New Paltz Central School District

August 23, 2024

Dear Friends of the New Paltz Central School District,

Last week was busy and productive and it featured a board meeting with many important action items and discussions.  I would like to take a moment and fill you on all that is going on”

New Duzine Principal Appointed

I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Melissa Jean-Paul has been appointed as our new Duzine Principal and she will assume her duties on September 23, 2024. 

Dr. Jean-Paul received her Doctor of Education, Educational Leadership, from Manhattanville University in May 2021.  She worked for the Washingtonville Central School District for over 20 years, serving as an elementary school teacher, an elementary assistant Principal, and a middle school assistant Principal.  She currently serves as the elementary Principal at the Tuxedo School District.

We are very excited to have Dr. Jean-Paul join our district.  She has the knowledge and experience we were hoping to find in a candidate.  In my conversations with her I have been impressed with her enthusiasm and her child-centered approach to education.  I am sure students, parents, teachers and staff will greatly enjoy working with her.

I would also like to thank the committee of administrators, teachers, and parents who helped in the selection process.  Their efforts were crucial in identifying Dr. Jean-Paul as a top candidate.  Thank you also to interim Duzine Principal Michelle Knowlton who will continue to run the building until Dr. Jean-Paul’s arrival.

New Elementary Teachers Appointed

We realize that elementary students look forward each summer to finding out who their new teacher will be.  While most students got this information in early August, there are those who have been waiting for this important information as we worked to complete the hiring process.

At our meeting on Wednesday night, the board officially approved three new teachers.  Ms. Amanda Fritche will serve as our new 2nd grade teacher.  Ms. Fritche is a familiar face at Duzine as she filled in half of last year as a substitute teacher for long-time 2nd grade teacher Kathryn Gulitti.  Ms. Gulitti, after over 30 successful years in our district, has now retired from our school and Ms. Fritche will take over Ms. Gulitti’s position permanently.  Fun fact…..Ms. Gulitti was Ms. Fritche’s 2nd grade teacher so it is great to welcome back one of our own students.

Ms. Meghann Sniffen will be our newest 4th grade teacher.  Meghann comes to us from the Cairo-Durham Central School District where she currently serves as a 4th grade teacher.

Ms. Mackenzie Fischer will be our newest kindergarten teacher.  Among her other many experiences, Ms. Fischer served as a substitute teacher this past school year with the Rondout School DIstrict.

Due to some reductions of positions in 6th grade, some shuffling of positions was necessary this year.  For those students who are wondering who their new 5th grade teacher will be, I am happy to announce that long time 6th grade teacher Heather Hopper will be taking over a 5th grade classroom this year in Lenape.

We are pleased to welcome Ms. Fritche, Ms. Sniffen, and Ms. Fischer to our district.  We are fortunate to have them and they will  do a great job.  We thank Ms. Hopper and the many other teachers who are taking on the challenge of a new grade level this year.  We are confident that they will be very successful in their new roles.

Other Hiring Updates

At the meeting on Wednesday, the board approved the resignation of MS Assistant Principal Jessica Miller.  Jessica has left to take on a Principal role at the Putnam-Westchester BOCES.  We thank her for her service to the district and wish her well in her new position.  We have already begun looking for a new assistant Principal for the district.

We are pleased that former NP elementary teacher Wendy Veeder, whose position was eliminated due to budget cuts in 2023 has been recalled from the preferred eligibility list.  Ms. Veeder will return to her role as a full-time Kindergarten teacher.  Welcome back Wendy!

Last week we received a resignation letter from long time special education teacher Jill Christensen.  Ms. Christensen will be taking on a job closer to her home.  Thank you Jill for your service to the district.  A search for a replacement for Ms. Christensen has already begun.

The district searched diligently this summer for a certified library media specialist to replace our former high school librarian, Joanna Arkans, who left mid-year to take a job with our local BOCES.  Unfortunately, we were not able to find a certified replacement, but we have found a qualified replacement.  Ms. Tara Hewitt has served as the clerk in the high school library for the past year and a half and she has learned a lot working under Ms. Arkans and long time elementary librarian Joann Martin.  Ms. Hewitt is currently taking classes to become a library media specialist and we anticipate her becoming certified sometime in the spring.  We welcome Ms. Hewitt to her new role in the district and we thank Ms. Martin for serving as the interim HS librarian for half of last year.  Ms. Martin will now be the elementary librarian at Duzine and Lenape.

Continuing Education Update

Many school and community members have come forward and offered to provide classes/activities for our inaugural district community education program that is slated to run from September through early December.  School board members Heather Kort and Olivia Treubig have donated their time to organize the offerings and we have prepared a google-doc brochure that will be shared with the public in the next few days.

On Wednesday night, the board reviewed the list of offerings and endorsed the plan.  Stay tuned for a special update in the next couple of days that will give you all of the information you need to learn about and sign up for offerings.  We encourage you to participate fully and to share the information with everyone you know.

Capital Project Update

At the school board meeting on Wednesday night, the board discussed the August 7th presentation given by our architectural firm, H2M, gave a presentation on the proposed capital project.    We encourage you to check out  the H2M presentation, which breaks down the proposed changes and updates into three groups as well as a list of other items that might be considered for inclusion in options 1-3.  Their recommendations are a result of many discussions by the district facilities committee, comments from the community, a review of our recent building condition survey, and thoughts shared by the board of education during school board meetings.As a review, here is a summary of the information provided.

Priority 1 items are related to safety and the efficient running of the school district.

Proposition # 1

Proposition #2 includes mostly updates to athletic facilities and AV items for the MS Auditorium.

Proposition # 2

As mentioned, it is likely that proposition #2 ($10,577424) will not be allowed to pass unless Proposition #1 passes.  

In some cases, the H2M presentation also included annual maintenance costs.  For example, the estimated cost to maintain a rubber turf field is about $8,000 per year.

Proposition #3 contains one item, an aquatics center that would be connected to the back of the high school.  The estimated total cost of this aquatics center is $19,000,000.

The yearly maintenance cost of running and maintaining the pool would be about $17,000 per year.  Additional staff including life guards, swim instructors, and possibly maintenance staff  would have to be hired.  The amount of new staffing would depend in part on how often the pool was being used.  As you can see, H2M gave a yearly staffing estimate of up to $100,000.  

As you can see, the amount of money everything in options 1-3 would cost adds up quickly!

And yet, there are still more items that could be added.  In particular, air conditioning in our schools has been talked about a great deal lately as the number of really hot days seems to be increasing.  Therefore, we asked H2M to price out the cost of adding  air conditioning to all rooms in all four schools, as well as pricing out just large group areas such as the high school auditorium, the middle school auditorium, and the Duzine gymnasium.  Here are some numbers that might be of interest to you:

AC in the High School Auditorium >>> $1,510,080   

($10,000 per year added electrical/maintenance costs)

AC in the Middle School Auditorium >>> $1,372,800  

($10,000 per year added electrical/maintenance costs)

AC in the Duzine Gymnasium >>> $1,304,160  

($7,500 per year added electrical/maintenance costs)

AC throughout all four buildings  >>>  $26,769,600 

($250,000 per year added electrical/maintenance costs)

On Wednesday night, the board discussed at length their thoughts on the H2M proposal.   You can watch the full meeting and listen to this discussion by clicking on this link.  During their discussions, the board made some preliminary decisions, they asked some questions that will be posed to the architects from H2M, and they asked the district facilities committee to further refine the proposal and make (possibly) final recommendations before the next board meeting on September 4th

Some decisions the board made were to save money by removing the HS tennis courts from option 2 and  to reduce money spent on repairing tennis courts at the MS,  

The board did not endorse the idea of putting AC in all of the rooms throughout the district but they were supportive of putting AC in large group areas such as the HS auditorium and the MS auditorium.  It is likely that these items will be added to proposition 2. (As you might have heard, we already anticipate having AC installed in the Lenape library before school starts).

The board was not in support of spending money to resurface the MS basketball courts, but they were in support of finding ways to make the MS playground area more fun and engaging for our students.

The board discussed at length the proposal for an artificial turf field.  While some reservations were expressed about the merits of a turf field as opposed to a grass field, the board felt that there was little point in spending money to significantly upgrade the athletic facilities, bleachers, score board, and lighting at the Floyd Patterson Field if we did not go with a turf field.  Grass fields can only be used sparingly if they are going to remain in good shape.  A turf field would allow most sports teams to have a chance to play on the field under the lights, rather than just the football team a few times per year.  The board wanted all students to have access to an upgraded sports complex.  For this reason, the board endorsed keeping a turf field in proposition #2.

Please realize that these decisions are not yet finalized.  The board will be interested in hearing the thoughts of the facilities committee.  They are also very interested in hearing what the public has to say, as it is the public who will ultimately make the final decision about whether or not these plans are approved.  Please send me any comments you have on this topic as soon as possible and I will share them with the board and the facilities committee.

Demolition of the Old District Office

Progress is being made.  Asbestos abatement has been completed and security fencing is in place.

We anticipate that demolition will take place next week and the building will be gone before school starts.

Shout out to our facilities/custodial staff and summer workers

A lot of people have been doing a lot of work this summer.  Much of what is done goes unnoticed and unrecognized.  One particular group that falls into this category is our facilities and maintenance department.  They have gone above and beyond this summer fixing, cleaning, and repairing things.  When you get a chance, please check out the painting and cleaning that has been done to the outside of most buildings. They are looking great.

The custodians do a huge amount of work each summer cleaning all of the rooms.  They take everything out of every classroom each summer, polish the floors, clean the walls, clean the furniture, and then put everything back.  You can imagine what an arduous job this is.  

Things break and wear out each year.  Our custodial staff makes the necessary repairs and changes.  For example, you may not get a chance soon to see the new carpet in the Lenape library or the new faucets and toilets in the bathrooms in many buildings, but these updates are necessary to provide the educational environment our students deserve.

Our Lenape Head Custodian, Rich Gallina, is leaving after many years to move south with his family.  I received this email today from one of his co-workers.

I have been working for public agencies since 1990. As you are well aware people come and go in civil service. I just wanted you to know that Rich Gallina is one of the hardest working and best qualified people I have ever worked with in the public sector. He has been a great supervisor in our department and his leaving is going to be a tremendous loss.  We all wish him well in Tennessee. 

This is a great endorsement of Rich’s work from a colleague.  Similar statements could be made about most of the people who work hard through the summer to get things ready including administrators and office staff who work 12 month positions, teachers, nurses and aides who serve our students during summer school, counselors who put together master schedules and information for students, secretarial staff who make sure all paperwork is ready to go and who provide the organization that makes the school run, transportation staff who get our bus fleet and bus schedules ready to go, our technology staff who makes sure chromebooks and other tech needs are ready for day 1, our fall coaches who already have our student athletes out on the sports fields, our cafeteria staff who make plans for the school year and whose work will be greatly increased by the Community Eligibility Grant that will provide free breakfast and lunch for all students, and our school board members who continue to do outstanding volunteer work even though school is not is session

It truly takes a team to get ready for the start of school.  Thank you to all who are putting in the necessary work to get ready for 2024-2025.  This is an exciting time of year.

Regards,

Stephen Gratto - Superintendent