HFCS Reorganization Meeting

by Alex Brooks
Greg Laurin was re-elected as President of the Hoosick Falls Board of Education, and Rick Ferrannini was elected Vice-President, both by unanimous vote of the Board. They were then sworn in, along with the other officers of the School District, and proceeded with the organizational meeting for the upcoming school year. This was the first meeting for newly elected School Board Member Rachel Boisvert, who was warmly welcomed by the Superintendent and the Board President.
[private]Much of the business of the organizational meeting is routine, but there were some new twists. Perhaps most significant is the departure of Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Brett Lamy. Since his position was abolished, the administration is seeking to cover his duties in other ways. To that end, the Board created last month a new position with a salary of $35,000 per year entitled, “Coordinator of Interscholastic Athletics,” and this month they appointed the District’s very successful Girls Soccer Coach, Tom Husser, to that position.
Superintendent Facin said he is very pleased that Husser has agreed to take the position, and he is confident that Husser will do a great job with it.
Facin said this is normally an administrative position requiring various administrative credentials but he sought and was granted a waiver from those requirements by the State Education Department (SED) in Husser’s case. Patrick Dailey was named Director of Physical Education K-12, so he is the administrator in charge of athletic programs.
The other thing that Lamy used to do is discipline. To cover that, the Board named School Attendance Teacher Mario Torres to the position of “Dean of Discipline” for the upcoming school year. Facin said Torres has been a very effective and well respected Attendance Teacher, and he is confident that he will be an effective Dean of Discipline.
Capital Project
Superintendent Facin said he is continuing to work with the architectural firm of Clark Patterson Lee on developing a capital project for the District.
Facin said, “We’ve looked at every option for energy, lighting and technology,” and now he feels they are ready to narrow it down to the most cost effective and necessary projects. Facin said, “We’ll be coming to you soon with data and options” for various components of the project. He hopes to firm up the scope of the project during the fall so it can be put to a vote in time to get SED approval and put out RFPs for construction to begin in the summer of 2014.
Facin said Clark Patterson has created a new team of advisors for the project after some of the Board members were unimpressed with the group that came to the last presentation.
Audit
The Board accepted the annual Internal Controls Audit submitted by Michael Wolff. Board President Greg Laurin characterized the basic message of the audit as, “There are no leaks in the ship.”
Superintendent Facin said the State Education Department no longer requires annual outside audits for Districts of this size, but he recommended that the District continue to do an outside audit annually. Most of the Board agreed. The outside audit costs $7,000 to $8,000 per year. John Helft suggested doing an outside audit every other year, but all other Board members were keen to continue doing them annually, and the Board voted 6-1 to do so.[/private]