School board votes to open door wider and allow 2nd exchange student
The Daily Mail
Mar. 12, 2009

GREENVILLE — The Greenville Central School Board voted Monday night to allow a second foreign exchange student to attend the high school next year. They also saw some middle school student enrichment class work and heard the opinion of members of the varsity baseball team and their parents on the team’s new coach.

A vote for more diversity

The student body of Greenville High School usually includes one teenager who is in the United States through a Rotary student exchange program. But a second student has expressed interested in attending the school next year. The district’s policy only allows for one foreign exchange student to attend the school each year.

School Board President Wilton Bear Jr. asked the board whether they wanted to change the policy of allowing one student to attend the school or if the board wanted to grant a one-time exception to the policy for the upcoming school year.

Board Member Lawrence Thompkins said he had no problems with admitting more students as long as it did not displace Greenville students from Greenville programs.

“Will one student make a difference?” Board Vice President Anne Mitchell said, adding, “on the other hand, if you had 30, it would be a ridiculous mess.”

She pointed out that the board could grant the exception now and change the policy later, since the second exchange student needed an answer soon.

The board unanimously approved the exemption for next school year.

Students show off accomplishments

Caroline Bobrick and Zoe Rudloff represented their sixth grade enrichment class at the meeting. Standing atop a box that enabled them to see the board over the podium, the girls explained how bookmaking blended art and language arts lessons. The two and their classmates filled the pages of the accordion, hand-sewn and other books they made in the class with short stories and poems.

The board members leafed through some samples of the class’ work.

Eighth-grade student David Herbstritt described how he and his classmates built robots with Lego kits and then programmed those robots to move like animals, vehicles and even sumo wrestlers. The students used computers to program their robots to move in many directions and to spin. The board watched a demonstration of a work-in-progress, a merry-go-round that was started only that day.

Kate Kulas, who is also in the eighth grade, told the board about how her class learned how to navigate the stock market using a game in which teams bought and traded stocks based on actual market prices. She said the class learned all the pertinent vocabulary, including stocks, bonds and James Cramer.

Kulas was asked what her team had in their portfolio.

“Our buying power or our equity,” she asked in response.

High school students Emily Evans and Dillon Dombroski spoke about using the Internet to take courses either not offered at the school or closed out to them because of scheduling problems. The Accelerate U classes are run by BOCES, but the students are monitored by a teacher in the school. Both students used the Internet to read lesson plans and could e-mail their questions with a teacher outside of the school.

“Being self-motivated is probably the greatest need to be successful in an Accelerate U class,” Dombroski said.

Team laments choice of coach

During a public comment period, members of the boys Varsity baseball team and a few mothers spoke about how James Silk had been a savior to the summer and fall baseball teams.

They expressed disappointment over the board’s decision to hire a different candidate for the coaching job of the Varsity team.

They described how Silk had worked with players to help them find their place on the diamond as well as in the outfield and said Silk’s leadership had brought the team a willing record for the first time in years.

After the players left, Tompkins said he was impressed with their heartfelt comments and the courage they showed by addressing the board.

“Their parents should be very proud of them,” he said.