BROADALBIN - With the flourish of a pen and a few oaths taken, two new board members and two new officers were installed to the Broadalbin-Perth Central School District's Board of Education Thursday night.
New board members Ed Szumowski and Joe Renaud, who were elected to a five-year term and a one-year term in May elections, respectively, officially became board members at the district's organizational meeting at the high school.
Former Board Vice President Wendy Perry accepted fellow board member Kim Hentnik's nomination for board president, while Perry returned the favor by nominating Hentnik for the vice president job. She also accepted.
Former Board President Sam Jackling was not re-elected in May.
Perry stood to move so she could sit to the right of Superintendent Stephen Tomlinson, the spot typically reserved for the board president, as fellow board members clapped.
In an interview after the meeting, the four-year board veteran said she hoped the board could "establish broader community ties" while she was president, especially during the budget process.
"We want people to come out early, not just when it's crunch time," Perry said.
Szumowski said he hoped to raise the quality of education at the school. He said the district was doing a good job, but said he would strive to push it further.
He said he's learned from the "stunning" academic rigor students face in countries such as China and India, and said the district could get more bang for its buck if it raised its academic standards even higher.
"If we don't, we're going to cheat our kids," Szumowski said.
Renaud echoed Szumowski's statements, saying he hoped he could "work with the faculty, leadership and board members to make Broadalbin-Perth the best academic high school in the state."
At the meeting, the board agreed to start the public portion of all meetings at 6:45 p.m., instead of beginning at 6:45 p.m. with an executive session. Members discussed instituting a new ticket policy for sporting events that would reduce the price of admission for Broadalbin-Perth students from $2 to $1 and would allow students with grades above a certain benchmark to go for free.
Zach Subar covers rural Fulton County news. He can be reached at ruralnews@leaderherald.com.
