Public Hearings Set, Possible Calendar Changes Discussed at Sag Harbor Board of Education Meeting

Plans to acquire land on nearby Marsden Street and develop it into an athletic complex has been the attention-grabber in the Sag Harbor School District lately, but other business was conducted at the most recent Board of Education meeting on Monday, October 17.

Science teachers Emma McMahon and Robert Schumacher gave a detailed presentation to the board about the science curriculum from grades K through 12. At the conclusion of their presentation, Superintendent Jeff Nichols shared the news that members of the faculty and administration will go on a tour of the science wet lab at Southampton High School next week to gather information as a first step in the process of trying to create a similar lab at Pierson.

“This was a priority prepandemic, and it got sidelined,” Nichols said. “It’s one step in the process for having a wet lab constructed here. We’re going to get an overview of the infrastructure and staffing and budget, and will report back to the board.”

Nichols also brought up possible calendar alterations for the next school year. He pointed out that the district typically does not start school until the day after Labor Day, and also has traditionally slotted the day before Thanksgiving as a day off. He pointed out that other nearby districts, particularly those west of the canal, start school on the Wednesday before Labor Day and do not give the day before Thanksgiving off.

He said he noticed that this year, Passover, set for Friday, April 15, is not currently scheduled as a day off, and the day before Passover is currently set as a snow give-back day. If the day isn’t used, the give-back day is May 26, which is right before Memorial Day weekend.

Nichols proposed that the board consider moving the snow give-back day to April 6, which would enable the district to take Passover off if it doesn’t use that snow day. He acknowledged that the downside of that plan is the remote possibility of a snow day happening after April 6, but said it would be for the board to consider making that switch.

School Business Administrator Jennifer Buscemi shared updates on the district’s masonry project, which she said is 90 percent complete. It came in slightly under the nearly $1 million budget, and most of the work was done over the summer, leading to zero interruptions to classroom schedules or other programs.

The board also announced that it will have two public hearings on its agenda on November 21 at 6 and 6:15 p.m. on using $350,000 from the district’s repair reserve fund to make repairs to the roof at the middle school, and on the district’s preliminary plan for spending funds secured from the Smart Schools Bond Act. The act, passed in 2014, makes state funds available to districts to improve technology and infrastructure for students. Director of Technology Scott Fisher gave a presentation at the meeting, and said that information will be presented again at the public hearing. It is also currently available on the school website.

Reports from two facilities were also shared during the meeting. Assistant Principal Betty Reynoso, who chairs the district’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, shared that the district recently hosted professional development for staff and workshops for parents conducted by “Wee the People,” a Boston-based social justice project that, among other initiatives, offers workshops and training seminars for parents and educators. The interactive sessions with adults “focus on practices and strategies for having difficult conversations with kids, and detecting and disrupting dominant narratives in children’s books,” according to the organization’s website.

Having Wee the People host workshops and professional development at the school was an effort two years in the making, Reynoso said. Over the course of two days, she said more than 65 parents attended the workshops.

“There was rich conversation, history and perspective, and the parent portion was more than two hours long because of the questions and conversations that took place,” Reynoso reported, adding that the committee hopes to have more follow-up to that event.

Buscemi provided a brief update on the work of the educational facilities planning committee, sharing that at a recent meeting which had good turnout, an update on the status of current projects was provided, and that the district will go out to bid soon on its HVAC repair and upgrade project. There was also a preliminary discussion about how to develop a new long-range facilities needs plan for the district.