Displaying items by tag: SSCSD

Thursday, 05 April 2018 14:24

Athlete of the Week: Brian Hart

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Brian Hart, a senior at Saratoga Springs High School, is a star baseball and basketball player. He will be attending Marist College on a baseball scholarship in fall 2018. He has played on the varsity team for both sports for the last three years.

“Basically, my dad just put a bat in my hand when I was a young kid and I played little league. I’ve enjoyed playing baseball all these years,” Hart said, explaining how he became involved with baseball.

He started with Saratoga National Little League and then did the Saratoga Stampede travel team during middle school and high school. Hart’s senior basketball season was a success.

“We had a really good basketball season this year. All the kids on that team are the kids I’ve been playing with my whole life, so just being able to play with them again this year was really fun,” he said.

Hart says he enjoys baseball and basketball the same amount, but he recognizes that he’s better at baseball.

In his free time, Hart studies, works out, and hangs out with his friends, which consists of mostly the baseball team.

“We have a lot of seniors on this team that I’ve been playing with for a long time, we’ve all made it a goal to win a state championship. We have high expectations for this team and we’re looking to have a good season this year. I try to be a leader for the team and if any of the underclassmen need help they can ask me and I’ll help them out,” Hart stated.

Every March, the team goes to Vero Beach, FL for spring training.

“It’s an advantage for us because other teams in the area don’t have the privilege to go to Florida and play games, so we use it to our advantage when we come back here,” he said.

Hart has worked out with several major league teams: the Brewers, the Red Sox, the Rangers, and the Padres.

“It [working with those teams] was a blessing and it just shows that all of my hard work has paid off. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and if good things come of it, that’s just great,” he said.


He isn’t sure about going pro just yet. In college, he is thinking about majoring in either math, finance, or business.

Hart’s favorite baseball team is the Yankees and his favorite player is Aaron Judge, “because he’s an outfielder and a power hitter” like him.

Hart feels supported on and off the field. His cites his parents, Pam and John, as his biggest supporters.

“Athletically though, definitely my dad is my biggest supporter. He’s done a lot for me, he’s my backbone with sports, he’s helped me practice. He’s just done a lot,” Hart explained.

On the field, Hart gets along with his whole team and all of his coaches.

“My coaches are great. I get along with them. [Cuthbertson] is really easy going, he’s not the type of coach that will yell at you. He has the expectation that we’re going to work hard and get the job done. That just makes everything easier and takes the pressure off everyone,” Hart said.

Published in Sports

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Michelle Tsao, principal at Averill Park High School, has been appointed as principal at Saratoga Springs High School. The appointment is effective July 1.

"Ms. Tsao comes to Saratoga with significant building level leadership experience as Averill Park High School Principal. Ms. Tsao has worked closely with her faculty and staff to raise the level of academic achievement for all students, promote a positive school culture and climate, and engage families as partners in education," said Superintendent of Schools Michael Patton, Ed.D.

"We were very fortunate to have a number of highly qualified candidates who applied for the Saratoga Springs High School Principal position. All of the stakeholder groups who participated in the interview process were very impressed with Ms. Tsao's strong instructional leadership experience, collaborative approach, and passion for working with students,” Patton continued.

Ms. Tsao has spent the past three years serving as the principal at Averill Park High School. Prior to that, she served as an assistant principal at Shenendehowa High School, an assistant principal in the Queensbury Union Free School District, and a teacher at Ballston Spa High School. Ms. Tsao earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from SUNY Albany in 1999, a master’s degree in education in social studies from SUNY Albany in 2000, and a school district administrator certification from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in 2006. She holds a permanent certificate from New York State as a school district administrator and as a social studies teacher.

“I am very honored and excited to be joining the Saratoga Springs City School District community as High School Principal,” said Michelle Tsao.

“I look forward to getting to know the students, faculty, staff and parents of SSHS, and continuing to build upon the outstanding reputation that the building holds. Furthermore, I am excited to build collaborative relationships with the school community to further the opportunities available to our students as they prepare for their futures,” Tsao stated.

Published in Education
Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:35

Activism Takes Many Forms

[Photos provided]

SARATOGA COUNTY —  On February 14, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL suffered an unimaginable tragedy: 17 people were gunned down by a teenager with a gun. In the month since, students across America have become involved with supporting the students at Stoneman Douglas. On a local level, activism took many forms.

“We’re glad that you’re all choosing to walk-out today. We’ve gathered here to honor the lives of the 17 students and teachers that passed one month ago. But never again should we have to do this. This marks the beginning of an end. An end for gun violence in our schools. Because enough is enough. We should be able to go to school and not fear for our lives. We should be able to go to school and come back the next day. But we can’t take this for granted. We must put an end to the atrocities that are claiming the lives of our fellow students. We have the power to demand change. Now let’s use it to stop the violence in our schools once and for all,” the students at Saratoga Springs High School said, at the beginning of their walk-out.

Saratoga Springs High School, Ballston Spa High School, and South Glens Falls High School were three schools in the county who decided to rise up and partake in the movement on Wednesday, March 14. South Glens Falls students did not walk-out, however; they oversaw of how they would support the movement.

“I sat down with a few student groups and tried to get an understanding of what the students wanted to do. They thought it was in the best interest of everyone in the building that we split what is activism and what is memorial,” said South Glens Falls Principal, Mody.

During third period, faculty and students engaged in discussion circles to confront issues about school violence, empathy, and the “SEE something – SAY something” philosophy. They also had a 17-second moment of silence. In the library, students also had the option to write letters to local representatives.

“The students were all engaged and that’s important. I always say, ‘educate not indoctrinate.’ My job is not to tell them what to do with their voice, but how to use it,” Mody said.

In Ballston Spa, a group of seniors kick-started their walkout organization.

“We have a sort of media committee, it’s a small group of seniors and we all divided up the responsibilities and we are the ones in charge of getting the media involved,” Joe Vesic said, referring to himself, Izzy Rutkey, and Joe McDonald, all seniors.

“One of the people that we’re working with tweeted ‘why can’t Ballston Spa participate in the walk-out?’ We all got on board with that and thought ‘yeah, why can’t we participate?’ So, we emailed our principal and we got her full support on the event and then we started to get people’s support outside of the small group of seniors that were working on it and it really grew into a big thing,” Vesic explained.

Aside from the principal’s support, the students also had the backing of most teachers and students.

“We have the majority of the school’s support; however, there is a small section of the school that I think their main reason for not supporting the movement is because they truly don’t understand what we’re calling for and once we explain it to the people that approach us showing resistance, they really do tend to come on board with our message,” Vesic said.

Vesic and the committee have spent their time listening to all of the various speeches that kids at Stoneman Douglas have been giving, along with watching clips from the Town Hall they had a few weeks ago. Ballston Spa’s message for the walk-out is simple: “mainly we’re calling for more background checks and limits on weapons of war,” explained McDonald.

Like the others, Ballston Spa’s walk-out lasted 17 minutes, honoring each victim of the shooting.

“Our main goal is definitely unity. With the election coming up, and a lot of us turning 18 soon or already 18, we will be able to register to vote and be able to vote in this upcoming election. If we start this conversation about what we, as teenagers and young adults, want and how we want to be represented in the government, then that will lead to us taking steps in November when we are able to vote and to have our opinions and our voices be heard,” Rutkey said.

The trio, however, remain realistic that a walk-out will not be the end-all be-all of what they’re fighting for.

“We won’t be giving up on this effort. I think that our motivation to have stricter background checks and limits on weapons of war is not going to stop with us walking out of school. We won’t stop calling our representatives or making our voices heard,” Vesic stated.

“I think that overall, Ballston Spa High School does a fantastic job of making sure we feel safe. We do have our regularly practiced lock down drills and in the past few weeks we have had a police presence throughout the day. I think individually, as a school, Ballston Spa does a great job, especially in response to a lock down we had at the beginning of the school year when a student did bring a gun to school. They handled that situation so well and made sure nothing like that has happened since. But on a state level and a federal level, that cannot be said about all schools, and we want to make sure it can be said about all schools,” Rutkey concluded.

Saratoga Springs High School also participated in the walk-out; however, two students offered an alternative, the #Honor17 kindness project, created by freshman Meg Messitt and senior Madeline Messitt.

“The school had put together the walk-out and we were just a little concerned about it, because a walk-out by definition, is a political protest and we don’t believe in political activism during school hours, so we came up with this alternative that pledges kindness and makes the school a better place at the same time. We feel it will also achieve more by doing something other than just standing outside. It will make the school a better place at the same time. I think it’s better than standing outside for 17 minutes,” said Meg Messitt.

After a teacher posted something on Facebook that one of her students had come up with, #whatsyour17, the Messitt girls were inspired to create their own similar idea.

“This project is not just for kids who aren’t walking out, it’s for everyone. I’ve met up with people that are organizing the walk-out and even they love this idea, they’re spreading it around, trying to get more people to do it, too. People in the middle schools are participating, a teacher from Colonie is also trying to get it into his school, as well,” Messitt explained.

Meg is the president of the newly minted Republican Club at the high school, but she says she doesn’t even factor that into her opinions on the walk-out, which
she finds to be very politically motivated, at all.

“What we’re doing [#Honor17] is not political at all. When we advertise this, I’m not even mentioning the club,” she explained.

 

Messitt said she felt pressure from some teachers to join the walk-out.

“Teachers have been pressuring students to walk out. They’ve been saying things like, ‘I want to walk out but if students stay behind I can’t.’ So this is just pressuring students to walk out because if they don’t, they think their teacher is going to be disappointed in them because they know their teacher wants them to walk out,” she said.

As far as her own personal safety, Messitt doesn’t feel unsafe but, “it wouldn’t hurt to put more thought into a better security system.”

Messitt did not participate in the walk-out.

Braeden Arthur, a sophomore at Saratoga Springs High School, found out about the event through social media and immediately decided he wanted to participate.

“I definitely think that for different people this walk-out means different things. Some people see it as just standing by those who unfortunately died in Parkland, and then some people see it as how some of the students from Parkland want us to see it; as this is a moment to bring attention to our administrators, President, NRA, and that students of this generation in particular have had enough of the gun violence and in a setting where students shouldn’t necessarily have to be afraid, no less,” Arthur stated.

For Arthur, his reasons behind participating are simple: “for me, personally, the walk-out is about students talking to the adults who happen to be running the country now.”

Arthur is aware of the #Honor17 project, “I like the idea of creating a kinder environment and I definitely think that’s a good way to, again, lower the risk of anything ever happening by making people feel more welcome. If kids felt more welcome and less singled out, maybe we wouldn’t have a situation where the solution is to hurt the people around them,” Arthur said.

Arthur commends the district for increasing security on the campus to make it an even safer environment.

“Do I think I’m personally safe? I’d say that I do feel safe, then again, I’m sure the kids at Stoneman Douglas thought they were safe, too” he said.

Matthew Taylor, one of the 10 initial students who organized the walk-out, doesn’t believe this to be political in nature.

“We haven’t taken a stand, it’s not about gun control, it’s mainly about walking out in solidarity with the students from Parkland. It’s to represent that this time, it’s going to be different, it isn’t just going to fade away into a distant memory. I understand that a lot of students are saying that ‘kindness and promoting kindness is something that we can do’ and although kindness is important, you must change hearts and laws, because that’s the only way real change will occur. You should be kind to people all of the time,” Taylor said.

Students from Saratoga Springs High School are currently raising money to charter a bus for those who would like to participate in the Washington, D.C. walk-out on Saturday, March 24.

“The walk-out is really about empowerment and making sure students know all of the ways they can get involved and they can voice their opinion, regardless of what side of the aisle they’re on. That’s why it’s not really that political. It’s just an issue that needs to be addressed,” Taylor said.

Maple Avenue Middle School also participated in the walk-out. While most schools across the county supported the walkout movement or provided an alternative, Schuylerville Central School threatened students with disciplinary actions and would treat walking out as an unexcused absence.

Published in Education
Thursday, 08 March 2018 13:14

Athlete of the Week: Hunter Chandler

[Photos provided]

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Hunter Chandler, a 15-year-old sophomore at Saratoga Springs High School, is an all-star athlete: bowling, where he’s going to states this week, baseball, and potentially football next season. On the lanes, Chandler had the third high in the series at sectionals, sixth in the overall series, which he won via a rolloff with a teammate he had tied with, and second highest average in the council. On the baseball field, he is primarily a catcher and secondarily in the outfield. Chandler will be going to the state championships for bowling, due to his total 1,246 pin-fall in sectionals. His friend also had the same total pin-fall, which resulted in the two doing a three game roll-off to decide who would be going to states.

“Most of my family bowls and I enjoyed watching my brother bowl,” Chandler said.

“I feel like this bowling season was good for me but I also feel like it was good for the team. We managed to challenge ourselves to see what we could and couldn’t do, and what we couldn’t do we always ended up working out in practice,” Chandler explained.

Chandler enjoyed working under his coaches as well.

“The coaches would talk to you and ask you what you think you need to change, they let us do our thing and figure it out for ourselves and they’d offer advice if we couldn’t figure it out,” Chandler said. Out of the bowling alley, Chandler focuses on his academics.

“I think I’m doing well, last I checked everything looked good,” he said.

His favorite subject?

“Does gym count?” he laughed, “if I had to choose, I’d say Earth Science.” Chandler does sports yearround, which doesn’t leave much time for anything else.

“My mother has done so much for me, I owe her to do my best,” Chandler said, citing his mom, Tammy, as his inspiration.

“She’s the one that always brings me to practices and games. When I’m feeling down, she always helps me feel better,” Chandler explained.

Chandler is a part of the PTech Program, which is an interactive course that is for ninth through twelfth grade. In ninth and tenth grade, students take regular classes, in eleventh and twelfth grade, students spend the first half of the day at SUNY Adirondack taking classes and the second half of the day at the high school. Between those two years, student will earn their first year at college toward their associate’s degree, he is thinking about being in the advanced manufacturing field.

“I prefer hands-on work,” he explained.

Chandler will be bowling at states Saturday, March 10 in Syracuse. 

Published in Sports

[Photo provided]

SARATOGA SPRINGS — On Saturday, Jan. 13, Saratoga Springs junior Kelsey Chmiel took first place in the Junior Women Under-17 four-kilometer race at the Great Edinburgh Cross-Country Meet in Scotland. Chmiel won with a time of 14.10, with European runners coming in second with a tie time of 14.13. As a sophomore in 2017, Chmiel was named Gatorade New York Girls Cross-Country Runner of the Year for her win at the state and federation girls cross country championships and finishing second at the Nike Cross Regional. In her November 2017 season, Chmiel had the fastest time in the history of the Section II Class A cross-country championships. It’s clear that in her upcoming senior cross-country season, Chmiel will continue her path of success.

Published in Sports

[Photo by www.PhotoAndGraphic.com]

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Springs Blue Streaks wrestlers are on a hot streak this season so far. Currently, they are 16-3, with losses to Shenendehowa, Ballston Spa, and Warrensburg.

“So far we’re doing pretty good right now. All of the guys are pretty much right on track, I’m happy so far,” said coach Kris West.

On Saturday, Jan. 6 the Blue Streaks held their invitational where 21 teams came and competed; Saratoga ranked fifth in the team scores.

“We had 19 teams at the invitational and we had a great competition. Probably the most successful tournament we’ve hosed in the last 10 to 15 years, it was great,” West explained.

With only three weeks until sectionals, West and the team are ready to give it their all.

“The guys are pleased because this year may be a bit of a down year; we’ve lost some seniors from last year out of our lineup but we kind of picked up right where we left off. Guys stepped up, we’re having a great season,” he said.

In any sport, a healthy rivalry with another school is important, it pushes each individual to do their very best.

“Shen is always a good rival, Ballston Spa, too. We’ve had some good battles with them over the past few years. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake as well. They are all traditionally great in this program,” West stated.

Traditionally great indeed. All four schools are in the Suburban Council North League; Ballston Spa is ranked number 1, Shenendehowa is number two, Saratoga Springs is number three, and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake is number five. The Section II Class A Tournament is Saturday, Feb. 3.

Published in Sports
Thursday, 11 January 2018 13:03

...It's 4 p.m. Do you know where your children are?

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Imagine this: You’re a parent who doesn’t know where your child is. They haven’t gotten off the school bus and you are straining to remember; did they stay after for an extracurricular? Did they miss the bus or just hop onto the wrong one? The Saratoga Springs City School District (SSCSD) has decided to eliminate those questions with a new system called Tyler Drive. Tyler Drive, a system created by Tyler Technologies, is a software that manages student location information. Through a tablet mounted near the school bus driver, this system provides the driver with step-by-step directions to each stop on their route, effectively managing student ridership and eliminating the middleman of handheld directions or anything that will not allow the bus drivers to pay full attention to the road and the riders on board.

“Every student in the school district is going to have an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) card. Basically, what’s going to be on there is just their picture and their name. It will have a bar code and there will be a number on it that basically will just associate with our system. When they get on a bus or off a bus, they just tap on or tap off,” explained Cheryl Dalton, transportation director of SSCSD for the last 12 years.

Once the student has tapped their RFID card, the software connects to the driver’s tablet and the bus stop information is pulled up.

“Basically, it’s almost like they’re being checked in, kind of like how you do attendance in a classroom. It’s the same thing when they’re getting off the bus. What’s really neat about it is it literally shows where the student got on the bus, what bus stop, and when they’re getting off in the afternoon and what stop they get off,” Dalton said.

The RFID cards will be attached to each students’ backpacks but if lost, the driver will be able to manually input the students’ information into their tablet.

“I was always intrigued [by Tyler Drive] and probably initially overwhelmed with the idea of it because technology is growing so much,” she said.

The district has all their bus routing through Tyler Technologies, plus GPS through the dispatchers that allows them to see where the busses are on the roads.

“Tyler Industries actually came to us and offered us this pilot. They basically have invested in the school district because obviously this is a product they have invested in and they want it to work. They’ve paid for all of the hardware, the tablets, and are supplying all of the training for our drivers and employees,” she said.

Employees from Tyler Industries start riding with the bus drivers and training them next week. Nothing is out of pocket for the SSCSD in year one.

“We had to make a three-year commitment on our end,” she said.

A transportation committee was created out of parents, principals, transportation employees, and some board members, which met over the summer with Tyler Industries.

“It was great, parents came out with a lot of questions, as did principals,” Dalton recounted.

The transportation committee presented the plan to the school board in September and it was approved to move forward. Regarding why Tyler Industries chose SSCSD, Dalton thinks this is because of “the diversity of our district and also the proximity."

Tyler Technologies is in Latham, New York so they can do a lot of things going back and forth. They also have employees who are residents of the school district, so that was important to them,” she said.

After Dalton sent out the initial email detailing this new program on Monday, Jan. 8, she did receive a few feedback responses.

“Some of the concerns are that we’re putting a chip into somebody and that we’re tracking somebody and that’s not that case at all. This is just an RFID card with a bar code scanner on it. If somebody picked it up off the street, it says ‘return to’ with the transportation departments address on it. There is nothing saying where the child lives or any identifying information, it doesn’t even have the school that they go to. None of that information is on there, we clearly stated that,” she explained.

Some parents questioned whether their child will have to participate in the program.

“We’re basically saying, ‘everybody is going to do this.’ This will be a requirement for the district. We think this is going to bring a lot of value to the parents and drivers,” Dalton said enthusiastically.

The parents will have plenty of resources when it comes to Tyler Drive. There is already an online information portal called E-Link, in which the parents can log on and see the bus schedules and coming in the fall is a program called MyStop where parents can have the app on their phone and check when the bus will arrive at the stop.

“They can also see that their child got on the bus; that’s a lot of peace of mind,” she relayed.

Dalton is open to someone from Tyler Industries coming in and giving a show and tell to the parents once the program has been successfully implemented.

The program is scheduled for implementation as follows: late January 2018, Maple Avenue Middle School and Dorothy Nolan Elementary School; late February through early March 2018, Caroline Street Elementary School, Geyser Road Elementary School, and Greenfield Elementary School; April 2018, Division Street Elementary School, Lake Avenue Elementary School, and Saratoga Springs High School.

Published in Education
Thursday, 30 November 2017 13:15

Saratoga Springs Boys Basketball

[All photos by www.PhotoAndGraphic.com]

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Coach Matt Usher has been coaching varsity basketball at Saratoga Springs High School for the last five years and he and his team of five seniors, seven juniors, and one sophomore, are ready for the new season to begin.

“We’ve been pretty balanced. We’ve got some depth and some athleticism and hopefully we can use and have a different guy ready to contribute on any given night, so that’s nice to have. You never know who’s going to step up from game to game,” Usher explained.

The three captains this year are Brian Hart, senior and straight-forward; Matt Larkin, senior and point-guard; and AJ Lawton, senior and shooting-guard. Coach Usher spoke highly of the three captains and called Brian Hart and AJ Lawton two of his key-players. Hart was the second leading scorer last season as a junior and was brought up to varsity as a sophomore.

“We’re going to be looking to him for a lot of leadership and rebounding on both ends of the floor. He’ll be our guy that we can look to in a tight game,” Usher said.

Hart has accepted a baseball scholarship to Marist College for next year. Lawton has been on varsity since his sophomore year as well and has started for the team for the past two seasons.

“He’s a very good shooter, we’re going to be looking to him to continue to do well from outside of the perimeter shooting and also scoring in a variety of ways,” Usher explained.

Usher gave praise to junior Andrew Patnode.

Patnode “had a really good off-season, he’s come in and done a nice job in the pre-season so far,” Usher said.

It certainly helps that Patnode is 6’7”.

You may recognize some of the guys shooting hoops on the court this season from the football field in the fall. Wes Eglintine, quarterback and Carter Steingraber are both on the basketball team. Eglintine recently returned to basketball after being out last year for an ACL injury. So far, this season, there have only been a few minor injuries.

“Hopefully we can, knock on wood, stay healthy,” Usher said.

While the dual athletes may not have as rich of an off-season as the other basketball players, “in the same hand, they come in and they’re strong and they’re tough and they’re used to the physical contact and we need some of that as well. We have some other players that are very skilled, but maybe not as strong as some of these other guys coming in off the football field,” Usher explained.

Although Usher feels good about the teams’ offense, he knows they need to work on their defense.

“We’ve shown flashes of being solid on the defensive end, but we haven’t been consistent enough throughout our first three scrimmages on the defensive side of the ball. I think if we play defense that will help us score the ball and transition, that will help us put up some easy points,” Usher said confidently.

“There is no night off when you play in the Suburban League. It’s very deep and wide open this year,” Usher said.

On Tuesday, Dec. 5, the Blue Streaks will take on the Christian Brothers Academy at Saratoga Springs high School, the game starts at 7 p.m.

Published in Sports
Thursday, 30 November 2017 13:09

Saratoga Springs Girls Basketball

[All photos by www.PhotoAndGraphic.com]

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Basketball season has begun scrimmaging and Coach Robin Chudy, now starting her fifth season as varsity coach at Saratoga Springs, is ready for a successful season.

With 13 girls on the team, five of which are seniors, Chudy is grateful for the scrimmage opportunities the team has before officially starting the season.

“It’s always good to compete. We’ve been practicing a lot so to get out and compete against other teams is a good thing. It gets the girls kind of excited for the season to start,” Chudy said.

The team has already seen a few sprained ankles and one ACL repair this pre-season, so it is safe to say that scrimmaging was a nice way to pull the team together in a competitive atmosphere. Chudy spoke of her four key players warmly. Dolly Cairns, a sophomore, is described by Chudy as the teams’ “go-to person when there is five seconds left on the clock.”

“Cairns handles the ball, handles the pressure, she handles the leadership out on the court. She has a great outside shot, she can drive to the basket, and she plays solid defense,” Chudy said.

It is clear to see why Cairns would be Chudy’s point-guard, she was brought up to varsity halfway through her seventhgrade season.

Kerry Flaherty, a junior who has been on the team since her eighth-grade season, is another player to watch.

“She’s a solid overall shooter, she’s fast, she’s quick to the basket, and she runs the break really well. She’ll be another person who will lead us in scoring, tempo, and pace. She and Dolly are both able to see the court well so the two of them will be huge for us,” Chudy explained.

Briann Barringer, a senior and captain for the team, has been described by Chudy as a “work horse.”

With three other captains to help Barringer lead the team, she is able to put in work as a small forward.

Barringer will “get to the ball, she’ll grab rebounds, she’ll have put-backs. She will add a lot to our team as well as her defense and her ability to get to the basket,” Chudy said.

Barringer is a captain along with senior guard Kara Vamvalis and senior small forward Amanda McGinn. Kara Vamvalis is being counted on to take the pressure off the other two guards.

“Kara is going to be pretty big for us this season. She is a very good outside shooter, she’s so fast. We’re going to look to her to take some of the pressure off the two guards. She’s a very good shooter, I think she’s really going to help us a lot,” Chudy explained.

Chudy said their biggest challenge this season will be, “putting together our defense the way we want to. Our offense has a lot of shooters and very good, very talented, shooting guards. It’s going to be our solid overall defense, being aggressive, playing hard, rebounding, and getting boards. Defense will be our focus because we are pretty skilled offensively.”

Chudy considers the games against Shenendehowa as the teams’ biggest of the season.

“They have a great team and we always seem to compete with them. We haven’t been quite able to get the win, but we always have a great game with them. The girls are always pumped to play with them so I think it’s going to be another great couple of games when we play them,” Chudy said.

Friday, Dec. 8 marks the first official league game of the season and will be played against Schenectady High School at Saratoga Springs at 7 p.m. 

Published in Sports
Tuesday, 21 November 2017 09:16

Saratoga Springs Veteran Tax Break Resolution

SARATOGA SPRINGS – At its Nov. 14 school board meeting, the Saratoga Springs City School District Board of Education voted to adopt a resolution for the Alternative Veterans’ Tax Exemption at Level C and a 10 percent Cold War Veterans’ Tax Exemption at Level C.

According to a statement from Maura Manny, director of community outreach and communication at the school district, “the Alternative Veterans’ Exemption (AVE) was established in 1984 for municipalities…and the Cold War Exemption (CWE) in 2007. Beginning in 2014 (AVE) and in 2016 (CWE), school districts were given the option to adopt these exemptions, which would exempt a portion of an eligible veteran’s assessed property value from real property taxes. The exemptions are only available to veterans who served during a designated time of war, and only applicable to primary residential properties.”

The tax levy (total amount of taxes) collected from all residents does not change but rather causes a shift in taxes, allowing qualifying veterans to apply to have their school taxes lowered. Non-qualifying taxpayers would experience an increase.

According to Lew Benton, a veteran and representative of an ad-hoc group of veterans who have been advocating for this tax break since last summer, members of the veteran community went to the board of education several months ago and asked what exemptions, if any, were offered.

Prior to the school board making their final decision on Nov. 14, the exemption was included on many board-meeting agendas, there was an online survey, and a public hearing was held to gather feedback from the community members.

Benton and his fellow veterans reviewed all of the board meeting minutes, for language suggesting a misunderstanding on the board’s part.

“There was a disconnect between the board about what a veteran really means,” Benton said.

The ad-hoc group then decided to take the board minutes and craft a memo regarding any misconceptions, providing clarification and appended anything that seemed to need highlighting and explanation. The group presented the memo in June to the board.

Following that, more meetings were held and the veterans’ group encouraged the board of education to “review, discuss and put it back on the table to draw a conclusion,” Benton said.

“While this is not the level we sought, it is a first step and will benefit many, particularly those of modest means and younger veterans attempting to become home owners,” said Benton.

Both exemptions will go into effect for the 2018-19 school year budget.

Published in Education
Page 4 of 5

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