School Board Members Disagree on Hiring Strategy, Honors Students

While it wasn't an agenda item, setting a hiring policy for the Smithtown School District was the main focus of the school board meeting held Tuesday night.

Tension between board members quickly heightened when Joseph Saggese, school board vice president, broached the idea of creating a policy that would instruct the district's administration not to hire replacements for retiring teachers.

"We lost four million dollars in state aid and had to cut people last year. We need to be more proactive instead of being reactive by discussing cutting programs after the fact," Saggese said.

Gladys Waldron, a 33-year veteran of the school board, questioned Saggese's motives, asking if he was suggesting a hiring freeze.  If he was, she said she would not support it.  "We have to think about the health and safety of our students," she said. "We can't have students sitting in classrooms without teachers."

Saggese said he was not recommending a hiring freeze, but rather asking the board if they were interested in saving the district money over a period of time, rather than making cuts all at once at the end of a budget cycle.  "We can do it judiciously," he said.

Saggese pointed out that each year, nearly 60 teachers put in retirement papers.  If half of those teachers, who are at the higher end of the district's pay scale, are not replaced, the district can save an large amount of money.  

"Being proactive is not a novel idea. This is what countless businesses are already doing," he said.

Waldron nor fellow board member Theresa Knox supported Saggese's plan.

"This is not a business," argued Waldron. "This is education."

"We shouldn't wait until the hammer comes and then start cutting programs and sports and everyone goes into an uproar," Saggese responded.

Holding up his copy of the meeting's agenda, Neil Carlin, a three-year board member, pointed to the numerous appointments set to be approved by the board at the meeting. "Isn't what you are asking what we are doing tonight by approving new personnel?" he said. "It is already our responsibility. We can question all of these in personnel discussion."

The discussion quickly moved from looking at the district's hiring strategy when it comes to teachers to exploring the district's entire expenditure footprint, which rises annually by about $6 million, according to Karen Ricigliano, assistant superintendent for personnel services.

Superintendent Edward Ehmann jumped in to assure board members that the district's administration does everything it can to cut costs.  "We can track it for you and show that the footprint of our district has not grown.  We have replaced teachers to accommodate our program, but we have not added any.  Your request has been accommodated over the years."

Ehmann further pointed out that the district kept the budget at bay as instructed by board members during the last budget cycle.

What would be constructive Ricigliano said, would be for the board members to "look at where the district can economize in terms of programs." 

After over an hour of discussion, board members could not agree on what, if any, policy should be created regarding the hiring of new teachers. However, all concurred that a harder look into the district's spending would be beneficial.

The discussion is expected to resume at the board's Nov. 23 meeting where  Ricigliano will present the board with information pertaining to the district's hiring of teachers over the past several years.

In the meantime, the board's business committee, which Saggese is a member of, has been charged with working on a tangible policy directive regarding the hiring practices of the school district.

Aside from discussing hiring, the school board also honored numerous students at its meeting, including a group of students who obtained a MIT grant to create a portable solar tracker for families in Nicaragua. The solar tracker would be sold at an affordable price to families to create electric in their homes.