The Altamont Enterprise - Jo E. Prouthttp://altamontenterprise.com/author/jo-e-prout
enPopular cop's arrest garners national attentionhttp://altamontenterprise.com/07302015/popular-cops-arrest-garners-national-attention
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5121" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/Joshua%20Spratt.jpg?itok=65dWzU7K" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Joshua%20Spratt.jpg?itok=4bUkgAXR" width="226" height="296" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Joshua Spratt</strong></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND —Two months after Watervliet’s school superintendent called the Watervliet Police with concerns about the officer stationed at the high school, he was charged with criminal sexual acts against female students.</p>
<p>Joshua Spratt, 34, of New Scotland, was arrested by New York State Police this weekend and arraigned in Albany County Supreme Court on Monday, according to a release from the Albany County District Attorney’s office. </p>
<p>“Some of the girls always had a crush on him,” Superintendent Dr. Lori S. Caplan told The Enterprise Tuesday. Now, she said, everyone, “even the adults — everyone feels so betrayed.”</p>
<p>Spratt was charged with four counts of a third-degree criminal sexual act, all felonies; and two counts of official misconduct, and endangering the welfare of a minor, all misdemeanors.</p>
<p>An indictment unsealed in court on Monday stated that Spratt engaged in four separate sexual acts with a 16-year-old student between Feb. 14 and April 10 in Watervliet and in Menands, the release said. The county’s district attorney’s office did not return calls before press time.</p>
<p>Spratt pleaded not guilty to the charges in court on Monday. Judge Thomas A. Breslin set bail at $50,000.</p>
<p>The charges have been widely covered — from the New York Daily News to People magazine.</p>
<p>Andrew Safranko, of Clifton Park, Spratt’s lawyer, told The Enterprise on Wednesday that people should withhold judgment until all the facts come out.</p>
<p>“He was a dedicated and devoted officer in Watervliet for over 10 years, loved within and without the department,” said Safranko. “He was a veteran of the National Guard with two deployments — one in the United States at Fort Drum and the other in Iraq. He’s spent his whole life protecting people.”</p>
<p>Spratt is married with three children and lives on New Scotland Road in Slingerlands, his lawyer said.</p>
<p>Asked specifics about the charges, Safranko said, “All I have received is a record of the indictment. You know as much as I do.”</p>
<p>Asked what the defense would be, Safranko said, “At this time, we’re weighing all the options...A lot of the story will unfold as time goes on.”</p>
<h3><strong>Delayed investigation</strong></h3>
<p>“We first heard rumors regarding Mr. Spratt this spring and reported it to the Watervliet Police Department, which is exactly what we are supposed to do,” wrote Caplan in a letter to parents this week. “The investigation was later turned over to the New York State Police, which resulted in Mr. Spratt’s recent arrest.”</p>
<p>Spratt served as a school resource officer at Watervliet High School for the past two years.</p>
<p>Caplan told The Enterprise that she called the Watervliet chief of police, Ronald A. Boisvert Jr., when she first heard rumors of text messages between Spratt and students.</p>
<p>“It was prom time, the first week in June,” Caplan said. He listened to her concerns, checked with his staff, and told her, “ You have absolutely nothing to worry about,” Caplan said.</p>
<p>Three weeks later, Caplan heard more rumors about texting between Spratt and students, and she called the chief, again.</p>
<p>“He told me, ‘I vetted him completely. You have absolutely nothing to worry about,’” Caplan said.</p>
<p>As a school officer, Spratt shared his text number with students, Caplan said.</p>
<p>“They had his text. He was a resource to them,” she said.</p>
<p>The chief “was very convinced there was nothing going on. He believed him,” Caplan said.</p>
<p>No one from the Watervliet Police Department was available for comment. The city’s communications firm, Gramercy Communications, of Troy, issued a statement from the department: “We are aware of the arrest of a member of the police department and are fully cooperating with the State Police and their investigation at this time.”</p>
<p>“It’s a surprise to all,” said Matt Cannon, Gramercy’s director of public affairs, about Spratt’s arrest. “No one knew what was going on.”</p>
<p>As soon as there was a case against Spratt, Cannon said, the Watervliet department “turned it over to the State Police. You shouldn’t investigate your own.”</p>
<p>The Watervliet Police Department is cooperating with the State Police, Cannon said. Because Spratt is still under investigation, Cannon said, the department has asked no one to comment publicly.</p>
<p>Asked if the department had been notified of a problem in the spring, as Caplan said in her public letter, Cannon said that the Watervliet police called in the State Police “as soon as they found out last week. The state police got it turned over last week.”</p>
<h3><strong>Betrayal</strong></h3>
<p>“The charges against Officer Spratt are devastating, and, if true, represent an egregious and unforgivable betrayal of the trust we all placed in him,” reads a statement on the Watervliet High School website. “As always, our primary concern is for the safety and well being of students. Our focus over the next few weeks will be helping them to come to terms with this betrayal.”</p>
<p>Caplan said that, after she reported the rumors to the police, she did not have staff monitor Spratt; she took the rumors for just that, she said.</p>
<p>“It really wasn’t a big deal,” she told The Enterprise. “No one had a bad feeling [about Spratt].”</p>
<p>Caplan noted that several students are 18 years old, and legal adults, and that Spratt was a young officer that girls found attractive. Caplan heard only rumors of texts, and she reported those, she said.</p>
<p> “Not a single person came to me,” she said. “It was just the rumor mill.</p>
<p>“There was never any tip-off to us,” Caplan continued. “He was not my employee. He would have been out of my school immediately. I don’t have to keep him employed.”</p>
<p>Caplan said that the previous school resource officer, Sergeant Mark Spain, served at the school for seven years.</p>
<p>“The SRO program has worked really well,” Caplan said. “The program works. It’s been very effective. The police department and I, and the district, have a good relationship. This is a bad apple, if he is, indeed, guilty.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of healing that needs to happen,” she continued. “I’m focused on getting my school community back to trusting adults.”</p>
<p>She elaborated, “He’s a guest in my school. I’ve got a great staff. The community feels betrayed, the staff feels betrayed, and the students feel betrayed. That’s what I mean by ‘healing.’”</p>
<p>Caplan said that a district crisis team of teachers, administrators, and counselors would meet with students on Wednesday to help them process the news of Spratt’s arrest.</p>
<p>“It’s important for people to know that nobody’s going to put students in harm’s way,” Caplan concluded.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 30, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/joshua-spratt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Joshua Spratt</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/watervliet-high-school" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Watervliet High School</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 30 Jul 2015 23:14:58 +0000admin6498 at http://altamontenterprise.comGreenberg on boardhttp://altamontenterprise.com/07302015/greenberg-board
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5120" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/Adam%20Greenberg.jpg?itok=7gC3nk3_" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Adam%20Greenberg.jpg?itok=Pf_TAyXg" width="300" height="415" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Adam Greenberg</strong></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND -- The town board here on Monday appointed Adam Greenberg to fill the seat left vacant by the mid-term resignation of Daniel Mackay.</p>
<p>Supervisor Thomas Dolin told the board that the seat would be filled by the elective process in November, but he suggested an appointment by the board now, in case one of the remaining board members were to be absent.</p>
<p>"We still have five months left in the year, and there's a lot of work to be done, especially budget," said board member Willam C. Hennessy, a Democrat who is running in November to keep his position on the board. "I prefer to fill that seat."</p>
<p>Last week, Greenberg, a Democrat, announced his intention to seek Mackay's seat. Greenberg served on the zoning board for 11 years, but left the board in December, in accordance with recently enacted town term limits.</p>
<p>Republican candidate Craig A. Shufelt in July also announced his intention to run for Mackay's seat in November.</p>
<p>"I think the residents expect a full board," said Independent Douglas LaGrange, who currently serves on the council and who is running for supervisor unopposed on the Democratic ticket this fall. "The residents still have a choice in November to vote otherwise, or to concur."</p>
<p>"We have a lot of important work before us," said Councilwoman Patricia Snyder, a Democrat who is also seeking re-election. "Mr. Greenberg is a lifelong resident. He is very familiar with the town codes. I would support his nomination.</p>
<p>Greenberg, who was present at the meeting, accepted the nomination. The board voted unanimously to approve him, effective Aug. 1.</p>
<p>"We'll have another farmer on the board," Dolin said. Greenberg and LaGrange both farm on family lands within the town.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the town board appointed Greenberg to the study advisory committee for the zoning plan being prepared for the hamlet of New Scotland.</p>
<p>“Since I had been working with Dan [Mackay] on wrapping up the town's long-term plan for the commercial district, and finalizing the language in our zoning law barring big-box development in that area, filling his vacancy seemed like a natural extension of those efforts,” Greenberg wrote to The Enterprise in an e-mail last week. </p>
<h3><strong>Other business</strong></h3>
<p>In other business, the town board:</p>
<p>— Set two public hearings for the extension of the Heldervale water and sewer districts to 16 lots in Bruce Boswell's Creekside Development on Miller Road off New Scotland South Road, and to four neighboring lots, with the hearings on Aug. 12 at 6:45 p.m. and 6:50 p.m.;</p>
<p>— Voted to go to bid for the Krumkill Road reconstruction, after Tropical Storm Irene damaged the area, with a bid opening date to be determined.</p>
<p>“I would just like to say, ‘Yay!” Snyder said. “It’s been a long time coming”;</p>
<p>— Agreed to apply for a New York State Community Development Block Grant to cover planning and construction costs for new sidewalks in Clarksville.</p>
<p>Hennessy is preparing the application, and he said that the project is estimated to cost about $200,000. If New Scotland receives the grant, the work would be done in 2016, Hennessy said;</p>
<p>— Set a public hearing to discuss new fees and regulations for the New Salem water district for Aug. 12 at 6:30 p.m.;</p>
<p>— Heard from engineer R. Mark Dempf that the newly installed water systems along New Scotland Road in New Salem “are up and running.”</p>
<p>Constractor Casale Excavating Inc. is still working to finish restoration projects like driveway and sidewalk reconstruction, Dempf said.</p>
<p>The board agreed to pay an additional $30,400 for the project, bringing the total to $210,987; and</p>
<p>— Agreed to hire Ian G. Kundel as a seasonal laborer for the remainder of the summer at $12.50 per hour. Kenneth C. Guyer, the town’s highway superintendent, said that Kundel worked for the town doing community service, but that Guyer needs help for an additional five weeks, before Kundel leaves for college.</p>
<p>Kundel was one of four students who were arrested for vandalizing the high school before graduation. Each student was ordered to pay restitution and to perform community service.</p>
<p>Guyer said that he had budgeted for two laborers, but that he only has one now. The funds to pay Kundel will come from the highway budget, he said.</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 30, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/adam-greenberg" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Adam Greenberg</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/daniel-mackay" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Daniel Mackay</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/new-scotland-town-board" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">New Scotland Town Board</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 30 Jul 2015 23:02:41 +0000admin6495 at http://altamontenterprise.comThe race is on for town boardhttp://altamontenterprise.com/07222015/race-town-board
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5086" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/Craig-A-Shufelt-photo.jpg?itok=ZTn9fmcA" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Craig-A-Shufelt-photo.jpg?itok=xuXF5j9r" width="300" height="350" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Craig A. Shufelt</strong></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/small%20Adam%20Greenberg.jpg?itok=3ObXSRai" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/small%20Adam%20Greenberg.jpg?itok=voFjzPI7" width="300" height="450" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Adam Greenberg</strong></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/small%20Patricia%20Snyder.jpg?itok=BDOntubV" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/small%20Patricia%20Snyder.jpg?itok=hlRS8FNc" width="300" height="450" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Patricia Snyder</strong></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/Chris%2520Frueh_0.jpg?itok=wCLlX1BC" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Chris%2520Frueh_0.jpg?itok=tA9dPsN0" width="300" height="306" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Christopher P. Frueh</strong></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/small%20William%20C.%20Hennessy%20Jr..jpg?itok=daMPe8uY" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/small%20William%20C.%20Hennessy%20Jr..jpg?itok=60C6Xs2U" width="300" height="450" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>William C. Hennessy Jr.</strong></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — Republicans are making a run for town council this fall, after a break during the last election cycle and shut-out losses in the cycle before.</p>
<p>Craig A. Shufelt is running for an unexpired term that ends in 2017, and Christopher Frueh is running for one of two open seats, both with four-year terms.</p>
<p>Democrats are hoping that incumbents William C. Hennessy and Patricia Snyder can keep their seats, and that a third seat can be taken by Democrat Adam Greenberg, who previously served as planning board chairman before he reached his term limit this year.</p>
<p>The 2014 annual salary for council members was $8,093.44, and most council members serve four-year terms.</p>
<h3><strong>Mid-term seat</strong></h3>
<p>Craig A. Shufelt is running for the seat vacated by Councilman Daniel Mackay, who resigned in June to move to Connecticut. Mackay’s term ends in 2017.</p>
<p>Shufelt is a Voorheesville graduate who went on to study graphic design at Sage College of Albany and Rochester Institute of Technology. He runs a marketing and media firm, Shufelt Group, LLC., in Voorheesville, which is “one of the few small businesses” in the town of New Scotland, he said. He lives between Voorheesville and New Salem, and is a member of the New Salem Volunteer Fire Department.</p>
<p>His father, Craig Shufelt, served on the town board in the late 1980s.</p>
<p>“Town officials need to be held accountable…to be responsible for their own actions,” Shufelt said. “When someone decides to resign for their family, they should not be asked to walk the fine line…that runs against an open [process, so that town officials can] appoint some of their own,” he said, without mentioning Mackay’s name.</p>
<p>Deadlines to run for the town board would have passed by August, Shufelt said, allowing officials to appoint someone rather than leave the board vacancy open for public election, had Mackay resigned later this year.</p>
<p>Dolin said last week that he knew nothing of officials asking Mackay to stay.</p>
<p>“Daniel had to start his job June 15. It doesn’t sound realistic, because he would have had to stay here until sometime in late August,” Dolin said. “He did what he should do. He’s physically in Connecticut.”</p>
<p>Mackay did not return a call before press time.</p>
<h3><strong>“I love this town”</strong></h3>
<p>Republican candidate Shufelt has invested in five properties in New Scotland, he said.</p>
<p>“I keep myself pretty busy,” he said. “My line is, ‘I love this town.’ ”</p>
<p>Shufelt is single with no children.</p>
<p>“I work a lot. I like to go do things. I was a Boy Scout, a life Scout from Voorheesville. I’m sports-minded. I’m a sergeant-at-arms with Albany Barn,” Shufelt said.</p>
<p>Albany Barn, an organization that supports the arts, and the Albany Housing Authority have turned an abandoned school in Arbor Hill into performance space and low-cost lofts for artists to live and work in, Shufelt said.</p>
<p>He worked in graphic design in New York City until after 9/11, when he returned to the area.</p>
<p>“I want to see things stay the same, but evolve from a tax base perspective,” Shufelt said. He is running for town board because he “wanted somebody to speak for me and for others.”</p>
<p>Many have left the town, he said, but those who remain must “think proactively for the future.”</p>
<p>“We need to be mindful that our expenditures are diversified throughout the town, and [about] where we can be more creative internally and externally,” Shufelt said.</p>
<p>He used the improved rail trail as an example of a mixed-use, green concept that has taken a long time to be developed.</p>
<p>“We can keep the town the way we want it, and also have mixed-use development,” he said. “I’m 43 years old. At some point, I really would like a restaurant” in town, he said.</p>
<p>“We’re missing the boat here on self-development with creative results,” Shufelt said. He said that many New Scotland families go to the Crossings in Colonie, which offers a family environment, walkable space, and nature.</p>
<p>“We have all those things. Other than Thacher Park and the rail trail, there is not enough promotion of that,” he said.</p>
<p>“I want to encourage people to be more town-minded,” Shufelt said. “We’re too small of a town to have two parties. Let’s work as a team and move the town forward.”</p>
<p>Shufelt said that the “lower- and middle- classes need to enjoy the town as much as the upper class. Taxes going up is driving out the people who want to stay here.”</p>
<p>He, again, referred to the Crossings, saying the area is both residential and full of “things we all would enjoy.” Mixed-use development, he said, “doesn’t have to be an eyesore.”</p>
<p>“With Thacher Park and the Cornell Cooperative Extension in our backyard,” Shufelt said, “maybe we can all work together?”</p>
<p>He said that minor commercial development could offset rising school taxes.</p>
<p>“There have got to be ways to plateau that, instead of having them increasing and increasing,” Shufelt said.</p>
<p>Shufelt, as a fire department member, said that he would like to know more about the disputes in emergency coverage that have plagued the town and the village of Voorheesville with the Voorheesville Area Ambulance Service, saying that there are “creative ways to help out the rescue folks.”</p>
<p>Environmentally, he said, “I’m a big recycler. There are creative ways we could engage the high school students…and get students more involved to help. We cultivate things a little more.”</p>
<p>He said that there is more commercial activity in town now compared to when he left after high school, which offers more opportunities for those who stay.</p>
<p>“There are special-needs folks in our town. Let’s reach out and get some of them employed when there is a need,” he said.</p>
<p>Finally, Shufelt said that he has been mulling over running for the town council for some time, and he decided to act.</p>
<p>“Sitting on the sidelines doesn’t get it done,” he said. Shufelt urged town residents to “keep an open mind. There are a lot of possibilities. There are a lot of good people in town. They want good change, moving forward. It doesn’t have to be commercial, it can be ‘town’ and greenery.”</p>
<h3><strong>Greenberg steps in</strong></h3>
<p>The Democratic Party is backing former planning board Chairman Adam Greenberg to fill Mackay’s incomplete term.</p>
<p>Greenberg, a farmer and lifelong town resident, left the planning board in January due to town term limits when his planning board term expired in December. Soon after, the town board appointed Greenberg to the study advisory committee for the zoning plan being prepared for the hamlet of New Scotland.</p>
<p>“Since I had been working with Dan on wrapping up the town's long-term plan for the commercial district, and finalizing the language in our zoning law barring big box development in that area, filling his vacancy seemed like a natural extension of those efforts,” Greenberg wrote to The Enterprise in an e-mail. </p>
<p>“In a general sense, I support open government and transparency,” he wrote. “The public deserves to know why their representatives are making the decisions they're making. Residents also deserve to have their voices heard. I think one of the main issues many residents had during the big box era was that their voices were ignored. That should not happen. I believe in the ‘represent’ part of representative.”</p>
<p>Greenberg wrote that he ran public meetings in a way that was inclusive, welcoming public comments.</p>
<p>“Like most residents,” his e-mail continued, “I'd like to preserve the rural character of the town. That's what all the candidates say, of course. But how do you do that? What does that mean in terms of planning and zoning? What changes do we want to promote, and what changes do we absolutely oppose? If there is one thing we have learned from the big-box fiasco, ‘letting the chips fall where they may’ will not work. We need a town board that plans for the future, not one that hopes for the best.”</p>
<p>The town was in upheaval in 2010 after a citizens’ uprising against plans for a big-box mall in the hamlet of New Scotland. After two election cycles, the town board had enough votes to pass zoning limiting the size of a commercial building, which led to the establishment of the advisory committee on which Greenberg now serves.</p>
<p>“Answering these questions,” Greenberg continued, “while also doing the day-to-day work of running the town, is a tremendous challenge. To meet that challenge, I bring my expertise and experience in zoning issues from almost 15 years on the zoning board; my commitment to New Scotland as a lifelong resident; my knowledge of land and tax issues as a farmer, builder, and property manager; and my hopes for the future as a father of three.” </p>
<h3><strong>Time to serve</strong></h3>
<p>Christopher P. Frueh, who is not a registered Republican, is running for an open seat on the board, either Snyder’s or Hennessy’s. He is a native of Feura Bush, and has been married to his wife, Melanie, for 31 years.</p>
<p>“I’ve lived in New Scotland since I was a little boy,” he said. “My kids are all graduated from college. I was asked by the town Republicans if I would run for town board, as someone who cares about the town and understands what would help the town.</p>
<p>“I thought about it,” he continued, “and I thought, ‘I can run. I can commit to a four-year term.’ I want to represent real people. I encourage people who want to run businesses, and I’m all for it.”</p>
<p>He said that the Persico shop in Feura Bush is an example of what can happen in New Scotland; the empty store has been purchased and reopened by newcomers to the town, Frueh said.</p>
<p>“I think that’s great. It’s what the community needs — young blood with new ideas. We should encourage that in the town, not to develop the town, but to keep up older” sites and welcome newcomers, Frueh said.</p>
<p>Frueh, 52, said that he is not running for a particular issue. His family runs the Peter K. Frueh Inc., an excavation business and a stone quarry.</p>
<p>“Things always pop up and you need people in place to have good judgment and keep the town making cost-effective decisions that don’t burden taxpayers,” he said. “I can add some wisdom to areas people aren’t educated on with doing the kind of work that I do.</p>
<p>“I feel that I would represent this end of town and rural landowners in the area,” Frueh continued. “I am a land-rights-type person. I love the outdoors. I’m a conservation-type person with a sensitivity to the outdoors — it’s something that I do respect.”</p>
<p>Frueh appreciates new businesses, he said.</p>
<p>“I love to see people who have good ideas pursue them, take a leap of faith, and spend their money,” he said. “It’s not easy, I understand that.</p>
<p>“People with jobs with government don’t understand as well as farmers and others who have to go out and find their work every day,” Frueh said. “It’s like being unemployed every day.”</p>
<h3><strong>Democratic incumbents</strong></h3>
<p>Incumbents Patricia Snyder and William C. Hennessy Jr. are both seeking re-election.</p>
<p>Serving on the board “has been great,” Hennessy told The Enterprise. “It’s been an eye-opener about what we can, and can’t, do as a town of our size.”</p>
<p>Hennessy, 54, is a consulting engineer. He and his wife have four children; two have graduated from Voorheesville, and two are still in the school system, he said.</p>
<p>“I enjoy the types of work involved with municipal government — planning, zoning, and improvements…maintaining what New Scotland is,” he said. “The residential and agricultural uses in the town are important for us to maintain.”</p>
<p>He wants the town “to bring in appropriate commercial business to supplement” taxes, he said.</p>
<p>“Not ‘destination’ commercial,” he said, referring to businesses like the big-box development stopped by the town in 2010.</p>
<p>Hennessy is involved with the New Scotland hamlet study. He is creating grant applications for improvements to the two town parks, and is working with Mackay and LaGrange on the grant application for Clarksville sidewalks.</p>
<p>He is doing the application on an in-kind basis, and not for a fee, he said. If the grants come through, he would not do the work professionally, he said.</p>
<p>“Board members cannot do work, under our town ethics code,” Hennessy said.</p>
<h3><strong>Snyder is energized</strong></h3>
<p>“I am running,” Snyder said about keeping her seat on the town council. “I enjoy the public-service aspect of this. I can contribute expertise when it comes to financing. I’m energized by that.”</p>
<p>Snyder, 59, has a master of business administration degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She and her husband, Michael, live in Voorheesville and have two grown children.</p>
<p> “I have a finance background. The town has done a good job maintaining the budget within the state-mandated tax cap,” Snyder said, adding that the town still offers services that residents need and want. “I like to be able to contribute in that arena.”</p>
<p>Snyder supports the sharing of resources between municipalities, she said.</p>
<p>“We’ve been good at finding resources,” she said. “We’ve been able to partner with the town of Bethlehem on public works projects.”</p>
<p>When Voorheesville closed its court last year, Snyder said, the town court absorbed the cases, and the work involved for them.</p>
<p>“It’s a good way to partner,” she said. “It’s important to continue working on partnering with other communities. There are always opportunities.”</p>
<p>The Albany County rail trail that runs through New Scotland and ends in Voorheesville is an example of municipalities working together, and she wants to see it fully completed, she said.</p>
<p>“Planning is always an ongoing process,” she said.</p>
<p>Snyder attends most planning board meetings and town board meetings, she said.</p>
<p>“It’s a way to stay informed,” she said. “I like to be informed with what goes on with those meetings. We like to be able to make things happen for people, in a way that is orderly.”</p>
<p> “We have a long road ahead of us,” she said of planning and development within the town.</p>
<p>The town board must “keep up to date and guide development in a way that suits everybody,” Snyder said. “The work we do as a town board — we work really well as a team. We don’t usually walk in lock-step with one another…but we come to a consensus, which is a testament to our leadership. Tom [Dolin] has been a good leader.”</p>
<p>Town planning energizes her, she said.</p>
<p>“I will stay involved with that, one way or another,” Snyder said.</p>
<p>Snyder also works with a committee in the public schools to help teens make healthy choices.</p>
<p>“My kids are a little older, so I have time to help other kids,” she said. “I try to be the community liaison, if you will, with school functions. I use my time to give back to the community.”</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 22, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/craig-shufelt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Craig A. Shufelt</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/chrisotopher-p-frueh" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Chrisotopher P. Frueh</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/adam-greenberg" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Adam Greenberg</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-3" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/william-c-hennessy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">William C. Hennessy</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-4" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/patty-snyder" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Patty Snyder</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Wed, 22 Jul 2015 19:54:43 +0000admin6474 at http://altamontenterprise.comNew Super starts community forumshttp://altamontenterprise.com/07222015/new-super-starts-community-forums
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — New Voorheesville Superintendent Brian Hunt told the school board, in his first meeting at the helm last week, that he wants to hold staff and community forums to create a five-year plan for the district.</p>
<p>Hunt will hold four community forums, attend staff meetings regularly, and report to the school board each month, he said. Before each discussion, Hunt told The Enterprise, materials will be on the school website so that teachers and residents can be familiar with the topics before coming to speak.</p>
<p>“We’ll get into a lot more details as the year goes on,” he told The Enterprise. “Each month, you look at a different aspect.”</p>
<p>One month, the focus, or “theme,” will be on staff development needs, he said. Another month, discussion will center on student academic performance data, and a third month’s theme will focus on extra-curricular and sports participation, Hunt said.</p>
<p>“It’s a very engaging process. It gets people talking about the future of the district,” Hunt said. “We’re taking the time to do it, rather than in the heat of the moment in March and April with the budget. This isn’t just about next year’s budget.”</p>
<p>“We’re excited about it,” school board President Timothy Blow told The Enterprise about Hunt’s plan. “The process is meant to elicit input from various constituencies.”</p>
<p>“Where have we been, and where are we going?” Hunt said. “What’s the best way to enhance our results for students and ensure the financial soundness for the district?”</p>
<p>Hunt said that the year-long process will answer those questions, and the results of the discussions will be put into a document and presented to the board as a strategic plan for the next five years.</p>
<p>Hunt saw a similar system in other districts, he said.</p>
<p>“I did find it to be useful,” he said. “It lets everybody see a comprehensive look. It gives everybody a chance for brainstorming. April and May are the brainstorming months.”</p>
<p>Hunt said that, at the end of the year, the district can evaluate its strengths to see what needs to be added or changed.</p>
<p>“What do we need to keep an eye on?” he asked.</p>
<p>The longer overview will keep the district’s direction from being as influenced by the budget cycle, when administrators are “fighting the battle for that year,” Hunt said.</p>
<p>The plan lets the district, instead, “zoom the lens out,” he said, which allows the district to better care for the community’s resources.</p>
<p>In August, the board will establish the goals for the year, Hunt said.</p>
<p>“That’s kind of the kick-off for the year,” he said. “We know Voorheesville students perform very well. Where can we adjust something so it can be even better?”</p>
<p>He said that high school students had new electives last year. This year, he said, the school would like to enhance that program.</p>
<p>The district also wants to offer options for college and career training, he said. In addition to vocational options through the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, students could see a new program, Career Development and Occupational Studies, or CDOS.</p>
<p>CDOS offers training in career fields entered directly after high school, like business education and family and consumer sciences, Hunt said.</p>
<p>“What else could we add? What could we do differently?” Hunt said. He said that Voorheesville students are situated near the Albany and Saratoga regions’ nanotechnology industries.</p>
<p>Voorheesville should “prepare students to get involved in those fields, if they’re interested,” he said.</p>
<p>The preparation for the long-term plan, he said, will allow the district to “engage all of the students,” Hunt said.</p>
<p>“Brian is bringing a lot of energy and focus,” Blow said. “I’m really excited about having him on board.”</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 22, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/brian-hunt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Brian Hunt</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/voorheesville" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Voorheesville</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Wed, 22 Jul 2015 19:42:43 +0000admin6473 at http://altamontenterprise.comFull STEAM ahead for new VCSD leaderhttp://altamontenterprise.com/07222015/full-steam-ahead-new-vcsd-leader
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5085" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/new%20principal%20Drautz.jpg?itok=U-mLSPyw" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/new%20principal%20Drautz.jpg?itok=xDMEhktF" width="300" height="232" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Jennifer Drautz</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — Jennifer Drautz is excited to be the new middle school principal in Voorheesville.</p>
<p>“My desire was to come back to a smaller school community, where you can be more involved with the school and the community,” she told The Enterprise. “It’s a fabulous district…with a lot of interesting extra-curricular programming, particularly around service and character development, and student leadership.”</p>
<p>“I’ve heard good things about her,” said school board President Timothy Blow. “She comes with a very solid résumé. She’s continuing the good work done by Jim Franchini.”</p>
<p>Franchini resigned as middle school president to take the job of assistant superintendent for finance and operations for the district.</p>
<p>Drautz is a Capital Region native, having gone to school in Bethlehem and finished in Latham. She studied history and social studies at State University of New York College at Cortland, and earned a master’s degree in history and political science from The College of Saint Rose, with an additional 30 credits from Saint Rose in educational administration.</p>
<p>She worked as an assistant middle school principal in Rensselaer and, most recently, as a grade-level principal in Saratoga Springs.</p>
<p>Drautz will begin in Voorheesville in August.</p>
<p>“I'm looking forward to becoming a part of the Voorheesville community as we work together to help the growth of, not only outstanding students, but outstanding citizens,” she said.</p>
<p>Drautz likes the initiative by Project Lead the Way, an organization that develops STEM — or science, technology, engineering, and math —curricula, and the emergence of robotics clubs, seeing them as programs that “open avenues for student leadership,” she said.</p>
<p>“I like to say STEAM, not STEM,” Drautz said. “You can bring in the arts.”</p>
<p>By incorporating all subjects, she said, schools can invite “girls and boys into an interest in science and technology and the different types of opportunities out there.”</p>
<p>STEAM encompasses coding, robotics, and computer design, she said.</p>
<p>“The…students are exposed to any variation of the arts,” she said. “It kind of completes that circle.”</p>
<p>For example, Drautz said, students benefit when they produce and perform a play.</p>
<p>“They get camaraderie going,” she said, noting that teamwork is a valuable skill.</p>
<p>A variety of art media allows every child to learn and benefit from expression, she said.</p>
<p>“Every curricular area really does have a place,” Drautz said. “You will make sure you reach every student. I’m a fan of the arts and having those opportunities for students.”</p>
<h3><strong>Old and new</strong></h3>
<p>“I want to start with getting an idea of what’s already in place,” she said about the middle school programs.</p>
<p>Drautz said that she likes to offer character development for students.</p>
<p>“There’s quite a bit in Voorheesville Middle School,” she said. She wants to examine the current programming with her staff, she said.</p>
<p>Along with character development, Drautz said, “How are we promoting social growth?”</p>
<p>One program she liked in Saratoga that was offered to families was called Parent University.</p>
<p>“It’s a great program, and wide open on the topics we can bring in,” she said. Families discussed academics, like Common Core, and children’s experiences like transitioning between grades.</p>
<p>They also talked about research on children’s brains.</p>
<p>Sometimes, when children say they do not know why they acted the way they did, Drautz said, “They really don’t know why they did something.”</p>
<p>Drautz said that she would like to open the school more to parents, and to provide various forms of communication for all community members.</p>
<p>“I hope they’re as proud of it as we are,” she said.</p>
<p>“The school is as successful as the community allows,” she said. “Voorheesville is already good.” She hopes that she and her staff, with the community, can look for new ways to improve further, she said.</p>
<p>“I’m truly excited about the opportunity to come here,” Drautz said. “It felt great when I was there meeting with the parents and meeting with the teachers.”</p>
<p>Drautz is looking forward to seeing how things are done at Voorheesville, after her 24 years in education, she said.<br />
“I’m excited at another new process,” she said.</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 22, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/middle-school-principal" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">middle school principal</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/jennifer-drautz" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jennifer Drautz</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Wed, 22 Jul 2015 19:32:29 +0000admin6472 at http://altamontenterprise.comLaGrange to leave the door open to appointmenthttp://altamontenterprise.com/07202015/lagrange-leave-door-open-appointment
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5109" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/Doug%20LaGrange.jpg?itok=f1tBjGzI" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Doug%20LaGrange.jpg?itok=FQVND9NL" width="300" height="451" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Douglas LaGrange</strong></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — The town Republican Party, which put up no candidates in the last election cycle, announced last week a recovered slate of candidates seeking office this November at both the town and the county levels. But the party has no candidate for town supervisor.</p>
<p>If Democratic candidate and town Councilman Douglas LaGrange is elected, his board seat will open in January, at which time the town board can appoint a councilmember to fill it.</p>
<p>In 2013, the Republican Party declined to put forward a single candidate, and Democrats swept the town. In 2011, Republicans ran for the town board and for clerk, but lost.</p>
<p>The party was in upheaval after a citizens’ uprising against plans for a big-box mall in the center of town. After two election cycles, the board had the votes to pass zoning limiting the size of a commercial building.</p>
<p>“For the sake of running someone, I’d rather spend the time letting people know who we are and then, in two years, run strong,” said longtime Republican Committee member Glenn Schultz in 2013.</p>
<p>“The incumbents have done a good job and people are satisfied with them,” said retiring New Scotland Supervisor Thomas Dolin previously.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, registered independent Councilman Douglas LaGrange sought and received the Democratic nod to run for supervisor.</p>
<p>About his nomination, LaGrange said previously, “It’s always humbling that people would think enough of me to do this. It’s reassuring to know that the job I’m helping to do is in the right direction.</p>
<p>“I hate to say the issues remain the same, but, in a sense, they do,” LaGrange continued. He said that residents expect highway services, senior programs, and taxes “in check.”</p>
<p>LaGrange entered town politics as a Republican on the planning board before leaving the party.</p>
<p>Recent numbers in New Scotland show that 37 percent of voters are enrolled Democrats, 25 percent are Republicans, 27 percent are unaffiliated. The rest belong to other parties.</p>
<p>If elected to supervisor, LaGrange’s current council seat would open in January and “be filled in a special election next year,” said Matthew Clyne, the Albany County Board of Elections Democratic commissioner. “The board can appoint someone to fill it.” </p>
<p>The person appointed in January could then run as an incumbent in a special election in November, after 11 months in office.</p>
<p>“It has to appear on the ballot in November,” Clyne said of LaGrange’s potentially empty council seat.</p>
<p>LaGrange and his wife, Anita, have two grown children nearby; Kristy and her husband; and Amy, her husband, and her son, Cameron, 4, and his infant sister, Reagan.</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 20, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/douglas-lagrange" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Douglas LaGrange</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Mon, 20 Jul 2015 16:28:14 +0000admin6470 at http://altamontenterprise.comContest looms for county legislaturehttp://altamontenterprise.com/07172015/contest-looms-county-legislature
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5082" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/Andrew%20Holland.JPG?itok=S0dDZqdA" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Andrew%20Holland.JPG?itok=hnXFDlVi" width="300" height="409" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Andrew Holland</strong></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/Michael%20Mackey.JPG?itok=t8bGdEo2" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Michael%20Mackey.JPG?itok=Wcv_fVts" width="300" height="430" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Michael Mackey</strong></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — The New Scotland Republican Party has announced its candidates for the November election for open seats on the county legislature in districts 38 and 33.</p>
<p>New Scotland Republican Party Chairman Tim Stanton, of Feura Bush, is running to represent District 38 in the Albany County Legislature, and Slingerlands resident Andrew Holland is running for District 33.</p>
<p>Stanton will face Democratic incumbent L. Michael Mackey in District 38, and Holland will take on the Democratic Primary winner of the race between incumbent Herbert Reilly and his challenger, William Reinhardt, in District 33.</p>
<h3><strong>Pro-business </strong></h3>
<p>Republicans are supportive of businesses coming into the town, Stanton said, but they also believe developers “still need to go through proper channels.”</p>
<p>“We need to do more to get them here, rather than forcing them out,” he said. “Nobody wants to just open it up to anything, but you want to encourage good businesses to come.</p>
<p>“In the past, the town hasn’t been pro-business,” he continued. The process developers faced to put in a Stewart’s Shop in Clarksville took three years, he said.</p>
<p>“That’s the longest ever taken to get a Stewart’s built,” Stanton asserted. “They also did one after that in New Scotland. That one was one where the town [took its time]. In the end, we ended up with a nice Stewart’s.”</p>
<p>Stanton said that, in the “microcosm” of New York, many businesses face so many hurdles that developers ask, “‘Why bother?’ We’re approaching that in New Scotland.”</p>
<p>“Government on this level is not so much party politics as it is taxes, zoning, keeping costs low and services provided. That’s what people in the town care about, not parties,” said Dolin in 2013.</p>
<p>Stanton said this week that many families in town are not represented, and described his reasons for running for county legislature.</p>
<p>“There always should be choice,” he said. “I can’t stand to see people unopposed.</p>
<p>Stanton will face incumbent Democrat L. Michael Mackey in November.</p>
<p>“Mr. Mackey doesn’t represent the majority of people in the town in his rural district,” Stanton said.</p>
<p>Stanton is a farmer who, with his family, runs Stanton’s Feura Farms, in Feura Bush, and Our Family’s Harvest, in Slingerlands. He gave a phone interview while driving a tractor and planting sorghum for a neighbor.</p>
<p>“I think there’s too many lawyers in government,” he said. “I will be representing the people the district covers, and have their interests in mind. I think, a lot of times, the rural parts get swept under the rug.”</p>
<p>Stanton has run for town council twice before, but has not yet won a seat.</p>
<p>“I’ve always had good support in my area of town,” he said.</p>
<h3><strong>Safe wells</strong></h3>
<p>Albany County Legislator L. Michael Mackey, a lawyer, disagreed with Stanton’s assessment of his work for District 38.</p>
<p>“I think I’ve worked hard to represent everybody in the district,” Mackey said, referring to “a drinking-water protection law I authored.”</p>
<p>He said that many people contacted him with concerns about the gas pipeline expansion across town. Mackey wrote a law that required any blasters to test wells within a one-mile radius of a blast both before the work and after. The law holds a blaster responsible for changes in wells up to six months after a blast, he said. The law passed the county legislature unanimously, he said, and was recently introduced to the state legislature.</p>
<p>“I’m on a well, myself,” Mackey said. “I appreciate having a good well. A lot of town residents are on a well.”</p>
<p>Mackey, 59, is an Albany attorney with 34 years of experience. He grew up on a farm in a small town in northern New York, he said.</p>
<p>“We raised heifers for dairy farms,” Mackey said. Mackey later attended Albany Law School, and now lives on Altamont Road.</p>
<p>He and his wife have three children; one is out of college, one is in college, and one attends the high school in Voorheesville.</p>
<p>In his first term, Mackey has addressed the controversial Albany County Nursing Home, he said. When he began in the legislature, the home worked under a $12 million deficit, he said.</p>
<p>“I was one of primarily freshman legislators who forced a solution to get a new management team in,” Mackey said.</p>
<p>The home runs a $4 million deficit now, he said, and is expected to reduce the deficit to $2 million next year. The year after, he said, the home will break even.</p>
<p>“I’ve enjoyed working on that and being part of the solution,” Mackey said. The home is “a safety net for people without money to get into another nursing home,” he said, calling it “a really good value for the taxpayers.</p>
<p>“I take the job very seriously,” he continued. “I return every telephone call or email or inquiry from any constituent on any issue. I work hard at the job. I hope to continue to work hard at the job.</p>
<p>“It’s important for people to have direct contact with a representative in the county,” he said.</p>
<h3><strong>A different perspective</strong></h3>
<p>Newcomer Andrew Holland, of Slingerlands, is running for District 33, which includes New Scotland, Voorheesville, and Bethlehem — a district currently represented by Democratic incumbent and former New Scotland Supervisor Herbert Reilly, 79, of Voorheesville, who is facing Democratic challenger William Reinhardt, 65, of Slingerlands, in the primary. (To read about Reilly and Reinhardt, go online to <a href="http://www.AltamontEnterprise.com">www.AltamontEnterprise.com</a>.)</p>
<p>Holland, 34, lives with his wife, attorney Hannah Moore, and their 15-month-old daughter. Holland practices general litigation, and insurance and malpractice defense litigation in Albany. </p>
<p>“I grew up in Saratoga Springs. She grew up in Vermont…and Pennsylvania. We wanted to come back home,” Holland said. “We wanted to start a family and end up somewhere we could settle.”</p>
<p>Holland and Moore moved to Slingerlands in 2012. Before that, the two worked as assistant district attorneys in the Bronx for five years.</p>
<p>Asked why he is running for county legislature, Holland said, “In general, I’m dissatisfied with the political climate in Albany County.”</p>
<p>The legislature “is passing a lot of legislation I don’t feel meets the needs of Albany County,” he said. The legislation passed is “agenda-based,” he said.</p>
<p>“People in the district aren’t being properly represented,” Holland said.</p>
<p>Holland has experience advocating for clients, he said.</p>
<p>“I’ll bring those skills to the table, bring a different perspective to the table,” he said. His single voice may persuade other legislators, he said; he wants to “offer my take on it.”</p>
<p>Holland said that he has no specific issues that he is focusing on for his campaign. About the proposed privatization of the Albany County Nursing Home, Holland said he would support privatization “if it were an effective way to help with the struggles it’s facing.”</p>
<p>He said that the Democratic primary race between Reilly and Holland’s fellow Bethlehem resident Reinhardt will be interesting.</p>
<p>“He’s very much aligned with the leadership,” Holland said of Reilly. “He doesn’t properly represent the members of the district. He’s a nice guy and people like him, but what’s he doing for you?”</p>
<p>Holland said that Reilly votes the way the legislative leadership tells him to.<br />
“I’m looking forward to a very positive campaign, meeting as many people in New Scotland, Bethelehem, and Voorheesville, and finding out what’s on their minds,” Holland said.</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 17, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/michael-mackey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Michael Mackey</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/andrew-holland" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Andrew Holland</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/tim-stanton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tim Stanton</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Fri, 17 Jul 2015 20:39:23 +0000admin6469 at http://altamontenterprise.comBe safe, be full, live wellhttp://altamontenterprise.com/07082015/be-safe-be-full-live-well
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5057" typeof="">
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Graduates, you achieved your task; you completed the requirements of one phase of your life. Now, you must move into the next phase — how will you go about it?</p>
<p>The Harvard College admissions office uses set questions as its staff reviews student applications. You may not want to go to Harvard; you may want to major in auto-mechanics at Hudson Valley Community College. Your immediate choice doesn’t matter for this purpose; use these questions as guidelines for yourselves as you evaluate your past and attempt to form your future:</p>
<p>— <em>“</em><em>Why not Harvard? Why not you?</em><em>”</em></p>
<p>Be figurative for a minute here. We all know by now who is going to Harvard and who isn’t, but that isn’t the current exercise. Harvard is a symbol of the top, the pinnacle, the smartest and “bestest.” You, graduate, are an amazing person. You have grown and learned, tried and failed, tried and succeeded, and accomplished your goal of graduation. Don’t sell yourself short, ever. Be confident, and, if necessary, step up to a challenge. In your endeavors, always ask, why not you?;</p>
<p>— <em>“</em><em>Do you have a direction yet? If not, are you exploring many things?</em><em>”</em></p>
<p>Some of your classmates walked at 10 months old. Some of you didn’t take a step until you were almost 2. You’re all walking, or ambulating in some way, now. You’re mobile. You did it on your own, and you did it in your own time after exploring ways that worked for you: down on all fours, a monkey crawl or scoot, or in new wheels.</p>
<p>It’s OK to have a direction now, and it’s OK to take your time and explore. It’s OK for Harvard, and it’s OK for you. No worries. You’ll find your way;</p>
<p>— <em>“</em><em>Where will you be in one, five, or 25 years? Will you contribute something to those around you?</em><em>”</em></p>
<p>Many of you know where you’ll be in a year. Many of you think you know where you’ll be in 25 years — practicing law or medicine, teaching in your alma mater, or running your own construction business. Maybe. But, the kicker is that, every five years, life is different. Jobs change, people are born and people die, and perspectives become altered by experience and circumstance.</p>
<p>Have your short- and long-term plans, or you won’t accomplish anything, but be flexible. As the time passes, consider what you can contribute to those around you. Use your opportunities and talents to seek or create richness and fullness in your lives, but always work to add richness and fullness to the lives of others. Helping others to live well will benefit us all;</p>
<p>— <em>“</em><em>What sort of human being are you now? What sort of human being will you be in the future?</em><em>”</em></p>
<p>Your parents think you’re great. You may think so, too. If you don’t, why don’t you? Can you make choices to become great? You can.</p>
<p>You can turn yourself around with better behavior or study habits, or you can accept yourself for the unique person you are, or you can seek medical help, depending on your issues — and, you’re still teenagers, so it’s OK to have issues.</p>
<p>You all have issues! Your parents know this, and your new professors and employers know this. Your brains and your bodies will not be finished growing for another seven years, so do what you can to grow into the sort of human being you want to be in the future.</p>
<p>While you’re growing, take a step back and refer to the age-of-mobility example above. Don’t be in a hurry to get experiences “out of the way,” if you haven’t, already — your first beer, first joint, first hit, or first sex. These are not experiences everyone has, and they are not experiences to worry about.</p>
<p>Instead, do things at your own pace, with your own safety in the forefront of your mind, as you did when learning to walk. This discussion leads us to the next question;</p>
<p>— <em>“</em><em>What about your maturity, character, self-confidence, warmth of personality</em><em>…</em><em> and concern for others?</em><em>”</em></p>
<p>As you go into the adult world, keep each other safe.</p>
<p>One in five women will be sexually assaulted while they are in college. Some studies suggest the number is closer to one in four. Think of the girls in your English class: now think that 25 percent of them will face sexual assault.</p>
<p>Young men also face assault in college — they walk alone across dark campuses at 2 a.m., they drink too much, and they drink in the wrong places.</p>
<p>Now, think about what you can do to stay safe, and to keep others safe.</p>
<p>Ladies, walk together, or call security escorts, every time. Choose your party mates wisely. Open, and serve, your own fresh drinks and hold them properly, with your palm covering the top. If you need to put down your drink, get a new, unopened drink later rather than picking up the old one.</p>
<p>Men, watch out for your friends, male and female. Teach your friends how to cover their drinks, and stick close to each other. Walk together, or call security escorts, every time. Sound familiar? Schools employ security escorts, and accept volunteers for escort services, for a reason. Don’t be afraid to use them; the staff wants to be used, that’s why they’re there.</p>
<p>Self-confidence is a lovely attribute, but be confident enough to take precautions for yourself and for your friends.</p>
<p>The Harvard admissions office shares a final thought;</p>
<p>— <em>“</em><em>Of course, no process is perfect.</em><em>”</em></p>
<p>You already knew that, right? Life isn’t perfect, but it can be pretty good. You may get another kind of first at college — your first bad grade. You may not get the campus job you hoped for and, instead, be stuck scraping dishes. You may not get the internship you needed for your big break, and you may graduate from college without a job in the wings.</p>
<p>You may be dumped, humiliated, or assaulted in the years to come. What will you do?</p>
<p>Take a deep breath, and keep on going.</p>
<p>Go back to class, scrape the dishes, seek healing, and, if necessary, justice. Day to day, step by step, life isn’t perfect, but it goes on. You’ll make it.</p>
<p>You survived high school, and you navigated the emotional roller coaster of growing up. You’ll get through every next phase, if you only hang on. If you can hang on while contributing to those around you with character, warmth of personality, and grace, the world will be a better place.<br />
Life is going to get a lot more interesting in the next few years. Your life won’t be perfect, but it will be all right, because you’re amazing — you can do it. Go live.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 8, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/graduation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">graduation</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/opinion" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">opinion</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Wed, 08 Jul 2015 20:17:37 +0000admin6382 at http://altamontenterprise.comV'ville graduates set to embrace their futurehttp://altamontenterprise.com/07012015/vville-graduates-set-embrace-their-future
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5043" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/IMG_2876.JPG?itok=u7cioRqT" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/IMG_2876.JPG?itok=KbgkddpK" width="300" height="188" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Michael Koff</p>
<p><strong>Heads high, hats aloft: </strong>Clayton A. Bouton High School graduates celebrates receiving their diplomas on June 26 with a traditional mortarboard toss.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — Memories and flowers flooded the Lydia A. Tobler Performing Arts Center at the Clayton A. Bouton High School graduation on June 26.</p>
<p>The evening ceremony began with a slideshow, designed by senior Alexandria Relyea, who graduated with high honors and plans to attend the State University of New York College at Geneseo. The slideshow featured baby pictures of her classmates that, in the blink of an eye, transitioned into senior portraits, echoing the feelings of parents in the room waiting to see their now-grown children graduate.</p>
<p>The Capital Region Celtic Pipe Band entered the auditorium in an almost funereal procession, signaling the end of one stage of life and the beginning of the next. The band was followed by the seniors, who entered the stage to the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance.” The students each carried a yellow rose, a tradition slightly altered from Voorheesville’s previous exercises that offered diplomas and roses to those crossing the stage.</p>
<p>Seniors Schuyler King, who will attend George Washington University, and Lydia Parker, who plans to attend SUNY Plattsburgh, welcomed the audience and led the pledge of allegiance. Both King and Parker graduated with academic honors.</p>
<p>Seniors Liam Brennan, who, with academic high honors, chose to attend Trinity College in Dublin, and Relyea performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” in unison.</p>
<h3><strong>A newcomer’s view</strong></h3>
<p>Kaylee DePrato was chosen by her classmates to address them. DePrato will attend Hudson Valley Community College. She graduated with academic honors, evidenced by her comfortable public-speaking style.</p>
<p>“This was really overwhelming, and we did it,” DePrato reassured her friends about their high school careers. Many of the students, she said, balanced school with jobs.</p>
<p>DePrato said that she moved to Voorheesville two years ago. As an outsider who had not grown up with her classmates, she said, “I see a side of you no one else was able to see. I was able to dabble in all of your friend groups, and bond with you in a special way.”</p>
<p>During high school, she said, there may have been misunderstandings between faculty and students at times.</p>
<p>“We’re all here, so we obviously did a good job,” she said.</p>
<p>She spoke about their principal, Patrick Corrigan, who was formerly an assistant principal.</p>
<p>“Mr. Corrigan is now the principal principal,” DePrato said. “He is a genuine, real guy. I don’t know if I would have been able to get through this without him.” </p>
<p>DePrato also shared memories and appreciation for other staff members.</p>
<p>“OK. Back to us,” she said, to laughter from the crowd. When she arrived in Voorheesville, Relyea welcomed her, she said. Soon, other girls did, too.</p>
<p>“So, thanks. You guys saved me from being a really awkward loner,” DePrato said. She met yet other classmates as time went on, she said.</p>
<p>“It was really cool. Well, it wasn’t that cool, but it really was cool,” she joked. “Having no background knowledge of you, I don’t need to know what happened here before I got here.”</p>
<p>She said that, as many of the students in Voorheesville knew each other since birth, they may be sick of each other’s company.</p>
<p>“People are supposed to grow apart,” she said. “I can’t even explain how much I love you all.</p>
<p>“It’s time for us to grow up,” DePrato continued. “It’s time for us to do great things.”</p>
<p>Senior chorus members, accompanied on keyboard by Mary Abba Gleason, filled the front of the stage to sing “Bye, Bye Blackbird,” a song reminiscent of the district’s mascot, the blackbird. </p>
<h3><strong>“Believe your flyness”</strong></h3>
<p>John Bennett Mackay, the class salutatorian, then addressed his classmates. Mackay graduated with academic high honors, and will attend Haverford College and CalTech. (See related story.) He began his salutatory speech with a quote by entertainer Kanye West.</p>
<p>“Believe your flyness. Show your kindness,” Mackay said. With good humor, he shared with the audience his brother’s financial incentive for each West quote he squeezed into his speech.</p>
<p>Mackay also quoted from a film, “My Dinner with Andre,” that touched on the themes of self-exploration; “Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going?” Mackay told his classmates that each of them had answered those questions during their college searches in myriad essays.</p>
<p>“Who are we,” he asked the class of 2015, “and why are we here? We sit as one, but underneath there are many groups. [We took a] unique journey to every one of these seats.”</p>
<p>He asked his classmates, who shared his childhood, to show their gratitude to the people who supported them, like parents, teachers, friends, and peers.</p>
<p>“Where am I going? I don’t really know. The only certainty is that there is uncertainty. By acting the role of yourself, you answer those questions,” he said.</p>
<p>Mackay, humorously seeking to maximize his finances, ended his address with the West quote, “Homie, I’m graduated.”</p>
<h3><strong>“Short and sweet”</strong></h3>
<p>The class made a financial gift of three hydration stations to be placed in the athletic wing of the school. The class officers, all members of the valedictory class, meaning they have high grades — Alexandra Cunningham, who will attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Nicole Brower, who plans to attend Colgate University; Benjamin Denn, who will attend West Point; and Hannah Suib, who will attend Brandeis University — shared the announcement of the class gift.</p>
<p>Valedictorian Erik Patak then spoke, sharing his love of chemistry with the audience. (See related story.) He crossed to the podium, then walked offstage after hinting, “Hold on one second.”</p>
<p>On his return, Patak said his address was like himself.</p>
<p>“It’s like me, short and sweet,” he said. “It’s about us — all of us. We are the class of 2015. We have learned together, grown together.”</p>
<p>“Street smarts aren’t my thing,” he joked, adding that he wanted to talk about attitude.</p>
<p>“The key to happiness is attitude,” Patak said. “Attitude is a big thing.”</p>
<p>Patak held up a glass beaker with clear liquid that he had grabbed from backstage.</p>
<p>Some see the glass as half empty or half full, he said.</p>
<p>Patak spoke of the attitudes of optimists or pessimists, of pragmatists who attempt to drink the water, and of chemists who warn that the liquid may not be water, before he added a second solution that turned the “water” opaque.</p>
<p>“The nerd in me cannot resist a chemistry demonstration,” Patak said to applause.</p>
<p>He urged his classmates to take their bad days and turn their problems into learning experiences.</p>
<p>As his friend, Mackay, had done, Patak used familiarity with a film to reach his audience, quoting the “Pirates of the Caribbean” character Captain Jack Sparrow.</p>
<p>“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem,” Patak quoted. “Savvy?” The audience erupted with laughter at Patak’s impression of Sparrow.</p>
<p>Patak also noted that a cliché, like “We would not be here without you,” can be true.</p>
<p>Life, he concluded, is full of both adversity and joy.</p>
<p>In life, as in the glass of water, instead of seeing the glass as half-full or half-empty, Patak said, “Try to fill it to the top.”</p>
<h3><strong>Superintendent’s poetic farewell</strong></h3>
<p>Cunningham and Denn introduced retiring Superintendent Dr. Teresa Thayer Snyder.</p>
<p>“We will cherish and appreciate her contributions,” Denn said.</p>
<p>Snyder, addressing Voorheesville for her final time, said that teachers ask their students to take many academic risks. For her remarks, she said, “I thought I would take a risk.”</p>
<p>Snyder read a poem she penned called “Birthing a Blackbird.” (See “Birthing a Blackbird.”)</p>
<p>In her poem, she described the graduates — once elementary students — as “hatchlings, featherless little beings” with “funny little limbs akimbo.” As middle schoolers, the seniors were “fledglings,” “jabber-wocking through this conundrum period,” “preparing for flight but not quite yet,” she read.</p>
<p>Once in high school, Snyder said, the seniors became “fully feathered, a handsome flock,” “leaving our nests, prepared to commence solo flight.”</p>
<p>“Blessings on you all, beloved Blackbirds, blessings on you!” Snyder concluded.</p>
<h3><strong>“The Beyoncé of Voorheesville”</strong></h3>
<p>Seniors Tyler Snow, who will attend Hudson Valley Community College, and Grace Yang, who graduated with academic high honors and plans to attend Boston University, introduced the guest speaker, business teacher Heather Garvey.</p>
<p>“Mrs. Garvey provides the best advice you can get,” Snow said.</p>
<p>“Mrs. Garvey is a strong, independent woman who ‘don’t need no man,’” Yang said, to laughter from the audience.</p>
<p>“Yes, I am the Beyoncé of Voorheesville high school,” Garvey straight lined. “It’s true. Yes, it is.”</p>
<p>Garvey spoke directly to the graduates when she said, “I do know you. We are so much more than teacher and students. We are family.”</p>
<p>She said she would speak only of plans, priorities, marriage, success, and friendship.</p>
<p>“Get comfortable,” she quipped.</p>
<p>She said that she had changed her major on the erroneous advice of a professor, but that she had then met her husband in her new studies.</p>
<p>“No regrets,” she said to the students. “My path led me to you.”</p>
<p>She shared her thoughts about careers and priorities with them.</p>
<p>“Make sure your work does not define who you are,” she said. She realized she needed to adjust her own thinking when she had surgery and her children were just 4 and 8 years old.</p>
<p>“Teaching never entered my mind,” Garvey said. Focusing only on a career makes “you lose out on experiences,” she said.</p>
<p>“It’s what you do, not who you are,” Garvey said about a career. “You may love your job, but your job will never love you back.</p>
<p>She said that she and her husband, Brian, have been married for 21 years.</p>
<p>“My hope is that each of you will find your own Brian Garvey,” she said. Her students had told her that their “number-one priority for a spouse is that they are ‘smokin’ hot,’ Garvey joked.</p>
<p>“None of you are ordinary. I never want you to marry anyone who thinks you are average — not someone who says you are not worth it,” she said. “You are.”</p>
<p>“Hotness…fades. Um, Brian, I’m not talking about you,” Garvey whispered in an aside. “You’re as hot as the day I met you. Please take me for ice cream.”</p>
<p>She suggested that students follow the advice of airline assistants who say to put one’s own oxygen mask on before helping another.</p>
<p>“If you can’t breathe, you can’t assist others,” Garvey said. She urged students to take care of themselves mentally, physically, and spiritually.</p>
<p>“It isn’t selfish. It’s necessary,” she said.</p>
<p>Garvey quoted Buddha, as well as Chinese proverbs.</p>
<p>“Slow down, and be mindful of the moment,” she said.</p>
<p>She spoke of the song, “The Climb,” and said, “Climbing that mountain is how character is born.”</p>
<p>“Keep moving forward, always forward,” she said. “You are not quitters…Carry on and keep climbing that mountain.”</p>
<p>Garvey told the graduates to “figure out who your friends are.” She said that the students are not the same people they were in first grade.</p>
<p>“The people you will meet will only know the mature you,” she said.</p>
<p>“I know that you have to go. I’ll be standing at my door” but the students will no longer come by, Garvey said, as the students move on with their lives. “You have made quite an impact on mine.”</p>
<p>“You are funny, brutally honest, and very caring,” Garvey told the graduates. “It made me want to come to work every day. You made me a better person. I really and truly treasure you.”</p>
<p>With a tight voice, Garvey said, “Clayton A. Bouton will always be your home.”</p>
<p>She noted the many teachers in ceremonial garb who filled the room.</p>
<p>“Just like me, they care about you. They are here to celebrate you,” she said.</p>
<p>The seniors, followed by the entire audience, offered Garvey a standing ovation.</p>
<p>Principal Corrigan presented the seniors and school board President Timothy Blow handed out diplomas, beginning with Mackay, the salutatorian.</p>
<p>Students waiting to receive diplomas hugged Garvey before striding across the stage. Finally, one student remained.</p>
<p>“Accepting the applause for the class of 2015,” said Corrigan, “valedictorian Erik Patak.”</p>
<p>Once the entire class was seated and announced as newly graduated, students cheered and mortarboards flew, before students made a decorous exit led by faculty.<br />
Outdoors, the Voorheesville faculty lined the exit and applauded the students as they made their way into a sunny future.</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 1, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/graduation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">graduation</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/voorheesville-central-school-district" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Voorheesville Central School District</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Wed, 01 Jul 2015 20:47:13 +0000admin6386 at http://altamontenterprise.comPatak works on 3-D modeling, bio-medical engineeringhttp://altamontenterprise.com/07012015/patak-works-3-d-modeling-bio-medical-engineering
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5041" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/IMG_2809_1.JPG?itok=4-MYpnJ1" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/IMG_2809_1.JPG?itok=wfN1gNwc" width="300" height="217" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Michael Koff</p>
<p><strong>Valedictorian Erik Patak</strong> offered humor to his audience as he created a chemical reaction during his address to his classmates at Voorheesville’s graduation ceremony on June 26. In life, as in the glass of water he held, instead of seeing the glass as half-full or half-empty, Patak said, “Try to fill it to the top.” Patak spoke of attitudes of optimists, pessimists, pragmatists who attempt to drink the water, and chemists who warn that the liquid may not be water, before adding a second solution that turned the “water” opaque. “The key to happiness is attitude,” Patak said.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — Valedictorian Erik Patak will head to the University of Rochester to study bio-medical engineering, after getting a taste of genetics studies last summer at the University of Montana.</p>
<p>“I was working in a lab,” he said of the five weeks he spent in Montana as a rising senior. “I made a genetic switch for Lyme disease. When you add a chemical…it’s a genetic sequence, and that’s the switch. If you add a chemical before the gene, it turns off the one after it. It turns that gene off.”</p>
<p>Patak’s personal interests outside his Voorheesville classes lie with his GoPro camera and other equipment, he said.</p>
<p>“I’m interested in video-editing, and 3-D modeling and animation,” he said. “I was learning off YouTube, one of the best educational resources.”</p>
<p>Patak played varsity soccer and varsity volleyball for Voorheesville. He said that winning a regional volleyball championship with his team was exciting.</p>
<p>He also participated in the science Olympiad, which he joined his sophomore year; the team placed 19th in the state against much larger schools, he said.</p>
<p>“That was one of the highlights of my high school years,” Patak said.</p>
<p>In the classroom, Patak and his friends worked hard and played hard together as a group, with only a two-tenths separation between their grade-point averages, he said.</p>
<p>“I spent a lot of time in my chemistry teacher’s room with old chemistry kits,” he said. “I had fun doing that. We found a significant number of chemistry kits.”</p>
<p>Patak enjoyed the kit that turned a clear solution opaque with the addition of reactive chemical.</p>
<p>Patak and salutatorian Ben Mackay are close friends, Patak said.</p>
<p>“We had made a bunch of slime one time,” he said, recalling the chemistry kits. “We regressed from seniors into 5-year-olds.”</p>
<p>The two worked together with their physics class to launch a weather-recording balloon, which has not yet been recovered.</p>
<p>“It was a great day — a lot of stress building up to that day,” he said. “We were working till the last minute. We had a very successful launch.”</p>
<p>The group set up activities for bystanders, like “pin the balloon on the map,” Patak said.</p>
<p>Patak theorized that the battery on the communications device stopped working due to cold.</p>
<p>“It’s down to -70 degrees Celsius up there,” he said. “That’s very cold for any normal battery.” The class last heard from the balloon when it was above Castleton (Rennselaer Co.) at 40,000 feet, Patak said. The balloon was projected to rise to 100,000 feet, he said.</p>
<p>“We’re hoping a farmer finds it in a field. No one reported a giant orange balloon,” he said, noting that it may have landed near Ghent (Columbia Co.). “Maybe it will turn up.”</p>
<p>Patak praised Voorheesville’s academics. As a senior, he said, his teachers treated him like a friend, and shared discussions about such topics as science articles in journals.</p>
<p>“My teachers have been great resources,” he said. </p>
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</div></div></div>Wed, 01 Jul 2015 20:30:21 +0000admin6384 at http://altamontenterprise.comSalutatorian Mackay heads to Haverford Collegehttp://altamontenterprise.com/07012015/salutatorian-mackay-heads-haverford-college
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5040" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/IMG_2795.JPG?itok=RWt4dwM3" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/IMG_2795.JPG?itok=DDTGoeom" width="300" height="442" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Michael Koff</p>
<p><strong>Salutatorian John Bennet Mackay </strong>addresses his graduating classmates at the Clayton A. Bouton High School graduation on June 26, saying, “We sit as one, but underneath there are many groups.” Each student took “a unique journey to every one of these seats.” He jokingly ended his speech with a quote by Kanye West: “Homie, I’m graduated.”</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — Salutatorian John Bennett Mackay graciously included his classmates when discussing his selection by school officials as salutatorian.</p>
<p>“There’s a very bright group,” he said. “There are a number of people who were close. I feel pretty fortunate to be recognized.”</p>
<p>Mackay learned last month that he had edged out his friends for the honor at a school he enjoyed attending, he said.</p>
<p>“I had a great time with a great group of friends, and great teachers,” Mackay said. “I’m comfortable and ready for college.”</p>
<p>Mackay played “a lot of soccer” while at Voorheesville, and plans to teach swimming lessons in the village for his second year before leaving for Haverford College in Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>He chose his college “late in the process,” he said. “My dad suggested I look at it,” he said. Mackay applied to the school, was accepted, and then visited the campus.</p>
<p>“It was pretty exciting,” he said of his campus visit. “I just got a sense that it would be a good community.”</p>
<p>Mackay plans to study engineering in a program that will keep him at Haverford College for three years and at CalTech, in California, for his final two years, he said. The program offers a bachelor of science degree from Haverford in addition to a bachelor of engineering degree from CalTech.</p>
<p>“I chose Haverford because I feel it presents me with the most doors and opportunities going forward,” Mackay wrote in an e-mail.</p>
<p>Mackay said that he enjoyed his math classes and his time in the science department in Voorheesville. He spoke about the weather balloon his class launched for a physics project.</p>
<p>“We have not yet recovered it,” he told The Enterprise. “We were somewhat disappointed. The experience had more positives than negatives.”</p>
<p>His good friend, Erik Patak, was named valedictorian, Mackay said, and the two of them will address the student body at graduation on Friday.</p>
<p>“It’ll be fun to speak with him,” Mackay said. </p>
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</div></div></div>Wed, 01 Jul 2015 20:26:48 +0000admin6383 at http://altamontenterprise.comRev. Allen Jager relinquishes Helderberg Reformed pulpithttp://altamontenterprise.com/07012015/rev-allen-jager-relinquishes-helderberg-reformed-pulpit
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5039" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/IMG_2962.JPG?itok=_e1cqSmZ" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/IMG_2962.JPG?itok=gtNOvElZ" width="300" height="350" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Michael Koff</p>
<p><strong>Rev. Allen Jager</strong> spoke from the Helderberg Reformed Church pulpit on Sunday in his final address as minister for the Guilderland Center congregation. Jager is retiring after 28 years with the church.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>GUILDERLAND CENTER — The Rev. Allen Jager said goodbye to his flock of 28 years on Sunday, as he led his final worship service at the Helderberg Reformed Church in Guilderland Center.</p>
<p>“I’ve been a minister for 40 years,” Jager told The Enterprise. “I just turned 65 last year. I decided it was time to enter a new stage in my life.”</p>
<p>His wife, Barbara, will continue working for at least another year as a secretary to the administrator for human resources in the Guilderland school district, Rev. Jager said.</p>
<p>Jager is unsure of what he’ll do in the future.</p>
<p>“We bought a house in Glenmont,” he said. He plans to spend time setting up the house, he said.</p>
<p>After he has had time to consider his options, he will make decisions about how to fill his time, he said.</p>
<p>“I will still continue to preach, to fill in for other ministers, after six months,” he said.</p>
<p>Jager studied at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in the state of New Jersey, where he grew up. After seminary, he preached in West Copake (Columbia Co.), then moved to a church in Englewood, New Jersey, before arriving in Guilderland Center.</p>
<p>Jager said that he has ideas of trying new activities like playing golf.</p>
<p>“Between ministry, the fire department, and my family,” they have “kept me very busy,” he said.</p>
<p>Jager has been active in the Guilderland Center Volunteer Fire Department for 25 years, he said. He served as a lieutenant, and as a chaplain, and now serves as part of the fire police, he said. Jager is now a life member, a designation granted after 25 years of service, and he will continue to serve as chaplain, even with his move to Glenmont.</p>
<p>He may even join his closest fire department, once he has settled in to his new area, he said.</p>
<p>The Jagers’ grown children live locally, he said. Matthew lives in Albany, and Christina is moving to Glenmont with them, he said.</p>
<p>“Everything went beautifully,” he said of his final service in Guilderland. “It was hard. I’m looking forward to retirement, but saying goodbye was very difficult, I could tell, from both sides.</p>
<p>“I really enjoyed my time in the Guilderland community,” Jager continued, “and all the friends I’ve known. It will always be a very important part of my life.”</p>
<h3><strong>Helderberg’s future</strong></h3>
<p>One of Helderberg’s deacons, Bev Harrington, agreed that the church members did not want to bid Rev. Jager farewell.</p>
<p>“We knew this day would come, but, of course, we were in denial, even after he announced his retirement set for June 30,” Harrington wrote in an email to The Enterprise. “We are very happy for him, a bit sad for us, but it is great to still have him as a friend!”</p>
<p>The church plans to hire an interim pastor while it looks for a full-time pastor, she wrote.</p>
<p>“We have a number of speakers, known as supply, for the time before we have an interim minister in place, for whom we are currently searching,” Harrington said. “This Sunday, Clara LaSalle will be in the pulpit.</p>
<p>“We won't be searching for a new minister until we complete the time with our interim — it could be a year, two years, somewhere in between, or more. An interim will guide us through the process of searching for a permanent pastor, with a committee that has already been established,” she wrote.</p>
<p>“Helderberg will be fine. We learned through the fire that destroyed our old building that it is the people, not the building, who are the church. Now we are learning that the church is not a pastor, either. Allen has given us the skills in his 28 years with us to work together,” Harrington wrote. “Thus, we will work together to accomplish this new chapter without him as the leader.” </p>
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</div></div></div>Wed, 01 Jul 2015 20:08:19 +0000admin6381 at http://altamontenterprise.comV'ville named wealthiest upstate school districthttp://altamontenterprise.com/07012015/vville-named-wealthiest-upstate-school-district
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5038" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/20150626_183703.jpg?itok=jf22Lsl9" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/20150626_183703.jpg?itok=-NIhWM15" width="300" height="482" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Jo E. Prout</p>
<p><strong>Above pastel-colored metal siding</strong>, an older-model window air conditioner is propped up by a weathered 2-by-4 at the Clayton A. Bouton High School. The Voorheesville district was recently rated the wealthiest school system in upstate New York by the Buffalo Business First, a publication in Western New York.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — The Voorheesville Central School District is the wealthiest of 431 upstate school systems, according to Buffalo Business First, a publication in western New York.</p>
<p>Conversely, the school was ranked lower, academically, than its larger Capital Region neighbors, according to the paper’s analysis.</p>
<p>The newspaper examined test results and graduation rates available from the New York State Education Department from 2011 to 2014, and found that only 3.7 percent of the children in Voorheesville live below the federally designated poverty line.</p>
<p>The next highest upstate poverty rates were 4.8 percent or greater, according to Buffalo Business First.</p>
<p>Voorheesville’s new Superintendent, Brian Hunt, told The Enterprise that the Business First ranking left questions about the underlying data.</p>
<p>Hunt acknowledged that free or reduced-fee lunch rates are low in Voorheesville — a standard against which poverty levels are often defined — and that median income in the Voorheesville district is “relatively high.”</p>
<p>“Suburban areas of Albany tend to be wealthier,” he said. “That can mask underlying issues with students, some students who struggle financially.”</p>
<p>Voorheesville withdrew from the federal student lunch program for a year due to complaints by parents and students about nutritional requirements and small portion sizes.</p>
<p>“Voorheesville is rejoining the federal student lunch program,” Hunt said. “That’s a support you can have in a public school. That’s a definite support we will have for families.”</p>
<p>“We don't use the free and reduced-price lunch rate in our socioeconomic-climate calculations,” said G. Scott Thomas, projects editor for Buffalo Business First. “But, the youth poverty rate is a major factor, which works in Voorheesville's favor, since its poverty rate is the lowest in all of upstate New York.”</p>
<p>Asked how the district addresses issues faced by the 3.7 percent of students who are identified as living in poverty, Hunt said that, in addition to school meals, Voorheesville provides counseling, guidance, support, and social work.</p>
<p>Voorheesville also offers opportunities for college scholarships, Hunt said.</p>
<p>“We definitely want to provide these supports,” he said.</p>
<h3><strong>Academics linked to resources</strong></h3>
<p>In academics, Voorheesville’s ranking was 25 of 431 upstate schools analyzed by Business First. Other local ranks were: Shenendehowa, 24; Guilderland, 18; North Colonie, 15; Niskayuna, 12; and Bethlehem, 6.</p>
<p>The paper’s frequently-asked-questions page states that Buffalo Business First ranks schools because “a large number of our readers are employers, even more are parents, and all of them are taxpayers. They have a big stake in Western New York's schools.”</p>
<p>“Business First has rated school districts across upstate New York ever since 2011,” Thomas said in an email. “It was a logical extension, we felt, of the rankings that we were already producing for the Buffalo and Rochester areas.</p>
<p>“We also produce specialized ratings, such as our socioeconomic climate ratings,” he continued, “in order to illuminate other aspects of each district's operations. It's important to note that specialized ratings have no impact on a district's academic rank.”</p>
<p>Hunt said that Voorheesville, a small rural suburban district, is different from its local neighbors.</p>
<p>“They are larger districts, larger in terms of property tax base,” he said. “Voorheesville is largely residential...Our tax base is more residential in nature,” Hunt said.</p>
<p>He offered “a word of caution” about the Business First rankings: “You can’t take all of that as absolute gospel,” he said.</p>
<p>Indeed, the Albany Business Review this week ranked Voorheesville first among 84 Capital Region school districts for math scores, largely based on elementary school standardized test scores. (See the full story on Voorheesville’s report card at <a href="http://www.AltamontEnterprise.com">www.AltamontEnterprise.com</a>)</p>
<p>“During the 2013-14 school year,” the Albany Business Review wrote, “73 percent of its students in grades 3, 4, and 5 scored a 3 or 4 [on a scale from 1 to 4] on statewide tests. That's more than 30 percent above the state average, and more than 9 percent better than any other district in the region.”</p>
<p>Voorheesville is careful about “overburdening” taxpayers, Hunt said. North Colonie’s heavy commercial and industrial areas relieve the tax burden from residential taxpayes, he said, which is “a fact not reflected in the ranking. We have to put the burden on homeowners.”</p>
<p>Voorheesville’s wealth is evident in some of its newer buildings and facilities, but other parts of district properties are run down, like wings of the high school, or closed entirely, like the footbridge near the elementary school.</p>
<p>In the case of older-model window air-conditioning units installed in classrooms, for example, Hunt said, “We try to put something in place that will work and be cost-effective…to provide the best education for students and be fiscally responsible.</p>
<p>“The district facilities are very good,” he said. Hunt returned to the district this month after many years working in other districts.</p>
<p>“Coming back, I was impressed at the improvements” to the facilities, he said. The elementary school building is in “fine shape,” he said, and taxpayers voted to replace the footbridge.</p>
<p>Taking care of a school district is “constant maintenance,” Hunt said. “It’s like owning a home.” </p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 1, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/wealthiest-district" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wealthiest district</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/voorheesville-central-school-district" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Voorheesville Central School District</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Wed, 01 Jul 2015 19:58:04 +0000admin6380 at http://altamontenterprise.comClarksville Church needs a boiler, anchors the communityhttp://altamontenterprise.com/06252015/clarksville-church-needs-boiler-anchors-community
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5015" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/PICT0001_0.JPG?itok=HYeu7lmA" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/PICT0001_0.JPG?itok=adLU1Qk-" width="300" height="225" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Jo E. Prout</p>
<p><strong>Steeple frame: </strong>Blue skies and green leaves surround the Clarksville Community Church. The church started a gofundme site to meet the $20,000 cost of a new boiler.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND — The Clarksville Community Church is gearing up for a season of fundraising to pay for a new boiler before cold weather hits.</p>
<p>According to Reverend Eric Bogerd, the heater is original to the building, which is over 50 years old.</p>
<p>“It’s had a good, long run,” he told The Enterprise.</p>
<p>The primary fundraising tool the church is using is a gofundme site, set up by member Cindy Myers Neumann.</p>
<p>“We are in need of a new boiler for our church before the next heating season arrives,” Neumann wrote on the site. “Anyone who attended our chilly Easter service this past spring can attest to that fact. We can no longer repair the giant, inefficient dinosaur we currently have.”</p>
<p>The church discussed in May whether to install a propane heater or an oil-burning heater.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be oil — that’s existing,” Bogerd said of the church’s pipes. The church would need to wait for more than 10 years to make up the cost of switching the system over to propane, he said.</p>
<p>“We do have a small fund available,” he said of the church’s emergency monies. “We’re trying not to dip into it.”</p>
<p>The small church has about 50 members, Bogerd said. Bogerd shepherds both the Clarksville Community Church and the Onesquethaw Reformed Church. The two churches serve the Tarrytown and Feura Bush communities, he said.</p>
<p>“The downside of being a country church these days is people are busy,” Bogerd said about Clarksville. “It’s sometimes difficult to organize a large group of people to mobilize things.</p>
<p>“We are a church that’s focused on being an integrated and visible part of our community,” he continued. “Now, in the United States, there is a need for community centers. It gives an anchor and a place to be together. Keeping the facility up and running is one part of what we’re trying to do to remain in the Clarksville community.”</p>
<p>The church joins other local churches in supporting a food bank, and the local churches work together to hold an open-invitation summer picnic, Bogerd said.</p>
<p>The picnic is a way, “in a world that’s fast, to try and provide a place where people can get to know one another as they don’t get to do anymore,” he said.</p>
<p>By replacing the boiler, Bogerd said, Clarksville Community Church will “continue to do that for many years to come.”</p>
<p>The church participates in the Clarksville Heritage Day event in August, he said.</p>
<p>“We always host a lot of people in our parking lot, and on the front lawn,” he said. “A lot of craft vendors set up sales booths free.”</p>
<p>The church also allows the community to use its large backyard for a classic car show.</p>
<p>“I would encourage folks, if they are on Facebook, to like the page for Clarksville Community Church to see activities,” he said. The activities are for anyone, not just for members, he said. Recently, the church hosted a garage sale, a game night, and a creative art day.</p>
<p>The church plans to do smaller fundraisers like a basket drawing and a food sale to supplement payment for the boiler, he said.</p>
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<p><img alt="" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/PICT0004_1.JPG?itok=MjwUF2DK" style="width: 750px; height: 468px;" /></p>
<address><sup><strong>Stained glass windows </strong>at Clarksville Community Church shine over empty pews in the afternoon sun, highlighting the 20th-Century arches and simple wooden beams of the 60-year-old building. The church hopes to replace its original boiler at a cost of $20,000. The Enterprise — Jo E. Prout</sup></address>
<hr /><h3> </h3>
<h3><strong>Shared pastor</strong></h3>
<p>Bogerd, 40, and his wife, Carol, came to the region in 2011, after serving an internship at First Reformed Church in Albany, Eric Bogerd said.</p>
<p>“My wife and I fell in love with the upstate area,” he said.</p>
<p>Before coming to Onesquethaw, the two lived for a year in Iowa, where Bogerd had a chaplaincy internship after he completed studies at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan.</p>
<p>Bogerd felt at home “right off the bat” with Onesquethaw, he said. After an interview in October, the church hired him to begin in November.</p>
<p>“They welcomed us with open arms,” Bogerd said. “It was my first church posting.” Onesquethaw accommodated him as a former student and chaplain, he said.</p>
<p>Clarksville searched for a pastor for a number of years before the two churches formed a team to share a minister, Bogerd said.</p>
<p>“We’ve come up with a new model — we mesh well and use the resources we do have to serve our community,” he said.</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">June 25, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/clarksville" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Clarksville</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/church" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">church</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 25 Jun 2015 18:43:00 +0000admin6337 at http://altamontenterprise.comReardon to lead Wynantskill, finds it "tough to say goodbye"http://altamontenterprise.com/06252015/reardon-lead-wynantskill-finds-it-tough-say-goodbye
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jo-e-prout" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jo E. Prout</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/5014" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/IMG_2039_0.JPG?itok=StbotElR" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/IMG_2039_0.JPG?itok=D7UsTsuj" width="300" height="400" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Enterprise file photo — Michael Koff</p>
<p><strong>A blur of motion:</strong> Dr. Thomas Reardon, engaged here in his first-day-of-school ritual of greeting students, has now accepted the job of superintendent for Wynantskill Union Free School District in Rensselaer County.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>NEW SCOTLAND – Voorheesville Elementary School Principal Dr. Thomas Reardon announced this week that he will be the new superintendent for the Wynantskill Union Free School District in Rensselaer County beginning in July.</p>
<p>“It’s bittersweet,” Reardon told The Enterprise. “I truly love it here, and the faculty and students. It’s tough to say goodbye.”</p>
<p>Reardon said that he was chosen from 34 applicants after a series of 15 hours of interviews.</p>
<p>“I was invited to apply through a search consultant,” he said.</p>
<p>Wynantskill is a small district of 300 that serves only kindergarten through eighth-grade students, he said.</p>
<p>“It’s a unique environment,” Reardon said. “ ‘Union free’ implies no teachers, but really it means no high school program.”</p>
<p>Graduates from Wynantskill choose to attend one of five regional high schools, and the district pays tuition for its students to those schools, Reardon said. The small district has only 30 students per grade level, making the provision of a high school program too expensive, he said.</p>
<p>“It’s coming back to my roots,” Reardon said. “I began my career as a middle school teacher. My work in administration has been in elementary.”</p>
<p>Wynantskill offers “the best of the things I love,” Reardon said. “I have an understanding of where they’re coming from, and, as a former teacher, an understanding of where they’re going.”</p>
<p>Reardon came to Voorheesville in 2009, after serving as elementary dean and assistant principal at Bethlehem Elementary School. Before that, he taught eighth-grade English in Bethlehem during the school year, and English and social studies at Ravena during summers.</p>
<p>“I was in the classroom for five years,” he said.</p>
<p>Reardon is currently an adjunct professor at his alma mater, Siena College, and he has taught at The College of Saint Rose and the Sage Colleges, he said.</p>
<p>“It’s been a pleasure teaching at the college level,” he said.</p>
<p>“He’s done a wonderful job for us,” said Voorheesville school board President Timothy Blow. “He brought a lot of excitement, and improved the workplace there. We’re sorry to see him go.”</p>
<p>Reardon is known for his high energy level and enthusiasm. He said that he works about 13 hours per day.</p>
<p>“It’s a labor of love,” Reardon said. He views education, in one sense, as customer service, where students and staff are clients to be managed pro-actively.</p>
<p>“That can’t be done in an eight-hour day,” he said. “It starts at 5:30 a.m., and ends right before midnight. I’m not a big sleeper.”</p>
<p>Reardon said that tasks must be completed from one day, and preparation must be in place for the next.</p>
<p>“You want to make sure everything is in good shape,” he said.</p>
<p>Blow said that the search for Reardon’s replacement will begin as soon as Voorheesville’s new superintendent, Brian Hunt, begins in July.</p>
<p>Applications for the Elementary Principal position are due by July 15, according to Hunt.</p>
<p>“I anticipate that interviews will be later in July, and that the successful candidate will be appointed by the board of education in August,” Hunt wrote to The Enterprise in an e-mail.</p>
<p>“Voorheesville is a great district with a very supportive community and an excellent staff,” he wrote. “Our elementary school was recently designated a Blue Ribbon School by the United States Department of Education, and I think all of these factors make this a desirable position.”</p>
<p>The district received over 20 applications for the middle school principal search, Blow said, and he expects a similar number for the elementary school principal position.</p>
<p>“We could have some internal candidates,” Hunt wrote, “and they will be considered if they apply. We want the best person for our elementary principal.”</p>
<p>Blow told The Enterprise that a new principal could be hired in time for school to begin in September.</p>
<p>Reardon will close out the school year this week, and take the reins at Wynantskill after the July 4 holiday.<br />
“I’m looking forward to starting a new place and hitting the ground running,” he said. “I’ve had six wonderful years here, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I’m so excited with the next opportunity, but my memories here make it tough to say goodbye.”</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">June 25, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/reardon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Reardon</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/voorheesville-central-school-district" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Voorheesville Central School District</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 25 Jun 2015 18:05:03 +0000admin6335 at http://altamontenterprise.com