Panel discusses high school drop-out rates

NORWICH – School board members from throughout Delaware, Chenango, Madison and Otsego counties gathered Thursday at the BOCES facility for the annual fall dinner to celebrate the efforts made by school boards to ensure children today receive the education they all deserve.

The event, hosted by the Chenango County School Board Association (CCSBA), is held each fall for school board members and fellow educators. Following a tour of the new advancements being made at BOCES and a dinner prepared by BOCES students, CCSBA President Brian Brennan got the evening started with a vote to elect officers. After a unanimous vote, officers are staying as follows, Brennan as president, Kathy Coates as vice president and John Godfrey as secretary and treasurer.

As a tradition for their fall function, the School Board Member of the Year award, presented by Superintendent Alan Pole, was announced. Linda Zaczek was honored for her years of service on both the Gilbertsville-Mt.Upton and DCMO BOCES school boards. She is a vice-president at NBT bank and has volunteered in a long list of community events and organizations. “I am privileged to have had the opportunity to work closely with Linda for 18 years,” said Pole. He also said it is people like Zaczek who make the community a better place to live.

Zaczek spoke briefly after accepting the nomination and plaque and spoke of team work and leadership. “For boards to be successful, there needs to be good leaders in each district,” said Zaczek.

Taking a proactive approach to lessen the number of children leaving school without a diploma, a panel of four local and regional representatives took the spotlight to discuss where the concerns are and what measures can be taken to address them.

The panel – including Lorie Ostrander, a teacher at BOCES and a doctoral candidate conducting her thesis on the related links between high school “leavers” as she called them and school violence, Chenango County Judge Howard Sullivan, state education department representative James DeLorenzo and Otselic Valley Superintendent Larry Thomas – took turns enlightening the audience on the links between dropout rates and violence today. Moderating the panel for the hour-long open forum was Ted Nichols, the dean of Morrisville State’s Norwich campus.