TURNER – Greene Central School Principal Thomas Martellone presented SAD 52 directors Thursday night with a plan to deal with unruly students, which one parent called a repeat of last year’s failed attempt.

Instead of discussing parents’ concerns about some of last year’s first-graders hitting, kicking and spitting on classmates, much of the board’s sparsely attended meeting was spent criticizing the Sun Journal for a front-page headline when parents brought their concerns to the board at the end of June.

Superintendent Thomas Hanson chastised the newspaper for its headline, calling it “deplorable to give such a negative and public label to a group of such young children.” He said, “Whoever chose that headline certainly doesn’t have a child or a grandchild in the first grade at Greene Central School.”

At least three board members also criticized the newspaper’s headline.

Comments from directors never mentioned the problem of unruly students, but expressed hope for a positive attitude at the school when school opens in the fall.

Martellone read a letter from class teachers Stephanie Girouard and Julie Vyr, who were not at the meeting, stating, “The number of students needing a greater amount of individual attention was higher than a ‘typical’ school year” and that they wanted the board and the community of Greene to be assured “that clear, consistent protocol was followed each and every time any inappropriate or unsafe behavior occurred.”

In the letter, the teachers questioned the accuracy of comments made by the parents whose initial presentation at the June 29 board meeting stimulated public discussion of the problem. But Sandy Laliberte, one of those parents, reminded the board on Thursday that the author of those statements was Principal Martellone.

The teachers concluded their letter by saying, “We feel our first-graders met the challenges, and learned both tolerance of others, and the importance of being safe and included.”

Martellone presented a plan for dealing with students presenting behavioral problems, much of which he said was done with first-graders last year and will be repeated. His plan includes:

• having students placed in an alternate setting when substitutes are present. One of the parental observations about the behavior of about a third of the students in the two first-grade classes last year was that “Seven or eight substitute teachers refused to take the classes.”

• implement individual behavior plans to target behaviors;

• use the “Three Strike” rule to remove kids who are being disruptive. This involves disruptive students being sent out of class, then to the office and back to class, then to the office and staying in the office. The third strike could involve further disciplinary action;

• assign students to individual playground areas;

• consistently and constantly communicate with parents about behaviors that impede learning;

• provide academic rigor for students needing more than what they would receive at their grade level;

• consultation services from the school psychological examiner as warranted;

• additional adult support from the literacy coach who will be located in second grade;

• special education referral, as warranted; and

• classroom focus with guidance about dealing with behaviors of others. Martellone said this would involve Advocates for Children, and he expressed the hope that parents would attend with their children.

Laliberte spoke Thursday night to her continued concern that, “Safety in the classroom was compromised, that the gym teacher, library personnel, and the school nurse had all expressed concerns for the safety of the children in that class.”

She asked, “Where are the teachers?”

She said the principal’s plan “is a repeat of everything that was tried last year and didn’t work.”

No one Thursday night responded to Laliberte’s concern.

Laliberte and parent Theresa Godfrey had proposed “that a concrete written plan that would include a third teacher for this grade, or two permanent full-time educational technicians assigned to this grade, would help meet the specific academic, emotional and physical safety needs of this class.”

Their proposal was never discussed Thursday night.

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