Susan Koukounas was elected president of the Riverhead Board of Education by fellow board members at last night’s organizational meeting for the 2015-2016 school year. Amy Lantz was elected vice president. Koukounas served as vice president of the board last year.
Ann Cotten-DeGrasse, who was elected to the board in May after a one-year hiatus, took the oath of office for a new three-year term.
Charging for facility use?
Christopher Dorr and Greg Meyer proposed that the district consider altering their policy for public use of the district’s facilities in response to the $18,000 administrative fee the district was charged for water hook up to the middle school.
“We allow the town recreation department to use our facilities without fee, I fully support the PAL program, my children play in it, I coach in it. I think we may have to look at other options,” Dorr said.
“I concur,” Meyer responded, adding, “I think that as a board we need to really reconsider our facility usages, who uses them, when they’re being used. We need to start considering charging for outside organizations. If the town falls under that, so be it,” he said.
“I know that any child in the program has to pay to be in those clubs and programs. So far we’ve been not charging a penny for our facilities.
“It’s very difficult thing for the Town of Riverhead because we’re not as big as the other towns to our east and west, but there’s obviously a disconnect for us to not have a chance to negotiate the administrative fees for hooking up of our water services for our projects. I think we need to reconsider how to do this.
“I’m a little disappointed in the town. I can’t really say it’s a certain board member or supervisor’s problem. But that’s really who we have to reach out to.”
Meyer requested that the board members on the intergovernmental committee reach out to the town to try to negotiate the administrative costs.
In a separate facilities issue, following up on a complaint from a member of the community, Lori Hulse questioned whether the public is currently – as has been past practice – allowed to use the new track located behind the high school. The complaint came from a community member who was asked to leave the track. In response, Superintendent Nancy Carney stated that she was aware of the incident, and had reached out to the community member personally to assure them that the track is in fact open to the public for use during non-school hours when the track is not in use by students.
Family Community Life Center
With three members abstaining last night, the board voted Tuesday night not to support the Family Community Life Center proposed by the First Baptist Church of Riverhead. (See previous story.). The motion failed with members Koukounas, Lori Hulse and Greg Meyer voting in favor and Cotten-DeGrasse, Dorr and Lantz abstaining; Kim Ligon was absent.
Lantz read a statement about her abstention. “The individuals who make up the RCSD elected me into this position based on similar views of education and the overall well-being of taxes, and to convey those similar views on their behalf thru voting on relative resolutions that are outlined in NY State Education Law 1709. As a Riverhead BOE member I am not comfortable voting on a resolution that is well outside of the jurisdiction of the BOE. Therefore I will abstain from voting on this resolution,” Lantz said.
“I do not believe this is within the purview of the school district,” Cotten-DeGrasse said.
“I may agree with a lot of what the Life Center is planning to do, I also don’t understand why they need the board of ed’s approval for this,” Dorr said. “It has nothing really to do with us, so I am not going to vote, I’m going to abstain.”
Koukounas countered that she did not believe this was outside of the purview of the board stating that the board should welcome partnerships with the community.
Pupil Personnel office, pre-school registration re-open July 13
During summer construction, the offices of Pupil Personnel Services and pre-school registration have been relocated to the south portables on School Street, on the high school campus. The office is closed through Friday, July 10 and will re-open in their temporary summer location on July 13 with office hours from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
High school facade
Board member Amy Lantz expressed her concern about the facade of the High School with the new addition. “Driving by the high school, my kids even noticed this, it screams addition and then the old portion of the school,” Lantz said, noting the difference in the appearance of the addition on the school from the existing portions.
Carney noted that repair work to the façade of the old portion of the high school were among the repairs authorized earlier in the evening as part of the repair reserve fund expenditure by the board. “That is making sure that the façade repair comes together so that it looks like one continuous building,” Carney explained.
Concerns about a retired employee
Former Board of Education member Kathy Berezny read a letter to the board of Education Tuesday night in which she discussed the treatment of recently retired, unnamed district employee.
“Thirty-five years in one place is a very long time, and when the time comes and you retire it is an emotional end-of-the-line ride for some people,” Berezny said, reading from her letter.
Berezny said she was approached by people who were not happy with how the retiree was treated by her building administrator.
“Sometimes just an embrace, a walk around the building or just talking can help someone with nearing the end of an era for them,” Berezny said.
“The tone starts at the top,” Berezny told the board.
2015-2016 meeting dates set
The Board of Education approved the following meetings for the 2015-2016 school year:
• Tuesday, July 7, 2015
• Tuesday, August 25, 2015
• Tuesday, September 8, 2015
• Tuesday, September 22, 2015
• Tuesday, October 13, 2015
• Tuesday, October 27, 2015
• Tuesday, November 10, 2015
• Tuesday, November 24, 2015
• Tuesday, December 8, 2015
• Tuesday, January 12, 2015
• Tuesday, January 26, 2015
• Tuesday, February 9, 2015
• Tuesday, February 23, 2015
• Tuesday, March 8, 2015
• Tuesday, March 22, 2015
• Wednesday, April 13, 2015
• Tuesday, April 26, 2015
• Tuesday, May 10, 2015
• Tuesday, May 24, 2015
• Tuesday, June 7, 2015
• Tuesday, June 21, 2015
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