Photo of Rabbi Linda Motzkin provided by Sara Miga.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —Rabbi Linda Motzkin, one of only a handful of women in the world trained as a Hebrew scribe, will be leading the five-day event series “Inscribing the Sacred: Creating Torah and Art” from February 26 until March 1 in the Payne Room of the Tang Teaching Museum. The events are free and open to the public.
The series will include discussions on the history of women’s involvement in the Jewish scribal tradition, as well as the process of Torah production. For more information, visit tang.skidmore.edu/calendar/category/9-talks.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —At the February 15 Saratoga Springs City School District Board of Education meeting, Director of Budget and Program Integration Joe Greco stressed the need for the district to cut substitute teacher costs.
Greco said that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the district was spending around $1 million on substitute teachers. In 2022 and 2023, substitute spending was subsidized by COVID funds. “Now that the Covid money is going away,” Greco said, “we have to change our behavior, otherwise we’re going to keep directing a lot of our funds into substitute costs.”
Greco said that reducing reliance on substitute teachers is one of the district’s biggest budget priorities.
Pictured left to right: Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District Bus Mechanic Robert Killeen, Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, State Senator Jim Tedisco, and Director of Pupil Transportation for the Shenendehowa Central School District Al Karam. Photo provided by Adam Kramer.
ALBANY — State Senator Jim Tedisco and Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh joined with local school transportation workers to call for a repeal of the school bus mandate that would require districts throughout the state to have entirely zero-emission fleets by 2035. The group wants the mandate to be replaced with a pilot program that would evaluate electric bus performance.
“The goal of having several clean energy options is a good one, but it’s got to be done with common sense and in a realistic way that’s reasonable and affordable for taxpayers, our local governments, and school districts — and not add to the high tax burden faced by New Yorkers,” said Tedisco in a statement. “We’re offering a reasonable proposal to rescind the electric school bus mandate that will cost school districts in New York State billions of dollars, and replace it with a state-funded pilot program that enables school districts to test and evaluate how these electric buses perform.”
Tedisco and Walsh cited various issues as justification for repealing the mandate, including reliability, cost, and an “inability to operate or charge in frigid temperatures.”
Wilton resident Joseph W. Zarzynski examines a French and Indian War powder horn at Fort William Henry Museum. Photo by M. P. Meaney.
WILTON — A Wilton resident and maritime archaeologist who studied Lake George shipwrecks was admitted as a Fellow into the Royal Geographical Society earlier this month.
In the 1980s, Joseph W. Zarzynski was a Saratoga Springs school teacher whose life took an unexpected turn when a friend of his found a World War II bomber in Loch Ness. Zarzynski took a leave of absence from teaching, went to Scotland, and thought “wow, I want to be an underwater archaeologist.” Zarzynski went back to school and earned a second master’s degree in Archaeology and Heritage from the University of Leicester in England.
While in upstate New York, Zarzynski took up recreational diving in Lake George, and became fascinated by the shipwrecks there. “A group of British shipwrecks were put into the lake in what is called a ‘wet storage’ in the winter of 1758,” Zarzynski said. The British decided to sink the fleet in shallow water and raise them in the spring of 1759 for a campaign against the French in the Champlain Valley. “It was pretty difficult raising vessels, so there were probably four dozen plus that were not recovered,” Zarzynski said. “So they became the focal point of some research we did in earnest from 1987 right up until I stopped diving in the lake in 2016.”
From 1987 until 2011, Zarzynski directed Bateaux Below, a nonprofit that mapped dozens of Lake George shipwrecks. In 1990, he led the team that used a Klein side scan sonar to discover the 1758 Land Tortoise radeau, a floating gun battery from the French and Indian War. In 1998, the Land Tortoise was listed as a National Historic Landmark. A few years ago, Zarzynski’s book, “Ghost Fleet Awakened: Lake George’s Sunken Bateaux of 1758” was published by SUNY Press. It was Zarzynski’s use of geography in studying the famed “Sunken Fleet of 1758” that helped land him in the Royal Geographical Society after a lengthy application process.
Zarzynski will be teaching several workshops at the Fort William Henry Museum in Lake George later this year. Museum visitors can also visit the underwater archaeology exhibit room to see a painting of a 31-foot long shipwreck created by a nonprofit that Zarzynski spearheads. His eight book, “Fort William Henry’s Moments in Time” was published in August of last year.
The Royal Geographical Society was founded in London in 1830. According to the organization’s website, “the Society’s purpose remains the same today as when first founded, namely the advancement of geographical science.” In addition to Zarzynski, other Fellows include Sir Ernest Shackleton, Sir Edmund Hillary, and Clive Cussler.
Julie Leffler is a special education teacher at Schuylerville High School. She teaches a life skills and work-based learning class. The course teaches functional academics, independent living skills, and job skills. She and her students go on several community-based instructional trips each month. During these trips, students explore the local community and utilize skills they’ve learned in the classroom.
Saratoga TODAY asked Leffler about being an educator, as well as her future plans.
What is your favorite part of being an educator?
My favorite part of being an educator is having the opportunity to watch my students grow into independent young adults during our time together.
What are some things about your job that the general public might not understand?
The pandemic changed the way education looks and the ripple effects are still being felt. In the case of my students, many programs and services they could be entering into after graduation are understaffed and not fully operating. This has been a challenge as they move into adulthood.
What are your future plans/goals?
My plan for the future is to continue teaching at Schuylerville High School.
SCHUYLERVILLE — During the May 21 annual budget vote, two members of the Schuylerville Board of Education will be elected to five-year teams. The open seats are currently held by Joanna Crowley and Shaun Cumm.
Interested candidates should contact District Clerk Jennifer Tompkins at tompkinsj@schuylerville.org or at 518-695-3255, ext. 3242 for a candidate profile that is due by Monday, April 22 at 5 p.m.
Powerpoint image of the Ballston Spa Central School District’s 2025 Budget Development presentation, delivered at the February 7 Board of Education meeting. Screenshot via the Ballston Spa YouTube livestream.
BALLSTON SPA — At the Ballston Spa Central School District Board of Education meeting on February 7, Clerk of the Board and Records Access Officer Brian Sirianni delivered the 2025 Budget Development presentation, which focused, in part, on upcoming budgetary challenges faced by the transportation department. Sirianni listed several specific challenges, including fuel costs, electric buses, and the driver shortage.
Fuel Costs
“Fuel costs really got us a year ago and overdrew the budget significantly,” Sirianni said. This year, the district has a $380,000 budget for fuel but will likely end up spending more than $400,000. But Sirianni said that this year’s added expense is “nothing compared to where it was the year before, where we had budgeted $300,000 and it [cost] $462,000.” Sirianni said that relative to last year, the district was now “in good shape” with its fuel costs. He’s predicting that gas and diesel prices will stay about the same or decrease next year. “Hopefully that will play out,” Siriani said.
Electric Buses
Sirianni said that the state government does not have a specific plan to “fund the literally hundreds of millions of dollars that it’s going to take to pay for [electric buses].” Sirianni said the district would need to purchase around 80 zero-emissions buses, each of which will cost about $380,000. “We’re not a big school district,” he said. “Multiply that across the state; they can’t afford this.”
Sirianni said he hoped the issue would go away, but not because he doesn’t agree that carbon emissions need to be lowered. “It’s just nobody can afford this, and we’re being forced to buy buses that are going to be useless in a few years because they’re going to be out of date because the technology is changing so quickly,” he said.
Driver Shortage
Sirianni said that the district’s bus driver shortage issue was improving. “We hope that it will eventually go away in the next year or so, and we’ll be in a position to not have to call it a driver shortage anymore,” he said. “We’ll see.”
Sirianni said that the district has been paying more to train drivers, employ substitute drivers, and recruit new drivers.
Schuylerville Elementary School’s new sensory room. Photo provided by the Schuylerville Central School District.
SCHUYLERVILLE — Schuylerville Elementary School has created a sensory room that serves as a therapeutic space for children with special needs. Paid for with funds from the federal American Rescue Plan grant, the room features soothing colors, combined with engaging technological furniture and other tech-based features.
“The sensory room was curated to counteract students who may feel overwhelmed or anxious,” said Director of Pupil Personnel Services Jordan Tezanos in a statement. “The calming environment will help students who experience these challenges on a daily basis.”
Marzullo said that in recent years, educators have gained a better understanding of sensory input that students require, sensory processing disorders, the need for breaks, and the need to be proactive when students are starting to disengage from their education. “If caught at the right time, we can get them back on track,” Marzullo said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Bill Jones, Skidmore College’s senior athletic communications manager, has announced his retirement.
“Skidmore will always be special to me,” Jones said in a statement. “I’ve had a ring-side seat to the growth of the athletic program that was in its infancy when I arrived 40 years ago.”
In his time at Skidmore, Jones was witness to eleven team national championships, over 200 All-Americans, nearly 100 conference titles, and 25 CSC Academic All-Americans.
Jones said that “the list of colleagues who have been a part of this journey is long, but it was former athletic director Tim Brown who gave me a chance in 1984, and it has been current athletic director Gail Cummings-Danson who has let me be a part of the numerous successes of the program over recent years.”
“The announcement of Bill’s retirement is a well-deserved celebration after an unprecedented 40-year tenure at Skidmore College,” Cummings-Danson said. “Bill has been a valuable asset and contributor to the promotion and growth of Skidmore Athletics. He has a wealth of information and institutional knowledge that we have been reliant on and will miss upon his retirement.”
MIDDLE GROVE — Kelly’s Angels and Camp Stomping Ground in Saratoga County are offering two scholarships for kids ages 7-12 to attend overnight summer camp at no charge.
Applications are now being accepted for children residing in New York’s Capital Region who have lost a parent or sibling to cancer or another illness, or who have persevered through another form of adversity. Members of the Kelly’s Angels Board of Directors will review applications and select the winners in March. Applications should be submitted by February 29, 2024 at www.kellysangelsinc.org/campscholarship.
Camp Stomping Ground is located at 3430 Boyhaven Road in Middle Grove, the former site of the Boyhaven Boy Scout Camp.
