Final Vote Count

The final vote count was released by the Onteora School District on June 3. Turns out there were quite a few additional votes for our candidates, giving them an even larger percentage of the vote than initially reported. A pdf file with the full breakdown of votes, including affidavits and absentee ballots, town by town, for every candidate and every proposition, is available at the district web site under the header “Statement of chair.”

The summary of final vote counts for the eight candidates is as follows:

Adam Pollack 749
Donna Flayhan 2390
Laurie Osmond 2359
Ralph Legnini 2475
Ann McGilllicuddy 2407
Mary Jane Berholz 1391
Cindy O’Connor 1453
Rita Vanacore 1307

Woodstock Times on property tax cap

This week's Woodstock Times editorial addresses the Commission on Property Tax Relief's recommendation that local school taxes could be capped at either 4 percent or 120 percent of inflation, whichever is less. Brian Hollander writes:

Cap the property tax increases for school districts at 4 percent? No more votes for it? Those are among the centerpieces of a plan to deal with education funding that Governor David Paterson and Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi brought forth this week.

The plan received a big rollout and came complete with pros and cons from many sides of the story.

Attempts at easing the property tax crunch for paying for education have been feeble in the past. Governor Pataki's much vaunted STAR program simply lowered the taxes for some, without addressing how that funding would be made up.

The new plan is more multi-faceted than that, but still deals with juggling formulae for property owners to pay, still depends on property taxes. A 4 percent tax increase is higher than what was projected in budgets passed at Onteora, Highland, Ellenville and Rondout Valley. The city of Kingston's school district budget failed despite a 3.1 percent hike. Saugerties passed with a 4.92 percent increase, New Paltz approved a 4.88 percent hike. Marlboro's proposed 6.6 percent tax hike failed, as did Wallkill's 8.9 percent.

Under the plan, districts could still hike taxes up to 5 percent if 55 percent approve it in a vote, higher if 60 percent approve.

Teacher unions don't approve. They like to see the property tax, a stable tax base, they believe, be a source of funding that can make districts grow. What they especially won't like is a provision to freeze teacher step increases while new contracts are negotiated, putting a considerable crimp in their ability to wait out a recalcitrant administration.

There are things to like in these proposals, such as mandate accountability - having an understanding of what requirements actually cost, though not actually requiring the state to pay for them - and a circuit breaker to immediately help those least able to pay.

But for us, the problem still is with property taxes funding education. It's basic. We would favor ideas like one put forth by Kevin Cahill, who wants the state to do all the funding of education, collecting the money through a graduated income tax. This would far better reflect individual abilities to pay and would not endanger people's homes in a direct way, would not allow for property values (a subjective measurement, in any case) to outstrip income. Even shifting a portion of the property tax - c'mon guys, give us 20 percent, at least - to the graduated income approach would ease the burdens.

We still have to pay. Yes, your income tax would rise considerably. Yes, we'd have to deal with issues of local control versus the control that would come from those who are dispensing the money (as if we don't now...). But neglect education and our very mission as a free and open society fails. There is no question that more money is needed for education in this state, in this country. The state already has paid scant attention to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity's winning lawsuit, in which it was adjudicated that the state must pay more for poorly equipped schools.

It's crystal clear in these days how the splatter has to hit the fan before anything in this glacially paced society changes - the oil prices are finally changing the way we think about driving and what we drive; how we eat; what we can afford to eat; how we think about cities and suburbs; how we live. The ripples are creating tsunamis all around us.

This opportunity to straighten out how we pay for education is upon us and it cannot be missed. The Suozzi-Paterson plan seeks to merely tweak and perpetuate a system when much more is needed.

Read Governor Paterson's press release on the proposed legislation here
Download the Commission on Property Tax Relief's full report (pdf) here
Read Newsday's feature on the proposed legislation here

Onteora Students at Reel Teens Festival

Friday's Daily Freeman reported:

An Onteora High School junior is on a roll with his film.

Robin Richardson will watch his short animation chosen for the Reel Teens Film Festival, which starts today in Hunter. Then, in November, he will leave for the Youth, Film and Video Festival in Barcelona, Spain, where another of his works - the audience favorite in the animation category last year at Reel Teens - will be shown.

Read the full story here.
Learn more about the Reel Teens Festival here.

Community Celebration this Saturday

Join us as we thank everyone for their efforts in the recent Onteora School Board election, with a potluck barbeque and picnic.

Hosts: Ralph, Donna, Ann, Laurie and Campaign Team
Location: Kenneth Wilson State Park and Campground
859 Wittenberg Road, Mount Tremper, Ny 12457 Us
View Map |
When: Saturday, June 7, 4:00pm
Campground Phone: 845-679-6302

See you on Saturday, from 4-7!
Do bring food, drink, children, guitars, games and festive attitude!
Alcohol is allowed -- but be prepared for high temperatures and high humidity! Bring plenty water and other rehydrating goodies, hats and sunscreen.
RSVP to abbearonson_at_hotmail.com and let us know what dish or drink you are bringing!
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN REUSEABLE/RECYCLABLE UTENSILS AND CUPS. We are a fun & low-waste district!

Please pass on this invite
to anyone who wants to join the fun...
all are welcome!!!

The fine print: No dogs and no lifeguard, so no swimming. Park charges $5 a car - please carpool.

Phone number for Park is (845) 679-7020.
Ask at entrance for exact location of our party,
reserved under the name"Osmond."

From Woodstock: Follow Rte. 212, turn left at Bear Cafe on to Rte. 45, two miles on, turn right onto County Rte. 40 (Wittenberg Road). Campground is approx one mile up, on the left side of road.

From Shandaken/Olive: Take Route 28 to intersection with Rte 212 in Mt Tremper; half a mile up 212 take right turn onto County Rte 40(Wittenberg Road). Campground is approximately four miles up, on rightside of road.

From West Hurley. Follow either route above.

June 3 Board Meeting

The Phoenicia Times/Olive Press has a brief report about the June 3 board meeting at the end of a longer piece on the restructuring of the School Board. You can read Lisa Childers' full report here:

Letter from a teacher

This letter by local teacher Donna Bryan appeared in last week's Woodstock Times as a full-page "Point of View." It has now been printed in the current Phoenicia Times/Olive Press and can be accessed online.

We hope you can take the time to read it

Dear Editor,

I follow the comings and goings of our school district not only as a member of the community but also as an educator. I had intended to write this letter several weeks ago but perhaps my procrastination served me; elections are completed and perhaps the tide of passions, platforms and convictions has ebbed.

It must be said that we all have a stake in how our school district is run; we are all affected by decisions made—the political, the financial, the pedagogical. And, the greater majority of those at the forefront, on either side of a given issue, make decisions and take actions based upon what they sincerely believe is best for all. Certainly, arguably, there will be dissent and even struggle as our community manages our district and this is important because local issues at least for now, are an area where the will of the community can affect change.

However, as I read the commentary of many community members published in these pages in the past few weeks, there surfaced a social issue that transcends the exigencies of the election process and the direction the district is to take. I continue to be dismayed and often disgusted by the attitude of American citizens toward its teachers. The disdain for and at times vehement rhetoric directed at educators betrays an insidious yet palpable anti-intellectual gestalt that so seldom surfaces in any discussion about education and how it is to be shaped.

One particularly shrill and nasty letter from a community member sneered about the salaries of Onteora’s teachers and unabashedly called for salary cuts. As teachers and those that do appreciate them know, a teacher is always a teacher, it’s a mindset, it’s part of the very identity of those who spend their days with students in a classroom. In that spirit, I find myself compelled to enlighten those members of my local community who would give less to those whom they expect to, and even demand, do more.

A teacher’s day does not end at 3 pm. I am a high school English teacher; I worked at Onteora from 2002 to 2004 and now teach in another county. I have 100 students, I teach five classes a day; I moderate two school clubs and teach SAT test technique to students, an endeavor in which, in that season, I work two 18 hour days per week for four weeks. I spend a minimum of 15 unpaid hours a week, at home, grading papers and writing lessons. The conventional wisdom among educators about this part of our careers is “Well, that’s just part of the job.” In any given day, we have 45 minutes of preparation time, hardly enough to grade a minimum of 400 papers a week. We are not paid overtime, not time and a half; we are expected to live by our ethics and make sure our students are served no matter what it takes. I am relatively certain nurses, construction workers, law enforcement professionals, and many others do not expect to work overtime for no pay. Most teachers do this with alacrity. Most teachers do live by their ethics and do whatever it takes. If I calculate the at-home, unpaid hours I work, and the two unpaid months of July and August, my hourly salary is about $10.31. American teachers are among some of the lowest paid workers in the industrialized world.

And by the way, we do pay for our insurance. We do pay into our retirement funds. I pay over $600.00 a year to my union that in addition to protecting my rights as a worker, lobbies tirelessly on behalf of American schoolchildren for funding and the creation and continuance of programs that benefit families.

We are mandated by the state to obtain advanced degrees, all NYS teachers must be “Highly Qualified,” a masters degree in one’s discipline is not optional. We do not get grants or state tuition aid for these advanced degrees; we must pay for them ourselves. I completed my masters’ degree last August. My degree took one year to complete. During that time, I wrote over 400 pages of discourse based on research and analysis. My day began at 5 am and continued until midnight most nights; weekends were a fond memory during that year and I had to continue to grade those many papers and continue to deliver the “best practices” of education to my students. Happily, my advanced degree earned me a raise—$200.00 per month gross income. However, cost of the degree was $21,500.00 dollars—fifty percent of one year’s gross income. The $200.00 per month increase in my pay does not cover the monthly loan repayment of $280.00 per month. Yes, you read that right, it is costing me $80.00 per month to bask in the cache of an advanced degree which the state says I must have or cannot teach.

According to law, if I do not make timely payments on this loan, I can be denied any other kind of installment loan for any purpose including a mortgage or a car loan.
With regard to cutting teachers’ salaries, there are legal, negotiated contracts that cannot be just waved away. The teachers at Onteora who make salaries that irritate those who hold teachers in such acrimonious contempt have earned those salaries one year at a time over many years of service. Is this any different than members of other public professions? Instead of railing against teachers and their administrators for their salaries, salaries earned in service to community members and their children, why not take a look at the industries and careers in which you serve? Why not demand from your industries or professions professional organizations and unions that protect your interests. A strong, organized workforce protects all Americans. Rather than stand up to the avaricious practices of those social structures that raid the pockets of industry and citizens, many engage in a green-eyed money counting of those who have worked hard to protect their rights as workers, in this case teachers. Why call for the abolition of teachers’ benefits when outraged demands should be made on those who can get away with the unregulated and absurd cost of those benefits? Why not rally against an administration that imposes strictures of operation and delivery of services in a way that bankrupts local districts by way of impossible-to-meet edicts of accountability? Why do so many find it so much easier to submissively take what is dished out by profit-hungry employers and call for the reduction in salaries of their fellow workers, when all should be treated fairly, when all have the right to demand from society as much as they put in?

Teachers are not the enemy of a community, our social structures are. Speaking of which, we have been invested by a not-so-well-hidden, undiscussed-in-the-mainstream yet inescapable structure in which teaching, actual delivery of instruction, can seem secondary while we cope with the needs of students and their families who daily bring to us issues attendant to poverty, substance abuse, neglect, issues of behavior, learning, mental, emotional, or physical disability. We are expected to attend to the needs of all with professionalism, compassion, alacrity, and impartiality. Often, we do so deftly, successfully, compassionately. Sometimes we cannot. And yet, to make an analogy, if health care costs rise do we call for cuts in hospital funding? If crime rates go up do we call for salary cuts for law enforcement? If a judge makes an unpopular decision do we cut his salary or take away his dental insurance?

The teachers I know, and indeed there is a plethora of wonderful teachers at my school and at Onteora, are truly in service to their students and their families. I have seen teachers repeatedly pay for lunches for students who cannot afford them, I have seen teachers surreptitiously send money to families they know are struggling, I have seen teachers buy medicine, clothes and school supplies, sew prom dresses, buy glasses, fund field trips for individuals and entire classes—from their own pockets. Some of my colleagues do this routinely; many, many of them are carrying student loan debts of $50,000.00 and above.

This issue is certainly too long to be treated properly in this forum. And though teacher bashing is alarming for the reasons I have stated above in the particular, in the general, it is a symptom of our society’s educational schizophrenia. We SAY we value education, we SAY we want academic performance, we SAY we want change, yet we do not really value what school is meant to teach. Many individuals and families are too mired in popular culture or their own consumer needs and desires to pay careful attention to learning. We do not value our public intellectuals, and a recent U.S. Department of Education study indicated that less than half the citizens under forty in our country have read a book in the past year. Functional illiteracy in the U.S. among those 16 and older is at a brisk 39 percent. I have had more parents than I like to think about tell me that I “have no right to demand that [their children] read over the summer,” “I don’t feel it is my job to be on top of his homework, it’s yours,” send me notes that a student cannot do his homework because he was “up too late last night because we were out,” and have had parents who took kids on trips to Disneyland during the school year demand to know from me why their children are failing. If I had a dollar for every child who tells me that reading is “a stupid waste of time,” I could handily pay off my student loans. I have had students who tell me they could not afford to buy a $6.00 book for our summer reading projects come into school to brag about their $300.00 I-Pods or X-Boxes.

Recently, I had the misfortune of overhearing one community member, whose occupation is to sell $90.00 t-shirts and $150.00 blue jeans to other community members, quip to a “client,” “Those Onteora teachers are parasites on the body of this district.” Luckily, she once had an English teacher who schooled her in the use of irony and metaphor, most likely at Onteora.

No one becomes a teacher to milk the system or to get rich, I assure you. The work we do is valuable, important, and most of the time exhilarating, but it is difficult, sometimes impossible, and often, as the recent rhetoric of some community members indicates—utterly thankless. Please do not cannibalize those whom you have charged with a very important task—the needs of human beings, the needs of your children; needs for which many families, social ideologies and government structures have abdicated responsibility.

Donna Bryan, West Shokan, NY

Party postponed until June 7

We took the State Park Rangers' advice that this afternoon's weather
may turn dangerous, and have postponed the Community Celebration to
next Saturday, June 7. Same time, same place: Kenneth Wilson State
Park, Wittenberg Rd, Mt Tremper, 4-7pm. We'll send out another
reminder during the week. The celebration is open to everyone: if
you'd like to be on the Evite list to see who else is coming and what
they're bringing, just e-mail abbearonson_at_hotmail.com

Woodstock Times on new Trustees' at work

Newly elected Onteora district school board members, Donna Flayhan, Ralph Legnini, Ann McGillicuddy and Laurie Osmond are gearing up for immediate changes as promised during their campaign, while tackling all of July's business.

Read the rest of the Woodstock Times story here.

Electees in Memorial Day Parade

All the electees were invited to participate in the Woodstock Memorial Day Parade. Laurie Osmond and Donna Flayhan were available to do so on behalf of all four.

The Onteora High School Marching Band also participated in the Parade.

"Pendulum swings back" says Woodstock Times

The Woodstock Times has a cover story on the election, by Lisa Childers, as follows:

Ralph Legnini, Donna Flayhan, Ann McGillicuddy and Laurie Osmond, the block of four candidates who ran on a platform to put a moratorium on the Onteora Central School District's Grade 5-8 middle school proposal and pledged to keep the currently operating elementary schools open, secured a landslide victory over three incumbents, Mary-Jane Bernholz, Cindy O'Connor and Rita Vanacore. Osmond, the fourth place finisher, will fill the unexpired term of Herb Rosenfeld, who resigned in April.

Onteora administrators were pleased to see that all four propositions on the ballot, including the $48,215,077 school budget for 2008/2009, a 3.08 percent increase in spending, were easily approved in the May 20 election. Also meeting with voters approval was a proposition, rejected twice in the last two years, to approve $189,127.32 for the purchase of two new school buses.

District superintendent Leslie Ford was thrilled that all four propositions passed. "This is really good news for kids, we're going to be able to work on the facilities upgrades, we're going to get new buses and the child safety zone, this is really good news."

Results from the towns were tabulated at Onteora Middle/High school after the 9 p.m. closing of the polls. However, even before the last town votes from Shandaken and Lexington were called in, it was clear that the three incumbents were defeated.

Although O'Connor, Bernholz and Vanacore achieved their highest votes in their home town of Olive, it was not enough to secure a win. Fewer votes were cast in Olive (1,083) than the 1,525 in 2005, when townwide anger boiled over due to the imposition of the Large Parcel provision of state law by the school board that caused Olive taxes to rise an average of 60 percent. In contrast, more voters came out this year in Woodstock (1,001), West Hurley (738) and especially Shandaken (812), where the front running candidate Legnini outpaced the leading incumbent O'Connor, by 751-95. (Town vote totals are based on the budget proposition, a yes-or-no deal.)

Legnini totaled 2,460 votes, with Woodstock resident Donna Flayhan close behind with 2,379. Legnini appeared stunned by the result. "I am overwhelmed that the community spoke and got to vote on the direction that they want the schools to go in." He said come July, when the new school year begins and the new board members take office, that they would work on the procedure to overturn the Grade 5-8 middle school proposal. Flayhan agreed. "We have a mandate to move forward to fix the schools," she said. "That is what we promised to do and make sure we keep the student teacher ratios low...because that is the best learning environment and the people have spoken, democracy has spoken."

Of the three incumbents, O'Connor tallied the most votes, 1,446, far below the last winner, Osmond, who finished with 2,267. Bernholz tallied 1,384 and Vanacore, 1,301. Once the totals came in, all three left the High school auditorium and moved toward the cafeteria to approve the votes. They all refused to comment, with Olive Matters leader Judith Boggess and O'Connor's sister, Lisa Valvo sweeping them away. "I think you should leave them alone," said Valvo.

Vanacore said, "No comment. I am not going to comment at all to anybody."

Some cracks may have appeared in the previously monolithic Olive vote, also. Legnini, who is an Olive resident, tallied 339 votes, slightly more than 30 percent in the town. One year ago, with significantly lower turnout, Marino D'Orazio, also an Olive resident, garnered only 94 there.

The total district vote for the budget of 3,633, less than 2000, 2001, 2005 and the peak of the last decade, 2002 - the year voters unseated trustee Joseph Doan - when 4,108 went to the polls. But it far surpassed last year's total of 2,232.



A function of democracy

Ann McGillicuddy, who came in third with 2,294 votes was beaming. "The people have spoken," she said. "I am really proud to be a member of this community. It was a grass roots effort by so many members of the Onteora community and I look forward to working with everyone in the community."

Legnini, Flayhan and McGillicuddy will serve full three-year terms. Osmond, who will fill Rosenfeld's unexpired term, was sworn in during the special school board meeting and will begin serving as a trustee immediately. "It was so heartwarming to see this community come together, it was great," said Osmond. "I think this is a sign of very good things to come." She thanked all the people who helped with the campaign and said she enjoyed talking to everyone in the school community.

For nearly a year Ford followed the school board's direction to create a Grade 5-8 middle school, to be located at the current site of the shared middle/high school, although with new construction added and extensive renovations. The plan would have called for the closing of one of the three currently functioning elementary schools, likely Phoenicia Elementary, and would have studied the relative merits of remaining at Woodstock Elementary or perhaps switching back to the now closed West Hurley Elementary. It would likely have required voters to approve borrowing approximately $70 million, a sum the consultants had said would have been somewhat offset by state aid and savings from closing an additional school. Farther down the road, the potential was for having a single campus in Boiceville.

Now that a new board intends to change that direction, Ford's thoughts on starting from scratch were optimistic. "That is a feature of working with the board," she said. "That is the democratic process so that's not something to be disappointed over."

High School senior Adam Pollock who came in last at 739 votes said he was happy with the outcome. "I ran my campaign on $300, so I think I did really well, I am not disappointed at all." He plans to run again next year

A Challengers’ Sweep

The new editions of the Phoenica Times and Olive Press are out and about with the following story, written by Paul Smart. You can read it in more detail online here or here.

"Just as recent elections have been decided by late-arriving vote numbers coming in from Olive and Marbletown voters at the Bennett School, the pendulum-like sweep victory of four challengers to incumbent Onteora board members Mary Jane Bernholz, Cindy O’Connor and Rita Vanacore had to wait Tuesday night, May 20, for the Phoenicia School to provide the final clue as to the district’s wishes.

Which seemed only right, given that the issue pulling the biggest blocks of voters out had to do with a pending decision to close at least one community elementary school in Phoenicia to create a new 5-8 Middle School on a rapidly centralizing Boiceville-based campus rather than the Large Parcel threat, or reality, that drove Olive voter turnout since 2005.

“Taking Large Parcel off the table changed the demographics,” said Ralph Legnini, the evening’s top vote-getter and a West Shokan resident, after all the tallies were counted. “I’m glad people came out and participated. They spoke out to change the way things have been going.”

Legnini received a total of 2,460 votes, with Woodstocker Donna Flayhan at 2,379, Phoenicia-resident Ann McGillicuddy at 2,294 and Willow resident Laurie Osmond getting a total of 2,267 votes.

On the incumbents side, O’Connor received a high of 1,446 votes, current board president Bernholz got 1,384 votes, and Rita Vanacore ended up with 1,301. All were from the Town of Olive, which voted for them overwhelmingly, albeit by slightly less numbers and splits than other candidates have received in recent years.

Woodstock-based High School senior Adam Pollack got a total of 739 votes but promised to try again next year.

All four propositions on the ballot passed. The budget, a proposed $48,215,077 budget representing a 3.08 percent hike in spending, won 2,468 votes to 1,165; a proposition to purchase $189,127 worth of new busses, got through 2,063 to 1,529 after several previous failures; a $1.8 million expenditure of already-there capital reserve funds was okayed 2,062 to 1,457 and finally, a request to establish a Child Safety zone requiring use of school busses to pick up and drop off kids near the high school in Boiceville passed 2,642 to 964.

“I’m just so pleased we passed a budget, a proposition to get new busses, and a child safety zone; all really wonderful things that are good for the kids of Onteora,” said District Superintendent Leslie Ford after hugging the incumbent board members who hired her, and with whom she’s worked for the last year, and welcoming their replacements warmly. “We welcome the new board and their energy… That is a feature of working with the board, that is the democratic process so that’s not something to be disappointed over.”

Asked about how she and the district would handle a series of pending decisions — some made like the decision to create a 5-8 Middle School at the high school and take that issue out for bonding in January, and others about to be okayed, such as the official closing of the Phoenicia School that had been set for mid-June, Dr. Ford spoke about process.

“The new board will decide what still stands. The new board, as it formulates, will decide the directions they want to go in. As you know, I serve at their pleasure.”

Osmond, as the lowest vote-getter of the four winners Tuesday night, was sworn into office during a terse board meeting where all results were accepted by the current board. She will be filling the vacated board seat of Herb Rosenfeld, and will be up for re-election next May.

“I am overwhelmed that the community spoke and got to vote on the direction that they want the schools to go in,” Legnini said after it was all over. He said that come July, when he and his three other challengers take office, they would work on a proper procedure to overturn the 5/8 middle school proposal. “We have to reflect the vote that was cast by the community-we ran on those issues and the community spoke.”

“I feel like the vote was so overwhelming that it’s a mandate for the four of us,” added Flayhan. “Clearly people voted for us because of what we are against – the $70 million bond and the five-through-eight middle school. We have a mandate to move forward to fix the elementary schools and make sure we keep the student teacher ratios low.”

She added that she and her slate had also spoken about shifting away from the current committee structure, a governing style picked up from the town of Olive that the challengers feel may have insulated the defeated incumbents, and entire board, from truly hearing from the wider community about their wishes and dislikes.
...

“I think this is a sign of very good things to come,” said Osmond, soon after being sworn in as the first new board member of four.

“It was a grass roots effort by so many members of the Onteora community,” added McGillicuddy. “I look forward to working with everyone in the community.”"

WAMC hosts Vox Pop on School Boards and School Budgets

The day after New York State voters went to the polls to approve school budgets and elect board members, WAMC turned its regular afternoon Vox Pop show over to a call-in with Tim Kremer , Executive Director of the New York State School Boards Association). Calls came in from across the full spectrum of concerns, including many of the issues that were discussed during the Onteora School District election campaign. You can listen to or download the show at this link.

Early on in the show, Mr. Kremer says that, State Wide, voter turn-out averages 5-10%. Turn-out in the Onteora Central School District was closer to 40%. Everyone in the campaign is very grateful for this massive show of interest in the Onteora Central School District.

Daily Freeman on the election

The following story was in Wednesday's edition of the Daily Freeman. You can read it here.

A plan to add fifth and sixth grades to Onteora Middle School and close a district elementary school is expected to be halted by a new Board of Education majority that was swept into office Tuesday.

Winning candidates for three three-year seats were Ralph Legnini with 2,460 votes, Donna Flayhan with 2,379, and Ann McGillicuddy with 2,294. A one-year term to finish a vacancy was won by Laurie Osmond, who received 2,267 votes. The school board has seven elected members.

Osmond, who was sworn immediately following the election, said the four winning candidates were successful in getting the word out on their opposition to closing schools. She compared the sweep to an election three years ago, when the three candidates defeated Tuesday won seats on the board over the "large parcel" tax issue.

"I had a few people come up to me and say it was going to be a landslide, but I felt either way that it went had to be accepted," Osmond said.

Legnini said the new majority expects to immediately stop the plan to expand Onteora Middle School and close one of the district's three remaining elementary schools.

"We have to put it into motion to change that," he said. "That's what the voters said they wanted and we have to reflect that. So it was a very simple community decision."

The incumbent trustees finished as follows: Cindy O'Connor, 1,446 votes, Mary Jane Bernholz, 1,384; and Rita Vanacore, 1,301. Newcomer Adam Pollack, an Onteora High School senior, received 739 votes.

Bernholz and Vanacore declined to comment on the result. O'Connor called the defeat "very liberating for us."

"You don't always get what you want but you get what you need," O'Connor said, quoting the Rolling Stones tune.

Superintendent Leslie Ford said issues will be addressed when the new board takes over in July.

"That's what happens with boards, that's the usual," she said. "It'll be a different set of people and they will come up with their own collective way of working together."

Ford was pleased that the $48.21 million budget was adopted by a 2,468-1,165 vote, and that all three separate ballot propositions were approved by voters.

"I couldn't be happier about the budget," she said. "We've got buses, so we've covered transportation. We're going to be working on facilities, so this is really, really good news."

Ann McGillicuddy on WAMC

WAMC ran a short story Wednesday about the budget/election results around the area. They interviewed Ann McGillicuddy. You can hear the story by clicking here.

The Vote In More Detail

Here are the votes as cast by town. They are in the order of ballot names, the numbers in brackets refer to that person's final polling position SH is Shandaken, WH is West Hurley.

Please note that this remains the unofficial vote count. Affadavit votes have yet to be counted, and the final vote will be ratified at the next Board Meeting, Tuesday June 3. That Board Meeting will be at the Phoenicia Elementary School.


Adam Pollack
SH 127
Olive 202
Wdstk 189
WH 221
Total votes: 739 (8)

Donna Flayhan
SH 743
Olive 270
Wdstk 967
WH 399
Total votes: 2379 (2)

Laurie Osmond
SH 736
Olive 186
Wdstk 927
WH 418
Total votes: 2267 (4)

Ralph Legnini
SH 751
Olive 339
Wdstk 942
WH 428
Total votes: 2460 (1)

Ann McGillicuddy
SH 768
Olive 288
Wdstk 937
WH 301 6
Total votes: 2294 (3)

MJ Bernholz
SH 91
Olive 867
Wdstk 116
WH 310
Total votes: 1384 (6)

Cindy O'Connor
SH 92
Olive 893
Wdstk 130
WH 328
Total votes: 1443 (5)

Rita Vanacore
SH 78
Olive 834
Wdstk 108
WH 281
Total votes: 1301 (7)


We are proud to announce that every one of our block of four got more votes than ANY other candidate for School Board in at least the last six years, if not longer. We are also very grateful for the true cross district support.

The Propositions in Numbers

Budget: Approved, 2,468-1,165
Vehicles proposition: Approved, 2,063-1,529
Capital reserve proposition: Approved, 2,062-1,457
Child safety zone proposition: Approved, 2,642-964


We will publish town-by-town break-downs on everything later on today. In the meantime, you should be able to make them out on the blackboard photos below.

The Numbers in pictures

We Won!

The results are in, and the tallies are as follows:

Adam Pollack 739
Donna Flayhan 2379
Laurie Osmond 2267
Ralph Legnini 2460
Ann McGillicuddy 2294
Mary Jane Bernholz 1384
Cindy O'Connor 1446
Rita Vanacore 1301

Laurie Osmond is being sworn in at this moment, to take the seat that Herb Rosenfeld resigned from. Donna Flayhan, Ralph Legnini and Ann McGillicuddy will all be taking their seats on July 1.

All propositions passed. So did the budget.

Thank you everyone.

Phoenicia Photo

Candidates and children getting out the vote in Phoenicia this afternoon.

An Open Letter To All Voters, from the Candidates

We are at a critical juncture in the future of the Onteora Central School District, and unless voters in all the communities respond on Election Day, May 20th, our children, taxpayers and communities will suffer a terrible and irreversible body blow.

The Board of Education incumbents, if re-elected, will saddle the district with an $70-86 million bond, and embark on the largest, most expensive construction project in the history of the district and build a Grades 5-12 Middle School/High School Building that is not educationally sound nor publicly supported.

Additionally, by the time construction begins, the original cost estimates will be 3 ½ years old and will need to be updated.

Does the Ulster County Jail ring a bell?

The incumbents are also determined to close an Elementary School, although our neighborhood Elementary Schools are thriving. They are not broken.

In short, borrow $70+ million to close a school, to build a school, to overcrowd the classrooms.

The incumbents deny that taking our youngest children and busing them further and longer to sit in overcrowded classrooms will be harmful.

They deny that there is anything troubling about putting 5th graders on the same buses and in the same building as 12th graders.

They deny that the closure of a school will have any economic impact on a town, or on property values. Talk to a local business owner or realtor and you’ll get a very different picture.

They cite predictions of a downward spiral in enrollment, while actual predicted enrollment shows a plateau, and demographic reports do not include families moving to the area.

The incumbents are ramming forward one costly solution. There are other solutions that they have refused to consider. These are solutions that can cost less, include all our communities, create vibrant, educationally sound schools for our children, keep our local businesses and property values from declining, all while being eligible for state aid.

These other solutions need to be fully explored and costed out before making any decisions and putting forth a bond.

Our block of four Onteora School Board challengers are already working on fiscally responsible, creative, educationally sound ideas that provide a positive, doable vision for our district.

We ask for your support and your help in getting out the vote on Tuesday, May 20 from 2-9pm at your town Elementary School, so that we can turn this catastrophe around and create a district that we can be proud of and that others will want to be part of.

Vote #2-5 on your ballot.

Education Matters. Money Matters. Community Matters.

Sincerely,
Donna Flayhan, Laurie Osmond, Ralph Legnini, Ann McGillicuddy
Candidates for Onteora School Board
www.saveouronteoraschools.com

The Future of Our District? Don't Let It Happen!

Vote FOR the 4, Vote FOR the Budget

We’ve been asked by many people how we recommend they vote on the Budget and various propositions that are also on Tuesday’s ballot.

We suggest voting FOR the Budget, which comes with a promise – but not a guarantee – of a 0% tax levy increase. The current School Board was fortunate to have several teachers retire this year, and had a late increase in State Aid; the Board decided to pass these savings back to the taxpayers. Were this budget to be voted down, the District would be forced to enact a contingency budget, which would stifle all purchase of new equipment, the cancellation of field trips etc. And it would also create a painful and divisive headache across the district just as we hope to start the process of moving forward in cross-district unison. Voting for the budget does NOT mean you are voting for the Grades 5-8 Middle School plan, or for the vast sums of money that the Board needs to implement it. These are policy decisions that we trust our candidates will be able to overturn when they are elected. So even as you vote Lines 2-5 for us four candidates, we recommend you also vote FOR the budget.

As regards the four propositions, we do not have one unified opinion on them. In part, this is because we were not part of the Board (and therefore the discussion) that developed them. We invite voters to learn more about each of these issues, either via the current edition of the Onteora Schools newsletter, or by talking to neighbors and other would-be voters. Again, none of them relate to the current Board's plans for a Grades 5-8 Middle School and the immediate closure of an elementary, nor the Bond costs they would need to raise. We will note that the same Woodstock Times editorial that endorsed the four of us candidates also expressed support for all four propositions. And we would also say that if you feel you are not suitably informed on these issues, you do not have to cast a vote on them.

Thank you to all the voters who have expressed so much interest in all these issues. This campaign has shown just how much people care about their schools.

Halt The Vicious Circle

Voting By The Numbers

THE HARD FACTS
There are almost 12,000 registered voters in the Onteora Central School District. When elected in 2005, the three incumbents averaged less than 2,000 votes each - barely one-sixth of the eligible vote!

BUT…
In 2005, when the three incumbents were elected on the back of a Large Parcel protest from Olive voters, Woodstock turn-out was only 25%, Shandaken turn-out was 33% - and Olive turn-out was nearly 65%.

IN OTHER WORDS…
It’s all about the turn-out! In 2008, we have to show that we care enough about our schools to vote to keep them! Woodstock and Shandaken combined have more than twice as many registered voters as Olive – and people in Olive have been telling us for weeks that they are fed up with the direction of the current board, and voting for the “challengers.”

AND REMEMBER…
Voting is at your town elementary school. (Woodstock if you live in Woodstock, Phoenicia if you live in Shandaken or Lexington, West Hurley if you live in West Hurley, Bennett if you live in Olive or Marbletown.) Voting does not take place at the local firehouse, library or wherever you may be used to voting during Government Elections. Voting is from 2-9pm. If you arrive at 9:01pm, you will not be allowed to vote. If you are a registered voter, you are already registered for the School Board Election. If you received a blue postcard from our candidates, you are registered to vote in the School Board election. If your name is not in the registrar’s books and you are certain it should be, you may request a vote by affadavit. A form will be filled out, and your name will be checked with County records the next day and your vote tallied if approved.

If you show up to vote but are not registered, you will be invited to register there and then for future elections. It’s never too late to vote!

See you at school tomorrow!

The Future of Our District? Don't Let It Happen!

Endorsed by Every Newspaper!

Every newspaper that has made an endorsement on this election has recommended that the incumbent trio be replaced.

“There is no choice but to vote them out,” says the Phoenicia Times/Olive Press. “We have to remember this is about the quality of our community’s education, and not just taxes. And we have to get beyond allowing one block of voters to decide all Onteora matters.”

"We believe that we give up too much by implementing the Grade 5-8 middle school plan,” says the Woodstock Times. “And thus we support those who seek a moratorium on the plan and urge you to vote for Ralph Legnini, Laurie Osmond, Donna Flayhan and Ann McGillicuddy."

“We ask our readers to support the challengers in this election May 20th so this ill-advised reshuffling of the school district does not happen without more scrutiny and the help of experts,” says the Ulster County Townsman.

We thank these papers for their support and remind you to vote Tuesday May 20, 2-9pm at your town elementary school.

Thanks! to the Olive Seniors

Going into this election, we heard a lot of sweeping comments about how people vote in the Onteora School District... Which is one reason we were thrilled to hear from the Olive Seniors last week, who invited us to come speak to them as a group at the American Legion Hall in Olive. Following shortly after the incumbents had their turn, we met with about 25 members who listened attentively as we outlined our plans for the district, asked great questions and were very gracious to us throughout. We were delighted that the seniors in our district should care so much about the schools they help fund, and equally pleased that they wanted to hear from both “sides,” in person, to help them make their own, individual judgment calls on their votes. Thanks for having us, guys.

Olive Billboard

On Route 28 in Shokan:

Indie for Beginners

If you’ve been following the election closely, if you’ve been attending board meetings, and of course, if you’re a High School student, you may have noticed discussion recently about the “Indie” program. There has been some legitimate concern about its future. We asked director Russell Richardson to answer some questions about the program, as a starting point for what we hope will be further dialogue. Please click here to read the full article: Indie for Beginners.

Uncloseable

Ralph, Ann, Donna and Laurie unveiled their campaign song, "Uncloseable," on WDST this morning. Check the video below.

On the Woodstock Village Green...

Candidates on WDST Monday morning

Donna, Laurie, Ralph and Ann will be on WDST, 1001.1FM, and WDST.COM, this Monday morning, somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30am.

We Interrupt This Election Campaign to Bring you a News Broadcast.

You may have heard of Phoenicia Elementary School’s innovative Recycling program, initiated by the school’s PTA. (The program is based on the 5Rs: Reduce, Refuse, Reuse, Rethink, Recycle.) Well, with the help of Digital Dave (music teacher David Laks), Ms. Sharon McInerney's 4th grade class at Phoenicia Elementary made a video about the program, and entered it into Senator Bonacic’s State-Wide “I’m A Green Nation” contest. Last week they were told that out of over 600 entries, they had won FIRST PRIZE. Ms. Mcinerney's class will be going to Albany on Tuesday, May 20th (election day!) to meet the Senator, 
other winners and to accept their award medals.

The current school board plans to close Phoenicia Elementary in three years.

You should be able to see the nine-minute video below this line. If not, click here for the YouTube link.

Multi-media Election information

We have an ad going out on the radio Monday and Tuesday. Listen to it here.

Last Tuesday's 'Meet the Candidates' debate at the Boiceville Inn was filmed, and is being broadcast on Public Access TV (Channel 23) over the next few days, at midnight and 3pm in the Shandaken/Olive townships. Tune in to see what the eight candidates have to say for themselves.

Dakota Lane, who hosts the 'Dakota's Question' section of the Phoenicia Times, not only filmed Saturday night's projection art event in Phoenicia (read more about it here), she stayed up all night to edit it into a five-minute YouTube video. It should be playing in a screen right below this line; if not, you can watch it here.

Ralph Legnini writes...

Hi everyone! Ralph Legnini here, writing on Sunday morning. Laurie, Ann, Donna & I have been on the go - in all four towns - meeting and greeting the folks in our Onteora School District. It's been great to talk one on one - to hear your concerns, and hear your support. This interaction will not end after election day - it will continue after your vote elects us to represent you as School Board Trustees. After three years of following the decisions of those on the current board, and the recent three candidates debates, mailings, signs, interviews, letters, newspaper articles and editorials - so many of you are totally up to speed with every issue, as well as the personalities and qualifications of all the candidates. The final step is to ride that wave of awareness and research into the voting booths at your town Elementary School this coming Tuesday, May 20th, from 2:00 to 9:00 pm. If you are home during the day - please vote early, and if you work that day - please get it done on your way home. It's your chance to have the final say.

Please vote for us, the candidates who will work for the whole of our four town community. Aside from deciding the BEST way to utilize our school buildings and transportation, we urgently need to make the schools better - from the inside out. They need to be energized again, as do all of us in our School District. We need to change the mindset that keeps us stuck in the mud of divisiveness. Parents with children in school have to step up and be involved, and our schools have to give back to those in the community, without kids, who pay taxes to help fund the district. Let's get everyone on the same page to roll up our sleeves, think smartly and creatively, and move forward together - trustees, superintendent, students, teachers, administrators, custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers, aids, nurses, lunchroom staff, and community alike - to bring us all forward to a place we can be proud of. Let's make the schools we pay for be a gift to our community, the star we all revolve around - for our pre-K students taking their first steps away from home, to the seniors in our community who have walked through the world. It's your school. It's your vote.

Phoenicia Artists say: Don't Let Them Close Our School

The monthly Arts Upstairs gallery opening on Main Street in Phoenicia took on a special glow last night, with people from the Magnetic Laboritorium wrapping the Phoenicia Hotel (which was irreparably burned in a fire last summer) in tarps, and then projecting video imagery onto the remains of the building. Despite intermittent rain, a couple of hundred people crowded the gallery and the sidewalks as the words and phrases "Don't Let Them Close Our School," "Vote May 20" and "Keep Local Businesses Thriving" were sent spinning across the street in bright blue lights. Just one more example in a seemingly endless display of anger towards the current School Board and support for the challenging candidates. Thanks go out to everybody involved in last night's effort: Arts Upstairs, Marisela and all at Magnetic Laboritorium, and to Declan Feehan, the new owner of the Phoenicia Hotel, which we hope will rise like a phoenix from the ashes.

Ulster County Townsman Endorses the Challengers

"If you haven't heard, the Onteora Board of Education has decided to close one of the remaining elementary schools in the district. They won't "officially" say which one, until after the crucial May 20th vote that will decide who is in control of the school board.

But everyone knows that the current regime plans to shut down the Phoenicia Elementary School. Why Phoenicia? Because it is the smallest community in the district with the least amount of voters. We warned of this several months ago and now it is coming true.

Obviously, the present school board, heavily dominated by trustees from the town of Olive, is not going to shut down its own school. And it is not going to awake the sleeping giant by proposing shutting down the Woodstock Elementary School. Woodstock has more than twice the voters than Olive. To turn against Woodstock would be political suicide....

... We ask our readers to support the challengers in this election May 20th so this ill-advised reshuffling of the school district does not happen without more scrutiny and the help of experts."

The full editorial is available in print editions of the Ulster County Townsman.

Phoenicia tonight

Thanks to the kindness of a man with a tour bus, the four candidates took a cross-district trip today, meeting shoppers and residents in West Hurley, Woodstock, Olive and Shandaken, while somehow fitting in kids' Aikido, soccer and piano recitals. Everyone was especially impressed by the Town of Shandaken Historical Museum in Pine Hill, and its display of all the old village schools that no longer exist.

The candidates will be at the Arts Upstairs on Main Street in Phoenicia tonight for its monthly opening. There will be some special art on display and plenty food and drink.

Thanks to everyone who braved the rain last night to come to the fundraiser/meet the candidates event at Levon Helm's barn. (Below: Ann McGillicuddy speaking at the event.) We raised enough funds to see us through the last few days. Thanks especially to those who donated gifts to the Silent Auction, including Levon Helm, John Sebastian, Peter Yarrow, Martha Frankel, and Happy Traum.

West Hurley Billboard

The Bus Is Coming!

Look out for the candidates' bus in West Hurley, Woodstock, Shandaken and Olive, this Saturday.

Come to Levon Helm's this evening

A reminder about tonight's FUNraiser at Levon Helm's barn in Woodstock. It's not a concert (though there may be some acoustic music), not a rally (though there may be some discussion); it's somewhere between a buffet dinner, a house party, and, of course, it's a chance to meet our four candidates one-on-one. Kids are welcome under supervision; more information can be found by clicking here.

Woodstock Times endorses our candidates

"We believe that we give up too much by implementing the Grade 5-8 middle school plan - we sacrifice smaller class sizes for young students; greater separation of the very young from the titanic angst of teen socialization; we would experience a painful loss of community schools - treasures that we've been able to afford (it is interesting to note that the town boards of Woodstock and Shandaken have officially opposed the plan, fearing a negative community impact).

And thus we support those who seek a moratorium on the plan and urge you to vote for Ralph Legnini, Laurie Osmond, Donna Flayhan and Ann McGillicuddy."

Read the entire editorial in this week's newspaper here.

Phoenicia photo

The Bus Is Coming!

The Bus Is Coming!

Invite to Levon Helm's Studio this Friday

Come Join the Four ‘Save Our Schools’ Candidates

-- Donna Flayhan / Laurie Osmond / Ralph Legnini / Ann McGillicuddy --

For Some Great Food & Desserts
on Friday Evening, May 16th
7 – 10 pm
at Levon Helm’s Beautiful Studio!

A Meet the Fab Four Fundraiser Event

Participate in the silent auction to win:

A pair of tickets for a Levon Helm Ramble
Concert tickets for Dr. John and The Gipsy Kings
Kathy Anderson School for Young Artists Gift Certificates
Martha Frankel book, personally signed
Homespun Tapes Learn-to-play DVDs
Signed CDs by John Sebastian
And much much more!

Enter your special home-made dessert in our cooking contest!
Best dessert wins a special prize!

$10 Suggested Donation

DIRECTIONS FROM CENTER OF WOODSTOCK
Take Tinker St (Route 212) towards Saugerties
As you head out of Woodstock
Turn Left on Plochmann Lane, approx 1 mile to mailbox #160 (on right)
Follow driveway to house/studio. Check in at ticket “hut” at end of driveway.

This Week!

The Mother’s Day FUNraiser at the Bearsville Theater was a tremendous success. Thanks so much to all the performers, all the donors, and all the parents, kids, and community members who attended to show support. Click here for photos. We raised a healthy sum of money, especially from the Silent Auction, which will enable us to keep getting out the message on behalf of our candidates. (But we can always do with more! Please see sidebar for donations info or see ‘how to help’ here.)

This is the last full week before the election and not surprisingly, it’s a busy one. Here’s the calendar.

TUES MAY 13
Last opportunity to register to vote, at your town elementary school building (Phoenicia, Woodstock, Bennett, West Hurley), from 2-8pm. (Note that you vote - and register to vote - in your town's elementary school, which may not be your closest. Lexington residents vote at Phoenicia; Marbletown residents vote at Bennett.) Also, last day for the District Clerk to receive your absentee ballot by mail. You may continue to pick up and complete your Absentee Ballott form in person, at the District Clerk office in the Boiceville MS/HS building until Monday May 19.)

TUES MAY 13
Meet the Candidates at the Boiceville Inn, Route 28 (near Bread Alone, by Upper Boiceville Road, 500 yards east of the main School Buidings, 845-657-8500), 7pm. This event is being hosted by the Shandaken Democrats. All eight candidates for School Board (the three incumbents, our four challengers, and student Adam Pollack) have been invited to participate. Please show up prepared to ask questions, and please be on your best behavior. The Boiceville Inn serves good food.

WEDS MAY 14
Our four candidates will be talking to David Lewis on Public Access, channel 23 on Time Warner, at 9pm. (Shandaken/Olive residents may not be able to see this show.)

THURS MAY 15
Our four candidates will be talking to Michael Veitch on Public Access, channel 23 on Time Warner, at 9pm. (Shandaken/Olive residents may not be able to see this show.)

FRI MAY 16
A very special event: Please come to Levon Helm’s Barn in Woodstock to meet Donna Flayhan, Laurie Osmond, Ralph Legnini and Ann McGillicuddy, our four candidates. Food and drinks will be served; a silent auction will be taking place, including tickets for future Levon Helm rambles. There will be a dessert bake-off. This is not a concert, but an opportunity to meet our candidates, learn about the issues in a social atmosphere, and contribute to the costs of running the campaign. Suggested donation is $10. The event is currently scheduled to run from 7pm-10pm. More details to follow as the week progresses.

SATURDAY MAY 17
Watch this space for a very special event!

TUESDAY MAY 20
The Election. Vote at your TOWN elementary school, 2-9pm.

FUNraiser Fotos

Or is that Phunraiser Photos? Either way, here are some pictures from the fabulous afternoon out at the Bearsville Theater on Mother's Day.

The message is clear

Uncle Rock plays gets a little help from his young friends

The kids enjoyed face painting and doing some painting of their own

Liz Mitchell and friends played a beautiful mellow set

We All MatterJRBW rock out

All Schools Matter

Ralph, Donna, Laurie and Ann introduce the song "Uncloseable"

Indie for Beginners

(Please visit www.indieprograms.org where longer explanations are available, especially our history)

What does Indie do?
Indie is an independent, not-for-profit educational organization, which collaborates with the public school system to offer classes for up to 120 high school students in our own facility, with our own staff.

What kind of kids does Indie work with?
We have two basic populations:
Students referred to us by the school and designated as ‘underachieving’ or ‘disengaged’ (community school);
Extremely gifted students who come to Indie on an Arts/Social studies elective (the Lab Class).

Is Indie a film school?
No. Indie uses new media (computers, graphics, video, internet) to enrich the curriculum and invite creative work in the electronic media, but our core is close relationship between staff and students and the ability to tailor our offer to the individual student.
Still, making films is one of the most visible activities of Indie, and the students’ films are very accomplished and win prizes in festivals.

When did Indie Start?
In 1998 at Woodstock day School as an experimental mentor program by Judy Upjohn
In 1999, she took the template to Barbara Ruben at Onteora and proposed self-financing a similar scheme for Onteora's most wanted. It started there with one small room at the school for 8 students. Next year a budget line was approved and about 50 kids were formed into classes. It was clear that being inside a high school structure was a large part of the problem these kids had and (being a philanthropist) Upjohn bought our current building.

What does Indie cost?
Indie and all Indie activities (classes, after-school, trips, extended learning and internships) are FREE to all students. Indie is committed to working with the public school system, offering its facilities to everyone, regardless of economic status.
Indie is financed by a patchwork contracts, sponsors, grants and fundraisers.

OK… what does Indie cost Onteora High School?
Onteora pays Indie (2007-08) $ 145,000 for a ten month contract.
(In 2006-07 this figure was $ 180,000.)
In addition, Onteora assigns an Onteora teacher to oversee our Lab Class at a cost of approx $16,000.
Our capacity is 120 students, though due to classes cut by Onteora we currently serve about 80 students.
Indie’s full annual cost is $300,000 of which Onteora’s contribution (ideally) represents approx 60%.
We believe the cost of one student following one course at Indie should be around $ 1,500 per year. (i.e. $180g / 120.)(Current under capacity raises this to around $ 2,200 at the moment)

What results does Indie get?
Indie works on three levels.
a) Almost without exception, students are happier at Indie than in a traditional school setting. This helps their mood and concentration and gives an overall improvement in behavior, attendance and grades.
b) We also directly teach English and Social Studies as credit bearing classes in our community school, which keeps the more difficult kids working together for a two or three hour block.
c) Lab Class is a college level filmmaking and film history course, which carries half credits in Art and Social Studies and mixes grades 9 through 12. All new media are taught to a high level (graphics; music software; web design; animation and video editing).

Our kids come to school more often, get into less trouble, and produce better work (higher grades) even in subjects Indie does not formally teach.
A student in danger of dropping out in 9th grade will stay through 11th.
Kids get their GEDs. A student settling for a GED is encouraged to actually graduate. Students who might barely graduate are encouraged and helped to get to college.

Who teaches at Indie?
Indie staff are professionals in areas of media. Currently we have one filmmaker/screenwriter; one professional cameraman/editor who is also a NY State certified Arts teacher; and our youngest member is a media graduate currently finishing her second degree on American History and Communication.
In addition, we network with film, music and art professionals locally who come in periodically to give short mentoring courses.

What does Indie do that a high school cannot?
Indie has a separate facility designed more like an office suite of college department than a high school building. We are carpeted, have soundproofed ceilings, smaller spaces, a cinema auditorium and edit rooms and no rigid division of ‘sitting behind desks’.
Indie is open and available from 8 a.m. till the end of the school day, then as independent (i.e. not financed by Onteora) after-school.
Indie staff also work many weekend workshops and film shoots and the facility is generally open 7 days a week as the end of term approaches so students can spend entire days here finishing their projects.



Why has Indie fallen out of favor with Onteora?
As long as Barbara Ruben was principal, the system worked fantastically, but the current school board disapproved of Barbara and 'her' program, so the last three years have been a constant struggle - we won each year so far, but no continuity has been possible.

I guess the overview is this: Indie evolves each year according to who the students are and which programs we give prove to work. There’s a constant feedback to make the courses better and fit the students' needs. What is not happening with the new admin is this dialogue. They see set classes and see they can cut some of them. We see groups of students whose needs can be met flexibly and in a changing manner. This isn't just rhetoric, it's actually the way we work.

If there's no Indie offered by Onteora, and disengaged or underachieving kids have to be sent to BOCES, what does it cost Onteora?
It is difficult as each kid and program is different
I have heard the cost of $ 18,000 per student in normal BOCES with much more for Special Ed.
Plus the cost of transportation over the year, which is around $5,000 per kid.
I.e. just the bus rides to BOCES cost twice as much as full tuition at Indie!
In 2006 Onteora to Indie was $ 180K while Onteora to BOCES was $ 2.9 million

I'm told Indie kids are out of control. They're seen smoking, hanging out, causing trouble, playing truant... They're not properly supervised. Please explain.
This I find most interesting.
A lot of teenagers hang out, smoke, run to the Chinese restaurant, play truant etc.; many of these are NOT Indie students and I personally ask all our students to be aware of the perception of Indie kids as 'trouble' and comport themselves as well as they can.
However, the general perception is this way.
The peculiar mindset works something like this:
School selects the most fractious and rebellious kids, who they do not want inside school for reasons of backchat, truancy, language, green hair, dress, piercings etc and sends them down to Indie.
The general school population then becomes a little bit more normalized, calm, malleable etc etc.
Then they look at (what are now) OUR kids and decide they do not like them, no not one little bit, so the very kids they selected to send us because of their superficial 'problems' now become seen as kids turned bad BY Indie.

Try as we may to show stats that we also have 50% AP kids doing wonderful work in film and festivals and as polite and personable as you'd like; and even when those bad kids start to behave better and better and get into college, the ultimate perception is INDIE BAD; High SCHOOL GOOD
Even better - ANY trouble that happens is blamed on Indie Kids: e.g. the recent spate of cat graffiti, which in fact began in the HS Art class with totally non-indie students.

How comes the District says it wants to "bring Indie back into the High School?" Was it originally in the High School?
Yes and no. Yes, briefly with only a few students, but we took it out of the school because it didn’t work effectively.
Plus, it has not been stated clearly enough that Indie (i.e. myself and current staff) will not work under the conditions proposed, and the Indie program will not consult or help plan unless the real offer has some sense for the kids.
Plus 'Indie' is a TM and Onteora will be sued if they try to use it for Indie related classes that don't involve Indie.

Is it true that the School District has to pay for a staff member to walk the children over and back every day? Is this a good reason to bring Indie back into the high school?
This is a good question. It never used to be true (for 7 years) but the last two years it's been cited as a legal responsibility for an Onteora staff member to supervise every single class.
As Lab Classes do not have an Onteora co-teacher (all others do) this means a teacher must be assigned. By now it's become a sort of punishment detail for very reluctant and hostile staff.

It's never been explained to me why our kids need the walk down supervision while the cross-country team, which RUNS along and across Route 28, does NOT need supervision.

There's been a haggle over this teacher salary for the past three years.
My experience working with other school districts (e.g. Catskill) is that the legal side of this is nonsense. We have disclaimers; we have three or four staff of our own who meet all criteria and we have ample accident insurance.

But it's a way of chipping off another $ 16,000.

What is the future of Indie?
Good question…

The Mother's Day FUNraiser, this Sunday May 11

You may have heard Uncle Rock talk about this on WDST this morning, or WKZE yesterday afternoon. He is hosting a Mother’s Day FUNraiser at the Bearsville Theater this Sunday from 2-6pm, proceeds going to the Save Our Onteora Schools candidates to help pay for all the printing and promotional costs that have been incurred. As well as a totally great kid-friendly concert, the event includes a Silent Auction including the following items:

• 2 PAIRS OF TICKETS TO THE LEVON HELM RAMBLE OF YOUR CHOICE ($600 value!)

• ONE NIGHT AT THE PHOENICIA BELLE B & B ($100 VALUE)

• BOOKS FROM THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK

• MEMORABILIA FROM WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL '69

• ASSORTED CHILDREN'S AIKIDO CLASSES FROM WOODSTOCK AIKIDO

• CAFFEINATOR DRUM KIT CREATED BY ERIC PARKER (PRICELESS)

• TENDERLAND HOME MERCHANDISE

And much more. See you there! All kids, moms, dads, parents, teachers, community members welcome... Click on poster to see it larger.

Shandaken Town Board Passes Supportive Motions

At their REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING on May 5, 2008, the Shandaken Town Board met with the following members present: Supervisor DiSclafani, Councilman Bartlett, Bernstein and Malloy. Councilman Stanley was absent.

During this meeting the following motions were passed.

Motion by Councilman Bartlett to authorize the Town Supervisor to take the necessary steps to pursue the Ulster County BOCES Superintendent or any other supervisor in charge to aid in the investigation of the possible reconfiguration of the existing schools in the Onteora School District and ask for a moratorium on that five to eight configuration, funding, financing and development, seconded by Supervisor DiSclafani, all in favor, motion carried.

Motion by Supervisor DiSclafani to ask the Onteora School Board to please keep the Phoenicia Elementary School open, seconded by Councilman Bernstein, all in favor, motion carried.

WAMC's "Tough Decisions" and the hard facts

Ann McGillicuddy writes:

Hello Onteora residents !

I listened to the WAMC report yesterday - Tough Decisions in NY Rural School District - on which Laurie Osmond, Rita Vanacore and Judith Boggess each spoke.

Please listen here

During the first minute of the piece, you will hear erroneous numbers given by Mrs. Vanacore when speaking about Onteora enrollment figures ~ past, current and projected future enrollment numbers.

Since "free fall declining enrollment" is one of the school boards’ main arguments for closing an elementary school and beginning the consolidation process, these figures need to be set straight.

Mrs Vanacore says that the school district is currently at 1400 students, that five years ago the population was 2300 students, and that for 2014 the projection is for 1300 students.

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

The current enrollment in Onteora is 1830, NOT 1400.
The enrollment five years ago was 2229, NOT 2300.
The latest projection for 2014 is 1429, NOT 1300.

Projections are made by demographers, in a report produced annually for the School District.
IN the 2006 Demographic Report, the year 2014 projection was 1382 students
IN the 2008 Demographic Report, the year 2014 projection IS NOW 1429. That's an INCREASE in projected enrollment which suggests that the decline may have halted. And it's considerably higher than Mrs. Vanacore's stated figure of 1300.

In the 2006 Demographic Report, The Demographic projection for this year was 1802. Actual Enrollment today is 1830 with well over 200+ in home school/private school - NOT 1400, as Mrs. Vanacore stated.

Five Years ago there were 2229 students, not 2300 as Mrs. Vanacore stated.

ALSO, at the PTA Council "meet the candidates" event on Monday night, a letter signed by the three incumbents, placed on a table for distribution, stated that currently 100 children are enrolled for fall 2008 Kindergarten in Onteora.

The ACTUAL enrollment number is 119 and historically it rises in the fall.

The incumbents left off 19% of the current kindergarten enrollment for 2008. This is a large percentage and this misinformation - as with the misinformation on last night's WAMC radio program - may mislead people.

Phoenicia Times and Olive Press say: Vote for Change

The editorial in the new Phoenicia Times and Olive Press reads as follows:

Onteora: Vote For Change
So here we are… yet another pivotal Onteora vote with two slates lined up against each other pointing towards diametrically-opposed directions in which to take the school district. On one side is an incumbent board sticking by its tough decisions; on the other a set of challengers riding a wave of passion. Key issues include the maintenance of certain Onteora attributes many feel are key to the district’s, and their communities’ character; tax equity; and questions about how far we go in pursuit of quality education for our kids. Look familiar?
We are sick and tired of Onteora’s decision-making process always coming to this, as well as the tenor of this year’s race... which has recently included threats from one block against me and the rest of the media. The district has had little peace since the late-1990s, when the mascot issue unveiled vast schisms within it and many started trying to silence those voters who actually had kids in the district via larger, “taxpayer” concerns. In the best of all worlds, we would ask that voters pick candidates based solely on individual merits and educational vision… endorsing one of the incumbents, two of the challenging slate to create a better geographic mix on the board, and the kid… because we strongly believe youth needs a say in the giant school decisions underway. But unfortunately the issues at hand are too contentious to allow for such choices. We’ve heard it all summed up as being logic versus emotion… but in such cases where community and kids are involved, we side with emotion because our communities aren’t logical… never have been and hopefully never will be. Because that’s simply not American.
We do feel the manner in which the current redistricting plan has been researched, presented, discussed, and decided upon is faulted. You don’t limit discussion of such monumental changes. You don’t set up shared-decision making teams and then ignore them. If the redistricting plan is as good as its supporters believe it to be, it will last through another round of debate. If it isn’t, it shouldn’t be forced down everyone’s throats or we will see parents educating their kids by other means.
We also don’t like the way so many district decisions have been made reliant on the support of a single block of voters, Olive Matters. Because the current incumbents feel so supported by these folks, they aren’t working with constituencies they disagree with, including other communities’ parents, and trying to build new consensus. We feel this is divisive to such a degree that, despite our aversion to slate voting, there is no choice but to vote them out. Which is a shame, because they are good people.
We have to remember this is about the quality of our community’s education, and not just taxes. And we have to get beyond allowing one block of voters to decide all Onteora matters, especially when they start to threaten all who don’t agree with them..
. PS

Current Board votes for Grades 5-12 Building

As predicted in the post below, the Onteora Central School Board met Tuesday May 6 and voted to place its proposed Grades 5-8 Middle School in the current Middle School/High School Building, thus creating a Grades 5-12 building. The vote was unanimous, following a short discussion. The Board did not get as far as tabling its second motion, to place the Grades 5-8 Middle School in the Bennett Elementary Building. There was some lip service paid to the idea that the proposed Middle School would have been better suited in Bennett, but that recent information about State Aid (see this post following last board meeting) made that option financially impossible.

Following their vote, the Board agreed to move right ahead with the decision over which elementary school to close, presumably to try and have it all done and dusted before any new Board Members take their seats on July 1. It was made clear at the Board Meeting May 6 that Bennett will survive. The discussion over which elementary school to close will be had on June 3; the vote will be on June 17.

You can read more about the timeline that led to this vote here.

These decisions can be turned around by a new board majority. Please remember to vote May 20.

Current Board "Decides" Middle School placement

The School Board meets tonight, 7pm, at the Middle School/High School cafeteria in Boiceville on Route 28, to decide where to place its proposed Grades 5-8 Middle School. All indicators point to the Board placing it in the current MS/HS footprint. What will this mean for our district?

• Closure of Woodstock/Phoenicia Elementary.

• $70-$86,000,000 taxpayer funded bonds to pay for reconfiguration

• 5th Graders in same building and on same buses as 12th Graders

• Maxed-out class sizes district-wide

• Loss of jobs, decline in property values, loss of community

Please show up if you can this evening (the Board Meetings are public) to be witness when the Board makes it decision.

How can you hope to see this decision reversed? Only by voting for the block of four - Flayhan, Osmond, Legnini, McGillicuddy - on May 20.

Candidates on TV

Our four candidates will be on Sam Mercer's show on Public Access TV, Channel 23, Sunday May 4, at 6pm.

Letters from the Community

Three of the letters printed in this week's Woodstock Times. See here for a longer piece about last week's board meeting and what it means to the future of the District.

Signs Of Onteora Confusion

A few weeks ago I took my daughter to registration for kindergarten for the coming school year. The registration took place at the non-functioning West Hurley school, which I thought was a strange choice of venue. Although the teachers who were there to help with registration were certainly pleasant, it was an odd and alienating experience to be in a school that had no sign of children, activity, or any real life at all. I had to keep explaining to my daughter that she would not be going to that particular school in the fall but that we simply had to spend the morning there getting her registered. I had some specific questions I wanted to ask teachers about Bennett and Phoenicia schools, as I'm currently trying to decide where to send my daughter. No one was able to help me, as they were pulled from various schools and seemed unsure themselves of what exactly would be going on in the district. One person implied that having registration at the defunct West Hurley school was just another sign of the confusion surrounding the school board's plans for the district. I hope that there is some progressive change as a result of the upcoming school board election and that people will consider voting for Donna Flayhan, Ralph Legnini, Laurie Osmond, and Ann McGillicuddy to help save our Onteora schools.

Janet Steen
West Shokan

---

Who Really Puts Students First?

Anyone who travels Route 28 through West Hurley, Shokan and Olive can see the signs that incumbents Vanacore, Bernholz and O'Connor have put up.

Emblazoned on the signs are the words, "Students First."

Students first? The incumbents have made clear that they plan to close an elementary school but they refuse to tell us if it will be Phoenicia or Woodstock until after the election. Closing an elementary school will mean longer bus rides and more students per classroom. It is common sense that this will mean less time spent per child, which will make the teachers' jobs more difficult. As a teacher, I know whereof I speak.

And this places students first...how?

Although there has been much harping on the need to consolidate due to declining enrollment, a quick look at the actual figures tells a more nuanced story. For instance, according to the Census Bureau, in 2002 there were 127 kids born in the Onteora School District. In '03, there were 181. In '04 and '05 there were 140. In '06, there were 146. This hardly shows a solid trend of less local children who soon will be bound for school.

Also, it should be noted that at the start of this school year, due to overwhelming demand, two extra days of Kindergarten enrollment were needed, and two pre-K classes were added that did not exist in the '06-'07 school year.

And finally, KSQ architects' plans for enlarging whichever two elementary schools remain after consolidation calls for footprints for additional space. No cost is given for these additional spaces. Obviously, the architects know that there is a real possibility that in the future, there could be a need for more room.

So why close a school? Could it be that to do so would send teachers packing so that taxpayers don't need to pay their salaries anymore? Or could it be that two buildings packed to the rafters with kids are cheaper than three in which kids receive more attention from teachers and thus a better education?
Whatever the reason, it most definitely is not "Students First."

Vote For Flayhan, Legnini, McGillicudy and Osmond. Three Elementary Schools, Transparency With All Taxpayers, and more than anything STUDENTS FIRST.

Robert Burke Warren
Phoenicia


Current Board Not Responsive

If you ever wondered why there is such low attendance of Onteora Central School Board meetings, spend an evening at one. After listening to reports for in excess of four hours, during which the architects of KSQ provided a power point presentation on what is perhaps the most critical decision upon us, the board unanimously came to the conclusion that one of the three current elementary schools must be closed. It is unfathomable to think that the board could or would consume that volume of information and make a decision of this magnitude within 15 minutes. Several board members declared their visions of ultimately having one school, under one roof. Let me warn you that that school will not be in our community it will be up on Route 28 nestled into Boiceville. This is not a vision that it representative of our district as a whole.

The impending plan is riddled with holes; unanswered questions and ramifications. The architects were asked several questions that they were unable to answer, yet despite that, the board was confident with moving ahead with a decision. How is it possible that we are allowing architects to determine the fate and course of our educational system and the impacts upon our local economies? One scenario calls for the combining of the middle school and high school to the tune of $42.3 million (part of the larger $70-75 million "Master Plan Presentation"). This plan outlines that, given that renovation there is only room for excess capacity of one pupil more in Grade 1, three pupils for Grade 2 and one pupil for Grade 3. This plan does not take into account a shift in student population increases by one student. After securing a bond for anywhere in the neighborhood of $70 - $86 million, what happens if one child moves up from the city, one child leaves private school to attend Onteora, and or if one child is no longer home-schooled? Further, this plan does not include any provisions for the space that would be needed for the implementation of a pre-K enrollment as mentioned by a board member during the meeting. Expanded enrollment or this addition would require further expansion to any existing building. Where will the additional funding come from then? Will the board go back to the public yet again for more funds? This doesn't appear to be solid planning. In effect, this need to consolidate and close schools is a derivative of the adoption of a highly opposed 5-8 middle school structure.

This is a board that does not listen to the public. Well, in fact that is not entirely true, public comment is allowed for a whopping 15 minutes. After listening to four hours of presentations, the community had 15 minutes to respond to the presentation by KSQ, share thoughts with the board, but ask no questions; hardly a public forum.

This letter picks up on the sixteenth minute. I know for a fact that there were letters forwarded to the board for the distinct purpose of being read into record that were never read or acknowledged last night. These board members are elected officials with an obligation to represent the voice of the public. They hand select committees that support their agendas and when not, they ignore their recommendations as they did with disregarding KSQ's original recommendation of "Plan A" with respect to the 5-8 configuration.

One budgetary committee member recently stated that the portion of the community comprised of residents who do not have children within the school system, could care less about education and are only concerned with the impact it will have upon their taxes. What a sad state of affairs. What is more important than the quality of education to any school system? Education and vital school systems are the cornerstones of communities and the future of our towns.

I do not share the vision that long bus rides to school co-mingling children of all ages, cramming classrooms to capacity and not listening to the public that you represent, makes for the best outcome. Recently resigned school board member, Herb Rosenfeld quoted in the April 24 Phoenicia Times concurs that the school board "studies do not support any positive outcome." He additionally states explaining his resignation that "I felt like I didn't fit into the way the board processed information and came to conclusions." A school system is a vital component of any community. The closure of any school in any community will have devastating effects upon all facets of that community - the economy, the social fabric and at the forefront - the quality of education that our children receive. This is to the detriment of all. The dismantling of a school dismantles a community.

Although this board contends that it has not yet made a decision as to which elementary school is going to be closed, they will announce this on May 6. There is a small window of opportunity to have your voice be heard. Demand answers, ask questions and stop this train before we end up in one big red school house on Route 28. Think about your local economies, your community-based school, the vision you have for the future of your town. I highly doubt it will include the closure of your school. In essence this further supports the fact that this board is unable to manage this district. It is time to be amenable to hearing out other approaches and options. Community-based education is a thread that binds a community together. Towns with children are towns with life and vitality.

I also see the Olive Matters organization as a highly exclusionary coalition which shows no regard for the broader constituents of the OCSD. As evidence, Judith Boggess was quoted in the April 24 Phoenicia Times as saying, "We're definitely not supporting anyone not from Olive...Olive only candidates, that's who we support." Please come out and vote on May 20. Let's turn this board around and elect the candidates: Ann McGillicuddy, Laurie Osmond, Ralph Legnini and Donna Flayhan. This is certainly where your voice can be heard.

In conclusion, you can now choose to brace yourself for the negative impact and huge expense of this Board's catastrophic plan or you can get yourself and everyone you know to come out and vote in the upcoming school board election on May 20. Please come out and vote!

Kristen Eberhard
Woodstock

Meet The Candidates

We have two "Meet the Candidates" events to announce.

Friday May 2: Woodstock Get Out The Vote hosts a "Meet the Candidates," "open mike" event at the Woodstock Community Center, Rock City Road. There's a kid-friendly period, from 5pm -7pm, with a clown on hand to entertain your little ones while you get to talk to the candidates, followed by an adults-only session, which will last until 9pm.

Monday May 5: The Onteora District PTA Council invites all parents, teachers and district voters to “Meet the Candidates” at 7pm in the Onteora Middle/High School Cafeteria, Route 28, Boiceville, NY. Refreshments will be served. We expect all eight candidates to be at this event.

These are ideal opportunities to get to know your various candidates, ask the necessary questions, listen to everyone's answers. We expect there to be other opportunities to Meet the Candidates before the election but hope that many of you will be able to attend one of these events in the meantime.

Mothers Day FUNdraiser

At the Bearsville Theater. Book your calendar. Bring your kids. Bring your mom. Bring everyone!

Herb Rosenfeld explains his resignation

Originally, there were meant to be just three Board positions up for election on May 20. Then, on April 4, Herb Rosenfeld, a Trustee who lived in Woodstock and was on his second term as a Trustee, abruptly resigned, creating a fourth vacancy. Rosenfeld explained his resignation in a phone interview with Lisa Childers that was published in the Woodstock Times, Phoenicia Times and Olive Press. We reprint it below; it's highly instructive and helps explain the problems we face with the current School Board - in particular the three incumbents whose re-election is being challenged by our slate of four candidates: Flayhan, Legnini, McGillicuddy, Osmond.

Herb Rosenfeld resigned from the Onteora’s school board on April 4 and in a recent phone conversation explained why he made his decision to step down after nearly five years of service.

“I felt like I didn’t fit into the way the board processed information and came to conclusions,” He said, noting that educational topics he presented were never addressed, he carried a lack of voting power and his opinion was often ignored.

Rosenfeld believes the school board’s proposed 5-8 middle school, that would necessitate the closing of another elementary school, lacks a major component - education for all. He emphasized the “all,” part. This is something Rosenfeld said is being largely ignored.

“We do fine with kids who wind up in fancy schools,” said Rosenfeld. “We need to develop a vision on what we want for all students.” He described the need for an education “blueprint,” a vision designed to engage all students and so far with the new reconfiguration he has not seen any benefits for kids.

Rosenfeld, a retired educator with 40+ years of experience, said investments should be made in more “pedagogy and curriculum.” Teachers need space to call their own, he explained but, “this $80 million project, it’s a Cadillac of jobs that we’re going for, instead of finding alternatives.” Rosenfeld wants the school board to put the breaks on the proposal.

Rosenfeld also does not understand why the current board placed a 15 minute limit during the “public be heard” section of the board agenda. He called the move “disrespectful” to the public. He said, “I sat for hours listening to the people when they closed West Hurley (elementary),” in 2003/2004. He noted the same procedure when Large Parcel was open to public discussion. Both had public input before any vote was taken. He does not blame the district leadership for what he believes is its mishap, but said things will change if the board were to change. Superintendent Leslie Ford is, “interested in doing her job-I don’t think that she is the issue.”

Rosenfeld called the current board, “politicized,” primarily because of the Large Parcel legislation where the town of Olive found candidates who, once elected to the school board, would vote against the bill. Five out of the current six school board members are from the town of Olive. He believes the board, “was elected to serve the Large Parcel issue and wound up with a fortress mentality that they stick to.”

Rosenfeld said there is nothing wrong with a 5-8 middle school model except that it does not fit in the Onteora district. In a narrow four to three vote that approved the middle school, he voted against it because it meant closing an elementary school. He also said there are equally positive studies for 6-8 middle school and Kindergarten- through-twelve configurations. He also warns against the proposed larger classroom size population of students that will happen if a school closes. He said studies do not support any positive outcome.

“If you close down another school you are going to shift 250 plus kids into two elementary schools,” he said. “The research as to what that would do is astounding.”
Rosenfeld explained that the board should start at the beginning with public meetings, town meetings and “utilize more than one architect” at competitive bids. “I mean you would do that when building a house.” He noted that really good changes are happening at the elementary schools, so what is the purpose of changing or closing a school when it works.

“They are on the cusp of being incredible,” he said, giving credit to good teaching, coupled with the new reading/writing program and community and parental involvement. He said Phoenicia has shown increased enrollment at the lower levels and he does not trust demographic reports when the reconfiguration plan will maximize space.

Rosenfeld reflected that he voted on very controversial issues such as the closing of West Hurley elementary school. Always, he worked with his fellow board members and enjoyed their company, even though he was vehemently against the majority’s vote.

His first couple of years on the board, he explained, were different.

“Then,” he said, “The lines weren’t drawn.”

But now continuing his term as a school board member he viewed as, “pointless.”

Phoenicia, Woodstock to close?

Last June’s Board vote to create a Grades 5-8 Middle School ensured the Board’s wish to close another elementary school in the District. We knew that. But, leading up to and following a presentation to the District by KSQ Architects in January, two options were put on the table:

1) to place the new Middle School in the current Middle School/High School building,
2) to place the new Middle School in the Bennett building.

Many of us were led to believe, directly and indirectly by Board members and senior Administration officials, that the Bennett option was being seriously considered. We were surprised, as this would mean the closure of Bennett, which is the local elementary school for the majority of current Board members and their voters; plus, Bennett has only recently been upgraded and refurbished. Still, some parents were prepared to entertain this idea – in part because it appeared that it would ensure the survival of the two outlying elementary schools.

Officially, the decision on where to place the Middle School is not being made until the May 6 board meeting. However, at recent board meetings, as the 2008-09 budget was hammered out, we saw signs that the Board had already made its mind up: $500,000 has been allocated for new plastic lockers in the MS/HS (about which we have several concerns, to be discussed another time), plus bathroom and floor renovations in the MS/HS; the roof is to be partially repaired. Why, we wondered, go through all this expenditure if the Middle School was to be torn down in three years, to be replaced by a new Middle School at Bennett?

The answer? It was never a serious plan to put the Middle School in Bennett.

Laurie Osmond picks up from here with her observations from attending the BOE meeting on April 23 and what it means for the District.

All the talk of debating/discussing whether the BOE will create a 5-8 Middle School from Bennett Elementary, or as part of the existing MS/HS is what has been suspected; a total sham.

1) KSQ Architects' presentation made it immediately clear that the construction/renovation project (that's the $70-86 Million Bond) will be eligible for more state aid if it is sited within the existing MS/HS building.
This is because it creates a higher population concentration in one building (read larger classes). For grades 7-12 the State uses 30 pupils per class in their formula, for grades K-6 they use 27 pupils per class in their formula. (Current district class size guidelines are 27 per class for the upper grades, though the Board can change its class size guidelines.)

Some Board members feigned surprise at this information, though at least one of them was present at a meeting with the State Education Department regarding this last month. One also has to wonder, how can a Board member serve for nearly three years, focusing on reconfiguring the district, and just only be aware of this state aid information now?

2) The schedule for moving forward that KSQ presented on Wednesday was based solely on the Middle School sited within the MS/HS, although the BOE has told the public they will not be "deciding" where to put the Middle School on May 6th. This "decision" appears to be a foregone conclusion. After all, was it ever likely the Olive-based incumbents would decide to close their own Elementary School weeks before the election? No.

3) Placing the 5-8 Middle School in the same building as the High School means that either Phoenicia or Woodstock Elementary will be scheduled for closure, in 2011. To hammer this home, KSQ Architects presented numbers that show it will cost $86 million to place the Middle School in Bennett; but only $70 million to place it in the MS/HS and close Phoenicia. And that’s without the additional State Aid factored in to the Bond costs. The current Board values dollars above everything; having voted for a Grades 5-8 Middle School, having secured through that vote the closure of another elementary school, we do not expect it to do anything now but to vote for the cheapest option.

4) At the urging of Trustee Resnick, who read a prepared statement which seemed to favor closing an Elementary School, the Board reluctantly "debated" closing an Elementary School for all of 15 minutes. No one spoke in favor of keeping three Elementary Schools open, and at least two Board members spoke of a future vision of TOTAL district consolidation at Boiceville.

5) The schedule presented by KSQ, shows that the Board will be voting at the end of June on which Elementary will close. This carefully orchestrated plan means the actual vote will be taken after Board elections but before any new Board members start their term. (Their term would start July 1.) This is no coincidence, as anyone familiar with how the 5-8 Middle School was voted in will tell you.

6) It should be noted that KSQ Architects' initial recommendations, in early 2006, were to create a 6-8 Middle School and retain 3 Elementary Schools. The opinions of these hired experts (at what cost?) were then disregarded by the Board, who went on to vote in their original agenda; district consolidation, the closure of an additional Elementary School, the creation of Boiceville as a centralized campus. Since KSQ have returned to the Community after a long absence, their findings have coincided perfectly with the Board’s plans. We wonder when their contract was last renewed and what discussions were had at the time.

7) The District’s "Budget Advisory Committee," which was originally presented as a volunteer group of community-minded financial experts, has since been exposed as a group hand-picked by the Board to support their agenda. It is no coincidence that their "findings" dovetail with and support the plan to close an Elementary School.

As we understand it, four of the five members of the Budget Advisory Committee live in Olive. One member of this committee, Drew Boggess, is married to Judith Boggess, the "point person" for Olive Matters and apparent self-appointed education expert, whose divisive, poison-spreading stance is quoted at length in the current issue of The Phoenicia Times and the Olive Press and is quoted in full (in the post below) at this web site.

All these "findings," which will, if the current Board is re-elected, result in the closure of, initially, Phoenicia or Woodstock elementary, and eventually both, are not a process, but are part of a closed system, presided over by a few, whose central aim, since day one, has been district consolidation.

Ralph Legnini writes...

Hi everyone, and welcome to our website. This is Ralph Legnini with a few comments regarding the recent newspaper article about Olive Matters. The three incumbent candidates, Cindy, Rita and Mary Jane, are running for re-election to the Board Of Ed. They have the full support of the group Olive Matters, which was the driving force behind their election win three years ago. At that time, we were all in the thick of the Large Parcel Issue, and the other three towns in the district sided against Olive. What Olive did was democracy in action - they motivated their town and voted in Olive-only candidates, and hence, had the majority vote on the Board. Olive Matters was a group of people fighting for what they felt was right!

It is now three years down the road. The divisive Large Parcel Issue is thankfully being viewed by most as being in the rear view mirror on the bumpy road that the Onteora School District has been on for many years now. I had a constructive and cordial meeting with the folks from Olive Matters last week. I told them that I had an idea to run against their incumbent candidates with a united block of four candidates, one from each of the four towns in the district - Woodstock, Shandaken, West Hurley and Olive. I felt this would hopefully go far to help heal the wounds inflicted over the years, upon our entire community, by all the divisive issues in our school district. Unfortunately, as I expressed to them, we could not find a fellow candidate from West Hurley to step up to the task, but our slate is filled with, what I feel is an awesome group of four individuals - one from Shandaken, two from Woodstock, and myself from Olive. If elected, West Hurley will always have our open ear for all their necessary input.

I did not expect support from the Olive Matters group since, as I told them, philosophically we differ on the future path of our school district. I met with them anyway so that I could have face to face contact with all those present at their monthly meeting (a contingent that includes the three incumbents), introduce myself, and express my passionate wish that this election be solely about the issues on hand for the district. I strongly feel that we have all done the town vs. town thing for years now, and hoped that we could all bury the hatchet and move on. After reading Judith Boggess' comments in the local press [see below], I can see that she and Olive Matters just are not ready to let go. I am disappointed, but I respect their feelings. I told Judith on the phone that I feel she and I could discuss school issues for hours and not change each other’s minds much, if any, but that I am happy we can converse in a spirited discussion, without any animosity - and in the end, just agree that we disagree.

After talking to hundreds of folks in all four of our towns - including many of the area's elected officials - it is clear that day by day, residue bad blood between the towns is evaporating drop by drop, and I am very hopeful that the community can slowly and steadily become united again. The main passion I have for running for School Board Trustee is to help make the schools AND the community better.

Please make an effort as members of this community, to be knowledgeable voters in this upcoming May 20th election. Come out and vote for the candidates of your choice. If you vote in the incumbents as a block, they will know they have the support of the voting public to proceed with the plans they've already put in motion.

However, if you vote for us (Donna Flayhan, Ralph Legnini, Laurie Osmond & Ann McGillicuddy) it will be a clear signal that the majority of the voting public disagrees with the current Board's decisions, and their future plans.

If elected by you, we (Donna Flayhan, Ralph Legnini, Ann McGillicuddy & Laurie Osmond ) would be the majority vote on the Board, and we will be in a position to turn this moving train in a different direction."

Sincerely,

Ralph Legnini

Olive Matters: What's their Stance?

The following story was published in this week's Olive Press and Phoenicia Times. Ralph Legnini will issue a response to it in the next post.

Haven’t heard recently from Olive Matters, the town-specific voting bloc that created the Onteora School District’s current board configuration? That’s not because they’ve been inactive, according to the ad hoc organization’s point person, Judith Boggess. They just haven’t been announcing their meetings in local newspapers or other ways that would let more than their members know what they’re up to via e-mails and phone calls.

“We’re getting together this Wednesday to discuss school board candidates,” Boggess said this week of a planned April 16 gathering at the Olive Free Library in West Shokan.
She noted that one newly-announced Olive candidate, Ralph Legnini, had asked if he could come before Olive Matters to seek their support for the slate of four candidates he’s running with who are against the current board’s pending proposal to redistrict Onteora for a new 5-8 Middle School, necessitating the closing of another elementary school.
“We said that’s crazy, that’s like asking somebody from Woodstock to support an Olive candidate,” Boggess continued. “We’re definitely not supporting anyone not from Olive… Olive only candidates, that’s who we support.”
Later, Boggess wrote that the group DID meet with Legnini, who made his case. But all in attendance politely disagreed, standing by their belief that taxpayer issues were paramount at the moment, at least in their terms.
In explanation of the Olive Matters Olive-only stance regarding Onteora matters, Boggess was no-nonsense. She noted that even though a deal has been struck between New York City and the Town of Olive that makes the Large Parcel issue that raised the townspeoples’ school taxes moot for the coming decade, her group won’t be happy until laws are passed in Albany that specifically remove reservoirs from any consideration if its implementation.
“All we have now is a ten year reprieve,” she said. “What happens after 10 years if New York City and the town can’t agree on a value anymore?”
Boggess said the rest of the Onteora School district had former Woodstock supervisor Jeremy Wilber and former Shandaken supervisor Bob Cross to thank for the Olive Matters stance, which would push for their town’s complete control of the school board until which time Large Parcel is removed from consideration by the state. No matter what any local candidates say about not implementing it. And no matter whether either of the former supervisors ever apologized for their previous stances.
She also noted that Olive Matters was fully supporting the Middle School plan, and planning process, pushed by the three incumbent candidates it helped bring to the Onteora board in an upset election three years ago. She pointed out that the middle school discussions had taken long enough – three years – to already allow everyone a say, and that “parents who don’t want this don’t understand” that unless schools are closed and consolidation allowed to happen, there would be more cuts to education, including “things like band and art” because of the district’s runaway expenses.
Boggess’ husband Drew served as a member of the school district’s Budget Study Group that recently recommended closing a school and consolidating programs, as well as hiring new teachers at lower wages, as a means of stemming the sort of high costs it characterized, in its recently disseminated report, via the image of a runaway train.
“These three people have kept our budget down and done a bang-up job,” Boggess said of OCS Board President MaryJane Bernholz and boardmembers Cindy O’Connor and Rita Vanacore. “We’re tired of seeing our board members being unduly badmouthed, just like we’re tired of being bad-mouthed as a town.”
Boggess spoke about how candidates opposing the Olive incumbents were talking about issues related to qualities of education and community when what mattered most to the Olive voters Olive Matters represented were more interested in pure economics.
“They should ride around with our Meals on Wheels programs and ask our seniors themselves to pay these $100,000 salaries for teachers,” she said. “Tell them why there are 60 passenger busses with only 40 kids on them. Tell them you want all this stuff paid for out of their Social Security checks.”
Boggess noted that Olive Matters didn’t care which school closed, as long as one did.
“We can’t keep feeding this monster,” she said.
After noting that Olive Matters wouldn’t mind Woodstock and West Hurley splitting from the rest of Onteora, the better for the remaining district’s school aid formulas, Boggess was asked whether anyone in her organization was giving thought to the effects of rising energy prices and those who are now saying it will force an eventual return to smaller, community-oriented education.
“I don’t think a lot of people here understand or care about any of that right now,” she replied. “Right now, everyone’s more concerned about paying bills that are piling up. And a lot of our senior citizens are without children now, so they don’t really care. ‘Why would it effect me,’ they say.”
Should the new slate ask to speak to Olive Matters at an upcoming meeting, via Legnini, an Olive resident, or any of the other candidates, Boggess said they would likely be put on the agenda. But the she added that there might also be a chance that no one would show up to listen to them.
Does Olive Matters have a fourth candidate for the open slots up for election May 20, in addition to the three incumbents they consider theirs?
Boggess said there were other petitions out but no official word of anyone yet.
Has their turnout been as strong as it once was, back when Large Parcel was more of a pressing issue?
“We have a turn out. We’re kind of silently active, with a formidable e-mail list,” Boggess said. “WE want a big push to have only Olive people on the board.”
Forever?
“It would be nice to figure out how the heck all these towns can get together,” she said. “But for now, we’re sick of people considering us ‘low tax Olive.’”

Voter Registration Information

Are you registered to vote yet for the upcoming School Board Election? No?

To request a Voter Registration Form:

• Call the Board of Elections at 845-334-5470;
• stop by the Board office at 284 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401;
• stop by your local post office, library, city or town clerks office
• or download a voter registration form (pdf)
• Or, on May 13th, from 2-8pm, visit any of the FOUR elementary schools, where they will be registering voters. That will be your last opportunity to register.

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Will you be out of town on May 20 and requiring an Absentee Ballot? Yes?

Stop in at the OCSD Admin Office at the MS/HS Building in Boiceville, fill out an Application, and receive your actual ballot. This is by the far the quickest way.
You can also receive an Absentee Ballot application form by contacting District Clerk Jeanne Shultis jshultis@onteora.k12.ny.us
Phone (845) 657-6383 Ext 264
Allow time to mail it back before May 13.
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Requirements for voter participation in the OCSD election and more info on Absentee Ballots can be found on this PDF, as supplied by the OCSD.

How New Paltz addressed the future of its Middle School

'The aged infrastructure of the... Middle School has been under discussion for many years. The Board of Education has committed to make a decision in early 2008 on whether or not to rehabilitate the Middle School for educational purposes. Before investments are made the Board is asking the community to share its thoughts about what it considers are the most important factors that must be considered when taking this very important step forward."

Please visit the New Paltz Middle School blog to see how the Board in the New Paltz School District tackled its own controversial issues - and how it was able to reach a Unanimous Decision just a couple of months later. It's entirely possible to bring the community on board - if you involve the community throughout the process. Unfortunately, that has not been the case here in Onteora - which is why the Community is so divided.