HUDSON–Baseball dugouts, a playground closure and other facilities issues dominated the discussion at the Hudson City School District (HCSD) Board of Education meeting June 3.

“We’ve spent a lot of money in the past three years on football and track. Now it’s time to do something for baseball and softball,” said schools Superintendent Maria L. Suttmeier. “We need six new dugouts, including three with storage for equipment. But I want to make sure the baseball community is getting what it wants and needs. It needs to be part of the decision process.”

The district has four baseball and softball fields, with six dugouts among them on the grounds of both the Montgomery C. Smith Elementary School (MCS) and Hudson High School, explained HCSD Athletic Director Derek Reardon the next day. The high school grounds have the modified baseball, modified softball, Varsity-JV softball fields. The MCS grounds have the Varsity-JV baseball field. Both Varsity-JV fields and the modified baseball field have two dugouts each. The modified softball field has no dugout, Mr. Reardon said. The modified baseball dugouts were built by Connor McCagg (class of 2018) in 2016 for his Eagle Scout project, and “nothing will happen to them.” It is the other dugouts that face replacement. Read more…

KINDERHOOK–The Ichabod Crane Board plans to ask administrators, teachers, parents and community members to form a superintendent search committee. They discussed how the board hopes to move forward with the search at their regular meeting Tuesday June 4.

Current Superintendent Michael Vanyo will resign June 30. He has been on leave from the district since early April. He was arrested for a DWI and leaving the scene of a property damage accident in Saratoga County on April 6. Assistant Superintendent Suzanne Guntlow was appointed acting superintendent April 30.

After the annual budget vote and school board election on May 21, the board released a statement saying they would accept Mr. Vanyo’s resignation. Mr. Vanyo is no longer on unpaid leave, starting May 22, and according to the statement, he “will be providing transition work to the district through the end of the 2018-2019 school year, until June 30. During this time, Mr. Vanyo will work with the district from a remote location to help prepare for his departure and ease the eventual transition period of a new superintendent.” Mr. Vanyo was hired in 2017 to replace retiring Superintendent George Zini. Read more…

GALLATIN–The Town Board’s May monthly meeting included a presentation by GTel, a local provider of phone, cable and internet service, on the broadband expansion project and its progress in the Gallatin area.

The company is one of several that participated in the broadband capital grant program and were awarded an estimated total of $8.7 million in state aid to extend high-speed internet service to rural parts of the county. GTel expects that all eligible housing units should have access to its fiber network by December 2021.

One of the obstacles to the progress has been lack of linemen. Most of the people with these skills are already working on this project. Read more…