A Colonie family accused the North Colonie Board of Education Thursday, July 22, of ruining their lives for not funding their daughter’s tuition to change high schools, but later that night, the board reversed its decision
At a special meeting of the board, Patti and Don Clickner expressed frustration over their daughter Brittanie not being allowed to transfer from Shaker Junior High School to join her sister, Chelsie, at Watervliet High School during the meeting. They said an assurance in the annexation referendum stated that if a family has a history of attending either North Colonie, Cohoes or Watervliet, the North Colonie school district would fund the transfer from an outside school. Both Clickner parents had attended Watervliet.
`This kid doesn’t know which way to go,` Patti Clickner said during her testimony at the board meeting. `She’s made the best out of it.`
In October 2007, residents in both Maplewood and North Colonie voted in favor of an annexation of the two schools, which would bring in $30 million in Operating Incentive Aid from the state over the next 14 years. Through the merger, Maplewood became a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school, forcing students in seventh and eighth grade to attend Shaker Junior High School.
`We followed the rules, and she [Brittanie] went [to Shaker] for two years,` she said. `She misses her sister; she has friends at both places, and she’s really torn right now.`
Board President Mary Nordolillo said that the students were not required to go to Shaker at the time of the time of the annex and said that there was a big misunderstanding with the assurance.
`You have to petition to attend any of these schools [i.e. Watervliet],` Nordolillo said. `They were allowed to petition, but this did not say they would be granted their request.`
Patti, a former member of the board, was involved in the drafting of the annexation, a fact that surprised Nordolillo about the misunderstanding.
`This was discussed at a board meeting,` she said, `They knew at that time it was a request.`
Don had a much stronger testimony during the board meeting, calling the decision a `disaster` and claiming the members of the board figured the conflict would go away two years after the annexation.
`If you guys would have said two years ago that this wasn’t going to happen, I wouldn’t be here,` he said. `I’m not an ass all the time. This is about my kid, and I feel very strongly. And I’m not going to go away. You’re going to see me at the next few meetings, and do I want to do it? Absolutely not.`
Don stressed during his speech that he already signed the first check to their lawyer in an effort to fight the school in court, saying he was willing to spend the money on it.
`Do you want to spend money?` he asked the board. `I don’t know why you would. And I know some of you are business people, just like us. Why spend money on something you don’t have to?`
Nordolillo said the initial decision to not allow Brittanie to transfer to Watervliet was due to fiscal constraints and because school officials believed she would be fine going to Shaker High School.
`She seemed to be well-adjusted and doing well,` Nordolillo said of Brittanie’s tenure at Shaker Junior High School.
Ultimately, the board decided to let Brittanie transfer to Watervliet.
At 9:30 p.m. that night, after the Clickners returned home, they received a call informing them of the decision. Several attempts to contact the Clickners regarding the decision were unsuccessful.
Nordolillo said it was a difficult decision to make, but the board did not want to break up the Clickner family.
`The decision was made in light of the fact that Brittanie would not have been happy going to Shaker and because we didn’t want to split the family,` she said. `This was always the dilemma for us.`
Current Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction and soon-to-be Superintendent on Aug. 2, Joe Corr would not comment on the board’s decision, saying he did not want to invade the privacy of the Clickner family.
Corr said revealing the cost of the transfer would be premature and that the details have yet to be worked out before press time.
Nordolillo said the board’s decision had nothing to do with the father’s threats to involve lawyers or to go to the press. She also added that she believed the situation would not have ruined his family’s life.
`I think the parents did what was in the best interest of their daughter, and they were passionate,` Nordolillo remarked. `The decision we came to was based on those two girls. That’s what drove us to this [decision.]`
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