Sound Shore

MAMARONECK — A presentation on the school district’s “Response to Intervention,” or RTI, initiatives for struggling learners will headline the agenda at a Board of Education study session, to be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Mamaroneck High School library classroom, 1000 W. Boston Post Rd.

RTI programs generally seek to address the needs of students with learning difficulties without placing them in special education.

Also at the study session: The Mamaroneck Schools Foundation will present its grant awards; and the school board will discuss “a crew team proposal” and Memorial Field user fees, organizers said.

LMC-TV is scheduled to televise the meeting live on Channel 76 Cablevision and 35 Verizon. It will be re-played on the same channels Friday at 9 p.m. and then again on Sunday at 9 a.m.

MAMARONECK — Want to be the schools chief’s boss?

Residents interested in seeking one of two seats up for election on the Board of Education have until March 1 to submit applications to a committee tasked with endorsing candidates.

The seven-member school board sets education policy and oversees the work of the superintendent in the Mamaroneck Union Free School District. Its members are elected to three-year terms.

School board president Richard Marsico and member Harriet Barish are not seeking re-election.

The selection committee, comprised of 24 elected residents representing the district’s four elementary schools, will vet and pick the candidates to appear on the ballot on Election Day this May.

To learn more about applying, call Herb Myers at (914)-833-1155.

The Mamaroneck public schools will begin holding bi-monthly “work sessions” from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month when evening meetings are not scheduled, the district has announced. The work sessions are in addition to the Board of Education’s regular, televised meetings held on the first and third Tuesday evenings of each month.

The informal public sessions, part of a pilot program, are designed to give board members the opportunity to discuss issues that do not require immediate action. On occasion, the board may go into executive session to discuss confidential matters out of the public eye, according to the district.

“The board is adding these open public meetings because we find we need more time to discuss district matters than allowed by the current bi-monthly meeting schedule,” said Board President Rick Marsico. “We are holding the work sessions in the morning to accommodate the schedules of board members whose employment would make it difficult to attend four evening board meetings each month.”

This just in:

“The Selection Committee for the Mamaroneck School Board of Education is looking for new members and is currently accepting applications. The Committee is charged with finding, vetting, and endorsing qualified School Board Candidates. They are a group consisting of 24 residents, representing all four elementary school zones in the Mamaroneck district. The deadline for Selection Committee applications is April 20, 2010. For more information or for an application, please go to www.selectioncommittee.org or email sharibarragan@aol.com.”

From an announcement by the city Board of Education, here are the details on the budget that will go before voters May 18. Look for a longer explainer story by Hannan Adely in the coming days:

• The proposed budget represents a 2%, or $4.6-million reduction from the current operating budget.

• The 2010-2011 proposed budget totals $224,883,303, which is a 2% reduction from the current budget.  The reduced budget of $4.6-million results in an estimated 3.8% projected tax rate increase.

• Includes 78 position cuts, both instructional and Civil Service, many of which will be realized through staff retirement, attrition, and a hiring freeze; layoffs are also expected.

• The District expects to save $500,000 by reducing the transportation subsidy for sixth graders. [In March, the proposal on the table was to require sixth graders to begin buying public bus passes rather than taking district buses.]

“The Board heard the voice of the community which firmly expressed a desire to preserve class size and quality programs. This budget does not cut education programs, such as full-day kindergarten, foreign language, athletics or the arts,” explains Superintendent of Schools Richard Organisciak, “However, this is a realistic budget which is the result of an extremely difficult decision-making process.”

Note: We’ve asked for more clarification on the layoffs and job/position cuts; last month the project had been between 25 and 35 actual staff layoffs.