Board puts renewal levy on May 3 ballot, hires agency for superintendent search

by Judy Stringer

Jan. 10 school board meeting

Voters will be asked to renew Hudson City School District’s 1.5-mill, five-year Permanent Improvement Fund levy. The Hudson Board of Education voted 4-0, with board member Tom Tobin absent, to place the renewal on the May 3 ballot.

If passed, the levy would continue to collect just over $1.5 million per year for the PIF, a fund used exclusively to acquire and maintain buildings, infrastructure and equipment.

Treasurer Phil Butto said Hudson’s PIF levy dates back to around 1966 and has been renewed every five years. The current PIF, passed in 2017, expires at the end of this year. Board member James Field said having a fund set aside for maintenance expenses helps “prevent even much larger spending down the road for replacement.”

Butto added that utilizing the PIF fund to “help with capital improvements” is part of the reason the district is able to sustain a “very healthy, solvent general fund.”

The board also passed a resolution approving the hire of Finding Leaders to conduct the search for a superintendent to replace Phil Herman. Herman announced his resignation late last year and will work through the end of this month, at which time former Hudson Superintendent Steve Farnsworth will take over as interim superintendent.  

The district will pay Finding Leaders $11,000 for its services. Board Vice Present Steve DiMauro said the administrative opening has been posted on “a multitude of sites.” Applications are due to Finding Leaders by Feb. 4, he said. The firm will then screen applicants, and the board will begin interviewing selected candidates around the end of the month.

“The hope would be that our new superintendent would be in place no later than Aug. 1 of this coming year,” DiMauro said.

COVID protocol update

After being mask-optional for nearly five weeks before winter break, Hudson High School students and staff returned to school under a mask mandate. The administration reinstated the high school mask requirement on Jan. 3. All other grades had remained under the mandate since the beginning of the school year.

Citing another spike in COVID cases and hospitalizations locally, Herman told the board that his team will revisit the mask requirement at the Feb. 14 board meeting.

“Fortunately, we are in school, and we hope to be able to remain in school,” he said.

Herman said that while he has no “intention of recommending going remote,” parents and staff should be prepared for the possibility of a classroom, school building or district shutdown “should things deteriorate to the point where we would have to temporarily go remote.”

Organizational meeting

Board member David Zuro was re-elected as president of the board during the board’s annual organizational meeting. DiMauro was re-elected as vice president.

Committee assignments were also approved. Those include: strategic planning/goals, Field and DiMauro; student achievement, Zuro and Tobin; safety and wellness, board member Alisa Wright and Field; diversity/equity/inclusion, DiMauro and Field; parent and community engagement, Tobin and Wright; community foundation engagement, Wright and Tobin; personnel, DiMauro and Wright; facilities, Tobin and Zuro; finance and economic development, Zuro and DiMauro; and legislative and policies, Field and Zuro. ∞