After a few years of trying to put the pieces together, the SHS-TV’s morning announcements are now a part of the daily routine.

Along with reading, writin’ and ’rithmatic, 17 students have been learning the dharma, or “cosmic order” at the Middle Way School, which opened in West Saugerties in September.

Cheyenne Candlin, a senior at Saugerties High, is the Saugerties school board’s student representative for the 2018-19 school year. She says that students are becoming increasingly interested in how the world around them works. She lauds the involvement.

The Saugerties school district this week announced the hiring of Warren Donohue as interim business manager while school officials and the school board search for a permanent replacement for Lissa Jilek. 

Seth Turner began as a special education teacher at 1997 at age 24. He leaves 21 years later after nine years as superintendent.

The Saugerties Central School District’s Board of Education opted for consistency in filling the role of interim superintendent last week, with Deputy Superintendent Lawrence Mautone taking on the role.

While the district is seemingly in a state of flux with the departure later this month of longtime Superintendent Seth Turner, school officials are touting the new school year as one which enhances the educational experience without losing anything in the process.

The practice goes back at least a generation.

Some of the possibilities being considered are severe — schools could be ordered to use federal Title I funding to lower the opt-out rates instead of other programs. Schools could also be closed or converted to charter schools under the changes.

After three years, steps toward an access road for emergency vehicles to Riccardi Elementary School in the hamlet of Glasco have been taken. Saugerties town government accepted a 50-by-200-foot swathe of land south of the school as a gift from propertyowner Jimmy Bruno at its August 15 town board meeting.