Community Questions and Answers

Coaches are appointed on an annual basis.  As was stated at the Board meeting that night, Coach Pittman’s decision to not return as the Volleyball Coach is his own and was not a Board or administration decision.  Unfortunately, we cannot discuss personnel matters.  In addition, Director Marc Hattem sent the following message in response to questions from the public:

Coach Pittman was an exceptional coach and will certainly be missed by both the student-athletes and our community. However, the decision for Coach Pittman to step down from his position as Girl's Varsity Volleyball Coach was his own. As this is a personnel matter, I am unable to provide further details at this time.

Moving forward, please know that I am fully committed to ensuring our student-athletes have a coach who will offer strong leadership and guidance for the volleyball program.

Below are the next steps in the process:

1. Meet with JV Coach Pepe to discuss logistics, including the number of players in the program, scheduling, and previously planned off-season commitments (such as open gyms and leagues).
2. Post the coaching position on Olasjobs.org to allow both internal candidates (SCSD staff) and external applicants to apply.
3. Meet with the Grade 9-11 returners to gather their input on their "Hopes and Dreams" and qualities they’d like to see in the next coach. This helps identify the best candidates and provides the interview committee with a clearer picture of what to look for.
4. Meet with parents of Grade 9-11 returners to update them on the process and share the feedback from their children. We also welcome any additional parent input.
5. Conduct the interview process in accordance with SCSD hiring guidelines.
6. Meet with players and parents to introduce the new coach.

My goal is to complete this process and have the new coach in place by mid to late May 2025.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions.

Marc Hattem

Director of Athletics, Health and Physical Education

Somers Central School District

Regionalization is an initiative put forth earlier this school year, in which the Commissioner of Education is using the existing infrastructure of the regional BOCES across the state to have conversations about ways the component school districts of each BOCES can collaborate on items of importance and advocate for items they feel they need more support to accomplish.  The plan is entirely formulated by the participating component school districts and will be reviewed at a minimum every ten years.

Timeline for Regionalization

• September: The Board of Regents put out proposed regulations, requiring component school districts of the 37 BOCES to fill out a strengths and needs tool and begin conversations on collaborating among local school districts, resulting in a plan every 10 years.
• November/December: After receiving public comments, the Board of Regents revised the regulations to allow school districts to opt out of the regionalization planning.
• December 12th: Trustees DiLorenzo, Kandel, and Varbero, along with Interim Superintendent LeFevre, attended a Town Hall with Commissioner Rosa at PNW BOCES to get clarification on the regionalization requirements.
• January 7th: The Board of Education had an open discussion at a duly noticed public meeting and the consensus of the Board determined to participate in the planning process. The decision to participate in some, all or none of the plan will be made at a later date.  The January 7th meeting can be viewed here and the regionalization discussion begins around the 38 minute mark. 
• February: 15 of the 18 component school districts of PNW BOCES decided to participate in the regionalization conversations (Briarcliff, Lakeland and Yorktown opted out).  Superintendents met and began discussing the results from the strengths and needs tool filled out by the districts and began identifying possible topics to collaborate.
• April: Superintendents and some board members met at PNW BOCES to discuss the identified regional strengths  and the identified regional needs.  The needs categories include the following potential recommendations:
  • UPK (increasing  per pupil cost from the state, assistance in resolving unfunded mandates)
  • Transportation (help each other with out of district routes, electric bus mandates coming);
  •  workforce development and internships, (Expanding an existing workforce, additional funding for Access VR, state backed internship clearninghouse)
  • ENL Programs 18-21 year olds (support and funding relief)
  • Social Emotional Learning, (expand funding, partial programs for students needing additional assistance, expansion of urgent care to better address mental health problems and options for K-7, 9th, 10th grade academy for kids needing more transition from middle to high school)
  • School Security and SROs.  (allowing for regional cost sharing for security personnel, additional school based training for SPOS to enhance effectiveness).
• Prior to October there will be additional meetings to share progress and obtain additional feedback from Board members and district administration. 
• October: School Districts will need to decide whether to participate in one part, some parts, all parts or none of the regional plan developed by the component school districts.

It is important to note that participating in the planning process does not obligate the school district to participate in any of the activities formulated in the plan.  Each school district determines on its own whether each part of the plan is what is best for them. 

No, the Somers School District Superintendent will not report to BOCES.  The term “district superintendent” as used in the proposed regulations is not referring to the superintendents of schools for local public school districts. Rather, the term is referring to the district superintendents of the various BOCES (or supervisory districts, as referred to in the regulations). Under Education Law Section 2204, each BOCES appoints a “district superintendent”. For example, the district superintendent for the PNW BOCES is Neil Boyle. Under Education Law Section 2215, the district superintendent for each BOCES already reports to, and works under the direction of, the Commissioner of Education.  The superintendent of schools for Somers CSD will continue to report to the Board of Education as the position is appointed by the Board, remains an employee of the District, and works under the direction and management of the Board under Education Law Section 1711. 

 

 

Thank you for reaching out to the Somers Board of Education with your concerns regarding the Baseball merger process. Please allow me to go through a timeline of when the Board found out the information and how we came to a consensus.  

First, it is important to note that the Board expressed dissatisfaction with how the merger proposal was presented to us at the last minute. We acknowledge the importance of timely and transparent communication, and we are committed to improving this process moving forward.   To that end, we have already begun working closely with the athletics department and the Superintendent to ensure that both the Board and the community are informed about such situations well in advance.

Specifically, we are implementing the following measures:

• Establishing a clear protocol for presenting proposals to the Board, with sufficient lead time for review and discussion.
• Enhancing communication channels between the athletics department, the Superintendent's office, and the Board to ensure all relevant information is shared promptly.
• Soliciting feedback from stakeholders at various stages of the decision-making process to ensure their voices are heard and considered.

We believe that these steps will help foster a more collaborative and transparent environment, ultimately benefiting our students and the broader community.

• March 7^th at 4pm, the proposed merger was placed on our draft agenda for its March 11th meeting, after receiving the paperwork from North Salem.  This was the first time the Board had heard of the proposed merger. 
• March 11^th, the Board discussed the proposed merger at its meeting for the first time.  At this meeting the Board began asking questions to the Athletic director regarding impacts.  We also understood that a coach’s night was scheduled for the Thursday after our meeting, March 13th.  As a result, the Board voted to table the resolution on the proposed merger to allow both the Board and the families to gather more information and understand the impacts of the merger.  The video of the meeting can be found here
• March 13^th, the athletics department held a coach’s night and answered baseball families’ questions regarding the proposed merger.  Afterwards, the Board continued to receive feedback from families and the Board still had questions concerning the merger.
• On March 17^th, the Board was informed that Section 1 would need to approve the merger on March 18th at its monthly meeting and they would need our paperwork by 9am on March 18th if the merger were to be considered.  As a result, the Board could not postpone the vote to our regularly scheduled meeting on March 25th and agreed to hold an emergency meeting on March 18th at 8am in order to further discuss the proposed merger and consider a vote. 
• On March 18^th, the Board held the emergency meeting.  The video of the meeting can be found here. 

Through the course of this twelve-day period, we had received varied feedback from the community, with opinions both for and against the merger.  Together with the information provided to us by Somers Athletics, the Board took all the facts and circumstances under advisement.

After thorough consideration, the majority of the Board ultimately approved the merger. At the March 18th meeting, the following facts were conveyed to us by the Coach Genovese  and Marc Hattem:

• In order to merge, each school district must submit a Board of Education resolution approving the merger with a notice of intent to Section 1.  The notice of intent can be found on our March 11^th agenda in Board Docs
• The impact on our program would be minimal, and notably, this merger would create more opportunities for our 8th grade students to join the Freshman team and play at a high school level because many freshman players were going to be moved to the JV team. 
• No North Salem player is guaranteed a spot, only a tryout.
• Up to six players from North Salem were expected to try out.
• Before voting, Athletic Director, Marc Hattem explained that in years past we would typically have 60 kids across 3 teams and this year, only 50 Somers kids were registered for try outs. 
• We were informed that the nine 8th graders trying out this year will be kept on for our Freshman team.
• As with all mergers, this is only for the 2025 season and must be reviewed and approved annually by the Board. Any decisions about a merger made this season does not affect future seasons.
• North Salem will cover their percentage of the costs to Somers, i.e. if North Salem players makeup 10% of the team, North Salem will cover 10% of the costs, including coach salaries, transportation and umpire fees.
• We expect North Salem to have their own team next year. If they request another merger, it will be evaluated based on the facts at that time.

As the season practices/tryouts have started, Marc Hattem has further updated us on numbers for the baseball season.  48 Somers players tried out and 5 North Salem players tried out.  Ultimately, these 53 players were spread across three teams.  16 on Freshman team (2 from North Salem), 17 on Junior Varsity (1 from North Salem) and 20 on Varsity (2 from North Salem). 

A proposal and recommendation to merge the Somers and North Salem Football teams was presented to the Board at its January 21, 2025 meeting.  It was presented to us and recommended by the athletic director and Superintendent to merge so that we can remain in Class A.  If we did not merge football teams with North Salem, our football team would be moved down to Class B because of smaller enrollment numbers in our school district. 

As the Board of Education, we depend on the expertise of our staff, including Directors and Administrators, as well as feedback from the community when making decisions. Should you have specific questions regarding either merger, please contact the Athletic Director, Marc Hattem, or Interim Superintendent, Harry LeFevre.