Photo by Tom Rivers – State Sen. George Maziarz has fun answering a quiz about New York State history and facts with Holley third-graders. Maziarz directed $67,800 in funding to Holley to purchase 30 of the SMART Boards.

HOLLEY – Third grade teacher Lynn Vendetti tapped her finger on a white board and the next lesson appeared on the screen, an exercise in math.

The first question was 26 divided by 3. The screen showed 26 images of shells. A student walked to the board and arranged the shells into three rows, moving the shells on the screen with his finger. He had three rows of eight shells each, plus another two left over. His answer to 26 divided by 3: 8 with a remainder of 2.

Vendetti’s class has one of the new SMART Boards in the school district. The whiteboards are far more interactive with students than chalkboards or dry erase boards, said Robert D’Angelo, Holley’s school superintendent.

‘The kids are enthusiastic about engaging with the SMART Board,” D’Angelo said. “They are smiling and they are happy. They love to go up to the SMART Board.”

A third grade student works on a math problem with one of the SMART Boards at Holley.

Vendetti can insert lesson plans into the SMART Board and the information quickly shows on the screen. She doesn’t have to spend time jotting down numbers and information on a chalkboard.

The fast pace with the SMART Board keeps the students engaged, D’Angelo said.

“It has reduced classroom misbehavior,” D’Angelo said. “There is more concentration on learning.”

Holley added 30 SMART Boards this year, using $67,800 in funding from State Sen. George Maziarz. The senator secured “bullet aid” earmarks and he directed $67,800 to each of the five districts in Orleans County. It’s unrestricted aid, giving each district the choice to use it how they feel best.

“We’re trying to bring more resources back to the districts,” Maziarz said on Thursday afternoon, when he visited Holley to see the SMART Boards.

State Sen. George Maziarz visits Lynn Vendetti’s third grade class and sees a SMART Board in action. The system includes a microphone, which helps Vendetti to be heard by all students in the class.

The five districts used the funding for different initiatives. Medina used it to fund a police officer to work in the district. Some districts beefed up curriculum development for staff and implemented other security improvements. Holley picked the SMART Boards.

“We wanted to put it in the classroom where it has a direct impact on kids,” D’Angelo said.

Maziarz spent about a half hour with third graders on Thursday in Holley. He used the SMART Board to take a 10-question quiz about New York State history. He was able to see how the questions advanced on the screen, and how he could answer them by tapping one of four answers that appeared on the white board.

“This is great,” he said about the SMART Board. “It’s the way of the world today.”

D’Angelo said Holley would like to add a SMART Board to each classroom in the district. They are about a third of the way there. As the technology advances, D’Angelo said students may be able to dissect frogs in biology class with a SMART Board.

“This is a powerful instructional tool,” he said.

HOLLEY – The Board of Education president expects the school district will reduce taxes in 2014-15, in response to an audit from the State Comptroller’s Office that said Holley’s cash reserves were far too big.

“We plan on reducing them, but we haven’t discussed by how much,” said Brenda Swanger, Holley BOE president.

The district will have several budget meetings in the next two months, and she said a tax reduction will be part of the budget discussion.

She said the district is in a good situation with its fund balance, the rainy day funds a district will sometimes use to cover unexpected costs or drops in revenue.

The State Comptroller faulted Holley Central School for building up surpluses that exceeded the statutory limit by about $7 million.

“This is much better than having no money.”– Brenda Swanger on Holley’s surplus funds

The comptroller’s office reviewed the previous five fiscal years at the school district and found school leaders regularly underestimated revenues and overestimated expenditures. That created about $6.7 million in surpluses over the five years.

Swanger has been on the board for 10 years. She said Holley was in the red about a decade ago.

“This is much better than having no money,” she said today.

Holley has worked to build up its reserves, particularly to guard against swings in state aid funding, Swanger said. The district took a $1.5 million state aid hit about three years ago and faced other reductions before that.

“The state has clobbered us before with state aid cuts, and we had to lay off people,” Swanger said.

Building a surplus helps protect the district from aid reductions, she said.

“We’re trying to balance that,” Swanger said.

The statutory limit for surplus funds is 4 percent of the ensuing year’s budget or about $920,000 for Holley, which operates on a $23 million budget. The district was over the surplus fund threshold by more than $7 million or 35 percent, according to the comptroller’s report. (Click here to see the report.)

Swanger and Kathy Saville, the district’s business administrator, don’t want to reduce the surplus all the way to $920,000. That would make Holley vulnerable to big tax increases if there was an unexpected equipment failure that needed repair or if the state aid was cut.

“Four percent is on the low side, especially if a heating unit goes down,” Saville said.

The cash reserves at their current level allow the district to avoid some costs for short-term borrowing. Holley was also able to use some of the surplus to front costs for the current capital project. State reimbursements can often take months, Saville said.

With a small surplus, Saville said Holley would have to take on more short-term borrowing, which would include interest and costs for bond counsel and financial management fees.

The board will work with its administrators to develop a long-range plan for reducing the surplus. Saville just started with the district in October, replacing Gene Mahaney who retired. Swanger praised Mahaney for pushing to build Holley’s reserves over several years.

That money put Holley in a strong position for its local share of a $30 million capital project, Swanger said. The surplus could be tapped for cost over-runs or for unexpected costs.

Saville took issue with part of the news article Thursday on Orleans Hub about the audit. She said Holley didn’t move $400,000 from the general fund to a capital fund without the required voter approval, as reported in the article.

The funds were moved with the voters’ blessing, she said. However, the comptroller said the district didn’t always spend the money fast enough. Sometimes money was in the capital reserve account and not spent in a timely manner, she said.

“There wasn’t anything fiscally wrong with the district and there wasn’t a mismanagement of funds,” Saville said.