Live Blog: Sachem Central School District Board of Education Meeting

Miss Wednesday night's Sachem Central School District Board of Education meeting? No worries, check out the rundown on Sachem Patch's live blog.

Location: Administrative Annex, Samoset Middle School

Time: Dec. 1, 7:30 p.m.

Opening minutes: Very light crowd tonight. No board recognitions, so no hoopla or cavalcade of people who leave after their photos are taken. Just business tonight.

7:33: Alan Sacher, the chair of the district's budget committee, is a visitor representing the committee and said they are looking at budget adjustments in light of the revenue shortfall for next year. He mentioned the following areas that may need adjustments - they are just looking at specific items right now:

• Alternative revenue streams, foundations building, field usage
• Class rosters, efficiency in whether classes are filled or not
• Co-curricular activities
• School sports, JV9 teams
• Student services, special education, social workers
• Summer school program - suspending, not eliminating
• Transportation - buses to other schools
• Text books and supplies 

7:47: Minor discussion about a $24,000 contract with Management Advisory Group Special Services, Inc., a consultant to confer with district personnel and file all school age public and private STAC forms and complete the AVLs for all special education students. According to Bruce Singer, Sachem's assistant superintendent for business, 56 percent of this is aide-able. 

7:55: It's presentation time. Jose Cruz, an assistant principal at Sachem North, is leading a chat about community education. 

8:05: They're scrolling through the district website and the page for community education. Or at least trying to. Difficulty logging into an internal site has slowed this meeting drastically.

8:09: They're in. It looks good. They showed a mock community education site that is in the works. It would be the place for newsletters, Sachem community information and many other programs. They even mentioned Sachem Patch being on the site - at least mentioned in a listing of information. Works for me!

8:19: Jessica DePasquale, Sachem's administrative assistant for instructional support, is discussing the curriculum council now. Members of the council have attended the , as well as the recent  last week. They will be looking at the common core curriculum in accordance to what the state wants. 

8:23: There has been a series of loud bangs, coming from outside the administrative annex here at Samoset. There have been four so far. It almost sounds like a bird is flying into the window, but I hardly doubt that would be the case at night.

8:25: Speaking in Covey terms, DePasquale said the curriculum council is focusing on what they can do, not what they can't do.

8:27: Jim Nolan, Sachem's Superintendent, is discussing Covey in full now. "We're not used to bringing everyone together to share opinions openly," he said. "It's exciting to see, whether through emails, or in the middle of a very intense moment, it working already. It validates the fact that the board chose to make one of its goals to instill leadership quality in people. It's not a program, it's a way of living our lives. We hope it becomes a common practice in our community."

8:32: Jill Karp, Sachem's assistant superintendent for elementary education, is giving an update about Sachem's elementary reading program.

8:37: That's the fifth bang of the night. It might be one of the vents. Hopefully someone from facilities is reading this so they can check it out tomorrow.

8:40: On Nov. 9 Sachem received a memo that the English regents will be Jan. 11 and another notice stating that if Sachem provided an exam as it normally would, the district would get dispensation and allow it to count as one of the 180 days required by the state. Sachem will provide the exam as it normally would - it's a three hour exam. The question is whether or not it will be a regular day or a testing day - this would affect all students in the high school. Paul Manzo, the district's assistant superintendent for secondary curriculum, is asking for Jan. 11 to be a regents day. It applies to about 400 kids in each high school, primarily juniors. The board and administration are debating now about the exam day. 

8:45: English teachers will be hands-on during that day. "Do we know what the justification is?" board president Rob Scavo asked Manzo about the changes. It would be nice if we had answers to anything the state does. They create a new exam and do not have a grading scale yet. That's the hold up. "How will we prepare our kids for the exam?" Scavo asked. 

"If you're going to assess writing through multiple choice, it's almost like the SAT," Nolan added. "It's far more difficult for students than having them write and assess their writing. I hope I'm wrong. Our English regents results have always been strong. This could be a drastic change that no one had time to prepare for."

8:50: Okay, it's official. It will be a testing day. The kids taking the test go to school, the others can stay home and, "study," administrators said.

8:55: Singer is giving a budget forecast update. Sachem could be losing up to $2 million in mid-year aide, but the district will not know until January, after Gov.-elect Cuomo takes office. 

"We need to look at what we can hold back on spending now," said board trustee Jim LaCarrubba.

Singer said the district budgeted for a cut of $750,000, but not $2 million. Sachem will have to make changes, as will almost every school district in the state. "The New York State Comptroller is much worse than what the office of the Governor is stating," Singer said.

9:00: Thanks for following! Leave us feedback/comments below on the blog and let us know what you think.

Next up: Catch us live on Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m when the board meets again.