Marlboro School Superintendent Michael Rydell kicked off last week’s School Board meeting, updating members on the work that is being done in the district during the summer recess.

 

“There has been a tremendous amount of curriculum mapping and curriculum writing and professional learning that has taken place over the past several weeks of the summer thus far, and will continue into August,” he said. “It is where teachers attend professional learning opportunities and our administrative team attends multiple workshops and it is at a level that I have not personally experienced in my professional career. I wanted to share with the board that’s all happening in preparation for the upcoming school year.”

 

Rydell noted that the district’s summer school and summer programming “has been a great success thus far. I’m sure the students are looking forward to it wrapping up more than I am, but nonetheless, our teachers and administrators involved with that have been doing a great job.”

 

Rydell took time to highlight the “incredible amount of work that our buildings and grounds, our facilities team, have done to ready our buildings for the upcoming school year. It’s impressive to see and I just want to applaud that group and Larry Cavazza obviously for his leadership.”

 

Rydell acknowledged Addison Parker, who was in the audience and was appointed by the board to a General Special Education position at a MFA step 1 level and a probationary period of 9/1/24 through 9/1/28.

 

Rydell said Parker went through the Newburgh school system and later attended Mount St. Mary College.

 

“What’s really impressive about Addison, among many things that came out in the interview process, is that she actually earned her BA in History and her MA in Special Education all within four years. Addison is an incredibly impressive individual and quite frankly, she came into her finalist interview with Robin Hecht and I and we looked at each other at the end and I said Ms. Hecht are you good and she said I’m really good and we offered her the job on the spot. She went through the whole process but we knew we didn’t have to speak to the Interview Committee any further because what she did in that interview was incredible, inspiring and definitely memorable. She does have a certificate for students with disabilities for grades 7 through 12. She is going to do incredible things at Marlboro High School. I’m really excited and Addison, congratulations.”

 

The school board unanimously approved the appointment of Emerson Segara as the Director of School Business and Finance, in the tenure area commencing August 12, 2024 and ending on August 12, 2028.

 

The School board approved an agreement between the Highland and Marlboro School Districts to join together to form a boys wrestling program for the 2024-2025 school year.

 

The board approved a tuition increase of $186 for Universal Pre-K, bringing the cost per child to $6,430. The funding comes from federal and state pre-k grants that were approved in the 2023-2024 school year. In the coming year there are 89 children who will be part of the program.

 

The board approved a contract for 2024-25 with Ambulnz by DocGo, a New York City based company, at $125/hr. This is to pay the company when they are asked to be present at an event on standby, such as at a football game. The district does not pay the company when they are called to the school in an emergency, as that is paid for by the town through their contract with Ambulnz.   

 

Board member Patricia Benninger acknowledged that the New York State Public School Athletic Association, “designated the Marlboro High School with a Scholars of Distinction and Excellence Award. She thanked Phil Cancellaro, Director of Athletics, Physical Education and Health, as well as all of the coaches, “and most importantly all of the athletes, because I think it’s important to note that about 75% of the athletes have qualified because they’ve received the scholar athlete team award. I think that’s tremendous.”

 

Board President Frank Milazzo announced that the next school board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, August 19 at the Marlboro Elementary School, 1380 Rte. 9W. He said the day of the week and location change for the meeting is because the Planning Board will be at the town hall, “and we need to set the tax warrant that Monday night, so the tax bills can get out in time so everybody has them by September 1st.”