School Calendar, Fall Coaches Up for Approval

The School District of the Chathams Board of Education may vote on which of four options to use for the 2014-15 student calendar when they meet at Washington Avenue School at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

out a survey of four calendar choices for the 2014-2015 school year to parents over the past two weeks and plans to make its final decision in June.

Superintendent Michael LaSusa said the district sent out a survey of four calendar options to parents in April and May. The biggest variation between the four was the placement of spring break.

The calendar choice with the most first-place votes as of Monday was calendar No. 3, which placed spring break from April 13 to 17, 2015, following Easter break, a late opening the following Monday and then four and a half days of school.

Calendar No. 4 had the best aggregate score with the second most first-place votes and most second-place votes.

At the last Board of Education meeting, LaSusa said the main reason was that he had received some feedback during the school year from parents who expressed that March and early April were not ideal for spring break. Some of the comments from parents included the beginning of the spring sports season and the cold weather, which some said was not ideal for students planning to visit colleges.

“And from my perspective, it’s always better to have [spring break] later,” LaSusa said. “If you have a snow storm and you have to make up days, it’s better for that week to be pushed back a little bit.”

Board member Lata Kenney said the district should be wary of when elections will be held in 2015. Board administrator Peter Daquila said the election typically takes place the third Tuesday of April, which would be April 21.

“You could also argue that, instead of having the break so close to the week of the vote, it would be better to have the break from the April 6 to April 10,” LaSusa said.

Staff Options

The board will also vote on several personnel options, including the retirement of James Kaiser and Ryan Skardal. Kaiser is a French teacher at Chatham High School; Skardal teaches English, also at Chatham High.

Fall coaches are also up for approval as drafted below.

*denotes district staff member
*denotes new coach

Mazurkiewicz was an assistant coach in the 2012 season for the girls soccer team under head coach Chris Calveley, who was not reappointed this year. Amster was not a volleyball coach in 2012.

Donations

Thousands of dollars in donations are also up for approval Monday.

The Milton Avenue School PTO is donating over $13,000 in goods to the district, including six picnic tables, two water fountains and bottle filling stations and a climbing rock wall.

The Chatham Athletic Booster Club is donating $1,500 to help videotape the Chatham girls lacrosse team, and $2,000 to help videotape the boys lacrosse team.

The Chatham Education Foundation is making the following donations:

• $1,500 to support the creation and maintenance of a school garden at Chatham High
• $4,438.10 to purchase Casio calculators to support Chatham Middle School's “Using Casio PRIZM Calculators to Enhance the Understanding of Algebraic Concepts in 7th Grade” project
• $458.13 for Lafayette Avenue School's "Reading Across the Curriculum" project
• $1,017.65 for Washington Avenue School's "Caring for Our School" project
• $1,000 to WAS for the purchase of IXL Math to support the school’s “Using Technology to Enhance Computational Fluency” project
• $450 to CMS for their “Family & Consumer Science Technology Enhancement Project.”

Investors Bank is also donating a $500 scholarship, and Mr. and Mrs. James Meguerian are donating an Otto Altenberg baby grand piano with an estimated value of $3,000 for the bands, orchestras, choral and music programs at LAS and CHS.

The Board of Education meets at Washington Avenue School at 7:30 p.m. Monday. A complete copy of the agenda is in the Photos & Documents section of this article.