Pascarella Joins School Board in Time for Budget Deliberations

The Finance Committee began the process Tuesday of going through Supt. of Schools Fran Rabinowitz's proposed 2012-13 budget, and there was a familiar face seated behind the table.

Former Legislative Council president Jim Pascarella attended his first meeting Tuesday as a member of the school board. He was chosen to replace Myron Hul, who abruptly resigned from the board a few weeks ago. 

Pascarella is a former school board member and also sits on the town's Pension Board. He declined to run for reelection last fall, citing the desire for more free time. His retirement from public service was a short one as he was quickly chosen to fill the empty school board seat.

"He has been a big advocate of education for years and it is a pleasure for him to join us," Finance Committee chairman John Keegan said. 

The committee looked at each line account in the budget, discussing the reasoning behind the figures. Some lines increased, but many were held at current levels.

Some lines are new -- such as the one for Student Support Advisors, which would put a full-time person in each elementary school to oversee the cafeteria and playgrounds. It's a position parents have lobbied hard for, citing the need to control bullying in both areas.

Spring Glen PTA president Avi Kamrat said principal Vanessa Ditta told him that there is rarely sufficient staffing in the cafeteria and playground.

"She said they don't have enough aides most of the time," he said, which leads to teachers taking over that duty. "We are paying people $40 to $60 an hour to do it."

One problem is the $8.50 an hour rate aides are paid, Kamrat said. "I've asked parents how much they pay their babysitters, and it's around $10 an hour for one or two kids," he said, compared to the numbers of children the aides are responsible for.

"You're never going to get interested staff at that rate," he said of the $8.50 pay. He asked the committee to consider raising that rate to $12.50 and giving each school $5,000 for training for them.

The cost for the proposed Student Support Advisors would come from a combination of cutting current positions and using that money, as well as $71,000 in additional spending.

Another new item is $82,210 for curriculum development which, in the long run, will save the district money, school officials say. That's because currently curriculum development is done during the year, when teachers are pulled out of classrooms and substitutes used to take their place.

The money would go toward paying staff to do that work during the summer, which would eliminate the need to pull the teachers and replace them with substitutes, which cost the district more than $100 a day when obtained through Kelly Services.