Clarkstown Central School District Newsletter

News From the Board of Education Meeting

» BOE Unanimously Adopts Budget
The Board of Education unanimously adopted Superintendent Keller- Cogan's proposed 2011-12 budget of $173,894,684. The plan represents an anticipated 2.3% tax rate increase and a 3.3% budget to budget increase.

The budget plan goes to the voters on Tuesday, May 17, 2011. Voting will occur at Congers, Link and West Nyack Elementary Schools and North High School from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm.

In presenting the budget, the Superintendent underscored that the fiscally responsible spending plan for the upcoming year allows the district to accomplish the following:

Maintain our instructional programs at the 2010-2011 levels
Reinstate modified athletic cuts at FFMS, freshman sports, and some assistant varsity coaches at our high schools
Reinstate funds for student academic competitions at the State and national levels
Maintain staffing at the current year's level
Purchase replacement buses and instructional technology
Address security and safety issues in our schools that were identified in the five-year facilities plan
Make modest capital improvements at the North High School turf field

Both the Superintendent and Board of Education President Phillip DeGaetano acknowledged the district unions for agreeing to an 18 month pay freeze in order to ensure the district's sound financial footing. Dr. Keller-Cogan also thanked the district office staff who "for the past five years has been expected to do more, and do it very well, with fewer resources and less support."

Director of Fiscal Management John LaNave presented an pdf

overview of the financials on the Superintendent's plan and the cost to the taxpayers of a contingency budget. As stated, the budget provides funding for instructional technology.

As stated, the budget provides funding for instructional technology. Director of Instructional Technology John Krouskoff discussed the district's pdf

five-year technology plan, which he presented at a previous budget workshop.

The budget also restores high school freshmen sports. See a cost analysis and overview on the status of Freshmen sports in other districts.
pdf

Freshmen Sports Cost Breakdown

At a prior budget workshop, the Superintendent discussed the possibility of including a roof repair plan for the upcoming year. At the board meeting, Dr. Keller-Cogan clarified that there were no funds placed in the 2011-2012 budget for roof repairs due to the lack of sufficient time to meet the legal requirements needed for a roofing bond referendum. The board will continue discussions on the issue at a future meeting.

A public hearing on the budget, the final opportunity for the public to provide comments on the spending proposal, will be held on May 5, 2011 at 8:00 PM in the Main Board Room at Chestnut Grove.

Budget News from the State of New York
State Budget Establishes New 2% Cap on Increases in STAR Savings

The 2011-12 Enacted New York State Budget establishes a new cap on increases in STAR savings. Beginning with 2011-12 school levies, increases in STAR savings will be capped at 2% of the prior year savings.

The State Office of Real Property Tax Services (ORPTS) now publishes maximums for Basic and Enhanced STAR for each school district municipal segment. The STAR maximums are available online at http://www.orps.state.ny.us/star/maximum/index.cfm

MORE From the Board of Education Meeting
Students lead The Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance was beautifully recited by the following Laurel Plains Elementary students: Jennifer Backelman, Emily Brennan, Martin Brennan, Connor Hutt, Dylan Hutt, Megan Maloney and Tara Maloney and West Nyack Elementary School students: Melissa Etter, Sarah Forkin, Madison Jackson, Sean McManus, Kathleen Park and Steven Sloan.

To the audience's delight, gifted student musicians demonstrated their talents Sarah McGlinchy, Strawtown Elementary School student, performed Violin Concerto F. Seitz. Benjamin Yi, David Jo and Patrick Luce, Clarkstown High School South students, performed Celebration Suite Opus 41 by Norman Heim on the clarinets.

The Modern Woodmen's Speech Contest winners gave their award winning oratories on the topic of "An American Invention."
First Place - Jillian St. Onge, "The Cell Phone", 6th grade, FFMS
Second place - James Wiggins, "The Hubble Telescope" , 6th grade, FFMS
Third place - Phoebe Fisher, "Rock and Roll", 5th grade, Lakewood Elementary School.

The Board recognized Eagle Scout Harrison Weisberg.
Harrison, a junior at Clarkstown High School South and a graduate of Link Elementary, created an outdoor classroom for Link as his Eagle Scout Project.
Click here for full story.

CCSD at the Cutting Edge
Selected by Google to Pilot New Google Netbooks

Our district has been selected by Google to pilot the use of the soon-to-be-released Chrome OS Netbooks. In an email to the district, Google's management team commented, "After talking with the Chrome OS team, we're happy to be able to offer you a classroom set (30-35) of Chrome OS Netbooks to pilot!" This cost-free offer from Google will allow the district's technology committee to explore the potential of using these innovative tools to improve student engagement and learning. The offer is an extension of an ongoing relationship the district has developed with Google over the past two years. Currently, many teachers and students in the secondary schools are using Google Applications to collaborate on documents and research, and the elementary schools, using these online tools, have developed an extensive curriculum portal to ensure consistency and provide curricular resources to teachers.

Masters of the Word

Two Clarkstown students won highest honors in the Word Masters challenge.

Woodglen's Alex Fetterman and Bardonia's John Lei both earned perfect scores in The Wordmasters Challenge, two of only 25 students nationwide to obtain this honor. The event attracts students from across the country in this test of verbal agility. Last year, approximately 220,000 students competed from more than 3,600 teams nationwide.

Others on the Woodglen team included Edenna Chen, Typer Guarino, Caitlin Bennett, Matthew Kirby, Alex Kurland, Mary O'Connor and Elad Raymond. The Woodglen students were coached by Leighann Zeller, Christina Paul and Jen Kilb.

The WordMasters Challenge is a national competition for students in grades 3-8 which encourages growth in vocabulary and verbal reasoning.
This competition is unique in that is addresses higher-level word comprehension and logical abilities and helps student to think both analytically and metaphorically. Last year, more than 3,600 teams nationwide participated.

Cool Runnings and Reading at Lakewood Elementary
Lakewood Elementary School wanted to share the gift of reading with children around the world so they went into action. The students and staff organized a school wide book drive with the help of a PARP guest author and board of education member.

On April 5, under the leadership of the student government, the school gathered to collect and sort the books for mailing. The students did a great job and through the generosity of the Lakewood community, gathers boxes of books. The sites chosen for the donation were the Drews Primary School in Jamaica and the Dover School in Grenada.

A special guest was on hand to thank the Lakewood community for the donation, Jamaican bobsled team member, and Lakewood PARP guest author Devon Harris, whose Olympic story was featured in the movie Cool Runnings.

Board of Education member Donna Ehrenberg lent her support and donated books that were collected as part of a book donation program she spearheaded last December. Regina Ball at Chestnut Grove helped in the coordination of the efforts.

Strawtown Families Share The Love of Books
Strawtown held its third annual Family Book Club Wednesday night. More than 45 families and six teachers participated. School librarian Ms. Protzmann wrote a grant and received $400 to purchase all the books for the club this year. Each group read a different book and parents and students ran a book discussion for an hour. Many have decided to start their own book clubs, and one group will even be holding a summer book club at the community pool. Read On Strawtown!

TUNE IN AND VOTE -
North Dance Team's Got Talent!
Catch the Dance Team's Promotional Video with a Star Turn by Principal Leonardatos!

Out of hundreds of entry tapes, the Clarkstown North Dance Team was chosen to compete in the MSG Varsity's Talent Show. The MSG Varsity's Talent Show is a new show on iO TV Channel 14 similar to the TV show "America's Got Talent". This show will showcase the top 32 high school vocal and dance acts from the tri-state area.

Watch the CHSN Dance Team in action on Sunday, April 24th at 6:00 p.m. on iO TV Channel 14. Then...VOTE for them online at www.msgvarsitytalentshow.com. If you don't have iO TV you can still VOTE online. The acts that receive the most online VOTES will advance to the next round. There will be a winner in each category and there are only 8 dance groups in total.

VOTING is opened from 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 24th through 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 28th. (By the way....You can VOTE up to 5,000 times on one computer!)

From National History Day to the Big Screen
Jacob Kuhn and Hanna Levin, students at Clarkstown High School North, had their documentary on the creation of the State of Israel, Palestine: The Great Debate That Started a State, accepted into the JCC Jewish Film Festival. The work was shown March 29, 2011 at the Palisades Mall cinema to a near sold-out audience as part of the festival's featured films by Jewish actors, directors, and producers. The film was first noticed by judges at the Lower Lower Hudson Valley regional National History Day competition in March, where the students took home a third place finish. Competition judges encouraged the students to enter the work in the film festival.