LCSD Suit settled
Sarah Hall 07/24/09
For nearly three years, the Liverpool Central School District has dominated the headlines with sordid tales of scandal.
Now it looks like the district is working to put those days behind it.
The district announced last week that it was dropping 3020a charges against Athletic Director George Mangicaro and Director of Technology Bonnie Ladd. Mangicaro was suspended with pay in September of 2006, Ladd in April of 2007. Disciplinary charges were brought against both in 2007 under Section 3020a of New York State Department of Education law; Mangicaro and Ladd responded by filing a $4 million lawsuit against the district, claiming the charges were retaliation for bringing allegations of impropriety by Superintendent Jan Matousek to light...
CATEGORY: General Education
Baldwinsville Coach Named Coach of the Year Finalist
Editor 07/24/09
Mary Jo Cerqua, head coach of Baldwinsville Central School
District’s varsity girls’ volleyball team, was named a Coach of the Year
finalist by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association. She
was selected for the national honor on the basis of her coaching record
and her service to the sport of volleyball. Cerqua’s record is as
follows: 12 league championships; 11 Section III sectional titles; 9
state regional titles;
Fall 2006 – state runner-up; and Fall 2008 – state semi-finalist, top
3rd AA team in New York State...
CATEGORY: Teaching
Keeping Kids' Skills Sharp Over the Summer
Sue Lindsley 06/26/09
Schools out for the summer…a tune your youngster may be singing and dancing to around the house right about now. Although they are happy about spending their days having fun, it is ten weeks where your student’s skills can become dull. What can a parent do about it?
Research shows that students can lose up to 2.6 months of math facts over the summer lag, which translates to almost 1/4 of the school year. As a result, teachers end up spending about six weeks at the beginning of each school year reviewing from the previous year. Students need to practice skills, especially math, to retain them. We have all, at one time, memorized a phone number or address of a friend or family member...
CATEGORY: K-12 Education
B'ville District Budget Passes
Erin Smith 05/27/09
The Baldwinsville Central School District Board of Education's proposed 2009-10 budget of $93,669,512 was approved by voters last Tuesday with 1,750 votes in favor and 668 against.
This means a 1.03 percent increase in spending over last year's budget with a tax levy (amount district residents pay in property taxes) that will remain the same at $46,780,000.
Major items affecting this year’s budget include a decrease in staff (30 positions were reduced or eliminated), an increase in health insurance costs and an increase in spending through BOCES. The board also used $661,000 out of the reserve fund to create the budget.
Voters also approved the separate Proposition 1 to purchase 10 buses with 1,598 votes in favor and 769 votes against...
CATEGORY: General Education
Family Fun for the Cure
Editor 05/27/09
On Saturday, June 20th, OCM BOCES Career Academy (Alternative High School) will be holding a "Family Festival for the Cure" from 1 to 4 p.m on the campus of the Lee G. Peters Career Training Center, at 4500 Crown Road in Liverpool. The festival will take place outdoors and will include food, beverages, games, raffles and a meet and greet with breast cancer survivor, Carol M. Baldwin and her daughter, Elizabeth. Students, families, friends and the community are encouraged to come to this fun event to benefit a positive cause. The event is free and open to the public, with tickets being sold for food, games and raffles.
Staff of the school will participate in a dunk tank booth and pie-throwing contest...
CATEGORY: General Health
Stirpe secures grant for Universal Pre-K in Liverpool
Editor 05/27/09
Assemblyman Al Stirpe announced that he secured a $700,000 grant for the Liverpool Universal Pre-K program. The funding was included in the 2009-10 state budget.
“This is the second year in a row that we were able to secure a grant for Liverpool’s Pre-K program,” Stirpe said. “Studies have shown that the benefits of early education last a lifetime and I'm happy to partner with the district to make sure our children have this important opportunity.”
It is because of the efforts and support of Assemblyman Al Stirpe, that the Liverpool Central School District will be able to offer a Universal Pre-Kindergarten program in the 2009-2010 school year, said Liverpool Superintendent Janice Matousek...
CATEGORY: Scholarships & Grants
LCSD BOE Adopts Proposed 2009-2010 Budget
Melissa Renahan 05/05/09
At its April 6 meeting, the Liverpool Central School District Board of Education adopted a proposed $132.9 million budget for the 2009-2010 school year that would result in an estimated tax decrease of 1.10 percent.
“District administrators worked diligently to develop a budget that reflected the current economic conditions that our residents are facing, while also supporting the educational needs of its students,” said Superintendent Janice H. Matousek...
CATEGORY: General Education
Super search marches on for LCSD
Sarah Hall 03/30/09
The search for a new superintendent goes on in the Liverpool Central School District.
The board of education held a work session with Dr. Jessica Cohen, superintendent of BOCES and search consultant, last week to discuss the process and set dates by which certain steps should be completed.
¡§We¡¦ve sent out about 840 hard copies [of the application],¡¨ Cohen said. ¡§Next week we¡¦ll send out an electronic version.¡¨
From that pool, Cohen and the board will select the new super for Liverpool schools. Cohen has conducted 15 superintendent searches in her career and she said this is the same procedure she has always used.
At this time, Cohen has received two completed applications and 14 or 15 inquiries about the job...
CATEGORY: K-12 Education
C-NS students tell Dumac "We'll take care of it"
Melissa Renahan 03/30/09
“These partnerships are NOT about field trips,” said Ellie Peavey, head of the C-NS Career Center. “They are about thinking and learning.” Her audience contains about 21 students who are seated in a conference room at Dumac Business Systems in East Syracuse. The company, which has been around for over six decades and operates in 46 states, is an industry leader in point-of-sale systems used in the grocery and restaurant sectors.
During the presentation that followed her warning, the students did something atypical of high schoolers: they spoke, actively participated and seemed to have an interest in what was being said.
“We cannot afford to lose customers; and in these economic times the quick service restaurants are seeing more business...
CATEGORY: K-12 Education
Liverpool's Artic Warriors Win!
Melissa Renahan 03/30/09
After three long days of competition, the LHS Arctic Warriors Robotics team took first place at the Finger Lakes Regional Championship. The FIRST Robotics Program (FRC) is targeted at high-school-aged teams to provide an exciting, multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The first weekend in March, over 50 teams from the Rochester/Syracuse area went to RIT to compete in the regional event.
Liverpool, whose main sponsor was Carrier, was the first team to successfully defend its title at the Finger Lakes Regional. The school has won three regional titles in the past four years...
CATEGORY: K-12 Education
SPD Parent Connections opens a local CNY Chapter
Caryn Daher 03/02/09
In January the CNY Chapter of the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation’s Parent Connections Group hosted its first meeting. The founders and co-hosts of the CNY chapter, Caryn Daher and Michele Hawthorne, have organized a support group to reach out to other parents who have children with sensory processing issues.
The SPD Foundation’s research suggests that one in every 20 children experiences symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder that significantly impact their ability to participate fully in everyday life. Symptoms of SPD, like those of most disorders, occur within a broad spectrum of severity. Examples of these symptoms include, but are not limited to, the following: extreme sensitivity to physical contact, lights and sound, food, clothing, temperature and more...
CATEGORY: General Education
Carpenter Named National Merit Finalist
Editor 03/02/09
Liverpool High School Executive Principal Greg Avellino recently announced that LHS senior David Carpenter has been named a finalist in the 54th annual National Merit Scholarship Program...
CATEGORY: K-12 Education
C-NS Star Kicking at Chance for NC State
Paul Lyboult 03/02/09
While the words “bad luck” could be used to describe blowing out the same knee twice and missing an entire competitive season, Cicero-North Syracuse soccer player Michael Mastriano's journey could just be referred to as a setback. The senior soccer star is still going strong and his past injuries haven't been enough to keep him off the field. His strong desire and constant work ethic led him to sign a letter intent with North Carolina State earlier this month.
He tore his ACL prior to the 2008 season and spent most of the remainder of the year in rehabilitation. An ACL tear is one of the most serious injuries for an athlete to suffer and for many football players it usually is considered a career killer since they are never the same after the tear occurs...
CATEGORY: Higher Education
Liverpool Stadium Project Clarified
Sarah Hall 01/29/09
Despite the superintendent’s announcement of her retirement, the stadium renovation vote was the hot topic among attendees at the Liverpool Central School District’s Board of Education meeting Monday Jan. 12.
Members of the district’s Stadium Committee implored the community to ask questions and do their best to gain an understanding of the stadium reconstruction project before the vote Feb. 26.
“There’s actually 15 different activities now and nearly 100 volunteers working to make sure that the public understands this project and how the project is being funded,” said BOE member Unangst, himself a member of the committee. “We really feel that this proposal that was made by the original stadium committee is a good solution. It’s frugal. It’s effective...
CATEGORY: General Education
