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General News: News from the School Board
November 27, 2007
School Board President Airs His Letter Publicly
At Monday’s board of education meeting, school board president Brendan Coyne read a letter publicly because, he said, The Cornwall Local didn’t, or wouldn't, run it. The letter was in response to a November 2nd editorial in the paper that criticized the board for discussing goals at its August retreat, in violation of the state’s open meeting law.
In the letter, Coyne, said that he first learned that discussion of Board of Education goals wasn’t allowed at retreats after he did so in August. He also noted that he publicly acknowledged this error at a board of ed meeting in October that the newspaper did not report on. Further, he rejected the editorial’s assertion that goals were adopted at the retreat.
Local editor Margaret Menge, who was at Monday’s meeting, said that she was unaware that Coyne’s letter had not run in the paper and said it would run in a future issue.
Menge defended her editorial, re-iterating her criticism of Coyne, who, she said, was “very dismissive of the open meetings law” when they discussed it by phone last month. She also argued that by publishing the goals on the school district’s website the goals were in essence adopted and that to claim differently was semantics.
Menge ended her comments by telling the board she is not looking to pick a fight or to nail anyone, but that she believes that boards work best when their meetings are held in the open.
For his part, Coyne later said that he went into the board meeting thinking that his letter had been withheld on purpose and that he has not been convinced otherwise.
New Faces at Lee Road and the Middle School
The school board approved the creation of a .4 (less than half-time) speech teacher and appointed Loretta Russell to fill the position.
Four teachers, some of whom have been already substituting in the classrooms, were approved for leave replacements:
Lauren Feyen will replace fifth-grade teacher Joy Greenstein while she is on leave.
Lisa Jurgens will be teaching first grade in Chris Connelly’s classroom at Cornwall Elementary School at Lee Road.
Natasha Ramos will be assigned to the fourth-grade classroom of Patricia Duffy at Cornwall Elementary School at Lee Road.
Jamie Strauss will be assigned to a third-grade classroom at Cornwall Elementary School at Lee Road.
Fundraiser at Lee Road School a Success
Joann Parker of the Lee Road elementary school PTO was applauded for raising $25,000 for new equipment for the school’s playground. Together with other PTO members, Parker staged a local version of the TV game show “Deal or No Deal” in October to raise the funds, soliciting gifts and donations from local businesses who rallied to the cause.
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