By Alex Brooks
At its May 21 meeting, The Hoosick Falls School Board accepted the resignation of Assistant High School Principal and former High School Principal Stacy Vadney, effective at the end of this school year. Vadney has taken a job in the Shenendehowa School District, which will be a much shorter commute for her.
The School Board held its annual celebration of tenure and retirements at this meeting, which was on the night of the school budget vote. This year there was only one retiring teacher being honored – Special Education teacher Susan Conety.
Conety has been teaching at HFCS for 25 years. Superintendent Ken Facin when Conety applied to work at HFCS she described the elements needed to be a great special education teacher – a love for children, patience, the belief that all children can learn and the ability to work as part of a team. Facin said during the time that he has been leading the District, Conety has brought all of these elements to her work in an exemplary manner, and that is why she has been such a successful teacher.
The District granted tenure to two teachers, Tiffany Grant as Teacher of Elementary Education and Jessica Nelson as Teacher of Mathematics.
Facin said Grant was a tenured reading teacher who decided she wanted to become a classroom teacher, and she has now achieved tenure in that area as well.
He said Nelson was an elementary AIS teacher in 2012 when a math position opened up, and she “went for it.” He said she has has been a successful math teacher and “her rapport with the kids is extraordinary.”
The Board then took a break to hold a reception featuring strawberry shortcake in honor of the retiree and the newly tenured teachers.
Superintendent Ken Facin said this will be his last school board meeting, and he paid tribute to the administrators and the school board that he has worked with at HFCS, calling the administrators “an extraordinary team of leaders,” and he said he is proud of the school board which has been so committed and so effective as leaders of the school. He told both the Board and the administrators, “thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your work for this District. I have been honored to work at this District.” When Facin finished speaking, there was a round of applause from all present.
Facin said he is beginning a job for a software company in Schenectady on August 1.
HFCS Business Manager Emily Sanders gave a short summary of the timeline for work on the Capital Project. She said she and the team from HFCS have already held three meetings with the architects for the project and ideas for the science room, the music room and the auditorium are being exchanged, and details for all sects of the project are being added.
She said the priority is to get the new boilers put in (and associated asbestos abatement) during the summer of 2020. To get that done, they need to submit finished plans for that part of the project by this coming July, so that there will be time for State Education Department review and putting the project out to bid for a construction start about a year from now. The rest of the work will be done in the two subsequent summers, in 2021 and 2022.
The Board scheduled its Organizational Meeting for the next school year for July 9 at 6 pm. The next regular school board meeting will be held on June 20.