NORWICH – Heather Collier says she is “looking forward to helping the (Norwich City School) district move forward.”
The Pharsalia native and former Perry Browne principal is the new president of the district’s Board of Education, following the board’s re-organizational meeting Tuesday night. Collier, herself a Norwich graduate, was voted into the position just moments after being sworn in to her first term on the school board. She was nominated to the leadership role by Sally Chirlin in a motion which was quickly seconded by Priscilla Johnson and passed 5 -1.
Perry Owen, who had nominated new board member Linda Horovitz for the position, cast the sole dissenting vote. Board member Joe Stagliano was not present at the meeting.
Collier’s first action as board president was to call for nominations for vice president. A motion made by Johnson and seconded by Horovitz to nominate Sally Chirlin for the position was also passed by a vote of 5 - 1, with Owen again casting the dissenting ballot.
Chirlin, a retired educator, is currently in her second term on the Norwich City School Board.
The new board moved quickly through the re-organizational meeting’s lengthy agenda, but chose to table a number of items for further investigation and discussion. One of those items was the appointment of West & Company CPA as the school’s auditors. Tom Morrone, who was seated on the board immediately following the May election, asked Deputy Superintendent Rob Wightman to look into the contract awarded to the firm following the district’s last RFP. Wightman agreed to do so, noting that the district was in the final year of the three year agreement. Since the audit in question would not commence for another 12 months, he added, “We’ve got some time.”
While the board did approve the appointment of the Johnson City-based law firm Hogan, Sarzynski, Lynch, Surowka & DeWind LLP as the school’s attorney, there was discussion about whether a local firm could be considered for this role in the future. Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan stated that in the past RFPs had only been sent out to the top five legal firms in the state who specialize in school law.
The school board held off on authorizing any action related to the annual school district election and budget vote.
“I think we need to explore the possibility of (running the election) under the Board of Elections at the county level,” said Chirlin, who made the motion to table the topic.
Morrone also suggesting that polling locations be consolidated to one central location, to eliminate confusion and cut costs. He said the city has already decided to do the same.
“It certainly makes sense to do that,” agreed Owen, who related his own experience trying to vote his first year of living in the district.
Horovitz also commented, speaking in support of the Board of Elections running the election. Citing the dissenting vote cast by a former board member (Kathy Coates), in canvassing the ballots from the last election, she said having an independent authority overseeing the vote would remove any doubt about the results.
Committee appointments to the district’s LINKS teams, Professional Development Advisory Council, Instructional Council and Site-Based Teams were also tabled. These items were, however, approved with only minor amendments during the district’s first regular meeting of the academic year, which was called to order immediately following the adjournment of the re-organizational meeting.
While a date was set for the next board of education meeting, the board’s full meeting calendar was set aside for further discussion. While it was Johnson who made and Chirlin who seconded the motion to table the item, it was Owen who registered concerns over the proposed schedule.
“This has been agreed outside of this meeting and I want to know why,” he said, of the calendar, which involves moving the meetings from Wednesday to Monday nights. Owen reported that there was neither a public discussion nor an agreement about the change.
The meeting calendar, as well as approval of the list of extra-curricular clubs which will be active in the 2010-11 school year, will be topics at the next meeting, to be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, July 19 in the district conference room.