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Clean up efforts lauded
The volunteer response from the Granville school district was praised by school officials Monday night at the Sept. 19 meeting of the Granville Board of Education.
Board member Eric Scribner expressed thanks to administrators and fellow board members for an outstanding response to the request for volunteers put out by Granville Little League officials.
Little League put out a plea to the community for assistance in cleaning up the debris-strewn fields covered in the detritus left behind by the flood water from Tropical Storm Irene. Scribner said the turn out helped make the clean up go smoothly and he thanked interim high school Principal James Donnelly and assistant principal Dan Poucher for getting the word out to the students and parents.
“The school did a nice job supporting the Little League clean up,” Superintendent Mark Bessen echoing Scribner. Board President John Steves said he thought the clean up had been a great teamwork effort where many people volunteered their time.
In other news, Bessen said he received confirmation that the request to delay school tax payments made by Granville Supervisor Matt Hicks was imminent.
In light of the damage to several Granville homes from flooding Aug. 28, officials asked those residents be allowed to delay making tax payments.
The board of education later approved the measure which allows anyone who owes school taxes to delay payment after finding out certain residents cannot be singled out for unique treatment even in the event of a natural disaster.
The press release said Gov. Andrew Cuomo planned to sign the request soon, likely after all districts in the flooding-impacted areas had filed for the interest and penalty free delay of school tax payments.
Bessen said Hicks and Salem Supervisor Seth Pitts had been burning up the phone lines as a part of the effort to find out the status of the request.
Principal Donnelly reported a new program to deal with late arrivals for the school day was proving quite successful. “If you take our time, we’re going to take yours,” Donnelly said. Students arriving late for school are forced to sit alone during their lunch periods at a ‘tardy table.’ The isolation and loss of socialization time with classmates has acted as a motivator, and Donnelly said the high school is seeing a marked improvement in on time arrivals as a result.
Parents and students coming to the Tuesday, Sept. 27 open house at the high school will be able to get dinner and a show after the board approved a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for that night. The proceeds from the dinner will go to support the host graduating class.
Board member Scribner also reported that an investigation into the pros and cons of sharing a transportation supervisor found the move will not work.
“I was in favor or it until we looked into it,” he said.
Scribner said without outside support for the move in the form of subsidies or consolidation grants, sharing would save less than $2,000 and cost the district the personal full time attention of the transportation supervisor.
Officials began to investigate the possibility of sharing a transportation supervisor with Fort Ann after current holder of the job, Bob Jones, announced his intension to retire during this school year.
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