CCS Board Discusses UPK, Coaching Staff

By KRISTIAN CONNOLLY
COOPERSTOWN

Third time’s the charm? That’s just one question after Universal Pre-K was brought back to the table at the Cooperstown Central School District Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, August 14.

While Universal Pre-K was not among the topics on the published agenda for the meeting, the subject was the primary focus of CCSD Superintendent Sarah Spross’ prepared report to the BOE. Spross said she’s heard, indirectly, that Universal Pre-K is a desire of some community members, so the superintendent felt it was the right time to “put everyone on the same page” about the idea so that the current board could decide whether to further explore the possibility.

Spross, who has been in the superintendent’s seat since 2021, said this is at least the third instance that UPK has been brought to the BOE during that time, with prior iterations of the board declining to proceed toward establishing the program.

“Universal Pre-K…is a state and federally funded pre-kindergarten program offered to families free of charge,” Spross informed the BOE, later adding that UPK has to be offered five days a week, but that it could be full- or half-day. But, Spross said, the program is “not an entitlement, and not all families have access to UPK, and they don’t have to.”

In the presentation, Spross highlighted some of the many competing challenges a school district faces in New York State when considering whether to offer UPK. Challenges that range from the more obvious (for example, funding and available classroom space, or staff certification requirements) to the less apparent, such as the fact that state law requires that the selection process for filling a UPK class be conducted at random. That means that the potential exists that not everyone who expresses interest in the program is guaranteed to get a spot.

The lottery-style class-selection system mandated by state law presents another challenge for any district that is considering jumping into UPK: It wouldn’t be known until after students are selected for placement in the program whether any of those students would need accommodations in the classroom.

For example, students whose first language is not English. Or students with disabilities. Only once a class’ composition was known would the district learn what hires it must make in order to meet students’ needs in the classroom, as required by state law.

District resident and CCS alum Mary Jane Sansevere—a UPK instructor at nearby Schenevus Central School, who is married to CCS BOE President Pete Iorizzo—took the opportunity in the public comments portion of the meeting to speak in favor of the district adding a UPK program.

“In terms of the program you’re thinking about offering your students, I think it would be incredibly beneficial,” said Sansevere. “I can tell you first-hand what I’ve seen with the kids that I work with in Schenevus, how far it brings them academically.”

Sansevere also noted that due to the limited options available for childcare in the area, “being able to offer that kind of program to the district would just be incredible,” and that it also might provide incentive for families to move into the district.

For its part, the Board agreed to the steps suggested by Spross, which is to first have the BOE’s Facilities and Finance Committee study adding the program. Only if UPK is deemed feasible by that committee will the Curriculum and Instruction Committee then undertake its own work toward developing a proposed UPK program.

“I really just wanted to give a high-level overview of [UPK], so that we’re all starting on the same page,” concluded Spross.

Reached via e-mail later in the week, Iorizzo said, “Whether or not [UPK] ultimately moves forward, I think we owe it to our community to at least say we looked at all the advantages and the challenges and made a decision that was in the best interest of the district.”

The Board expressed hope that the first step of the exploratory process could be completed by November.

Last Wednesday’s regular August BOE meeting was otherwise mostly routine business, with a lot of t’s crossed and i’s dotted on official documents, reports, contracts, and appointments for the coming 2024-25 school year. The CCS BOE will meet again on August 28, a rare second meeting of the month which often happens in August in order to adequately prepare for the opening of the coming school year.

Among the less-than-routine items last Wednesday? The transition in the head coaching position for the varsity baseball team after longtime coach Frank Miosek hung up his spikes following last season.

A former CCS science teacher who is about to begin his 37th season leading the boys varsity soccer program, Miosek had been in the head baseball role since 1990 and is the program’s winningest coach.

Spross and CCS Athletics Director Josh Wagner’s recommendation was to invite CCS elementary physical education teacher and coach Matt Hulbert to take the reins from Miosek. Hulbert has served as the JV baseball coach among other coaching posts he’s held during his time working at the school.

Prior to that agenda item coming to the floor, community member Frank Panzarella spoke in support of another candidate for the position: Matt Hazzard, a CCS alum and longtime presence both on the sidelines and in the stands at CCS. According to Panzarella, who has had one son go through the baseball program and another about to be part of it, Hazzard had spent the past decade “dedicated to the program” as an assistant with the varsity team.

“[Hazzard] is someone who really can espouse the family values that Frank Miosek has really made a core part of the culture of this program,” said Panzarella, who didn’t speak directly in opposition to Hulbert, but shared that he simply felt that the best, most qualified person was not selected for the job.

Panzarella closed his remarks by acknowledging that he was unsure whether his words would have any influence on the BOE, but that he “couldn’t not come here tonight [to share his opinion] because this community is really important to me and important to my kids.”

In the end, the BOE moved forward with Spross and Wagner’s recommendations, including the appointment of Hulbert. But prior to doing so, Iorizzo did take the step to pull the spring sports coaching appointments out of the much longer personnel consent agenda. According to Iorizzo, this was done so that it was “clear that our conversation regarding the hiring process was specific to athletics and not to the other appointments.”

Separating the items also allowed the BOE president to say that while he supported the appointments list and the good-faith efforts of Spross and Wagner that went into their selections, he suggested that the BOE address concerns that some community members have had with the process of hiring athletics coaches.

According to BOE minutes from the July 11 meeting, Miosek was one of those community members, speaking “about his frustration with the baseball program and a coach not being hired.” Another community member at that meeting, Michael Croft, is said to have spoken “about his concerns with the hiring and recommendation process of coaches within the athletic department.”

In wrapping up his comments on the matter last Wednesday, Iorizzo said that one way to address the community’s concerns is to have the BOE’s personnel committee examine the hiring process in the fall to see if there’s anything to be done to “strengthen” it. Because, said Iorizzo, “the community has asked us to do that, and I think it’s a reasonable request.”

Added Spross via e-mail later in the week: “I look forward to reviewing the recruitment process of coaches with the Personnel, Policy and Public Relations Committee to determine if any modification should be made.”

To close last Wednesday’s meeting, the BOE went into executive session to discuss “proposed, pending or current litigation and the employment history of a particular person.” Later in the week, both Spross and Iorizzo declined to comment further on the matter due to its being related to litigation.

Other business conducted at the August 14 meeting included the adoption of the 2024-25 District-Wide Safety Plan, which Spross noted has not substantively changed from last year’s version, though “in accordance with new regulations, CCSD clarified that all emergency drills will be conducted in a trauma-informed manner”; authorization of both the 2024-25 budget amount of $22,952,542.00 and the tax levy of $13,949,925.00 ($13,668,144.00 for CCS and $281,781.00 going to the Village of Cooperstown Library and Kinney Memorial Library in Hartwick); the approval of three bus leases, totaling $440,550.00 over five years; the approval to remove thousands of “obsolete, surplus, or unusable” books from the district’s classrooms and libraries; and various other appointments throughout the teaching and support staff for the coming school year.

Spross also noted that the district has been able to fill nearly all open employment positions, with only the following still vacant as of August 14: one part-time (0.6) fine arts teacher; one part-time (0.6) occupational therapist; and full-time vacancies for a speech language pathologist and elementary special education instructor.