Huntington School Board Notes
During their meeting this past Monday evening at Jack Abrams School, Huntington School Board members approved an agreement with ShotSpotter related to the placement of gunfire monitoring equipment at three district locations. The senor equipment is designed to assist Suffolk Police in their mission to help keep the community safe.
Trustees accepted the resignations of Huntington High School Latin teacher Sarah Hull Martino and Finley Middle School social studies teacher Bradley Reminick who both accepted new positions in other districts. Southdown School teacher assistant Meghan Woods also resigned, effective September 6.
Teachers Kathryn Carey (Finley, speech), Michelle Audia (Washington, classroom) and Hildi Stanford (Southdown, special education) were granted child care related leaves of absence.
Kenneth Donovan was given a probationary social studies teacher appointment. He is eligible for tenure on Sept. 1, 2014. Mr. Donovan was assigned to teach at J. Taylor Finley Middle School.
Jessica Castaneda (Southdown, music), Ozlem Artukmac (math) and Karen Morea (elementary, art) were approved for part-time teaching appointments for the 2011/12 school year.
Devin Auricchio was appointed to work as an art teacher at Huntington High School and Finley Middle School. Part of the appointment involves serving as a long term substitute for art teacher Karen Morea, who is out of work on a child care related leave of absence.
Trustees approved long term substitute teacher appointments for Melissa Goldsborough (Washington, special education), Kelli-Ann Connors (Southdown, special education), Tina Balducci (Flower Hill/Washington, special education), Sara Winterling (Huntington High School, English), Risa Brachman (Finley, speech) and Marilyn Broomer (Woodhull, classroom).
Six teachers were recalled from the district's preferred eligibility list, including elementary classroom teachers Michelle Audia, Doreen Ellis, Dawn Ginty and Christina Droskoski, social studies teacher Gene Acevedo and elementary health teacher Natalee Rubcewich. Melissa Sarducci was recalled from the preferred eligibility list and assigned to work as a teacher assistant at Southdown School.
Robert Norton was approved to work as a district wide maintenance mechanic III, effective September 12. Vernay Harrison was recalled to work as a high school special education aide. Extra duty assignments were approved for Jessica Caseneda, Jennifer Oskenhorn, Daniel DeOliveria and Frank Battista, who will all serve as Blue Devil marching band staff members.
Salary schedule changes were approved for teachers Gene Acevedo, Lauren Baglivi, Ellen Blanchard, Dawn Ginty, Christopher Hender, Jessica Medina, Erica Murphy, Matthew Perlongo, Cinzia Reeves and Ashley Williams.
Trustees approved the transfer of $552,741 from the district's worker's compensation reserve fund to the general fund for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011. The amount represents the worker's compensation expenses during the 2010/11 school year. As the time of the transfer, the district's worker's compensation fund contained approximately $3,385,735.
The district's annual professional performance review plan was approved in accordance with state education law. It will be filed with the district clerk and posted on the district website.
Trustees also took the following actions:
• Approved a consultant services contract with Bilinguals, Inc. for the evaluation of students.
• Approved providing a bank of $600 in start-up monies for the district's school lunch program.
• Approved a consultant services contract with Institute for Children with Autism for autism and behavioral consultations, parent training, transition services, staff development and home based services. ICA will be paid $100 or $125 per hour depending on the specific service provided.
• Approved a request by Superintendent James W. Polansky that he attend the 2011 Fall Leadership Summit sponsored by the New York State Council of School Superintendents.
• Approved a consultant services contract with Avatar Counseling Innovations, Inc. for counseling support services. The company will be paid $80 per hour, including cancelled appointments by students or parents.
• Approved the addition of teacher Francesca Crobak to the list of employees authorized to receive reimbursement for district related travel between buildings.
• Approved a consultant services contract with Island Better Hearing for a variety of audiological services for students.
• Approved a series of budget transfers to cover the costs associated with supplies for two-days of administrative workshops and for Superintendent's Conference Day ($2,500), conference attendance and office supplies ($1,600), a camera for Southdown School ($31), supplies for school nurses ($3,000), special education workbooks ($1,200), Federal Express expenses for 2011/12 ($2,000), replacement of a dozen broken library chairs at J. Taylor Finley Middle School ($1,576.92) and various end of fiscal year transfers from one account code to another.
• Approved a consultant services contract with Nassau Suffolk Services for Autism for behavior consultation services, staff and parent training, behavior intervention services, augmentative and assistive technology consultation and augmentative communication evaluation and a 1:1 ABA trained teacher/consultant teacher.
• Approved a consultant services contract with Adults & Children with Learning Disabilities for educational services. The company will be paid $85 per hour.
• Approved a special education services contract with the West Islip School District.
• Approved a contract with Western Suffolk BOCES for cooperative educational services.
• Approved an assistive technology contract with the South Huntington School District.
• Approved a letter of agreement with Verizon Corporate Services Group related to the broadcast of "sports games and other events on FiOS1, FiOS TV's video on demand service and Verizon Wireless's V CAST service." The agreement runs through July 31, 2012.
• Approved bid awards for interactive whiteboards and ancillary products and Epson LCD projection systems. The bids were secured by Educational Data Services.
• Awarded a bid for boiler repairs to Ultimate Power, Inc.
• Approved a request for proposal submitted by Cullen & Danowski for external audit services submitted. The first year rate will be $42,900 while the five year rate is set at $224,300. The district's audit committee had previously reviewed the proposal and recommended approval of Cullen & Danowski's RFP. Cullen & Danowski's rate in 2010/11 was $48,900.