by Alex Brooks
The Hoosick Falls School Board had a scary moment at its meeting this week when a vote to approve a contract with the Hoosick Falls Soccer Club for use of its fields failed to pass.
The contract is for this season, from August 18 through November 13, 2008
After the vote Superintendent Facin told the Board that failure to approve this contract means that the teams using those fields would have to stop using them immediately.
There are currently five teams using the soccer club fields for both practices and games, and Facin said he had no backup plan – tomorrow morning he would be scrambling to find fields for these teams to play on, re-arranging the bus schedules, re-scheduling games with other schools and so on.
The discussion of the matter began with Don Skott asking why the fee to use those fields had gone up so much since last year. Superintendent Facin replied that last year when the fee was $3,200, only two teams from HFCS were using that field. This year since there are five teams using the soccer club fields, the District agreed to pay $5,200.
John Helft, who is on the Board of the Soccer Club, showed Board members a chart of man-hours expended by the soccer club lining and maintaining the fields. He said last year they spent 70 man-hours more than usual because of the District’s use of the fields, and he expects it will be 110 hours this year.
Dave Sutton said he felt that the Soccer Club is generously offering at an affordable price something for which they could easily charge more.
Dwain Wilwol said he thought the price was high, and he had consulted a soccer coach who doesn’t coach here, who had assured him that this price was not really out of line. It sounded like Wilwol was defending the price, but when it came to a vote, both Wilwol and Skott voted against it, and John Helft had to abstain because he’s on the Soccer Club Board. The three yes votes, from Dave Sutton, Laurie Gormley and Bridget Foster, were not enough to pass the resolution. HFCS Board member Greg Laurin did not attend this meeting.
Dave Sutton said he had not heard from any Board member or taxpayer that there was a problem with this contract, and he felt if Board members were planning to oppose it, they should let him know in advance, so as not to leave five of the school’s teams suddenly without a field to play on.
Don Skott says he has questioned these figures before and he feels that no one listened to him. He said the most recent figure he had heard concerning this year’s contract was $4,600 and he had said at the time that he felt it was too much and he couldn’t vote for it.
John Helft said it had cost $400,000 to develop the soccer club facility and this contract is well below the rate they usually charge to rent it.
Appeals to reconsider were taken to heart, and both Don Skott and Dwain Wilwol said although they continue to think $5,200 is too high a price, they did not want to leave the kids without fields in the middle of their season, so they agreed to approve the contract. The vote was rescinded, and a new resolution approving the contract was passed unanimously 5-0, with John Helft abstaining.
At Public Comment time, Karen Tommasino, speaking as a parent of a soccer player, said she was glad the kids could continue on the Soccer Club fields, because they are good quality fields. she said her son had turned his ankle playing on a bumpy field somewhere else and two weeks later it still isn’t right. But when he is playing on the Soccer Club fields, she has no worries.
Jim Martinez said he is glad the Soccer Club contract was approved because, whether the price is a little high or a little low, the important thing is that the money is going back into this community, supporting soccer programs for the kids.
Local Police Coverage
Superintendent Ken Facin said he has been discussing with officials from the Village of Hoosick Falls having the Village Police extend their coverage area to include the school so that there is a police agency that can respond quickly if need be. It takes quite a while for County Sheriffs or State Police to come out to the Hoosick Falls school property because they have so far to travel to get out here. He cited two examples of recent incidents that illustrate his point. One was an incident about a month ago in which a sexual predator in the Village tried to get two young girls into his car. They ran and called for help, and the police arrived quickly and arrested the guy. If such an incident happened at the school and the County Sheriff or State Police were called, the offender would have plenty of time to get away. Another incident involved a man standing across the road from the school looking through binoculars in the general direction of the school. The Village Police asked him what he was doing, and it turned out he was looking at deer on the hillside above the school. Facin said if a State Trooper drove out here to respond to such a call, it would be a waste of Police resources.
Facin said he is not looking for police patrols or greater police presence on campus. The agreement would only be for responding to calls from the school.
Smooth Start
Many school officials told stories about the first week of school and how it went, and all seemed to agree that it went very well. The new bus schedule and staggered start went very smoothly; a new orientation program for kindergarteners called “Kindergarten Camp” was a fun introduction to the school for the youngsters; the new early morning day care program has gone very well. Elementary Principal Patrick Dailey said there are 20 to 25 kids participating in the morning day care program. Parents who need to get to work early drop them off starting at 7:15 am, and, with the activities provided, the program has had a calm and productive atmosphere. There are four teachers running it, which exceeds State requirements for staff to student ratios. Dailey said they are staffing on the basis of two teachers for every 15 kids and they are currently set up for up to 30 kids. The State required minimum for school age children is one teacher for every ten kids.
In Other Business:
• The Board tabled a motion to appoint nine sports volunteers because three of the applications were incomplete. Many of these volunteers have been volunteering for these particular duties for many years. Having volunteers complete applications is a new policy, and there were apparently a few glitches in the process.
• The Board changed the date of the November meeting from November 18 to Thursday, November 13, at 7 pm.
• After the meeting, the Board went into executive session to discuss negotiations with the Managerial/Confidential staff.
The next regular meeting of the Hoosick Falls School Board will be Tuesday, October 21 at 7 pm.