The least thrifty strategy, which would save $600,000, entails keeping students in their current schools but reducing staff through creation of several multi-age classrooms. The fourth plan is a hybrid, which entails using the Princeton Plan at West Hurley and Woodstock andmulti-age classrooms at Phoenicia, with no change at Bennett and a savings of $780,000.

Rowe's presentation was preceded by business administrator Chuck Snyder's outline of the budget crisis which precipitated the proposals. Snyder cited unavoidable cost increases such as the 12 percent increase in health care premiums, the rise in required donations to the teaching and non-teaching employee retirement funds, and the scheduled debt payment for the construction at Bennett. These increases would cause a rollover budget-without any increases in programming-to go up $4.3 million or 11.18 percent, from this year's total of $38 million to $42.6 million, raising the tax levy by 16.67 percent. A contingency budget, which would result if the board's budget were defeatedtwice at the polls, would limit the rise to approximately three percent, or $1.1 million, with a tax increase of 5.37 percent. The administration, therefore, is attempting to reduce spending by $3.1 million, down to the contingency budget level, under the assumption that higher taxes could not be borne by the voters.

Adding to the crisis is Governor Pataki's threatened state aid cut of $1,150,000, which may be restored in the final state budget, but the government has failed, year after year, to finalize its budget until after the school budget vote in May, leaving school districts uncertain about how much revenue they can expect. Another problem, said Snyder, is
the state's new policy to delay paying out building aid until eighteen to twenty-four months after new construction is completed in order to solve the state's cash flow problem. This year's state aid may also be delayed into the next school year. Snyer urged concerned parents to write to Pataki in opposition to such tactics, including the proposed aid cuts. "The politicians don't want to raise [state] taxes, but it's getting passed on to us at the local level."

Trustee Marty Millman said that when he sat on the board ten years ago, the budget was $19 million. "Now it has doubled. Will it double again in the next ten years? When will we stop the bleeding?" Snyder again pointed to the state government, which has passed more and more laws mandating programs in schools but has not funded forty percent of the cost of its mandates, as promised. "They've never given us more than fifteen percent," said Snyder.

Another factor is the decreasing enrollment in the elementary schools, where class sizes have dwindled, in many cases, to fifteen or less. Rowe's proposals all aim at increasing class sizes in order to reduce staffing, the biggest expense in the budget. "One of the things done in the district is to acknowledge that the desire people have for neighborhood schools is so powerful," he said. "We have been willing to maintain that and lose a lot of our efficiency in the use of space in the schools. But now it is not possible to maintain low taxes and low class sizes. We will need to shake the patterns people have fallen into that make them comfortable."

Trustee Greg Walters asked what would happen if the West Hurley school were closed, and then enrollments went back up. Rowe said demographic data collected four years ago indicate that the elementary-age population will continue to diminish for at least three years, and the recent enrollments confirm the accuracy of the projections, although he admitted it may be time to update the data. Parent Jim Sofranko had pointed out earlier that post-9/11 migrations from New York City may skew the figures upward, but Rowe said he was confident the district would be able to operate comfortably for at least five years with only three elementary schools. Meanwhile, BOCES may want to lease the West Hurley school, which would keep it in operation as an educational facility, enabling the district to re-open it as an elementary school in the future if necessary.

BOCES has indicated that its willingness to lease the building would depend on its needs for next year, but Rowe said, "Ever since I've been here, BOCES has been looking for space. They may consider us to be in the hinterlands, but I think they'd take it."

Rowe briefly discussed the Princeton Plan. "Some experts argue that the benefits of K-6 schools are continuity and a sense of community. Advantages of the Princeton Plan are that it clusters together more teachers and students with the same goals and grade levels. It would also reduce the disadvantages of having kids coming from four different elementary schools. It would be two different schools and would resolve some of the problems of the transition to middle school." While there would be some increase in transportation costs because of the duplication of bus routes, Rowe did not feel this expense would be a deciding factor. "We have two hundred kids now on variances," attending schools outside their designated school area, he observed.

Board member Meg Carey asked whether variances would still be available. "There's a good chance we could continue to have variances," Rowe answered. "It depends on the balance" of students in each school and whether there is room in target classes. Board president Marino D'Orazio asked that parents bring their questions to the two special meetings scheduled to discuss the reorganization options. The first meeting was to take place on Wednesday, March 12, at the West Hurley Elementary School at 7:00 p.m. The second will be on Tuesday, March 18, at Bennett Elementary School in Boiceville, also at 7:00 p.m. D'Orazio suggested that parents form groups of like-minded individuals and designate a spokesperson for each group to speak at the meetings, in order to encourage "an exchange of information instead of people shouting at each other."

Based on the feedback from the community at these forums, Rowe plans to recommend to the board which of the four options to pursue, along with his budget proposal, at the March 24 board meeting. D'Orazio praised Rowe and Snyder for giving thorough background information on the plans, saying they had "diffused a lot of problems I was anticipating."

Barbara Boyce said the staffing portion of her Pupil Personnel Services budget could not be determined until the board settles on which of the reorganization options to choose. She has trimmed non-staffing expenses down to the minimum, with the expectation that students requiring special education and related services (academic intervention, homework programs, remedial reading, etc.) will remain approximately the same. If staffing is not reduced, her budget total will go from $7,097,000 to $7,274,000, a rise of 2.49 percent.

Interim director of secondary education Frank Gorleski presented the instructional budget, which will also be dependent upon the reorganization decision. The operational portion of his budget is cut from $171,603 this year to $131,000, a 25 percent reduction. His proposal would enable summer school programs to continue but would reduce such expenses as conference attendance, journal subscriptions, reference books, in service training for some areas, and school evaluation services.

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Laura Claridge

And variety isn't just evident in Claridge's work, but in her life as well. Born in Clearwater, Florida, she's lived in Germany, Washington, D.C., New York City and has now settled in Chichester. In high school Claridge at first thought she'd be a singer, playing Luisa in the Fantasticks, later switched to English in college, then joined the army—though she considered herself a pacifist-- taught English at a naval academy, and has now made a name for herself as an historian of art and culture. The adjectives gutsy and trailblazing come to mind.

Yet she likes solitude. "I work long hours everyday," says Claridge, "researching and writing. Random House [her publisher] signs book deals and expects them to be done on time." Up early each morning, she first takes care of Zoe, the young dog she and husband Dennis Oppenheimer adopted from a shelter in Delhi in August. "She takes a lot of energy."

After her canine duties, Claridge spends about two hours a day answering and writing emails in connection with her work, another hour doing research on Google, looking up such obscure facts as what the laws on divorce were when Emily Post and her husband Edwin Main Post divorced.

Claridge also makes sure she reads something that doesn't deal directly with whatever subject she's researching because she wants to keep her mind open and sharp. "I feel as if research is in many ways a
sense of spontaneous insights that occur as you're adding pieces to the mosaic in a fairly random way."

Claridge and Oppenheimer married in 1993, and between the two of them have four children, ages 18 through 29 with whom she keeps in close touch. And what about exercise? A stationary bike sits idle in the kitchen. "I'm trying to put it into my routine."

But Claridge does get out every now and then. "I love walking to the post office. I like that when I'm in there somebody I know usually walks in. I really love Charlie and Sita," she adds referring to Chichester's postmasters. Claridge also loves sitting at the bar at Ricciardella's, eating the pasta with shrimp and chatting with Will, the bartender. And one activity that gets her out and in touch with fellow writers is the bi-weekly book group that meets at Brio's. "They let us hang out there from 2:30 to 5:00, just critiquing each other's writing. We're all working on books. It's a wonderful source of strength."

At the moment, Claridge is writing a book review for the Boston Globe that she's finding particularly difficult. She's extended her deadline until after she's met with the group to get its feedback on the review.

Okay, the military: Claridge married at 19, and her highly independent mother was disappointed in her decision. Claridge was disowned and faced with how she and her new husband would make ends meet. "I was teaching in a high school for troubled girls and one day an army recruiter came to recruit the girls. I went home and said: I've got the solution. We told the recruiter we were pacifists and got to choose where we wanted to go and what to teach," says Claridge, with some disbelief over her moxie.

Claridge entered the Army with one child, and while there became pregnant with another. "I was considered fairly insubordinate," says Claridge. "I got very angry at the silly dress codes and I'd deliberately flout them." While in the Army, she wrote to a four star general about the lack of daycare. Claridge says she doesn't know if it was because of her, but in a convention that took placeshortly after in Munich, daycare was a major subject.

Later she taught English at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Claridge brought style to the academy, wearing lavish and flamboyant outfits to her classes each day. She realized that the students were making bets on what she'd wear—long skirt, mini-skirt, casual or Chanel. "The women felt empowered by me. They were so sick of wearing the same drab uniform." But the students took her classes seriously, and enrollment grew while she taught though liberal arts were discouraged by the administration.

After teaching for 11 years, Claridge realized she wanted to write. She chose the subject of the flamboyant and decadent 1920s painter de Lempicka because she found that no one had written about her yet. From there, she moved onto Rockwell and is currently working on Post.

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