Following the announcement of his resignation last week, the Sag Harbor Board of Education is seeking a person to fill the board seat formerly held by Walter Wilcoxen who decided not to finish his term. It is the board’s intent to review letters from interested applicants and possibly appoint someone to fill that seat at the August 13, 2012 board of education meeting, according to a release from School Superintendent Dr. John Gratto.

Board of education members serve on a voluntary basis to provide governance to the school district, the release said. The school board is a corporate body that oversees and manages a public school district’s affairs, personnel, and properties.

“As you consider whether or not you would like to apply for this important responsibility, please first read about the characteristics of effective (and ineffective) school boards and assess your willingness and desire to be part of a highly effective Board of Education,” read the release. Information is available at: http://www.nyssba.org/index.php?src=news&refno=1713&category=On%20Board%20Online%20April%2011%202011.

Sag Harbor Board of Education meetings are typically held from 6:30-9:30 p.m. on two Monday evenings a month.

“If you wish to serve on one of the Board’s several committees, that would involve some extra time,” the release said.

The term of the appointment will be until the next election of board candidates on May 21, 2013. By agreeing to be appointed to this open board seat, the successful candidate would be agreeing to fill the position until May 21, 2013.

“If you wanted to fill the remainder of the term, which ends on June 30, 2015, you would need to run for that position along with any other candidates who may be interested in it,” said the release.

Those wishing to apply for this board of education seat, are asked to email a letter expressing their interest in and qualifications for the position to Mary Adamczyk, the board of education clerk at madamczyk@sagharborschools.org by Monday, August 6.

Questions about the position can be directed to any current board of education member or Dr. Gratto.

By David McCabe

The Youth Advocacy and Resource Development (YARD) summer beach program is on this summer. That news came from the Sag Harbor Board of Education Monday, after the Town of Southampton told the district they would help fund the program and provide key administrative assistance.

The board agreed to help with the program this summer on the condition that Friends of YARD, the non-profit that was established to help raise funds for the program, prepare to take over its operation next summer.

Sandi Kruel, who serves on both the school board and on the Friends of YARD board, indicated the non-profit group would do all it could to make that a reality.

In addition to the $10,500 in funding provided by the school district, and $10,000 which the Friends of YARD is providing, Southampton Town will provide $15,000 to the district to go towards the operation of both the beach program and the drop-in after school program which YARD runs during the academic year. East Hampton Town, the county, the Village of Sag Harbor and the Village of North Haven are also contributing funds to the program.

While many board members had worried it would take too long for lawyers to draw up the intermunicipal agreements (IMA) required to secure the funding for the program this summer, Southampton Town’s Director of General Services Russel Kratoville said that the town had an IMA already prepared.

After it was decided the district would administer the program this summer, the school board directed the district’s superintendent, Dr. John Gratto, to have the district’s lawyer draft a generic IMA that could be used for all the municipalities involved.

At the school board meeting on Monday, Southampton Town Councilwoman Bridget Fleming was in attendance with three town employees: Kratoville, Nancy Lynott, director of the town’s youth bureau, and Virginia Bennett, who works in the human services department at town hall and was present as a resident of Sag Harbor.

“I understood that there were some differing opinions on the school board as to whether the program should continue or how it should continue,” said Fleming, “and so I wanted to do what I could to help clear some of those obstacles, if possible, so that the program could be run in a responsible way.”

Kratoville said he would assist the district in clearing several administrative hurdles that need to be dealt with before the program can operate legally. Foremost amongst these is that the district must obtain a proper civil service title for the director of YARD.

Southampton Town employees will visit the site of the YARD program — something they have done in the past, since they have acted as a funder of the program — to insure it is being well administered.

Board members also raised the possibility that Southampton Town could fully assume operational responsibility of the summer program. Fleming said that would be next to impossible, since such a plan would not have the support of enough of her fellow town board members.

“I don’t think there is the political will on the town council to assume the program,” she said at the meeting.

In recent weeks, the summer program had appeared to be in jeopardy as some members of the school board made it known they could not support the program unless a variety of legal and funding issues were worked out. Those legal issues originally came to light when an auditor found that YARD had been using funds processed through the district, but had been operating without oversight from the school board.

One year ago, the school board decided it would not continue to administer the summer beach program and suggested that YARD supporters form a tax-exempt 501c3 organization to raise funds for the program’s operation. That organization, Friends of YARD, was formed and has been raising funds since last year. However, the Department of Homeland Security has yet to give final approval on the group’s tax-exempt status.

Monday’s decision by the school board essentially gives the Friends of YARD one more year to get their paperwork in order. The greatest challenge, Kruel said, will be to raise the funds necessary to cover the program’s insurance. Currently, the district pays a fairly low fee for insurance. Kruel maintains it will cost Friends of Yard more.

“The problem is having to now fund the insurance policy that could cost anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 dollars. That’s going to be a challenge,” she said — still, she’s optimistic it can be done.

YARD’s supporters hope the beach program will start after the July 4th weekend, though Kruel acknowledged that logistical delays could cause it to start one week later.

We were struck this week by the sharp differences in two long ongoing contract negotiations.

The three local hospitals which have joined together under the banner of the East End Health Alliance have been in and out of talks with the area’s largest insurer, Empire BlueCross BlueShield, since last summer. The benefits and the ability to receive reimbursement for hospital stays for thousands of local residents hang in the balance.

Then there is the struggle between the Sag Harbor School District and the Teachers Association of Sag Harbor. This has been going on for two years and the peace of a community rubbed raw is at stake — not to mention salary and benefits packages for teachers and future bills for tax payers.

While the debate between hospitals and insurer goes on behind closed doors, the discussion between the teachers and the district has been, in many ways, very public. We haven’t been privy to what actually is discussed, but speculation and posturing from both sides occurs regularly in school board meetings and on the letters to the editor pages.

There is another difference here, and that is there appears to be an end in sight for the former. An Empire spokesperson this week ebulliantly suggested their might be an agreement within the next few weeks.

While we are encouraged by the announcement this week that the teachers and the school board are hoping to meet in the next few weeks, there is little evidence that either side is prepared to budge from their dug in positions (although we do note the board sending all of its members to a sit down — something the teachers have been requesting all along).

But what has struck us is a comment made by Paul Connor, president of Eastern Long Island Hospital and spokesperson for the Alliance. For the first time in more than five months both sides in the negotiations seem to making real progress.  When asked what the turning point was, after months of a stalemate, Connor said simply both sides began to find plaves where they could compromise.

In Sag Harbor, someone is going to have to take the first step. Both sides have claimed they are willing to compromise in certain areas and are not wedded to any position. But, acknowledging we simply don’t know what is said behind closed doors, it does not appear there is any real effort to compromise from either side. We suspect, if there was, we would have moved forward by now. 

A number of vacant positions in the Sag Harbor School District were filled at Monday’s school board meeting. It was also revealed that at least two of those positions would be reviewed during the course of the upcoming school year to perhaps revise the charges of the position or to decide whether they are needed at all.

Gary Kalish was appointed Pierson’s new assistant principal at a salary of $105,000 after a vacancy was created when Donnelly McGovern stepped down to return to teaching and coaching this year. Kalish is a 1997 Pierson graduate who according to board member Dan Hartnett “has been a very successful teacher in New York City.” This will be his first administrative position.

Board member Wes Frye voted in opposition to the appointment and questioned whether the board had done their “homework,” not on the applicant, but on the position in general.
“[McGovern’s] absence maybe opens up an opportunity for us as a board to review the entire position, to rethink what is [the position’s] critical task, and job description. Have we done enough to think about what are the true activities an [assistant principal] needs to do?”

Frye said he would prefer not to simply “backfill” a position but to rethink what the position entails.

“To that end, the board agrees,” said president Walter Wilcoxen. “We’ll ask the superintendent to report back to us by the end of the school year about that.”

As part of her PTA update, Chris Tice asked for clarity on a few issues she said “we’re floating around” among members of her group. One specifically dealt with the assistant principal position and possibly elimination of one. Currently the district has two assistant principals at Pierson and one at the elementary school.

Superintendent John Gratto said when any position becomes vacant it is prudent to examine whether that position is needed.

Parent Vanessa Leggard also asked about the position.

“The superintendent will work to flesh out job descriptions of all the administrators and what they do,” said Wilcoxen. “From a personal point of view, it’s a matter of communication. We hire them, we pay their salaries and we should understand what they do.”

Tice also brought up another issue, whether or not Gratto was considering creating an assistant superintendent position in the district. Gratto said he had no intention of creating the position “at this time.”

“I said I would listen and learn until about mid year and see what I find out,” he said. “But I don’t know enough about that yet to make a decision.”

The Pierson music teacher position left vacant when John Immerso resigned last year was also filled on Monday. Eric Reynolds was hired at a salary of $51,128. Pierson Principal Jeff Nichols told the audience Reynolds “graduated from Boston University, taught in the Brockton public school system in Massachusetts, did his student teaching at the high school level and also worked with the New York Symphony for a couple of years.”

However, Gratto proposed to the board the hiring of a consultant firm for the early part of the school year to look at how collaboration and continuity between the two schools’ music programs can best be achieved. The board held off on replacing Immerso last year in order to analyze the district’s overall music curriculum. Currently there is one music instructor at the elementary school and two at Pierson. There has been widespread criticism over the fact that while the elementary students are taught strings, when they reach Pierson there is no strings class, only chorus and band.

Again, Frye voted in opposition to the appointment and questioned the notion of hiring both a teacher to fill the position and a consultant to ultimately determine whether the position is needed.

“I like the idea of a consultant, but are we putting the cart before the horse,” he asked the board.

Gratto said he has heard equal points of view as to the filling of the position. But, he said, the decision to fill it was made because he felt the students might miss out on “valuable lessons.”

Frye mentioned the need to look at the number of students who take advantage of the music curriculum in relation to the need for the position. Gratto said he did believe “enrollment drives staffing” and that the analysis should take place, but that it was “wise” to fill the vacant position.

Gratto said once the consultant firm is hired he expects a final report on the music program by January.