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Asking the Monroe-Woodbury School Board questions: At each regular school board meeting, usually scheduled once each month on a Wednesday, and usually held at the Education Center on route 32 in Central Valley, the board allows residents to ask questions. NOTE: Special meetings do not allow for public comment or questions. Public comment is limited to three minutes; they have an egg timer and they are not afraid to use it! We suggest you write your comments and/or questions to be sure you keep to the three minute limit. We also suggest that you prepare a copy and hand it to the board president when you finish your remarks. Since the meetings are not recorded, either audio or video, and no court reporter is used, sometimes BOE (Board of Education) minutes do not accurately reflect either your comments or the BOE's reply. Even handing them your comments does not put them into the record. Your words will be edited for some reason. And questions too difficult to answer will go unanswered unless you are diligent in following up at successive meetings. September 10, 2003The following questions were put to the BOE at the September 10, 2003 meeting, which was attended by approximately 220+ concerned taxpayers of Monroe Woodbury!! This statement was made by Monroe resident John Collins: "Good evening madam President, Mr. Olivo, board members, and administrative staff. My name is John Collins and I’m a resident of Monroe. I would like to address the board tonight about ordinary contingent expenses. An anonymous resident has circulated a paper which alleges several expense issues that may be contrary to a contingency budget’s intent. I understand that the law gives broad powers to the Board to allow, quite frankly, anything in the budget. I suppose the law was written that way because it was expected that Boards would make appropriate decisions regarding what to cut or keep. Does the district provide Mr. Olivo either a vehicle or payment for his transportation on official business throughout the district? If so, is this deemed “Necessary travel expenses of board members and employees on official business”? as stated in Counsel Opinion #213? If Mr. Olivo has such a vehicle is he allowed to drive it home? Or to other places? And how is that considered official business? Are other employees furnished either a vehicle or payment for transportation of official travel? If so, please explain the contingent necessity and identify who is provided such? Another allegation is the procurement of new computers, laptop, desktop, or hand-held. Is this true? Although Opinion #213 states that “rental” of computers is NOT an ordinary contingent expense, how can you believe buying them is? Our children have been told that field trips are all cancelled due to the contingency budget. Is that true? Section 2023 of the Education Law specifically states, “…school districts shall continue to transport students for interscholastic athletics, field trips, and other extracurricular activities, and to and from the regular school program…” Why then are field trips cancelled? Additionally, transportation previously provided for years, to move children “from school” to Sacred Heart School and/or other places has been eliminated it is alleged. Is that true? If so, why doesn’t the provision of 2023 I just read apply, regarding your requirement to transport students “from” school. The fact the bus goes to a parochial school is irrelevant. The students could be dropped at the nearest intersection, but that wouldn’t be safe, would it? So now having dozens of parents at school when dismissal has hundreds of kids and dozens of busses around isn’t safe either. That violates the law that states you must operate a safe district. If any of the aforementioned items are true, I believe you have either violated the law or the intent of a contingent budget. I urge you to fix these things at your earliest opportunity and to report them fixed to the residents of this district at your next meeting. Thank you." The BOE's response to some of Mr. Collins' questions are viewed in the minutes available on the district's web site. The following excerpts from those approved minutes are taken from the Questions and/or Comments from Interested Citizens section: "Mr. John Collins (Monroe) – Mr. Collins distributed a copy of his statement to members of the Board (see attached). Briefly Mr. Collins spoke regarding ordinary contingent expenses; Mr. Olivo’s District car; an inquiry as to if there are other District employee cars; purchase of computers, laptops, desktops; the cancellation of field trips and cancellation of transportation for religious school classes. In response to Mr. Collins quote of the law that field trips can continue under an austerity budget, Mrs. Perez said that he quoted the law correctly but that the law states can…not must continue. She explained that field trips alone would have cost the District $69,000 and when the Board reviewed the budget line-by-line a decision was made in an attempt to keep the taxes at a reasonable level, field trips was one of the items cut, with the exception of the fifth grade trip made to the Challenger and this is for curriculum purposes. She added that no trips will be made beyond a 100-mile radius for athletics, Odyssey of the Mind, competition, music, etc will not transport out of state. Mrs. Perez explained that about seven years ago the District was able to provide busing for religious classes at no cost because the District was smaller and children were enrolled in religious facilities closer to their homes. She said since that time with student enrollment growth and the availability of children to attend houses of worship outside of their transportation route it has made it too costly to continue. Mrs. Perez said that there are an equal number of residents that are just as annoyed that the District has provided this transportation as there are annoyed that it is being discontinued. Mrs. Perez said that Sacred Heart and St. Anastasia have also made the decision to move the start time of the religious program to a later time allowing the children to travel home from school before going to their religious class allowing a smaller number of parents necessary to come to the schools to pick up their children for the same purpose. In response to Mr. Collin’s comments regarding Mr. Olivo’s District car, Mr. Olivo explained that the car is part of his employment contract agreement as is the case with most other school districts. He said that this agreement has been in effect for all superintendents in Monroe-Woodbury for decades." The BOE president states that the law does not require that field trips be kept, but rather the BOE made a conscience decision to cancel them. It seemed that finding $69,000 to cut elsewhere in a $103,000,000.00 budget was in the "too difficult to find" category. We believe they could have found that money and that they canceled the trips out of spite. The other activities she mention that were cut are also key programs that have made this district a top district in the past. Denying children these educational opportunities was a big mistake. The superintendent's explanation of his taxpayer funded vehicle for his personal use does not fully convey the truth. He states that "most other school districts" provide a vehicle, yet the BOE president, in a letter to the editor of the Photo News on October 24, 2003 states that approximately 83 district superintendents in New York State (out of more than 720+ districts) are provided vehicles. The term "most" must come from the new math. Additionally the superintendent's assertion that it is a decades old tradition simply means that we've always done it in the past why should we change now. Although not in the approved minutes several people heard the BOE president state that no other employees are provided a vehicle or payment for official local transportation as Mr. Collins had requested. Neither the BOE president nor the superintendent answered Mr. Collins' question about his personal use of the taxpayer funded vehicle in the minutes, but several of us remember him stating that "...virtually everything I do is school business." As you can see, not recording the BOE meetings either on audio tape or video tape leaves much to interpretation. Even though Mr. Collins gave them a copy of his questions it is not placed into the minutes kept on the web site. You will see other items in the minutes that are "attached" but are not available on the web site. When queried as to why they can't be included we were told it is to difficult.
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