Tompkins Weekly

Newfield BOE personnel reorganized at recent meeting


A screenshot of the Newfield Central School District’s Board of Education virtual meeting held July 14, showing Christina Ward (center right) being sworn in as board president as other board members look on, including (left to right) Shana Claar, Jeremy Tenwolde, Missy Rynone, Lori Owens, Eric Hartz, Diana Griffin, Mike Jordan and David Shaw. Photo provided.

On July 14, the Newfield Central School District Board of Education held its annual reorganization meeting and a public hearing on the district safety plan in addition to its regular board meeting.

Newfield Notes by David Durrett

At the meeting, the board nominated a president and vice president for the year. President Christina Ward was renominated as the board president, and Timothy Payne, a returning member of the board, was nominated as vice president, replacing Jennifer Pawlewicz.

Once nominated, Ward and Payne took the oath of office, along with Superintendent Eric Hartz, District Clerk Lori Owens, Business Manager David Shaw, Tax Collector Lisa Snyder and new board members Michael Jordan and Diana Griffin.

Also at the meeting, the board set the meeting days for the 2022-23 school year, keeping it consistent with the last academic year to be on the first and third Thursdays, except for the month of February, in which the meeting will be held on the second Thursday of the month.

An hour prior to the usual start of the meeting, the board held a public hearing for the district’s safety plan (view full text at tinyurl.com/2csj39qt), having uploaded the plan to the district’s BoardDocs page (tinyurl.com/22fqmuo7) for the public to review.

“The real purpose of the hearing is for us to put it out so people can see it, talk about changes, talk about the district safety plan a little bit,” Hartz said.

Hartz reminded people listening to the meeting that while the district-level safety plan can be shared with the public, building safety plans cannot be publicly shared. He then fielded questions from members of the public who attended the meeting.

After the public hearing and the reorganizational meeting, the board held its regular meeting. During this meeting, the board assigned committee members, accepted resignations and performed other routine business.

Hartz, in his monthly superintendent’s report, spoke about the graduation ceremony — since the meeting was the first one held after graduation — and said the outdoor venue seems to be popular with the families in attendance, so it works well going forward as long as it is not raining. The district is required to have a backup venue in case of inclement weather, but the auditorium is not large enough to fit everyone.

Hartz’s report also covered whether to stream or record meetings. According to Hartz, the district had never tried recording its meetings prior to the pandemic, when safety precautions forced the board to hold its meetings on Google Meet. But as in-person meetings resumed, the board continued to livestream them on YouTube, since watching them there can be more convenient for many people.

Hartz proposed recording board meetings instead since a livestream cannot be paused when the board goes into executive session in the middle of the meeting. He also conceded that editing the recording would create extra work for Owens but that it would allow the board to cut out anything not suitable for the public.

“We’re two years in[to the pandemic],” Hartz said. “I understand why we were where we were for two years, but I’m also wondering if we can look at a few other things now.”

Newfield Notes appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.

In brief:

Newfield Public Library upcoming events

The Newfield Public Library will hold its weekly Adventure Club at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 3 and 10. The event is part of the “Oceans of Possibility” series of summer programming (tinyurl.com/2ybge2zx). For more information, visit the library’s website at newfieldpubliclibrary.org/events/adventure-club-330-12/.

On Aug. 4, the Newfield Public Library will host Perry Ground, a cultural educator and storyteller, as he makes a presentation on traditional Haudenosaunee storytelling from 6:30 to 8 p.m., also as part of the “Oceans of Possibility” series. Ground is a Turtle Clan member of the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and has 25 years of experience as an educator and storyteller who teaches about Native Peoples’ culture and history.

For more information, see newfieldpubliclibrary.org/events/people-of-the-longhouse-630/.

On Aug. 9, the Newfield Public Library will hold its weekly story time from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Turtles will be the theme for this week. For more information, go to newfieldpubliclibrary.org/events/family-storytime-1030-45/.

Next Board of Education meeting Aug. 18

The Newfield Central School District’s Board of Education, which held its first meeting of the month Aug. 1, will hold its next meeting Aug. 18 before resuming its standard schedule of meetings in September on the first and third Thursdays of each month.

For more information, including the agenda and a link to the meeting on YouTube, go to the district website at newfieldschools.org.

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