Pearl River School Board Approves Addition of Transportation Proposal to Ballot

The Pearl River Board of Education passed a resolution accepting the Citizen Proposed Transportation Petition for the May 15 ballot as expected Tuesday.

Resident submitted the petition last week. The proposal is to return the range in which students are eligible to rid the bus to Pearl River High School to where it was in 2010-11, with all but students within 1.5 miles of the building able to ride the bus. The limits were changed to three miles for students in grades 9-12 and two miles for eighth graders for the current school year.

The board must pass a resolution accepting any citizen-initiated petition to put it on the ballot May 15. School Board President Michael Clohessy questioned if the board had to accept this one.  

"It has a right to go on the ballot," Board Member Bruce Bond said. 
"Isn't it a formality?" 

The board did pass the resolution, so the transportation proposal will be on the May 15 ballot along with the 2012-13 district budget and two seats on the board of education. There will be a budget hearing as part of the next school board meeting May 1 and a candidate’s night May 8. 

Pearl River Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Morgano said that legally the board did not have to accept the petition.

"There are instances when you can reject a proposal from taxpayers, such as if it is poorly written or if it is written in such a way that we can't possibly comply," District Director of Operations Quinton Van Wynen said. "Or if the request was such that we can't afford what it is asking us to do."

Van Wynen said that the proposal was in the proper format. It calls for the district to spend no more than $220,000 if the measure would pass to pay for the larger number of students who would be eligible to take the bus to the high school. 

"That is consistent with the cost of three afternoon buses, which were eliminated last year when we put the proposal in front of the voters.

"The request is to go back to where we were in 2010-11." 

Voters approved the change for the 2011-12 school year to the current three-mile limit last May, with the change gaining 63.4 percent of the vote, but there were a number of complaints once the change took effect in the fall, leading to the petition being submitted last week.

"We had enough complaints," Board Member Tom DePrisco said. "It looks clear to me. Let's make sure it's out there and everybody understands what it is." 

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The resolution was just part of a busy agenda Tuesday night.

The board of education also passed a resolution eliminating one full time elementary school classroom teaching position. 

"We have two sections at one of the elementary schools moving into a grade level that had three sections," said Pearl River Director of Human Resources and Community Services Diana Musich. "We have an excess of 1.0 teacher. We've known about this. We have been in conversations with people that are affected."

During his budget presentation to the board Feb. 22, Van Wynen mentioned that Evans Park Elementary School would have only two third-grade classes in 2012-13, down from three this year.

Among other items on Tuesday's Agenda:

• Approved 2012 BOCES Budget of $86,257,786.
• Approved candidates for each of the three vacancies on the BOCES board. This includes Pearl River School Board Member Rob Davis to represent Pearl River, Ronald Hansen to represent Nanuet and Rosemary Pitruzzella form South Orangetown.
• Van Wynen advised rejecting all three bids submitted for high school gym floor refinishing as all were above the approved funding.
• Superintendent Dr. John Morgano said the following regarding the passing last week of Franklin Avenue Elementary School Special Education Teacher Diane Meyerer: "It has been an emotional Week. Diane Meyerer passed away last week. She was here for 20 years at Franklin Avenue, beginning in September of 1992. Before that she worked at Rockland BOCES. She will certainly be missed. We attended a nice mass for her. The priest remarked about how many people were there. I think everybody who works at Franklin was there. It is a very somber time."
• Morgano joked that because the Pearl River High School Junior Prom is set to begin 7 p.m. Wednesday, he will not be able to hear by 11 p.m. that night.
• Morgano said he is not optimistic about the return of the sign that was stolen from its place near the entrance to the administrative offices on Crooked Hill Road.  He said the district would put up a smaller sign that had been up outside the old district offices in the high school.
• Morgano called Thursday, "Take your kid to test day," a reminder that state testing is going on the rest of the week. State math testing runs Wednesday through Friday.