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Image provided by: Guilderland Public Library
pr-^W^g?pPr y*yVf,fp**r*g* f^^^s^ This —finei^f-pliyic Uj&fftR* No. 49 • THURSDAY, JUNE 29,2006 For 121 years Albany County s independent newspaper School board By Melissa Hale-Spencer GUILDERLAND — The school board here is discussing whether it should back a founda- tion to accept private donations. If it does, should the founda- tion be just for the school or should it be town-wide? A recent report from a school committee indicates Guild erland may be ripe for the picking, al- though the report says the town has no history of philanthropy. Donald Csaposs, a member of the committee who wrote about community foundations for the report, told The Enterprise this week, \I certainly hope the town gives this a fair hearing.\ Csaposs is the development di- rector for the town of Guilder- land but said he did the commit- tee work as a \freelance\ volun- teer. A community-based founda- tion, he said has \a wider out- reach and outflow,\ although Csaposs said the committee members had \a very sharp and unhappy division of thinking\ on which kind of foundation would be better. Casposs cited a neighboring suburban town, Niskayuna, which he said had launched a successful community-wide foundation in the late 1990's, that now takes in several hundred thousand dollars a year. Hy Dubowsky, board mem- ber-elect, and die committee's chair, presented the rjgport to the school board last Tuesday. Dubowsky said that a com- munity foundation would strengthen the relationship be- tween the town and school, which is '\'not quite what it should be.\ \I've been saying that for 20 years,\ said Csaposs. \Heck I've written letters to the editor of The Enterprise complaining that the town board and school board meetings are on the same night.\ \Low-hanging fruit\ After years of debating whether public schools should accept private funds, the school board's majority finally, in No- vember, agreed to have a com- mittee study the matter. The committee's 27-page re- port stresses many times that \a great deal of non-traditional funding is already taking place.\ There's an awful lot of com- mercial stuff we do in this dis- trict,\ said Dubowsky. The district is already involved in direct product sales; it con- tracts with vendors for student goods and services for such things as yearbooks, school pho- tographs, and vending machines. The school lunch fund generates between $40,000 and $50,000 (Continued on Page 19) Calabro found liable in civil suit By Jarrett Carroll GUILDERLAND — Long-time owner of Joe's Service Station on Western Avenue was found li- able in a sexual assault civil lawsuit after being acquitted of sexual harassment in town court last November. Joe Calabro was ordered on June- 20 to pay his former em- ployee $35,000 in damages. Calabro was accused last year of forcibly touching one of his female employees, and, after a two-day trial in town court, in a criminal trial, he was found in- nocent. However, the Albany County Supreme Court found Calabro liable for two counts of sexual assault, but threw out a third count of intentional inflic- tion of emotional distress. \He was found liable on two counts and they dismissed one count for failure of proof,\ said Calabro's lawyer, Joseph Gardner. \We're in the process of figuring out whether we're going to appeal.\ Calabro was originally ar- rested on a misdemeanor charge because of a complaint filed with the state police by one of his fe- male employees in March of 2004. According to the victim's law- yer, John Hock, Calabro sexually harassed his client. The civil suit was heard by Supreme Court Judge John Egan, said Hock, and he added that Guilderland Police Detec- tive John Tashjian testified on behalf of. Calabro during the lawsuit. Nevertheless, Hock said, Callabro was found liable for damages in the suit, Tashjian did not return calls to The Enterprise this week. Hock said during the civil trial an audio tape was played with Calabro's voice repeatedly saying, things of a \sexually explicit na- ture\ to Calabro's employee, and, at one point, during the tape, Calabro said that he \couldn't stop himself.\ (Continued on page 14) The Enterprise — Saranac Hale Spencer \/ liked the stores that used to be here,\ says Corrina Goutos, ofAltamont, at the teen focus group meeting held at the village hall on Tuesday night. The meeting was held to gather ideas from teens for the village's comprehensive plan. Goutos and a handful of others at the meeting said that they used to like hanging out at the Penguin Diner before it was torn down. See story inside. Future Vals and Sals: More than just grades By Holly Grosch VOORriEESVILLE - An academic tradition will be revo- lutionized or tampered with next year, depending on one's view- point. This is the Jast graduation at Voorheesville where the valedic- torian and salutatorian are de- clared based solely on having the best grades. For the class of 2007, cumula- tive grade-point average is just one of five categories considered. Among others are extracurricu- lar activities and hours of com- munity service. Voorheesville's new trend started this year by not report- ing to colleges where individual students were ranked by grades in comparison to their peers. Class ranks were sent only to military schools, where disclo- sure was \positively\ required, high school Principal Mark (Continued from page 20) Inside this week's edition starting on page.... Opinion News Nei2| Community Calendar Ef -*-*•--'•'•••• - *y, •-, \ C|jis$|i^^,i!*l.' Sports 0tE inii.!....,,.-,..^
