By DOUG LAROCQUE
Capital Region Independent Media
NEW LEBANON–Following the monthly reports from school administrators at the Board of Education meeting on September 11, concern was expressed about a lack of communication concerning the accidental activation of a lockdown alarm at the Berlin Central School Jr./Sr. High School, after class hours but while New Lebanon students were taking part in sports practice. The two schools have a combined sports program.
It was discovered that a member of the cleaning staff accidentally tripped the alarm and that there was no threat. The problem for the New Lebanon Board of Education is no one in New Lebanon was notified until the following morning, something Interim Superintendent Chris Harper called “unacceptable.” Some of New Lebanon’s students were members of the modified or Junior High teams, and being a bit younger, a number of them were apparently a little shaken up by the incident. Superintendent Harper said he would be in touch with Berlin officials, noting if the New Lebanon administration had known, they would have had a program in place to offer help or guidance to these students upon entering school the following morning.
In May, New Lebanon School District voters approved a budget with a tax rate significantly higher than the state’s tax cap allowed. The voters approving the spending plan by a super majority, after many spoke out at the budget’s public hearing, said they wanted to protect and maintain the district’s current level of services.
Now that the school tax bills have come out, many are seeing an increase much larger than they expected. Board President Michael Brutsch noted the district does not set the actual tax rate, that is determined by one’s property assessment. The Town of New Lebanon recently completed a reassessment, bringing everyone’s actual assessment back to a full value level. Some of the other towns in the district are not at full value, so that is where equalization rates come into play, meaning the actual tax rate in each town is different. An equalization rate is a measure of what a property’s assessment is compared to those properties’ full value, and is designed to make the overall impact the same from location to location.
Board member Bill Buckenroth noted it was his feeling the district was paying the price for several previous years of no tax hike and are caught in a bit of a catch-up cycle.
Also at the meeting:
*The district is the recipient of a small schools grant of $192,000, payment spread out over a three-year period. The funds will be used to replace chrome books used by the students that are in disrepair or near the end of their life cycle
*Athletic Director Corey Brown says Berlin and New Lebanon are in the process of replacing old uniforms with new ones, that are more indicative of the sports merger. He says the new uniforms should be in place for all teams as the school year progresses.
Brown feels the merger, initiated over the past three years, is going well, but lamented there are no New Lebanon students on the boys’ soccer team this year
*Andrew Kourt informed the district this past spring he would be leaving as district superintendent, accepting the same position with the neighboring Chatham School District, which he started on September 1. Chatham is a larger district than New Lebanon. In July, New Lebanon hired Chris Harper, who recently retired as the superintendent of the Mayfield School District, to serve on an interim basis until July 1, 2025. Board President Brutsch said they are working with Questar in their search for a new school head, which they hope to have in place by that July 1 date
*Walter B. Howard (elementary school) Principal Josh Noble noted one of his priorities for this year is to increase student interest in reading, and that the school has 10 new employees
*High School Principal Matt Klafehn spoke of efforts to increase problem solving abilities and noted Lego projects have proven to be successful in this effort.
