District named elementary school in honor of school leader

Ron Sodoma is pictured last May when he attended the Albion Honors Convocation Dinner.

ALBION – Ron Sodoma, a retired Albion Central School superintendent who fostered character education and service learning programs, while pushing for campus upgrades and solid financial footing for the district, has died.

Mr. Sodoma was fighting cancer and was in hospice care. He was living in Green Castle, Pa., with his wife Karen, a retired Albion teacher. They raised their daughters, Amanda and Becky, in Albion.

Sodoma had a 35-year career at Albion. He started as an elementary school teacher, became principal of the Waterport school, then assistant superintendent and the last 18 ½ years as superintendent.

He retired in December 2002. About two years later there was a ceremony, naming the elementary school in his honor. He said then the district’s success and its commitment to every child is a team effort.

“His heart was here,” said Michael Bonafede, the former Board of Education president who served closely with Sodoma and his successor, Dr. Ada Grabowski. “He believed in the community, the children and a well-rounded education.”

Sodoma may have moved away, but he contributed to community causes, including the capital campaigns for the new Hoag Library and Hospice residence in Albion.

He and his wife were back last May to attend the Honors Convocation for graduating Albion seniors.

While Sodoma was superintendent, the district implemented a character education program, service learning initiatives and also an alternative high school program at the Orleans County Nursing Home – efforts that won the district national awards and remain a part of the school today.

“He was instrumental in developing the culture at the district,” Bonafede said. “He had a pure heart, with good intentions and children were first.”

Sodoma was skilled with planning and the district’s financials. For many years Albion had one of the lowest per pupil costs in the state. The district maintained that low rate while preserving reserve funds and tackling needed campus renovations and improvements.

The district’s sound fiscal shape, the care of its campus and its committed staff attracted Michael Bonnewell to the job about five years ago when Grabowski retired, following Sodoma.

“From my point of view when I was applying this was an attractive place to be,” Bonnewell said. “The finances were incredibly well managed and that goes back a long ways.”

Sodoma’s legacy lives on at the school with the many teachers, administrators and staff he hired that continue to serve the district, Bonnewell said.

Richard Pucher also served as a local superintendent for 18 ½ years. He led the Lyndonville district and retired just before Sodoma. The two were often on the phone each week.

“He was willing to help his fellow superintendents,” Pucher said.

Sodoma could have gone to bigger districts and more lucrative salaries, but he was committed to Albion for the long haul, Pucher said.

“He was always interested in impacting his district, helping educators and bettering young people,” Pucher said.

He saw Sodoma as a skilled planner, looking years into the future and making the needed incremental changes to reach the goal.

Jason Smith, the current Lyndonville superintendent, was a high school social studies teacher when Sodoma encouraged him to pursue administration, first as dean of students and then as a vice principal in Albion. Smith would work as a principal in Elba before being hired as Lyndonville superintendent.

He remembers his first day at Lyndonville. There were flowers from Sodoma, with a card, “Call me if you need anything.”

Many teachers hired by Sodoma would go on to be superintendents, a legacy that includes Jeff Evoy in Medina, Roger Klatt in Barker and Roy-Hart, and Mickey Edwards in Wyoming. In addition, Carol D’Agostino is Kendall’s high school principal and Matt Calderon, a former Albion vice principal, is Pembroke’s district superintendent.

“His superintendent’s tree is quite large,” Smith said. “He encouraged a lot of people.”

Photo by Tom Rivers – Michelle Restivo addresses the Board of Education on Monday, thanking the board for allowing students who refuse state tests to be allowed to read in the classroom. She said other districts have allowed children not taking the tests to go to a separate room. Albion has declined to do that.

ALBION – School officials were thanked during Monday’s Board of Education meeting for not making students “sit and stare” if they refuse to take state exams in grades 3 through 8. Those tests start today.

Albion is allowing students who refuse the tests to remain in the classroom and read quietly at their desks. The reading material won’t be books or magazines brought in by students. It will reading material supplied by the school.

“We thank you for recently allowing our children to read silently during the test period,” said Michelle Restivo, mother of two students in the district.

Many other districts are allowing students who refuse the test to go to a separate room. Restivo said the School Administrators Association of NYS encourages students refusing the tests to not remain in the same room with their classmates who are taking the test.

“It is SAANYS position that such a procedure might be distracting to test takers and some may regard such a requirement to be uncomfortable for the students opting out,” Restivo said.

Albion school leaders have decided to keep the students in the same room.

Restivo spoke on behalf of a group of parents concerned about the state tests. Many of those parents and their children are refusing the tests.

Restivo said the district has already been notified the students won’t be taking them, and those students shouldn’t be presented testing materials. To present them testing materials, and insist they sign their test booklets after parents already stated their intention to refuse the tests, is wrong and could be considered abusive by the Dignity for All Students Act, she said.

“Students who have been protected by their parents’ right to refuse tests have done absolutely nothing wrong,” she said. “Presenting these tests to students and asking them to refuse, after you have received express wishes from parents, is harassment, intimidation, bullying and abuse as defined by DASA.”

The district received some refusal letters from parents after testing labels were printed. District Superintedent Michael Bonnewell said there are about 10 to 12 students who came after the deadline who will need to sign their names. The other students refusing the tests, who notified the district before the deadline, won’t have to sign their names on the test booklets, Bonnewell said.

He said teachers or other school personnel cannot, by state law, write on those exam booklets. The students need to do that.

“Our intent is to honor the desire to refuse the test,” he said. “Our intent isn’t to make parents’ or students’ lives difficult.”

Restivo said that standardized testing is necessary, but state’s approach disempowers parents, school administrators and districts.

“Standardized tests that are teacher created and scored would provide much more insight into our children’s progress as learners,” she said. “Assessments should guide future instruction in order to provide the best education for our children, and we have little faith that these tests do that.”

Bonnewell said he shares many of the concerns raised by Restivo, parents and staff about the testing, but the district has to follow the state education rules.

“It remains the law of the land and we have to work to change that law to make it appropriate,” he said.

Restivo said the parents aren’t asking the district to not follow education laws. By refusing the tests, Restivo said parents and their children are exercising their democratic rights to stand up for their principles, believing it will lead to a greater good.

“It is our opinion that teachers and students are not failing, like the state has led us to believe,” Restivo said. “Rather the state has failed us by over-testing our children, and misusing the results. We refuse the NYS Common Core assessments in grades 3-8. We support Albion Central School District – its administrators, teachers and students. Most importantly, we support our children and we ask that you will, too.”

One student, Freshman Class Vice President Riley Seielstad, also addressed the board and the parents in the crowd and urged students to take the tests. She worries the “opt out” movement could result in less funding for school districts, perhaps hurting music and sports programs.

State aid isn’t supposed to be affected if students refuse the tests.

Seielstad urged students to take the exams, which are 90 minutes a day over six days.

“I think 90 minutes is worth the effort for music and sports,” she said.

Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – The Pillars Estate held its fourth annual Titanic Ball on Saturday night and about 75 people dressed up in formal attire for the event, including Nick and Mary Kersch of Lyndonville, pictured with Captain Smith look-a-like Al Schumacher of Middleport.

Titanic ball attendees were offered a glass a champagne from servers wearing recreated uniforms of the White Star Line, the company that owned the Titanic.

Pete Lockwood portrayed the first mate for White Star Line.

The Greycliffe String Orchestra played songs from Titanic era throughout the evening, including “Nearer my God to Thee.”

The Greycliffe String Orchestra plays in the grand ballroom, which includes a large chandelier.

Julie Parker and Timothy Garrison of Brockport are congratulated after Garrison proposed and Parker accepted, the first engagement at the Pillars.

Three couples who are members of the Lyndonville Lions Club attended the Titanic Ball on Saturday night. The group includes, from left: Jeff and Lynne Johnson, Russ and Pat Martino, and John and Laura Belson.

The event included a five-course meal, dancing and retelling of the Titanic, including details of the ship. Pillars owners Tony McMurtie and Scott Root had fireworks on Saturday night to signify the distress signals from the flares that were released on the giant ship after it struck an iceberg.

The sinking of the Titanic claimed the lives of 1,514 of its passengers, including two men from Holley, William Joseph Douton and Peter MacKain. They were quarrymen visiting family in Britain that winter and they were on the Titanic to return to New York City and then travel to Holley. They escorted Douton’s 19-year-old god-daughter, Lillian Bentham of Holley, on the trip. She was one of 710 survivors.

Tony McMurtie (pictured) started the Titanic Ball on the 100th anniversary of Titanic’s fateful voyage in April 2012. The inaugural gala also launched the opening of the grand ballroom at the Pillars.

ALBION – The Village Board approved a plan for a new spray park and playground for Bullard Park, improvements the village eyes as part of a state grant application.

The village twice before has tried for state grants for park improvements, but was denied. Those applications didn’t include the spray park, and the “splash pad” was identified in a community survey as the top request for Bullard.

The spray park would be the first in Orleans County, and is seen as a draw for Albion, while boosting the quality of life for people in the community, especially on hot days.

Engineering cost estimates say the spray park would be $200,000, with another $50,400 for a utility building for the spray park with bathrooms, $45,000 for storm sewer improvements for the park, $40,000 for playground equipment, $11,000 in parking lot improvements, and other sewer and water main upgrades that bring the total project cost to $551,246.

The spray park is unlikely without the state grant, Bullard Park Committee members have said.

The village has retained Jean O’Connell and Associates from Clarence to write the grant for the project. That fee could be $6,000. O’Connell met with the Village Board on Wednesday and then discussed hiring her company for $34,000 a year to pursue other grants for streets, police, archival records, and other community projects. The Bullard grant would be included in that $34,000.

Mayor Dean London and board members say they would like to hire O’Connell for $34,000 annually, but the board wants to make sure the village can afford it. The board is nearly done with the 2015-16 budget, a spending plan that must be adopted by April 30.

O’Connell said she expects she would seek 10 to 12 grants for the village each year if her company was retained.

Trustee Pete Sidari said the village has struggled to secure grants in recent years without a dedicated grantwriter.

“If we don’t invest the money we won’t get any money in return,” Sidari said. “We need to do something. We’re not getting grants.”

ALBION – A tentative village budget would raise taxes by 7.3 percent, but Mayor Dean London said the Village Board and department heads will work hard to bring that increase down.

He would like to avoid a tax increase over 2 percent. To do that, the board will need to chop about $130,000 from the budget.

The board has already cut many costs from the 2015-16 spending plan, and trustees said they will try to find more expenses to trim.

The board will meet Saturday to go over the budget and has scheduled a vote for 7 p.m. on April 22 to pass the budget. It must be adopted by April 30.

The tentative budget includes $6,562,504 in the general, water and sewer funds. The village would need to collect $2,640,662 in taxes as part of the budget, which is up $180,333 from the $2,460,329 in 2014-15.

If the village raises taxes by 2 percent that would be about $49,200 more in taxes, rather than the $180,333 in the tentative budget.

“We still have our work cut out for us,” Trustee Gary Katsanis said during Wednesday’s board meeting.

Albion already has one of the highest village tax rates in the region at $17.48 per $1,000 of assessed property. The tentative budget would raise that by $1.29 to $18.77.

The village has seen the rate climb in recent years as the overall tax base of the community went down. A year ago the village lost $2.7 million in assessed value. The latest numbers show another decline, but only by $60,830. The village’s taxable value for 2015-16 will be $140,690,261.

Photo by Tom Rivers – A pedestrian walks south on King Street on Tuesday in Albion while a motorist heads north on the street after crossing the railroad tracks. King Street doesn’t have sidewalks.

ALBION – The Village of Albion is hosting one of 10 “walkability audits” happening across the Finger Lakes region. Community members are welcome to be part of the discussion and audit on April 13 to make the village more pedestrian-friendly.

The project is funded by the Genesee Transportation Council through its Unified Planning Work Program. The purpose of the audit is to get local perspectives on the problems and opportunities faced by pedestrians, and develop solutions for improving pedestrian safety, accessibility, convenience and comfort.

The intent of the effort is to help increase foot traffic and encourage alternatives to automobiles as a means of transportation. As a result, the Council hopes to increase the vibrancy and appeal of the Village of Albion as a place to shop, socialize and recreate.

The walkability audit will succeed best if it includes a range of community stakeholders from all perspectives working together to understand the issues and opportunities and make sure the plan is responsive to locally identified needs.

Participants in the “walkability audit” should RSVP with Dale Brooks, Albion DPW superintendent, by calling 585-589-7061.

The tentative schedule for the day includes:

11:30 a.m. – Stakeholders to join at Village of Albion board room, 35-37 East bank St., with lunch to be provided

Noon to 1 p.m. – Presentation to stakeholders

1 p.m. – Audit Start (tentatively planned to meet at the Village DPW)

2:30/3 p.m. – Working Group Sessions at Village Hall

4:30/5 p.m. – Wrap Up

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The Albion High School Alumni Foundation will offer a new scholarship this year in memory of Wayne Burlison, the district’s elementary band teacher who died at age 36 from colon cancer on March 26, 2014.

Burlison also served as assistant marching band director, assistant jazz band director and was active in many community musical groups. He also was co-founder of the Albion Running Club and spearheaded a fitness program through the Albion Free Methodist Church that helped many people run their first 5-kilometer race.

A concert on Jan. 30 included 20 musical acts and raised about $7,000. A “Run for Wayne” on March 28 raised another $3,000 towards the scholarship. The proceeds from the events met the $10,000 goal for an endowed scholarship in honor of Burlison.

Some of the leaders of the Albion Running Club met with Burlison’s family and Chris Haines, president of the Alumni Foundation, for a check presentation today.

The group includes, from left: Thom Jennings, Running Club communications director; Brian Krieger, Running Club executive director, Adam Burlison; Lisa Burlison; Mark Moore, Run for Wayne race director; Chris Haines from the Alumni Foundation; and Shannon Brett, board member for Running Club.

The first scholarship for $500 will be awarded in June at Class Night. It will be presented to a graduate with a passion for the arts, who demonstrates perseverance and overcame challenges, said Mrs. Burlison. She and her son Adam will be on the selection committee with members of the Alumni Foundation’s Scholarship Committee.

The scholarship winner doesn’t have to be majoring in music or the performing arts, but needs to participate in the fine arts in college.

“Wayne believed anyone could be a life-long musician,” his wife said.

She is grateful the community responded to the concert and the “Run for Wayne” and raised the money for the scholarship. She thanked the Running Club for organizing the run and walk on March 28 and Mike Thaine, the high school band teacher, for taking the lead in the concert on Jan. 30.

“I’m very grateful for how it all came together,” Mrs. Burlison said. “I couldn’t have done it by myself. They’ve turned into beautiful community events.”