Schools
Board of Ed Makes an Addition and a Subtraction
Trustee Jean-Marie Posner takes part in her final meeting as a school board member; board approves appointment of new Daly Elementary School principal.
Tuesday night's school board meeting began with the swearing in of one board member and ended with a fond farewell to another.
"Mr. [William] Hohauser being sworn in shows the dedication to the community that all of these volunteers have," Superintendent Dr. Geoffrey Gordon said. "And we also have a person on this board, Jean-Marie Posner, who is retiring tonight and has done a tremendous job in all of her years of service."
Much of the remainder of the Port Washington School District's June Board of Education meeting was filled with praise and applause for Posner, whose term ends on June 30, before the board's next meeting in early July.
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"I first met Jean-Marie when we were parent volunteers and I'd like to thank her for her service to the district," board president Karen Sloan said.
Trustee Dr. Roy Nelson added, "A few years ago, Jean-Marie ran unopposed for her position. The fact that she still campaigned and put herself out there for the community exemplifies the person that she is."
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Posner thanked many people within the district including the other board members, the superintendent and the people in the community during her farewell address. "Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to serve, and it has been my pleasure," she said. "This hasn't been a job, it has been a joy and I will miss it."
After the kinds words were spoken, the board finally got down to business. One of the many items voted on and approved at the meeting was the appointment of Drew Graves as Daly Elementary School's principal, despite dissent from Nelson. Graves was appointed with a three-year probabtionary period.
"I'm a believer in process and policy and the school board was left out of this appointment," Nelson said. "I'm sure Mr. Graves is capable and I wish him luck, but because we were left out of the process, I cannot support the decision." Nelson abstained from the approval vote, which passed by a vote of 5-0 as trustee Sandy Erlich was not present at the meeting.
"I'm very excited about becoming a part of the Port Washington leadership team and I can't wait to get started," Graves said of his taking over for Principal Elaine Ajello who is retiring at year's end.
Another item that drew much debate was the decision to lessen the amount of school board meetings to 19 for the 2010-11 school year.
"We only have 19 meetings, and I can think of about 25 discussion items that I have," trustee Larry Greenstein said. "Five of these meetings are dedicated to the budget. I support adding more meeting days to next year's calendar."
Trustee Robert Seiden respectively disagreed with Greenstein's sentiment.
"I believe that we have a board that's experienced and efficient enough to get things done with this schedule," Seiden said. "If we have to add meetings as we go along so be it, but it's a lot harder to cancel meetings than it is to add them."
The motion was passed 4-2 with Nelson and Greenstein as the dissenters.
The Board of Education will hold its next meeting on July 8 at 7:30 p.m. at Schreiber High School. It will serve as a re-organization meeting as Bob Ryan, who received the most votes in the May trustee election, will replace Posner on the board.
