Webutuck looks to develop employment policy


 

WEBUTUCK — After controversy over the Board of Education hiring student employees over the summer, the board plans to develop a new policy detailing how open job positions will be advertised.

The situation began at a meeting on June 9, 2008, when the board approved six temporary seasonal workers, all teenagers, for a summer maintenance program: Patrick McCaffery, James Robertson, Paige Robertson, Thomas Lounsbury, Michael Schneider and Connor Lynch.

The positions, which are for eight hours a day at $9.36 an hour, are overseen by Director of School Facilities Mark Lounsbury.

However, the open positions were not advertised and, according to school board president Dale Culver, at least two of the workers are related to district employees. However, neither Culver nor school Superintendent Richard Johns would reveal their names.

"This is a small community and it’s not unusual to hire people who are related to each other," Johns said after Monday night’s meeting. "The board has agreed we should post all open job positions in the future."

Culver said that a hiring policy for the district will be developed by the board.

"You can count on it," Culver said after the meeting. "The process has to be as open and honest as it can be. It never looks good when people who are related are interviewing each other. It doesn’t mean that anyone did anything wrong. It just means you want to establish a protocol."

The district’s hiring process was discussed in depth at Monday night’s meeting with attorney to the district Jay Girvin, from the law firm of Girvin and Ferlazzo.

"The key in any vacancy is first you have to look at the collective bargaining agreements with the teachers and CSEA [Civil Service Employees Association]. If those are positions covered by their contracts, then you have to comply with posting requirements," Girvin said. "In the case at hand with seasonal help, it’s not a civil service position for competitive purposes, so there is no posting requirements under the civil service law. However, the key in any hiring decisions is to have a fair and constant process, because otherwise the process will get challenged. You want to make sure the process is open and fair to everyone."

After the meeting, Culver said the board has decided to rescind the hiring of the six employees and re-advertise the positions to the district.

"The kids who were originally hired are still eligible for the jobs, but my goal is to not exclude kids," Culver said. "It is important that we have a hiring process to go forward. The policy, I believe, will be a priority for the board for July. We want to develop it and use it as soon as we can."

The deadline for filing applications for the summer temporary positions is Monday, June 30. For more information, call Mark Lounsbury at 845-373-4128 or send a letter of interest to Webutuck School District, Haight Road, Amenia, NY 12501.

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