Pearl River Board of Education Addresses Changing Standards, Tax Settlement

The Pearl River School District revealed a significant financial hit at Wednesday's board of education meeting.

The district will have to refund $575,000 to Chesapeake Holdings, which challenged the assessment of its Ramland Road property.

"That one hurt," Board of Education President Michael Clohessy said.

District Director of Operations Quinton Van Wynen said that the refund will be paid in two installments six months apart and much of it will come from the district's reserves.

New Librarian Hired

The board of education also approved the probationary hiring of Christine Calise, who will work as an elementary school librarian. She replaces Rosemary Amabile, who retired.

2011 Fall Coaches Approved

The personnel agenda also included the approval of the Fall 2011 coaching appointments. Most of the coaches are in the same positions they held in 2010.

The most notable change will be the expected return of Tim Peabody as girls varsity soccer head coach, a position he held for 19 seasons before having to miss the 2010 season with a medical leave.

Diana Gillule and Lisa Linehan acted as co-head coaches for that season. Gillule will be the assistant coach for the varsity and Linehan will coach the girls modified team. Matt Rose, the girls modified coach in 2010, will move over to the boys modified team, taking the place of Mark Bernasconi, who resigned.

New State Standards

New Pearl River Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Morgano said he will be asking Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Sue Wheeler to give a report on those areas during all board of education meetings.

Wheeler focused Wednesday on new standards adopted by the State of New York, primarily the change in mathematics.

"What is different about these core standards in mathematics and not very typical is that they tried to condense them and have each grade level own three or four specific things so that they develop fluency and mastery in both," Wheeler explained.

Teachers in the district have been working on analyzing the new standards this week. Third and fourth-grade teachers were in Tuesday and Wednesday, with teachers from fifth through eighth grade coming in today and Friday.

"Teachers are working locally to pull apart the new standards, look at what they say and how they say it because they are different," said Wheeler, who directly addressed some teachers who attended the meeting. "I have to commend you guys. You were very productive the whole time. They persevered and tried to figure this out. We are in a transition with this. We still have assessments based on the old standards, so they are meshing these together."

Wheeler said that while the new standards will be the priority, the district will not throw out everything it had been doing. She does expect new tests to be adopted to go with the standards.

"New York State has been part of this consortium to develop national standards," Wheeler said. "PARCC, the National Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career. They are going to come up with an assessment that is going to be tied to these standards. I would put money on the table that New York is going to buy into that assessment at some point."