Pine Plains school board preps for next year at annual reorg meeting

PINE PLAINS — With a full agenda of authorizations, appointments, designations and approvals in front of them, members of the Pine Plains Central School District (PPCSD) Board of Education (BOE) readied itself for 2021-22 during the annual organizational meeting on Wednesday, July 7.

Starting promptly at 7 p.m., the BOE gathered in person in the Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School auditorium.

To kick off the agenda, District Clerk Julia Tomaine administered the Oath of Office to recently re-elected BOE members Anne Arent, Joseph Kiernan and Jean Stapf. All three BOE members will serve another three-year term starting Thursday, July 1, through June 30. 2024. 

Tomaine also administered the oath to Superintendent of Schools Martin Handler for 2021-22, his last before retiring. Arent was elected president of the BOE while Amie Fredericks was elected vice president; both were administered the Oath of Office by Tomaine.

Following the appointment of district officers and members of the district-wide safety team for next year, the BOE began appointing members to the Committee on Special Education (CSE), the Committee on Pre-School Special Education (CPSE) and the Subcommittee on Special Education. Janine Babcock was appointed chairperson for both committees and the subcommittee with Lindsey Lowry, Elizabeth Murray, Gian Starr and Maria Lombardo as alternate chairpersons. Murray and Lowry were appointed psychologists while Renee Dallmann, Pam Tompkins, James Jackson, Angelique Williams and Deborah Strickland were appointed parent members.

Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center Principal Julie Roberts was appointed acting principal of Cold Spring Early Learning Center in the event that Cold Spring Principal Gian Starr isn’t physically present in school on one or more days. Likewise, Starr was appointed acting principal of Seymour Smith in the event that Roberts isn’t present in school on one or more days. 

Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School Assistant Principal Christopher Boyd was appointed acting principal in the event Stissing Mountain Principal Tara Grieb isn’t psychically present in school on one or more days.

Once the petty cash funds were approved, the BOE approved commercial crime insurance coverage for the district with a $2 million per loss limit. This covers all district employees and coverage will be provided by Travelers Casualty/Northern Insuring Agency.

Moving through the agenda’s listed authorizations, the BOE authorized Handler as the official contact to communicate with the media and the newly hired Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Monica LaClair to sign on all official documents in Handler’s absence. 

The BOE authorized Tomaine to accept all drafts, checks, etc., with district funds and “continually invest idle funds in certificates of deposit or interest accounts that offer the most favorable rates.”

The BOE designated Bank of Millbrook, Key Bank and NY Liquid Asset Fund as its official bank depositories  and The Poughkeepsie Journal and Kingston Daily Freeman as its official newspapers.

For committee appointments, the BOE appointed Arent, Stapf and Chip Couse to the Audit Committee, and Couse, Fredericks and Stapf to the Compensation Committee. Fredericks was appointed to the Executive Committee of the Dutchess County School Board Association, while Kiernan, Heidi Johnson and James Griffin were appointed to the Policy Committee. Kiernan was appointed as New York State School Boards Association liaison with Griffin as the alternate. Couse and Griffin were appointed to the Pine Plains Central School District School Artifact Committee along with community members Victoria LoBrutto and Kathleen Spiers.