The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

School News

2008 Hoosick Falls Varsity Golf Schedule

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All Regular Season matches will start at 4 pm unless noted.

All home matches are at the Hoosick Falls Country Club.

Tue. Aug 26, vs. Hoosic Valley at Battenkill  (Greenwich) W 5-0

Wed. Aug 27, vs. Schuylerville at Windy Hills (Greenwich) W 4-1

Thu. Aug 28, HOME vs. Cambridge at 11 am

Wed. Sep 3, vs. Granville at Lake St. Catherine (Poultney, VT)

Thu. Sep 4, HOME vs. Tamarac

Mon. Sep 8, HOME vs. Greenwich

Wed. Sep 10, vs. Stillwater at Saratoga Lake (Saratoga) 

Thu. Sep 11, HOME vs. Hoosic Valley 

Mon. Sep 15, HOME vs. Schuylerville

Wed. Sep 1, vs. Cambridge at Windy Hills (Greenwich)

Thu. Sep 18, HOME vs. Granville

Mon. Sep 22, vs. Tamarac at Frear Park (Troy)

Wed. Sep 24, vs. Greenwich at Battenkill  (Greenwich) 

Thu. Sep 25, HOME vs. Stillwater    

Mon. Sep. 29, Wasaren Tournament at Kingswood (Hudson Falls)

Wed Oct 1, AWAY, Section 2 Class C/D – TBA 

Mon Oct 6, AWAY, Section 2 A/B/C/D State Qualifier, 1st Round        TBA

Thu Oct 9, AWAY, Section 2 A/B/C/D State Qualifier, Final Round  TBA

Head Coach: Kyle DeGraaf         Asst. Coach: Chris Marsh

HFCS Golfers Win Opening Matches

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Coach Kyle DeGraaf reports, “The team has everyone returning from the 2007 team that finished second in the Wasaren League with an 11-3 record.  Taylor Bellemare (junior), Corey Callahan (senior), Kevin Gorman (senior) and Joe Wirmusky (senior transfer from Cambridge) were all Wasaren League All Stars and Sectional Qualifiers.  Zack Hall (senior), James Lynch (sophomore), Justin Carter (senior) and Nick Hunt (senior) are returning letter winners and have looked very good in pre-season.”

“Also looking to break into the starting line-up will be senior newcomer Ethan Myers, juniors Joe Nusca and Nate Cain and freshmen Jordan Colvin, Todd Rogers, Mitchell Andrew and Michael Merwin.”   

“We should be very competitive in the Wasaren League this year,” DeGraaf said. “I think that defending Wasaren League Champions Stillwater is the team to beat. Greenwich and Schuylerville will be very tough and Mike Barrato always puts together very good teams in Cambridge. 

HFCS Defeats Hoosic Valley In Opener

The Hoosick Falls golf team defeated Hoosic Valley on Tuesday at the Battenkill Country Club, 5-0.  Kevin Gorman was medalist with 38.

Bellemare HF def White 1 up

Wirmusky HF def Catone 2&1

Callahan HF def Huston 4&2

Gorman HF def Cook 5&4

Hall HF def McLaughlin 5&4

Lynch HF def Anderson 5&4

HFCS Defeats Schuylerville

The Hoosick Falls golf team defeated Schuylerville at Windy Hills Golf Club, 4-1, on Wednesday,  Chris Braim of Schuylerville was medalist with 35.

Braim Sch def Bellemare 3&2

Wirmusky HF def Vargus 2 up

Callahan HF def Seymour 3&2

Gorman HF def Delaney 2&1

Hall HF def Stark 5&4

Kelly Sch def Lynch 2&1

HFCS Board Meeting – The Rest Of The Story

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Topics not published in last week’s HFCS School Board report.

by Alex Brooks

Capital Project

Clerk of the Works Ron Bugbee gave an update on progress on the Capital project. He said overall it’s going well and is on schedule. The parking lot has been repaved, the new windows are nearly done, the stage lighting is completed, the auditorium seats will be done by the end of the week and all the new lockers are on site and should be done soon. He mentioned two things that are delayed – an elementary playground set which will be installed September 8-12 and the doors to the concession stand, which are back ordered. Some temporary doors will be installed until the doors arrive.

Bugbee said everything else is on target and there will be no problems starting school on time. In fact, he quipped, it would be fine with him if school started a week early.

Board President David Sutton’s report was brief: “School will open on time.”

Board Forum

Dwain Wilwol said he would like to get a committee together to discuss displays and decoration in the lobby of the school. He would like to see displays of student accomplishments other than sports in those spaces. School Superintendent Ken Facin said he thought this was a good idea but it would need to be done sensitively, with an inclusive committee, as many people may have strong feelings about those displays. The Board agreed to seek members for such a committee and begin discussions.

John Helft said he would like to see the District look into getting some photovoltaic panels for the roof of the school. He said he thinks there is grant money available for that and the District should take advantage of it. Business Manager Pam Hatfield said there is a NYSERDA energy audit of the building in progress, and looking into photovaltaics may be a natural follow-up to it, working with NYSERDA. Facin said when the Board sets its goals for the year, it may want to have a “green school” goal.

Student Handbook

Superintendent Facin discussed some of the changes in the revised Student Handbook. The first is that mid-term exams are no longer optional. A mid-term assessment of student progress was considered essential and will now be given in all classes.

Working Papers

Another change concerns working papers for students. Students under 18 who want to work after school or on weekends need to have working papers given by the School District. The new rule is that students have to be in good academic standing to get working papers. Facin said, “We understand that there will be hardship situations, and we can make exceptions where appropriate, but students and parents have to know that school comes first.”

Incentives

The third major change, and the one that provoked the most discussion, was the District’s rules for handling students who are failing two or more courses. The District will provide academic tutorial sessions after school. Any students who want extra help can go to these sessions, but students who are failing two or more courses will be required to go. If such a student’s grades and effort do not improve after a 3 week period of attending academic tutorial, they will be excluded from one of their extracurricular activities, such as sports games or drama performances. The idea is to keep the pressure on students to improve their performance rather than dismissing them from their team so that they no longer have an incentive to keep working hard.

Facin said he, the teachers and administrators will be presenting the revised rules to the students when they return and both students and parents will be asked to acknowledge that they have read the handbook and understood it.

Appointments

The Board approved a 3-year appointment for Social Studies teacher Christian Farley and hired Lynda Bilow to teach English, taking the place of Linda Hutchins. The Board granted Math teacher Susan Huber a one year leave of absence and hired William Clairmont on a one year appointment to take her place. The Board approved a 2-year appointment for Science teacher Bruce Bailey.

The Board approved the appointment of 22 senior teachers to serve as mentors, to be paid an extra $1,200 for the year for such service and approved Nora Senecal as Mentor Coordinator at a rate of $2,200 per year.

The Board established four child care worker positions for the morning child care program. Each position is a 10 month, 1.5 hour per day position. Facin said these positions will be filled with existing personnel.

The Board established a new bus driver position for 5.75 hours per day for 10 months. Business Manager Pam Hatfield explained that by working with neighboring districts, she has been able to work out cooperative arrangements to get all of the students going to outside placements without hiring contract transportation. This new bus driver will be hired instead of hiring an outside company (usually it was Durrin, Inc.) to drive the students to placements at more distant institutions, which will save the District some money.

On Wednesday, August 27, the Board held a walk-through of the building to view the completed or nearly completed capital project.

Hoosick Falls Central School Opens On September 3

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Tuesday, September 2, is a Teacher Workshop Day

Students in grades k – 12 will begin with a full day of instruction on Wednesday, September 3. Breakfast and lunch will be provided as usual. Students should follow their regular bus assignments and schedules.

Here are some helpful hints for the opening days of school:

1. Have your children at their bus stops 5-10 minutes early each day.

2. If you cannot walk your child to the designated bus stop, have a responsible older child do so.

3. Meet and get to know your child’s bus driver.

4. Insure that your child knows his/her bus number. Please be sure to let us know as soon as possible if you have changed your location or your children are going to a new baby-sitter. This is particularly important for a younger student, in grades k, 1, 2 or 3.

5. Reinforce bus safety with your child.

6. Label your child’s possessions.

7. Insure that our school nurse and the Elementary office have emergency telephone numbers in case you need to be reached.

8. Always feel you can contact the Elementary (686-9492) or High School (686-7321) offices for information.

Hoosick Falls Central School District 2008 – 2009 School Year Calendar

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Sept. 2, 2008   – First Day For Teachers (Conference Day)

Sept. 3, 2008   – First Day Of School For Students Gr. k-12

Sept. 18, 2008 – 7-12 Open House (6:30-8:30 pm)

Sept. 25, 2008 – k-3 Open House (6:30-8:30 pm)

Oct. 2, 2008    – Gr. 4-6 Open House (6:30-8:30 pm)

Oct. 13, 2008  – Columbus Day – No School

Nov. 10, 2008 – Early Dismissal – Emergency Closing Drill 

Grades 7-12 at 2 pm; k-6 at 3 pm 

Nov. 11, 2008 – Veterans Day – No School

Nov. 13, 2008 – Parent/Teacher Conferences (6:30-8:30 pm) 

          Grades k-6; Early Dismissal – 12:30 pm – Grades k-6

Nov. 14, 2008 – No Classes For Grades k-12

k-6 Parent/Teacher Conferences

7-12 Staff Development Day

Nov. 26-28, 2008 – Thanksgiving Vacation

      (School Resumes Dec. 1)

Dec. 22 – Jan. 2 , 2009 – Christmas Vacation

              (School Resumes Jan. 5, 2009)

Jan. 19, 2009 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – No School

Feb. 16-20, 2009 – Mid-Winter Recess

    (School Resumes Feb. 23, 2009)

March 20, 2009 – Staff Conference Day

  No Classes For Grades k-12

April 10, 2009 – Good Friday – No School

Apr. 13-17, 2009 – Spring Recess

    (School Resumes Apr. 20, 2009)

May 25, 2009 – Memorial Day Holiday – No School

June 16 – June 25, 2009 – Regents Week

June 22 – 24, 2009 – Early Dismissal – 12:30 pm Grades k-6

June 24, 2009 – Kindergarten Graduation – 9 am

          – Last Day Of School For Students

June 25, 2009 – k-6 Conference Day

June 26, 2009 – k-12 Conference Day

June 26, 2009 – High School Graduation At 7 pm

School Hours

The elementary school day will begin at 8:30 am and end at 3:20 pm. The high school (grades 7-12) will begin at 7:30 am and end at 2:15 pm.

The District will utilize two bus runs to transport students and there will no longer be bus room. The new bus schedules are posted on the HFCS website.

The “before school” childcare program will begin on the first day of school, September 3, no earlier than 7:15 am. Children must be brought into the building to the elementary cafeteria where parents will be required to sign their child into the program each day. Children cannot be dropped off at the curb to enter the building on their own. 

Students not enrolled in the “before school” childcare program cannot be dropped of at school before 8:30 am.

k-6 7-12

Buses Arrive 8:30 7:30

Attendance & Instruction 8:30 – 3:20 7:30 – 2:15 

Buses Depart 3:20 2:15

Student Pick-Up By Parents 3:35

Extracurricular, Detention 3:20 – 4:20 2:20 – 4:20

     (Mon. – Thurs. only)

Make Your Own Sundae With Berlin XC Team

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The Berlin Central School Cross Country team will be holding a “Make Your Own Sundae” event in Lena’s parking lot, Route 2, Labor Day weekend. The team is raising funds to participate in a Cross Country Invitational at Sunken Meadow State Park on September 20. This is the same course where team members will race if they make it to the New York Public High School State Championships. The team has enjoyed great success in the past and looks for a successful season this year. Attending this invitational would provide an unprecedented experience for all team members and also provide practice for the state meet at the end of the season. It would be wonderful if the whole team could attend.

The team is still accepting company or individual donations, and if anyone would like to send a check made out to Berlin Central School with a notation that it is for Berlin Cross Country it would be greatly appreciated.

Letter to the Editor: Playground Needs Attention

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To the Editor:

It seems like the playground at the Berlin Central Elementary School needs some attention. There are broken glass beer bottles on the ground and missing slats in the jungle gym tower, among other safety concerns. Aside from obvious safety issues, what is the school’s state of disrepair telling the kids about the importance of school and community? With a bunch of community members and a couple hours some weekend it seems like we could really fix up the playground. Email me if you are interested, and we’ll pick a date. BIGBUG9@juno.com. 

Schuyler Gail

Route 22, Berlin

HFCS Tax Unchanged From Budget Vote

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by Alex Brooks

The Hoosick Falls Central School set its tax levy and tax rates at its meeting this week. The tax levy is $8,526,995, which is an increase of 3.5% over last year’s levy. It has not been changed from the figures presented to the voters at the time of the budget vote. The tax rate for Grafton is $202.77 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation, an increase of 3.6%, for Hoosick $61.52 per thousand, an increase of 2.9%, for Petersburgh $29.40 per thousand, an increase of 4%, for Pittstown $27.68 per thousand, an increase of 1.1%, and for White Creek $29.10 per thousand, an increase of 1.8%.

The new principals, Patrick Dailey for the Elementary School and Steven Leunig for the High School, made

Elementary School Principal Patrick Dailey. (Alex Brooks photo)
Elementary School Principal Patrick Dailey. (Alex Brooks photo)

presentations on trends in student academic achievement over the last few years. Superintendent Ken Facin said he had asked them to do so to “give them a snapshot of what they’re inheriting,” and to start thinking about setting academic goals and the means to achieve them.

Patrick Dailey presented the numbers from tests given in the elementary school over the last few years, which showed steady improvement in a number of areas. Superintendent Ken Facin thanked him for the presentation, and remarked, “We have seen positive gains in every assessment in the elementary, but we have a long way to go.”

Next, High School Principal Steven Leunig gave a powerpoint presentation on academic achievement in the high school over the past three years. The data showed improvements in most areas but some were up and down.  Leunig remarked that seventh and eighth grade English test results are improving but

High School Principal Steven Leunig. (Alex Brooks photo)
High School Principal Steven Leunig. (Alex Brooks photo)

are not yet up to the state average. He called science and foreign language test results “very nice numbers.”  The number of students passing Regents tests went up from 06-07 to 07-08 from 79% to 87%, and the number of students taking the tests increased as well.

 

The graduation rate has improved over the last three years, from 68% in 06 (2002 cohort) to 82% in 07 (2003 cohort) to 91% in 08 (2004 cohort).

The rest of the topics covered in this week’s School Board meeting will be published next week.

No Give-Backs In BCS School Tax

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by David Flint

The Berlin School Board in four of the five past years has voted in August to reduce the tax levy approved by the voters in May, finding some money from the fund balance to reduce the proposed tax increase. This year there are no give-backs. On Tuesday the Board  formally approved the tax levy of $8,317,221 that the voters OK’d in May, an increase of 4.85% over last year. Based on assessed valuation and equalization rates, the levy results in the following tax rates per thousand and percentage changes in the individual towns. Only one town, Poestenkill, will see a decrease this year.

Berlin $57.60 5.4%

Grafton             $175.62 3.1%

Petersburgh        $25.49 3.5%

Poestenkill         $61.29 -1.7%

Stephentown      $48.00 3.1%

Interim Business Manager Scott Hunter noted that the true value tax rate for the District as a whole is now $14.40 per thousand of assessed value. There has been a steady decline in that figure since 2002-03 when it was $19.92 per thousand, the decline was accounted for by a combination of smaller tax levy increases and a substantial increase in assessed valuation. The rate is still about $3 more than the State average. 

Superintendent’s Report

Interim Schools Superintendent Charlotte Gregory said she had attended a Stephentown Town Board meeting at which the production company for the movie “Taking Woodstock” presented its plans for filming in the Stephentown area. Gregory was concerned that school buses might be delayed on September 15 and 16. She said the Town Supervisor subsequently contacted her, and she will go with staff this week to see what the situation is. The production company has offered compensation for any individuals or organizations that are inconvenienced. Gregory suggested that instead of monetary aid the company might provide someone with professional expertise to come and speak with students about film making. They will discuss this at a later date. 

Gregory said the staff has done an excellent job with summer school. Instruction and transportation schedules for the opening of school are progressing well. Training sessions have been held during the summer focusing on school safety, and there will be more in September. With the resignation of the High School Guidance Counselor, the school has received 200 applications for his replacement. Gregory said ten of these have been selected for further screening. 

Healthy Schools

Board Member Elizabeth Miller reported on her attendance, at a Healthy Schools Leadership workshop held in August in Syracuse. Three other members of the District Health Council also attended, participating in discussions of diets, health education, physical education, AIDS and more. Miller said she was impressed with the work of the Healthy Schools Leadership Institute. She also noted that Berlin looks pretty good with respect to other schools. She learned that most schools, including Berlin, are out of compliance with State requirements on elementary physical education. However, it was pointed out at the workshop that schools can use certified outside activities such as participation in dance lessons or community soccer to make up some of the requirements. 

Miller said the District Health Council is in the process of planning for the future and refining their goals. They plan to increase their membership and they will be seeking grant opportunities and looking into alternatives for food service. 

The Board will have a goals workshop on August 25. They also set a Capital Project workshop meeting for Wednesday, September 3, at 6:30 pm at Berlin Elementary School and their next regular meeting for Tuesday, September 16, at 7 pm at the High School.

Meet The Coaches And Code Of Conduct Night At HFCS

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The Hoosick Falls Central School Athletic Department will be conducting their Meet the Coaches And Code Of Conduct Night for JV and Varsity Fall sports on Thursday, August 28, at 7 pm in the high school auditorium. Attendance is mandatory for all JV and Varsity fall sport athletes and at least one parent or guardian in order to participate in athletic contests.

John Underwood, president and founder of the American Athletic Institute, will be the guest speaker. A former NCAA All-American, Underwood has coached or advised more than two dozen Olympians including World and Olympic Champions. He is the Master Trainer for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association drug prevention program. He recently spoke at the Department of Justice OJJDP National Leadership Conference.