes wide open.” She urged the board, “give consideration to what the teachers have to say.”

McNamara said that she and Lin Severance, the district’s assistant superintendent for human resources, had together worked three ours to present a 20-minute lesson for three different groups or levels of learners.

She referenced a former school board president, Richard Weisz, who called co-teaching “the gold standard.”

McNamara concluded, “full-time teachers working together will make it work.”

Board to decide between YMCA and Victory Care

Late in the meeting, the board heard a recommendation for a pre-kindergarten program to be housed in vacant classrooms. In 2014, a consultant had recommended school closure as a way to deal with the excess space caused by declining enrollment.

An uprising, largely from Altamont residents opposed to the elementary school there being closed, followed, and the board then appointed a task force to explore other ways to use the excess space. The board settled on housing a pre-kindergarten program and requests for proposals were sought.

Two programs applied — Victory Child Care Inc., which would use all six vacant classrooms — two each at Pine Bush Elementary School, Altamont Elementary School, and Farnsworth Middle School — and the YMCA, which would use just the two classrooms at Pine Bush.

The board will vote to accept one of the proposals at its next meeting, on April 12.

Leasing the two rooms to the YMCA, the district would net $46,500 over five years, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders. The YMCA would pay $5,000 in rent; the first year, the district would have to pay $3,500 to fence in a play area.

Leasing six rooms to Victory Child Care, Guilderland would net $195,692 over five years, Sanders said. The first year, the district would pay for fencing at the three schools and would pay to modify a bathroom at Farnsworth to be used “by tiny people,” said Clifford Nooney, the district’s maintenance supervisor.

Nooney also said Farnsworth has an exterior entrance near the vacant classrooms where a second set of doors could be installed to allow parents “to swipe in the exterior door for a clean exchange with the care providers.” He said a security camera could be installed there as well.

The upgrades will be completed over the summer, said Sanders, so that the pre-school program can start in the fall.

Both programs would pay for their own classroom furnishings and playground equipment, Sanders said.

Wiles said the committee that reviewed the requests for proposals used a rubric assigning 0 to 4 points for a series of criteria: Victory Child Care scored 23 and the YMCA scored 22.

“Is that as much as we can charge?” asked board member Barbara Fraterrigo after learning that the Board of Cooperative Educational Services pays $12,000 annually for each classroom it uses as well as $12,250 for ancillary services.

Sanders explained that the RFP is “much like a bidding process.” He said, “People put their best offer forward.”

“Right now, there’s no nondenominational pre-K in Guilderland…This aligns with our mission,” said board member Colleen O’Connell.

“You’d be impressed if you look at their website,” said board member Christopher McManus of Victory Child Care. He also said, “This is full lessons…not just waiting for parents to come.”

The center’s website says, “Victory Child Care, Inc. is one of the original handful of GSA  child care centers (there are now 104) and is also a New York State Certified Woman-Owned business.”

The General Services Administration was established by President Harry Truman in 1948 to streamline administrative work of the federal government. Victory Child Care, based in Albany, was founded in 1989.

“They spoke with great passion, great knowledge,” said Wiles, noting Victory had 30 years of experience.

Kerry Dineen, a music teacher speaking as the building representative for Pine Bush Elementary School, told the school board members at the start of their meeting that, while Pine Bush was “very happy” to have preschool classes, “We are having some growing pains.” She said her school was “the landlord” for many outside programs, including seven from BOCES.

“The staff is concerned about something else coming in without something else going,” said Dineen. “Something’s got to give. It’s crowded.”

“Do we have enough space available?” Fraterrigo asked toward the end of the meeting, referencing Dineen’s comments.

“Yes,” replied Sanders.

O’Connell concluded, “It’s not only a win for using space…It’s some income…the program is valuable or the community.” She imagined middle school students who wanted to be teachers working with the children, and elementary students interacting with the preschoolers, too. “Can’t you just see a first-grader being a reading buddy?” asked O’Connell.

Speaking out

Dineen also expressed concerns about large class sizes saying, for example, that there were the same number of first-graders at her school as at Lynnwood Elementary but that Lynnwood had four sections with smaller classes, while Pine Bush had three sections at the top of the range allowed by the district.

“If you have money coming in, that’s a priority,” Dineen said of reducing class sizes.

Finally, she said that elementary school activities had fallen off. She noted that one of the budget items being considered is stipends for middle school staff to lead clubs. “We don’t have stipends at the elementary level,” said Dineen.

Cynthia Leonard, a former Guilderland student, spoke with passion about the Focus program, which helps engage students who might otherwise not do well at school.

“I was in the Focus Family program, she said. “It really does help…to talk emotionally with your teacher.”

The family portion is a big part, she said. “It helped me stay in high school and not drop out, and want to continue on to college.”

Leonard told The Enterprise she is now a high school senior in Schoharie and will be studying next year at Hudson Valley Community College to become a paramedic.

Later in the meeting, board members stressed the Focus program is not slated for cuts. Rather, one of the items that is being considered as an addition is six-tenths of a post, for $39,000, to change Focus Family work from a duty as it currently is configured to a teaching assignment.

Students in the program meet every other day with a teacher who is charged with designing community-building activities, supervising student progress, facilitating family discussion, attending in-school events and field trips, contacting parents and other teachers about the Focus students, writing and managing academic and behavior contracts, and attending student and staff meetings.

Two parents spoke in favor of adding coaching positions for cross-country and track.

For $5,000, a track coaching position, which was cut in 2011, would be restored. For $6,060 two extramural cross-country posts and two extramural track-and-field posts would be added. These jobs were cut in 2010 to help close a multi-million-dollar budget gap.

Currently, the middle school has no track program; several dozen students qualify to compete on the high school team; the former middle school program attracted far more students.

Brian Melanson, who has three children in the Guilderland schools, is a varsity coach for the Schenectady city schools as well as a Section 2 coordinator.

Guilderland’s having 150 kids with two coaches is “a major safety issue,” he said. “You are in a wide-open space,” he said of supervising kids in track.

He also said requirements for middle-school students competing on varsity teams had become stricter this year, further cutting the number that can participate in the sport.

Alecia Thompson, the mother of three Guilderland students, said her daughters are part of a “powerful positive running community here in Guilderland.”

She asked her daughters what they valued in the sport and reported, “It makes you want to go to school and do better at school…it makes you feel you belong…it makes you want to work harder at life.”

The teams “accept everybody,” Thompson said and are 100 deep in girls and 100 deep in boys. With the added posts, she said, coaches could specialize more.

She said her family had accepted challenges so her daughters could compete on the high school team, such as making up class time missed for a meet.

Thompson concluded, “We cheer the first person to the last; it doesn’t matter what color our jersey is.”

School calendar

Erin McNamara, the GTA president, opposed changing the proposed school calendar so that students would begin classes on Sept. 6. Board member Christopher McManus said at an earlier meeting that he spoke for families with two parents who work when he said finding child care for Sept. 6 would be onerous since summer programs will be over.

The extra day would cost about $35,000 to pay for bus drivers, cafeteria workers, teaching assistants, and other staff, Wiles said earlier.

McNamara went over many items that could be added instead of the extra day, like permanent substitute teachers.

Late in the meeting, board member Judy Slack expressed a similar sentiment. “Maybe it’s not best for the parents,” she said, “but it’s best for the children and the budget. We could use the $35,000 a lot of other ways.”

Towle-Hilt concurred. “It’s best for the kids with a three-day start,” she said. “The first week is a drain on them.”

“Philosophically, kids come first,” said board member Catherine Barber.

McManus countered that an extra day of school is beneficial for students. “The goal should be more school days. The contract says 183; we’re usually 180.”

O’Connell said that, for the next school year, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur both fall in October and on school days. McManus said that other school districts and BOCES don’t have days off for the Jewish holidays and questioned the reasons that Guilderland does.

“I think it’s a function of the community’s values and the number of people that observe the holidays,” said Wiles.

In the fall of 1995, several Guilderland School Board members expressed outrage that a teacher had tested students on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the most important and sacred Jewish holy day. Public and board discussions followed, resulting in the district deciding not to hold classes on the Jewish high holy days.

Wiles said on Tuesday that some school districts have a calendar committee with various groups, like teachers, parents, and school board members, represented. “Perhaps bring perspectives of all the parties to bear,” she said.

Several board members expressed support for forming such a committee.

The board ultimately adopted the calendar originally proposed; students will begin school next year on Wednesday, Sept. 7.