SusanCampriello: My Works

Lesson 1 for schools:
How to stop swine flu
District officials encourage students, teachers to use common-sense hygiene practices to curb spread of H1N1
The Daily Mail
Sept. 8, 2009
The Windham Journal
Sept. 10, 2009

CATSKILL — As schools reopen, area educators and administrators are readying their buildings for learning, playing and perhaps spreading germs like those that could spread the H1N1 flu virus.

School administrations in Greene County are encouraging students and teachers to use common sense hygienic practices and are stepping up cleaning regimens to keep their buildings and grounds clean.

Hand sanitizing products will be available to students in every district, and staff will meet with health care professionals to learn the best way to keep classroom areas clean and students healthy.

School administrators said they will also follow guidelines set forth by the State Education Department and State Department of Health and keep in touch with the County Department of Health.

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Overall, administrators said they would increase cleanings and reassess practices if students

“We are going to hope for the best and prepare for all the contingencies that we can,” Anne Rode, principal of the Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School.

Each district has its own procedures in place.

Cairo-Durham Central School District

Ron Agostinoni, assistant principal of Cairo-Durham High School, said nurses will remind students the proper way to wash their hands and prevent the spread of germs.

Hand sanitizer dispensers, like the ones in elementary classrooms, have been installed in classrooms in the Middle School and High School building. Sanitizers will be available to students before lunch period, he said.

He said students and staff will be encouraged to stay home if they exhibit flu-like symptoms.

As with procedure set last spring, bus drivers sanitize buses before, after and between runs, he said.

Catskill

District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Farrell said the daily cleaning routine will be enhanced with extra cleanings of commonly touched surfaces such as water fountains, keyboards and doorknobs. Cafeteria areas will also receive extra attention, she said.

Hand sanitizer dispensers will be installed in every classroom, school office and common area, she said.

Farrell said staff will use hand-washing solution that shows dirty spots missed to demonstrate how to properly wash hands.

Farrell said as per request of Greene County Public Health, parents would not be notified of every student who presented severe flu-like symptoms. That could change, Farrell said, if the number of students with those symptoms increases.

Coxsackie-Athens

Coxsackie-Athens Central School District Superintendent Dr. Earle Gregory said at a recent Board of Education meeting that school nurses would be vigilant and aware of any illnesses.

Students will be encouraged to encouraged to thoroughly sanitize their hands.

He said staff will follow protocols set forth by Greene County Public Health and the State Department of Health,including increased cleaning schedules, encouraging students and staff with flu-like symptoms to remain at home for 24 hours after the symptoms disappear, and encourage students not to cough or sneeze into their hands.

District schools would not be closed, he said, unless a large absentee rate was seen.

Greenville

Greenville Central School District Director of Curriculum and Communications Colleen Hall said teachers in her district had already completed a training course on showing students how to keep themselves healthy. Classrooms have been stocked with hand sanitizers, she said. Buildings and grounds crews will continue to keep the buildings clean.

Hall said parents would receive a letter that included information on when a child should be kept at home and information would be posted to the district’s Web site.

She said student health would be monitored so that the schools would know when students were kept home for flu-like symptoms or for other reasons so she schools have a sense of why a student might be absent. Additional building and bus cleanings could be added if needed, she said.

Hunter-Tannersville

Hunter-Tannersville Central School District Superintendent Patrick Darfler-Sweeney said his building is constantly being cleaned due to several varied construction projects at the school.

High School students will meet with nurses during gym period to review universal precautions. Elementary class teachers will underscore the same precautions, he said.

Darfler-Sweeney said parents would be sent guidelines on when to keep students out of school.

The district’s Web site will be updated with information as the year continues, he said.

Darfler-Sweeney said students will be provided with alcohol-free hand sanitizing products and parents will be encouraged to give their children alcohol-free products if they feel the need to give their children anything.

Windham-Ashland-Jewett

Anne Rode said teachers and staff will meet with staff from Greene County Public Health to discuss how to prevent germs from spreading in the school building and on buses. Bus drivers would have an additional training to revisit safety checks and additional cleanliness protocols.

The school has ordered bottles of hand sanitizers for distribution as well as dispensers for all classrooms, common areas and offices in the school building.

She said the school reminds students to wash their hands and be mindful that they will be around many other children every year.

Information regarding the district’s procedures and the virus will be posted on the district’s Web site, she said, adding that information will also be included in a parent newsletter.

School administrators said physical contact — hallway greetings or during athletic events and gym class — will not be prevented or banned.

As Hunter-Tannersville’s Superintendent Patrick Darfler-Sweeney said, common sense hygiene practices will prevail, echoing what other administrators said.

“If we do a really good job with that, we will take care of 99.9 percent of the other stuff,” he said.

Schools to get stimulus funds
Money will be used to support improvements to teaching methods, learning environment
The Daily Mail
Sept. 3, 2009

CATSKILL — New programs and program features could be coming to the Catskill Central School District through more than $260,000 from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 as well as from other grant sources, according to District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Farrell.

The district will receive a preliminary estimate of $263,324 available over a 27-month period through the stimulus measure, according to the New York State Education Department and the Office of Gov. David A. Paterson. The money can be used to support teaching and learning improvement efforts. Final allotments will be announced later in the year.

“Any penny we get goes a long way,” Farrell said of the coming money.

She said the money, and additional funds through the Dyson Foundation in conjunction with Greene County Mental Health, will help implement an extended-day elementary school program that could be used for tutoring sessions or homework assistance.

She said the district will begin a search for additional staff to provide more opportunities for secondary students to prepare for Regents examinations or attend tutoring sessions, to receive counseling and to possibly pass failed courses through Online instructional services.

Farrell said further funds would come to the District through the Individuals with Disabilities Act.

According to the department, approximately 700 New York schools, mostly in lower-income areas, will receive more than $900 million through the Recovery Act.

Greene County schools will receive $788,464 in the following amounts:

- $138,042 for the Cairo-Durham Central School District;

- $263,324 for the Catskill Central School District;

- $133,728 for the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District;

- $122,019 for the Greenville Central School District;

- $85,132 for the Hunter-Tannersville Central School District;

- $46,219 for the Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School District.

But, as Cairo-Durham Central School’s Business Manager Lissa Jilek pointed out Wednesday, the funding is not guaranteed. Schools must still apply for the funds, she said.

Allocations were determined based on a “No Child Left Behind” program count of qualifying children including those in families living below the poverty line, living in foster care or in institutions for the neglected and who are receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

According to program data gathered, 6.86 percent of qualifying children in New York reside in Greene County with the following break-down:

- 1.15 percent in the Cairo-Durham Central School District;

- 2.40 percent in the Catskill Central School District;

- 1.14 percent in the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District;

- 0.96 percent in the Greenville Central School District;

- 0.80 percent in the Hunter-Tannersville Central School District;

- 0.41 percent in the Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School District.

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-NY, said in a statement that education is one of the most important investments that can be made for the future of New York.

“These federal dollars will help give New York students the education they need to succeed in the 21st century by providing more early education, extended learning opportunities, better training for teachers and a stronger role for parents,” she said.

‘Doc Drop’ raises money in memory of a ‘big kid’
Friends gather in memory of David K. Berger
The Daily Mail
Aug. 10, 2009

The memory of Dr. David K. Berger was honored Sunday through a fundraiser at Thunderhart at Sunny Hill, during which 180 golf balls were dropped from a helicopter at a target painted on the course’s driving range.

The “Doc Drop” proceeds, which totaled $1,800, will be donated by the club to the Berger Memorial Fund, which is raising money toward the construction of an educational children’s play area at the Gouverneur Healthcare Services hospital, in Manhattan.

The play area will be in the hospital’s new pediatric wing to be completed in the next two years. The fund hopes to raise $50,000 through the drop and future events.

Berger served as the hospital’s Chief of Pediatrics from 1981 until 1998. He began practicing pediatric medicine in 1979, and also wrote papers about child abuse and adolescent care.

Friends and family members said Berger, who died of liver cancer last year, would have loved Sunday’s unique event.

“He was a like this big kid,” said Beth Rosenthal, Berger’s widow.

Rosenthal said her husband had loved life, loved to help others and loved children. The two met during the 1970s, when Berger worked at a free clinic for migrant workers in Long Island and married in the 1980s.

Rosenthal estimated her husband had treated hundreds of thousands of children during his career, some of whom kept in touch as they grew older and brought their own children to see him.

She said he began playing golf once he began working in New York City. Rosenthal said Berger continued to make the drive up to Thunderhart even after he began to feel sick.

Rosenthal said her husband had taught their daughter Nipu to play at a young age. She said Nipu, now 13, would probably follow her father’s footsteps and join the club in Freehold.

Rosenthal said the choice of constructing the Dr. David Berger Play Area at Gouverneur was a fitting tribute to her husband, who had been interested in the impact of waiting room space on health care.

“That was his favorite place and where he was most remembered,” she said.

Friends said Berger tried to include everybody in whatever activity was happening on a given day.

Bob Neppl, who joined Thunderhart at the same time as Berger, in 2002, said he and his wife, MaryEllen, remembered watching the “forever young” Berger rally children for an activity once at a party.

“It was almost like the Pied Piper,” Nippl said of the scene.

And, he said, Berger gave medical advice to fellow golfers in the middle of games.

Dr. Ed Mandeville, Berger’s friend and Director of Obstetrics-Gynecology at Harlem Hospital, said Berger was far too young and far too vital when he died. Mandeville helped organize the drop.

“We wanted to acknowledge his love of golf and how much we miss him,” he said.

Mandeville recalled how he and his wife, Harriet, shared Berger’s love of New Orleans music and culture. Berger attended school and completed his medical residency in that city.

Mandeville provided some golf balls from Berger’s collection to be sold for the drop. Karen Rames, Mandeville and Rosenthal, whose balls landed closest to the target, donated their cash prizes prizes back to the Berger Memorial Fund. Instead, they took home their numbered golf balls from the collection. A fourth individual, Mark Fischweicher, whose ball landed near the target, as well, won a bag of Berger’s used golf tees. Rosenthal said the prize was only appropriate because Fischweicher’s son had received a set of Berger’s golf clubs.

Thunderhart’s owner and Superintendent Erik Nicholsen dropped the balls from a helicopter flying about 150 feet above the range.

Club Manager Kevin Smith, who also helped organize the event, which was open to the public as well as to club members, said about 95 percent of the 180 balls dropped were purchased by Thunderhart’s golfers.

“Our members have really come through,” Smith said. “It is nice that Dr. Berger’s golf club can have a hand in the play area.”

Town votes to appeal Wave Farm ruling
The Daily Mail
May 25, 2009, online

CAIRO - The Cairo Town Board voted Wednesday night to appeal a Supreme Court ruling against a Cairo Planning Board decision regarding arts organization free103point9’s Wave Farm. The decision to appeal the ruling was made by roll-call vote with four members in support of and one against the appeal.

Free103point9 Program Manager Tom Roe, who was present at the vote, said the board’s decision to stop a library and a radio station from coming to the town could raise constituents’ taxes.

“I suppose none of the town board members who voted this way are running for re-election, because the people I’ve spoken to in Cairo do not want to pay for frivolous lawsuits, and would like a chance to go on the air on their own community radio station,” he said in a statement after the vote.

An April 17 decision handed down by State Supreme Court Judge Joseph C. Teresi stated that a previous denial of the arts organization’s site plan had been “arbitrary and capricious.”

On Feb. 4, the Planning Board denied the site plan for the Wave Farm, which would include residential and performance space. That decision had been based on what members perceived as deficiencies in waste disposal plans, an insufficient parking area and the lack of sufficient screening, among other reasons.

Teresi handed down a similar ruling in January, in which he stated that a Sept. 3, 2008 resolution by the Town Board to deny the application had violated the state’s Open Meetings Law.

Councilwoman Janet Schwarzenegger cast the lone dissenting vote at the meeting Wednesday night.

She declined to comment on her reasons before obtaining the amount of money the town has spent on litigation to date.

Supervisor John Coyne said he supported the appeal based on the advice of Town Attorney Tal Rappleyea and conversations with the Planning Board.

Daniel Benoit, who was named chairman of the Planning Board during the same meeting, said he was pleased to have the support of the the Town Board.

“I think we have a strong case,” he said.

Benoit could not say how continuing litigation would affect the site plan approval process but said some discussion of the Wave Farm site plan could occur at the Planning Board meeting scheduled for June 3.

Planners delay action on Wave Farm site
Panel to vote June 3 pending appeal of court decision
The Daily Mail
May 8, 2009

CAIRO — Tom Roe, free103point9 program manager, has been told by the Cairo Planning Board that no vote or action would be taken on his Wave Farm Site Plan.

Daniel Benoit, acting chairman of the planning board, announced that the panel would vote on the Site Plan June 3 if the Town Board decides not to appeal a recent court decision against the Planning Board’s previous rejection of the plan and if an outstanding balance of roughly $5,200 in an escrow account is settled.

“I am not surprised,” Roe said about the delay, adding that he could wait another month for the decision. Roe and organization Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter started the process to construct a residential and not-for-profit art study center in 2007.

An April 17 ruling by State Supreme Court Judge Joseph C. Teresi stated that a previous denial of the arts organization’s site plan application had been “arbitrary and capricious.”

Roe was told the planning board would also not take action on the plan conditional to those criteria being met.

Roe noted that conditional approvals had been made on other sites in the past and said the Planning Board’s position to treat his plan differently than other plans was “arbitrary and capricious.”

“No, it is not,” Town Attorney Tal Rappleyea countered, “because we have been asking you and your attorney for several months to reimburse this escrow account and it has not been done. So you saying you will give it to us is something that has fallen on deaf ears on your side.”

Benoit explained that the planning board has withheld action on other site plans due to outstanding balances on escrow accounts.

Roe, engineer George Schmitt of Morris Associates and engineer Elliott Fishman of Santo Associates answered questions posed by the planning board regarding the width of a ingress and egress route as well as parking spaces.

Schmitt said that a section of driveway would be widened to 18 feet across in order to accommodate two-way traffic.

The board asked Roe whether the plan included an appropriate number of handicapped parking spots.

“If it was not correct, the judge would have noted that handicapped parking was still a question,” Roe said.

Benoit and the engineers counted and discussed the number of parking spots included in the plan and decided that at least 60 in the plan, with some room for more spaces would be sufficient.

Roe said that the issue of insufficient parking had not been mentioned in the past.

Benoit and the board agreed that another public hearing on the Site Plan was not necessary and Roe did not need to submit any additional information before a vote was held.

Planning Board member Frank Pambianchi recused himself from Wednesday’s discussion.

After the discussion, Roe hinted his feelings about what further litigation would cost the town.

“I would be doubtful that the Town of Cairo would want to raise taxes to shut down a library,” he said.

Schumer: Tax relief is coming
The Daily Mail
Feb. 17, 2009

CATSKILL — Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer visited Catskill Monday to discuss the ways in which $5.3 million in direct budget relief will help struggling Greene County residents and business owners. The money is part of the economic recovery package, which will be signed by President Barack Obama, Schumer told an audience of County Legislators and county residents at the Greene County Office Building.

Schumer said he has heard New York state will lose an estimated 200,000 jobs within the next two years but that lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are prepared to help New Yorkers, and all Americans, keep money in their pockets.

Key components of the package, he said, will put money into taxpayers’ pockets by increasing Medicaid relief for the county, offering tax credits for those paying for college and helping major infrastructure projects get off the ground. And once New Yokers have more money to spend, they will feel more comfortable spending it.

“Right now, we need money in the economy, not sitting there, doing nothing,” he said.

Although the relief measures will be temporary, they will be stretched across two years in order to allay a downward economic spiral, he said.

According to Schumer’s office, Greene County will pay $9 million for Medicaid services this year. Wayne Speenburgh, chairman of the County Legislature, said that more than 20 percent of the county’s tax levy is used to cover Medicaid costs.

“It’s a huge burden,” Schumer said.

Schumer said he wrote a provision in the bill that ensures that Federal reimbursements for Medicaid spending would go directly to the state’s 62 counties.

“It will not go through the state. The state does not take a cut. The state can not delay it. It will be money directly for you,” he said.

Overall, $12.6 billion will return to the state over two years for Medicaid relief, he said, and county and municipal governments will begin to receive this money in April.

Schumer said the relief is designed to prevent the need for major tax increases and major layoffs.

Starting in March, he said, every family with an income less than $150,000 will receive a tax break of $800. The break will be reflected by the amount of taxes withheld from paychecks in a pay period.

He also championed a $2,500 tax credit in the package for families earning less than $160,000 and are paying a college tuition.

“It is expensive to go to college, but it would be a real shame if kids dropped out of college or did not go to college because their parents couldn’t afford it,” he said.

The package will also give money to schools, which, Schumer said, will help prevent layoffs. He said that there would be no state educational cuts and that the formula for funding last year will be the same as the formula used this year.

Schumer discussed how provisions in the package will help the county and municipalities develop and maintain the infrastructure. Projects he mentioned included the water and sewer system in the town of Cairo and the sidewalks in the town of Durham.

Half of the money would go to “shovel-ready” projects, which are projects that would be ready within 180 days. The rest of the money would be saved for projects that will be ready by the beginning of 2010.

Local governments will begin to receive money for “shovel-ready” projects in May or June of this year, Schumer said.

Speenburgh said after the conference he was glad that funding for infrastructure projects would be staggered, as this would allow municipalities more time to prepare project plans.

Schumer responded to a question posed by Jim Mulligan, of Greenville, about whether funding would be available for Internet and broadband service.

“It will create real jobs,” Mulligan said of the service expansion.

Schumer answered that the bill makes $7 billion available, by application, for such expansions, but that specific details still need to be settled.

Interim County Administrator Dan Frank asked Schumer whether the package will help first-time home buyers or stimulate automobile sales.

Schumer replied that first-time home buyers will receive a $7,500 tax credit.

A proposal in the bill allows automobile buyers to deduct the interest on a purchase, he said.

Schumer also said that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will soon propose that the Federal government temporarily provide some guarantees for automobile and home loans.

Schumer said that although the package had very little support from Republicans — only three Republicans in the Senate and no Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for the bill — the two biggest amendments in the bill were proposed by Republicans.

He explained that House of Representatives is more partisan than the Senate, and whoever wins the special election for the 20th Congressional District seat on March 31 will have to work with both Republicans and Democrats.

Schumer endorsed Scott Murphy, the Democratic candidate for that seat, Monday morning in Clifton Park.

He said that Americans come together during difficult times.

“It’s time to get serious. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and do something, and that’s what I hope will happen,” he said.