eizzo@adirondackdailyenterprise.com LAKE PLACID Three people have been chosen as finalists in the search for Lake Placid’s new school superintendent. The new superintendent, who will be chosen and appointed by the school’s Board of Education, will replace Roger Catania, who is retiring at the end of this school year. Catania has been Lake Placid Central School District’s superintendent since 2013, though he worked at the high school as a counselor for several years before that, starting in 1997. The three candidates who are being considered as his replacement are Timothy Seymour, the current superintendent of the St. Regis Falls Central School District; Saranac Laker Dana Wood, former principal of the Lake Placid Middle-High School and current assistant superintendent for business, finance and support services at LPCSD; and Margaret Wright, a Canandaigua resident who has served in various administrative roles in school districts throughout the Finger Lakes region.
eizzo@adirondackdailyenterprise.com LAKE PLACID Lake Placid Central School District administrators proposed setting aside $25,000 for a temporary social studies teacher who would focus on integrating diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI, as well as civics education goals for every grade level. Some community members aren’t happy about that. Lake Placid Board of Education member Colleen Locke first shared concerns she heard from teachers, parents and other community members during a board meeting on April 13. Some people worried that by approving the position, Lake Placid would be “politicizing our classrooms” or spending money that could otherwise be spent on helping students from low-income families, according to Locke.
pcrowley@adirondackdailyenterprise.com
Saranac Lake resident Kathy Merritt places her vote in the May 2019 school election at Saranac Lake High School.
(Enterprise photo â Kevin Shea) If you want to run for your local public school board, the deadline to file your candidacy is Monday afternoon. That date is the same for every school district in the state. The school election day for board members, budgets and special propositions is also the same statewide Tuesday, May 18. All school terms are for three years, except for one unexpired term in Lake Placid. Each candidate needs to file a petition with at least 25 qualified signatures. (The requirement is for either 25 or 2% of the number of voters in the district’s last election, but for that 2% to be more than 25, a district would have to have had more than 1,250 voters, and the Adirondack Park’s districts are too small for that.)
eizzo@adirondackdailyenterprise.com
LAKE PLACID The first-ever round of funding from the town of North Elba’s new Local Enhancement and Advancement Fund (LEAF) is going to 17 organizations hoping to either improve residents’ quality of life, protect the environment, preserve the town’s history or provide relief for small businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The North Elba Town Council approved a slate of funding recipients during its regular meeting on Tuesday, April 13. Altogether, $560,265 will be disbursed. The authorization comes more than two years after Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism CEO James McKenna first asked the Essex County Board of Supervisors to consider raising the county occupancy tax from 3 to 5% to fund town-level projects. The increase went into effect on June 1, 2020.
eizzo@adirondackdailyenterprise.com
The summit of Cobble Hill provides a good view of the village of Lake Placid. Establishing a better Cobble Hill trailhead and improving trail signage is one project to which the town of North Elba is contributing occupancy tax funding.
(Enterprise photo â Peter Crowley) LAKE PLACID The first-ever round of funding from the town of North Elba’s new Local Enhancement and Advancement Fund (LEAF) is going to 17 local organizations hoping to either improve residents’ quality of life, protect the environment, preserve the town’s history or provide relief to small businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.