Spring 2011
WCS ALUMNI NEWSLETTER
(http://www.WillsboroAlumni.com)
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Willsboro Alumni Association is to create, maintain, enhance, and promote Willsboro Central School and its students; and to unite, inform and involve alumni and friends in fellowship and support of education.
ALUMNI OFFICERS AND CHAIRPERSONS
President……….……………Larry Allen 518-963-8912 wilsboro@willex.com
Vice President ………………Jane Lobdell 518-963-4047 gramajane@hotmail.com
Treasurer…………………….Shirley Phillips 518-963-4259 phillipss1016@hotmail.com
Secretary…………………….Margaret Beuerlein 518-585-7421 mhtb58@verizon.net
Immediate Past President…...Richard Blanchard 518-963-7055 richmad37@peoplepc.com
Banquet Liaison……………..Bettie Lawrence 817-491-9697 bettie1940@att.net
Ada Hutchins 518-963-8351 reber1876@localnet.com
Historian…………………….Janice Allen 518-963-8912 allens@willex.com
Internet Coordinator………...Bill Morgan 518-963-4386 MorganWJ@gmail.com
Membership…………………Bettie Lawrence 817-491-9697 bettie1940@att.net
Assistant Membership………Ada Hutchins 518-963-8351 reber1876@localnet.com
Memorial Coordinator………Janice Allen 518-963-8912 allens@willex.com
Newsletter…………………...Bettie Lawrence 817-491-9697 bettie1940@att.net
Ada Hutchins 518-963-8351 reber1876@localnet.com
THE PREZ SEZ
My 2-year term as President will come to an end at the banquet this year. I have enjoyed serving for the past two years and look forward working with the new slate of officers.
The current board has reviewed where our organization presently stands with the very limited income of only $5 dues, thus they have voted to increase the annual dues to $10. These dues will include the mailing of two hardcopy newsletters per year; the remainder will be used to pay for our other activities that we sponsor. These include the framing and matting of the annual Wall of Distinction winners. Other past projects that we assisted with include play ground equipment and the trophy cases. Starting this year our newsletter will no longer be available on the web page, so in order to stay posted one will need to pay their dues.
Graduation is always a goal for our students, even those that did not accomplish that goal early in life. This great honor was awarded to Mr. Edward Collins in his 86th year of life. We are proud of his accomplishments and that this honor was awarded to him this past year. The news of this event reached far and wide.
Our organization is quite low key during the winter months; but this does not mean that we have not accomplished some important goals. Andy Lee and I cleaned up the trophies and the glass areas, rotated the trophies and replaced the old picture frames of awards in the lighted trophy case in the auditorium..
Banquet plans are well under way, and we are hopeful that many of you will plan on attending the event on Sat. June 25th at Crickets; see details on the registration form in this letter or on the web site (www.willsboroalumni.com). The class of 1961 is making plans to collect pictures and once again have a slide show at the Banquet. This 50th class is invited to attend graduation as special guests and the slide show will be shown in the lobby.
If you are a “Face Book Fan” you might enjoy the site Tom Mero has set up. Go to Memories of old Willsboro Central School and there you will find present pictures of the school that along with other pictures offered by the group.
Hope to see you at Graduation, and the Banquet. (s)Larry Allen, President
SUPERINTENDENT BROADWELL’S UPDATES
The 2011-12 budget reflects the second year of a reduction in the spending plan and for the fourth consecutive year a reduction in the tax levy. It is tough economic times for everyone. This year school districts across the New York State lost record funding in state aid. Fortunately, through our strategic budget practice, we will be able to “weather the storm”. We will be using a combination of reduced expenditures and increased use of fund balance to maintain our programs and remain fiscally responsible to the taxpayers of our community. This includes refinancing our bond debt of the building taking advantage of lower interest rates with substantial savings for the district.
The district will have two fewer staff members in this budget as well as a reduction in our costs for special education services. The district and the teacher’s association reached an agreement for a one year rollover contract through collective bargaining which included a 0% increase, except required step increments and the Superintendent’s salary was frozen for the upcoming year.
The district continues to provide quality programs while maintaining a fiscally-minded philosophy. This year we expect a tax rate of $10.67 which is a reduction of $0.07 cents per $1000 of assessed value. This equates to a reduction in school taxes of approximately $11.00 on a $150,000 home.
Proposition 2 requests approval to purchase a new bus for the next school year to replace one of our older buses that currently has over 100,000 miles of travel on it. While the overall cost must be included in the spending plan, the expenditure would be from the district’s capital reserve account. It will have no impact on the proposed tax rate.
Two candidates will be running for the two available Board of Education seats this year. The candidates are incumbent Mr. Craig Jackson and Mr. Jon Steeves.
CFES Video Contest Results
The video from Willsboro won Second Place in the High School category of the Scholars Inspiring Scholars video contest. The final vote tally was close, and Willsboro trailed by only a handful of votes. The video can be previewed at the following site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg0SysYddPw
Wall of Recognition Recipients
This year we will be inducting the following people into our Wall of Recognition: Ken Coonrod and Evelyn Foley. Both will be inducted at our Graduation Ceremony on June 24th.
ALUMNI NEWS
As president Larry Allen stated in his column, the board of directors voted to increase the annual dues to $10 per year and everyone paying their dues will be sent a hard copy of the newsletter. After this newsletter is posted, there will no longer be a complete copy of the newsletter on line. The web site will still be there with other information, but the newsletter will not be posted.
It is becoming harder and harder to find individuals that will volunteer for positions on the alumni board. Please give serious consideration to volunteering your time to help. We are going to be in need of a President, Vice President and Secretary. Anyone willing to accept one of these positions is requested to contact President Allen, his email and phone number is noted at the beginning of the newsletter, so that names can be placed on the slate of officers for approval at the banquet meeting. This organization has been a wonderful time each year to renew old friendships and we have done a number of things for the school. It would be too bad to see it go by the wayside for lack of leadership.
Karen Blanchard - Word was received that Karen Blanchard, an associate at Wallace Roberts & Todd, was named this year’s recipient of AIA Philadelphia’s 2010 Young Architect Award. Karen has played a leading design role on numerous WRT projects. Her recent notable project work includes the design of the Levitt Pavilion in Bethlehem, the Germantown Academy Upper and Middle School in Fort Washington, and the Haverford Township Free Library in Haverford, PA. A graduate of Philadelphia University with a bachelor of architecture, Karen was named associate within two years of joining WRT, quickly recognized for her unique design skills and project dedication. Karen grew up in Willsboro and graduated at the top of her class at Willsboro Central School, class of 1993. She is the daughter of Larry and Jocelyne Blanchard of Willsboro.
Scott Reithel - Scott, our guest speaker in 2010, has been elected and assumed the Presidency of the National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA) in November of 2010. This is a national trade organization that advocates and influences regulations and legislation for the benefit of low income/affordable housing nationally.
Ed Collins - Ed, at the age of 86, finally completed a life-long dream…he graduated from High School! Ed dropped out of school partway through high school, working briefly before entering the service. On Wednesday, November 11, 2010, Ed finally received his diploma through Operation Recognition. Ed will be a special guest at the alumni banquet in June of 2011.
WEB SITE UPDATES
Beginning this summer we are going to be updating some of the information that is on the web site. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to let Bettie know so that we can think about incorporating them.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS/DATABASE CORRECTIONS
Change of address, regular or email, or corrections to the database should be sent to Bettie Lawrence, Bettie1940@att.net, or mailed to her at 14048 Fontana Road, Roanoke, TX 76262. If you received information on the newsletter from someone else, please send me your email address so that we can correct the problem.
NEWSLETTER
Information for the newsletter should be sent to Bettie Lawrence at Bettie1940@att.net or mailed to her at 14048 Fontana Road, Roanoke, TX 76262. And I might add that ANY and ALL alumni news would be great! It’s your N/L so if you have some interesting information you would like to share, we would be happy to include it. Your class may be organizing a reunion, etc., and this would be good advertising for you. Or perhaps your class has done something you would like others to know about. Anything you could contribute would be good.
2011 BANQUET
Once again our banquet will be held at Cricket’s in Peru. There is a reservation form included as part of this newsletter. The date of the banquet is Saturday, June 25, 2011. There will be a social hour beginning at 3pm and the banquet will start at 5 with introductions, etc., and dinner will be served at 5:15. We do ask that you have your reservations in to us not later than June 10 because we have to confirm the number of dinners with Cricket’s. Anyone making reservations after that date cannot be guaranteed their dinner choice and there is always the possibility of exceeding the number of reservations. We really do urge you to help us by sending in your reservations early. A printable form is available on line at www.willsboroalumni.com.
SPECIAL ANNIVERSARIES
Classes celebrating a 5-year anniversary at the 2011 banquet, and this year that would be any class ending in a 1 or a 6, will have reserved seating. There will also be a special table set up for the 25th and 50th classes. As in the past, you may sit anywhere that there is not a reserved name tag. Just place your “reserved for” name tag, you will pick this up at the registration desk, in any blank place and then you are free to mix and mingle and when dinner time comes, you will have a place to sit waiting for you.
CLASS CONTACTS
This list is quite long, so to save space please go to www.willsboroalumni.com to view the list. If you do not have access to a computer and the internet, drop Bettie a line or give her a call and she will be glad to give you the information you need.
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