Building a bridge over the dam of confusion

By SARAH GOLDMAN

NARROWSBURG, NY — With a large building project underway, the Sullivan West School District reviewed ongoing engineering and architectural issues during the school board meeting on June 5. Several omissions and change orders were discussed with Turner Construction representative Scott Bridie.

The ongoing plans include storm water management and landscaping on the Lake Huntington site in an effort to clear up water runoff from the site construction. Bridie confirmed that Hillier Engineering Technologies (HET) would pay for any corrective measures for errors made by Hilliard and such errors will not be an expense for Sullivan West.

The board unanimously voted to allow the superintendent to hire both Engineering Consultant Arnold Bertsche and LZA Technologies, an engineering consulting firm, for the building project. Bertsche was an engineer for Greenman- Pedersen, Inc. (GPI), the engineering company that HET has recently acquired. Since the merger of GPI and HET, Bertsche has become an engineering consultant. He has been a part of the Sullivan West building project since the beginning and, according to Superintendent Michael Johndrow, has a reputation for being honest and experienced.

Bridie said Bertsche’s role on this project is to correct problems, provide project continuity and oversee the completion of the building project.

New policy for teacher’s children

By a five-to-three vote, the board passed a ruling that will allow the children of teachers that live outside the district the opportunity to attend Sullivan West schools tuition free. This policy essentially means that the district will provide an education without any tax revenue for that student.

In a related issue, Johndrow said special-needs students will receive aid as long as there is an existing program and the district does not have to hire additional staff. The home district of the student must determine the initial individualized education program (IEP). If a student from outside of the district voluntarily chooses to attend Sullivan West, and upon enrolling Sullivan West determines an IEP, Sullivan West must incur the cost for that student. If another district refers the student to Sullivan West and the IEP is determined at that home district, the costs associated with the IEP will be borne from that district.

Johndrow said attendance aid will be collected by the school regardless of what district the student lives in, but the state has capped the limit to aid and once the attendance reaches a certain level, the state does not give additional aid. Johndrow said another negative aspect to this policy is that the district does not receive any tax money from the out-of-district youth and the district must pay for additional costs.

Richard Lander, who voted against the policy, said the potential cost to the taxpayers is too much.

“I have no problem with this policy, if we keep it within the district,” Lander said. “What I’m afraid of is special ed[ucation students] from Pennsylvania, Monticello and so forth, that have a real hardship when they come in, and I think that will cause discrimination if you don’t give them the one-on-one aid. And I don’t think the taxpayers should pay for that.”

“Either you want to do that as a benefit to the staff or you don’t,” Jerry Triolo said. “How much risk are you taking? The ratio of risk is very minimal.”

The original policy said that the children of district teachers could attend the school their parent worked in instead of the school that might be closest to them.