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Mohonasen principal earns promotion
Former assistant to fill high school post
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Patrick McGrath has made short work of the employment ladder at the Mohonasen Central School District.
    Just two years after being appointed principal of the high school and less than seven years after joining Mohonasen as an administrator, McGrath, 40, was named the district’s new assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. He replaces Michael Johnson, who filled the position last year on an interim basis after Lisa Cutting left the district as a full-time employee.
    McGrath was thrilled at the prospect of advancing in the district but said he’ll miss walking the halls in the high school. He hopes to continue interacting with the students he’s overseen as principal.
    “I’m kind of hoping to make this job somewhat fit my style,” he said Friday. “I just love being in the trenches and the day-to-day stuff.”
    Prior to his hiring at Mohonasen, McGrath taught for nearly a decade in the Niskayuna school district. He will earn $116,000 annually at his new position.
    Taking the high school principal’s position is Dave Collins, who previously served as McGrath’s assistant principal. Collins, 31, is a 1995 graduate of Mohonasen and served as a science teacher with the district before becoming an administrator in 2005.
    Collins was honored to be selected as McGrath’s replacement. He said he plans to continue McGrath’s style of running the high school.
    “He and I share a similar academic and educational philosophy,” he said. “We’re going to build upon the great things that are happening at the school.”
    Collins will earn $93,000 at his new position. The district retains Makensie Bullinger as high school assistant principal and is interviewing for the position left vacant by Collins.
    Meanwhile, the district appointed Cutting as Mohonasen’s academic administrator for English and English Language Arts. The part-time position carries a pro-rated salary of $83,400.

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MOHONASEN COMMUNITY DAY SET

Posted on: 05/15/08
Written by: Ross Marvin, Spotlight Staff
email: marvinr@spotlightnews.com

As the warm weather continues this spring, so do the outdoor community activities.

Residents, local businesses and organizations will join the Mohonasen school community on Saturday, May 17 to celebrate academics from childhood to
adulthood at Community Day: A Learning Celebration.

The day-long celebration will be held on the Mohonasen High School/Draper Middle School campus, 2072 Curry Road, Schenectady.

Activities kick off at 8:15 a.m. with a one-mile walk in conjunction with the

Amber Teta Memorial 5K Run set to begin at 9 a.m.

The fun continues all day with a fireworks display at night.

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Mohon releases teacher comments Views given on honor society applications
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net

    Mohonasen administrators released teacher comments included in National Junior Honor Society applications this year after the district realized their confidentiality wasn't protected due to the state's Freedom of Information Law.
    Parents filing a FOIL request with the district were permitted to see their own child's application, including all teacher comments made during the selection process. They were not given access to other students' applications, District Superintendent Kathleen Spring said.
    But members of the Mohonasen Teachers Association claim the release of the comments sets a dangerous precedent. They argue the comments were made in confidentiality after both students and teachers signed an agreement stating the applications wouldn't be released after the selection process.
    "Teachers will be wary of giving honest assessments of students if they fear repercussions by outside influences," explained Susan Nelson, the association's president, during the district's Board of Education meeting Monday.
    Roughly 40 teachers stood in a show of solidarity as Nelson read her statement to the board. She said one district teacher whose comments were released now faces criticism from parents after making frank assessments of a student not accepted into the honor society.
    Nelson criticized the district for not redacting sensitive comments. By releasing the teacher comments, she said the district is creating an impression that the written agreement students sign isn't binding.
    "The lesson that can be taught is that a written agreement can be withdrawn whenever an outcome is not favorable," she said.
    Spring said the district consulted its attorneys and was assured the statements couldn't be legally withheld in a FOIL request. She said the agreement signed by students and teachers wouldn't have any legal bearing.
    "It wouldn't stand up in court," she said.
    Spring said several parents filed FOIL requests this year, asking to see their child's application. She said the district intends to review the honor society application process to see if revisions are necessary.
    "We need to look at the process people are going through to apply," she said.

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Mohonasen budget includes small tax hike
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Mohonasen officials approved a $41.9 million budget for 2008-09 Monday, sending a spending plan that proposes a 2.6 percent hike to the property tax levy to voters next month.
    The district Board of Education unanimously adopted the budget during its regular meeting. The budget reflects a $1.6 million or roughly 4 percent increase over last year, according to district calculations.
    But despite the boost in spending, the budget remains below the threshold allowed under a contingency budget, said Denise Swezey,
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the assistant superintendent for business. She said the percentage spending increases presented in the budget are minimal.
    "Both these percentages are the lowest we've seen in five years," she said during the board's meeting Monday. "And the tax levy increase is the lowest we've seen in 10 years."
    Mohonasen was aided this year by a 6.7 percent increase in state aid included in Gov. David Paterson's budget. The district will depend on state aid to fund 45 percent of the proposed budget.
    Topping the list of expenditures were instruction expenses, which total more than $1.1 million worth of the spending increase. The proposed budget includes funding for about nine new positions.
    Superintendent Kathleen Spring said some of the increased staffi ng will go toward a full-day kindergarten pilot program at the Bradt School. Initially, she said this program will be used to help children identified as falling behind.
    "This pilot will be more for students who are perceived through the screening process as being atrisk," she said.
    Spring said the other positions restore some of the programs that received drastic cuts under the 2006-07 budget, which initially proposed a double-digit increase in the tax rate. That year, administrators were forced to trim more than $800,000, resulting in 19 staff positions cut.
    Spring said Mohonasen still has one of the lowest per-pupil expenditures among public schools in New York. She said the district spent $10,264 per student in 2007-08, which was significantly lower than the $13,545 Schenectady County average and the $15,035 state average.
    "We don't want people to think we're being frivolous because we're not," she said.
    The district will host a budget forum at 6 p.m. May 12 at the Mohonasen High School. Voters will head to the polls on May 20.
    District residents will also vote on two three-year school board seats. This year, Thomas Flood and Mark Thornhill will challenge incumbents Nancy del Prado and Joe Salamone.

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Draper students mummify poultry ‘pharaoh’ for class
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    King Chickenwing was accorded all the burial rites of ancient Egyptian royalty.
    His earthly remains were dried over several months in a salty mixture and then bathed in oil and spices. Before being placed in a subterranean sarcophagus in the Draper Middle School courtyard, he was wrapped in bandages and adorned with all the jewelry befitting a pharaoh.
    A fowl pharaoh, that is. Chickenwing was among a trio of Cornish game hens named and mummified by Kim Coelho’s sixth-grade history class this winter.
    As part of their coursework, the students spent parts of two months preparing the birds in the same manner Egyptians did more than four millennia ago. Coelho said the hands-on approach has turned students on to a subject matter that was previously taught largely from a textbook.
    “We actually go through many of the same processes the ancient Egyptians used,” she said,
    After receiving parental permission for the project, students treated the chickens with a mixture of salt and baking powder. Coelho said the salt drew most of the moisture from the birds, while the baking powder helped limit their pungent aroma.
    “Once a week, they would change the mixture,” she said.
    Students periodically weighed the birds to gauge how much water weight they had lost from the treatment. They also researched Egyptian hieroglyphics and adorned each sarcophagus with the characters.
    After 70 days of treating the birds, Coelho said the students bathed them in baby oil and treated them with a spice mixture of cinnamon and ginger. Students wrapped the birds in gauze and encased them in plastic containers, which were then buried. The tombs were even topped with a with a small wooden pyramid that a parent volunteer built.
    Coelho said the project is a fi rst for her class and could lead to a more expanded effort next year. With elements of chemistry, mathematics and history interlaced, she said, the effort could help students learn a variety of subjects.
    Coelho said the students will exhume the mummies in June to see how well the process preserved the chickens. So far, she said the children seem to have a better grasp from the lesson.
    “Anytime you can get the kids doing something hands on, they learn it and they don’t forget it,” she said,
    Some of Coelho’s students still vividly remember a hands-on approach to learning they had during the fifth grade. Nick Esposito said his class dissected a squid when his science class was studying ocean life.
    “But this was the best so far,” he said.


ANA N. ZANGRONIZ/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
Draper Middle School sixth-graders Taylor Horton, left, and Amanda Welch show how they “mummify” chickens, covering them with baking soda and salt, in a Mohonasen school project.


Draper Middle School sixth-graders Paul Egan, left, and Nick Esposito smooth plaster onto a model pyramid top for their study on mummies in Kim Coelho’s class on Friday.