New Milford Board of Education Reorganizes

The New Milford Board of Education held its reorganization meeting Wednesday night and gave the oath of office to three returning members and one new member.

John Bigger was sworn into office first by Business Administrator Michael Sawicz for the two-year unexpired term. Dan Conner, Paige Ryan and Florence "Peggy" Saslow were also sworn into office by Sawicz, each for three-year terms.

Ryan was a successful write-in candidate receiving 167 votes for an open position that had no declared candidate on the ballot. 

"We were stressing about getting a candidate and to get 167 people to write in your name is not easy," said Conner. "It was a real bonus for the board and I am sure Paige will be excellent and I look forward to working with her."

Ryan's children and husband were seated in the front row and the children presented her with hugs and a bouquet of flowers after she was officially sworn in. 

The board unanimously re-elected Conner as president and Darren Drake as vice president. 

"Thank you for your faith and trust in me," said Conner. "I think we are all equals here and I am happy we have a cohesive board and that we all work so well together."

Both Conner and Drake thanked borough voters for passing the budget.

Immediately following the reorganization meeting, the BOE held its regular work session.

During the superintendent's report, Michael Polizzi offered a clarification for the "robust" advertisement that was slated to appear in the Star Ledger seeking to fill a number of positions in the district for the coming school year.

"I wanted to give context behind the positions--there are six retirements and five non-renewals so 11 of those are replacement positions," said Polizzi. "It will look at first glance like New Milford is cleaning house, but that is certainly not the case."

Polizzi said several of the open positions are for leave replacements and others are to build out staffing in several "sorely needed" areas.

"I think we are going to be happy with the results we get from the search," said Polizzi. "There has been tremendous interest from people who were mailing and e-mailing the district already."

During public comment, a parent of a middle school student expressed concerns about the lack of a quick response in regard to issues that had arisen during the open house program at DEO Middle School in April. Parents who attended the event raised concerns over scheduling and course offerings.

Danielle Shanley, director of curriculum and instruction, responded to the parent's concerns and said she is currently reviewing a draft of a letter that will be sent to middle school parents. 

'We had to work out some finances, we had to work through that, so I'm sorry you didn’t get more expeditious response," said Shanley. "We are putting things in place and all the families of children impacted will be receiving a letter."

Shanley said guidance counselors will be reaching out to those students who were affected to address the corrections to their schedules.

"Sometimes you don’t realize until parents say 'Well what about this and that' where potential issues may lie," said Shanley. "Mrs. Perro and I talked that whole ride home about what we could do to fix some of these issues."

The board accepted with regret three retirements in the district all effective June 30, 2011:

• Deborah Carroll-Coco, Middle School physical education teacher
• Louis Coco, District Data Coordinator
• Deborah Gerrish, Middle School English teacher

The board granted two leaves of absence, both for maternity:

• Kristen Labrosse, Gibbs School, September 1 through December 19, 2011
• Lauren Giannettino, Berkley School, September 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012

The board also approved a long list of both tenured and non-tenured faculty and staff for the 2011-12 school year. All administrators, including principals and vice principals were reappointed for the coming school year.