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Katonah-Lewisboro school board
May 9, 2008
Officials reply to public queries
A community forum held on Tuesday, April 29, allowed residents of the Katonah-Lewisboro School District to ask questions of school board members Eve Hundt and Mark Lipton and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Roelle about the state of the district.
Several residents expressed concerns about recent administrative changes in the district, including the promotion of Director of Special Services Ellen Doherty to principal of the high school, the moving of her predecessor Richard Leprine to a districtwide principal position in charge of safety and cultural arts, and the elimination of the director of athletics position in favor of a teacher-level athletics coordinator.
Two questioners asked about the depth of the search for a new high school principal, considering that Ms. Doherty was the only applicant from within the schools and that the district did not search outside of the district for Mr. Leprine’s successor.
“The process was identical to the process that was used to appoint Jonathan Kaplan as the permanent principal of Katonah [Elementary School],” said Dr. Roelle. “It was my preference that, before we go outside the district, we do our best to attract a qualified candidate from within the district. I have a very strong belief that whenever you can nurture talent from within, you should do that.”
Dr. Roelle also said that there was a shortage of people going into education, and that finding a qualified high school principal would be difficult.
Foreign language expansion
At the request of one resident, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Jocelyn Humphries gave an update on the status of searching for teachers to cover the proposed foreign language expansion into first and sixth grade. The sixth grade teachers would have to be qualified in both elementary school and one of the languages being added — French, Spanish and Latin — and the difficulty of finding teachers with dual certification had been one of the main objections to the program.
Ms. Humphries said that Latin, which was the hardest to find a dual-certified teacher for, could be covered with existing staff, because there was to be only one section of sixth grade Latin — about 20 students — and teachers are allowed to teach one class outside of their certification area.
The Spanish teachers are much easier to find, and Ms. Humphries said that the school was in the process of interviewing candidates, while they are still looking for qualified French teachers.
Other concerns
Residents also raised questions about whether elementary school students in the district are receiving enough “play” time in the form of recess, compared to the time spent working, and whether the middle school students had enough to do during recess.
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