LYNDONVILLE – The school district has been recognized by District Administration magazine as a “District of Distinction” for implementation and success with a college readiness program known as AVID.

Advancement Via Individual Determination is designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges. Although AVID serves all students, it focuses on the least served students in the academic middle. The formula is simple: raise expectations of students and, with the AVID support system in place, they will rise to the challenge, Lyndonville school officials said.

“Over the past several years, AVID has played an integral role in our students’ success, both before and after graduation from Lyndonville,” said Superintendent Jason Smith. “In addition, AVID-trained teachers implement highly effective and engaging teaching strategies in their classrooms, which is also closely aligned to the demands of the Common Core.”

Districts of Distinction is a national recognition program created by District Administration magazine to honor school districts that are leading the way with new ideas that work. Districts of Distinction recognizes initiatives that are yielding quantifiable benefits, and that could be replicated by other districts.

The magazine highlighted 62 districts this month. Lyndonville started AVID at the beginning of the 2010-11 school year with a goal of boosting the academic performance of first-generation college hopefuls in grades 7 through 12.

In addition to implementing the AVID elective, Lyndonville CSD is in the process of creating school-wide and district-wide programs for college success. Since implementing the AVID in 2010 for grades 8 and 9, the program has expanded to all K12 grade levels.

With AVID in place the district has increased AP course enrollment, the passing rate for AP Social Studies assessments, and more students are applying to four-year colleges and receiving acceptance letters, according to District Administration magazine.

“We are pleased to honor Lyndonville as a District of Distinction,” says JD Solomon, editorial director at District Administration magazine. “Like all our honorees, Lyndonville Central School District serves as a model for school leaders across the country.”

By Howard Balaban, Correspondent

LYNDONVILLE – Earlier this week a group of citizens from Save Ontario Shores spoke to the Lyndonville Board of Education, letting their concerns be known about a prospective wind farm in the northwest corner of the Town of Yates and also in the Town of Somerset.

The group of citizens also attended the Yates Town Board meeting on Thursday and reiterated their stance to the town officials.

Glenn Maid, a Yates resident, gave a presentation to the board and those in attendance with the goal of being “informative” and “persuasive.”

Apex Clean Energy is working on a plan to erect roughly 70 wind turbines in Yates and Somerset to generate power. Maid said the ultimate benefit from the project would be minimal.

“Wind power generation is expensive, inefficient, can not replace current power production methods, has not been shown to reduce CO2 emissions, and has had negative impact on land values and the environment,” Maid told the Town Board.

For about 25 minutes Maid described a host of the negatives associated with Apex and the wind energy project. Among those negatives were the environmental effects on wildlife, the long-term effects on property values, the lack of any type of guarantee of decreased local energy costs, the tax credits associated with such large scale projects, and the reports of how other areas with wind farms have suffered.

In short, Maid said wind energy projects have “proven to be detrimental” to the communities in which they are created.

He cited a number of concerns such as how the project would be funded and how the biggest beneficiaries would be those who run the corporation.

Maid saved his most pointed remarks for the end of his talk. In referencing New York State law, he said, “Municipalities have the responsibility to follow their own laws.” With that in mind, he said the 1996 coalition formed along the Orleans County waterfront with Yates, Carlton, and Kendall determined a number of things, chief among them the manner in which the area north of Route 18 is developed.

“There are 44 policies governing all development in the region,” he said. Those policies require that each community “foster an orderly pattern of growth” and that any “new developments which are shown to compromise a significant habitat should be given low priority or not pursued.”

Furthermore, Maid cited Yates Local Law 1, filed in 2008. The law is specific to wind facilities located in the town.

Maid said the law “acknowledges all of the aforementioned hazards of such development” and also sets a list of standards for any turbines built within town limits. Among those standards are a maximum height of 420 feet. The Apex project would build turbines between 550 and 600 feet.

In closing, Maid asked the town board to consider its place in history.

“You, as our town board, have the power to stop this,” he said. “You have the power to not issue permits for this project.”

He added, “If this project goes forward, all that will be accomplished is us giving millions of tax dollars to a multi-million dollar company to screw up our town … A project of this scope and magnitude has no place in Yates, or anywhere else for that matter.

“What we need is sound, systematic commercial and residential growth, not wind farms,” he continued. “Do you, the members of this board, want to be forever known as the board that damaged an ‘All America’ town?”

Also briefly speaking after Maid’s presentation was Donn Riggi, a Lake Shore Road resident. She said she spoke to someone who lived near a wind facility who said life there “was not so bad.” However, “not so bad” is not what she was in search for when she and her husband purchased their home.

Riggi provided several different articles from places like Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Ontario to show how wind energy is not as positive as the companies creating it would lead one to believe. She encouraged all in attendance to get informed on the issue.

As for the town board, it did not offer an official stance on the matter because to this point, no official proposal has been submitted.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Tom Klotzbach, a former Lyndonville Board of Education member, addresses the board on Monday, voicing his displeasure over Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision not to release preliminary aid runs for school districts. Klotzbach represents Lyndonville on the Orleans-Niagara BOCES board of directors.

LYNDONVILLE – Even with the uncertainty over state aid in 2015-16, Lyndonville Central School leaders expect to present a budget to the public in May that doesn’t raise school taxes.

The district will see about a $90,000 drop in employee benefits, mainly through a reduction in retirement contributions, said John Wolski, the district’s business administrator.

He presented the early work of a budget proposal for 2015-16. The overall budget would be up about $25,000 from the $13,188,750 budget in 2014-15. The tax levy would be unchanged at $4,666,578.

Lyndonville didn’t raise taxes with the 2014-15 budget, either. If state aid comes in at about a 1 percent increase, Wolski said the district won’t have to raise taxes. Lyndonville can utilize some reserve and fund balance to prevent raising taxes.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn’t give the preliminary school aid projections with his budget proposal in January. The governor is pressuring the State Legislature to adopt a number of school reforms. If the Legislature approves the reforms, Cuomo said he would support a 4.8 percent school aid increase. If the Legislature blocks the reforms, Cuomo said education aid would only increase 1.7 percent.

“It’s a new wrinkle he’s never done before and we’ll have to work through it in the coming months,” Wolski said at Monday’s Board of Education meeting.

Tom Klotzbach, a former Lyndonville BOE member, was more critical of Cuomo’s decision to make districts guess about their aid.

“I think it’s unconscionable that governor is withholding preliminary state aid runs,” Klotzbach said at the board meeting. “I’m very disappointed in the governor doing that.”

The district is considering not doing about $100,000 in buildings and grounds improvements. Some of those savings could be used to maintain a college readiness program known as AVID. A grant for that program expires after this school year and Lyndonville wants to continue the program.

Some of the building and facilities money could also be used for a building conditions survey that would take stock of school buildings and infrastructure, including sewer pipes, Wolski said.

There is a chance the state could give the district more than 1 percent in aid. If that happens, Lyndonville wouldn’t need to use as much fund balance. It could also consider a building project or perhaps reduce taxes, Wolski said.

“Let’s see how the revenue plays out,” Wolski said about the state aid.

The district by March 1 needs to submit a proposal to state for how much it intends to collect in taxes in 2015-16 as part of a tax cap calculation. The state budget is due to be adopted by April 1. Under Cuomo, the state has passed four straight on-time budgets.

Districts should approve their budgets by late April and early May, with the spending plans to be voted on by the public on May 19.