"It has not yet been determined who will fill this position," district superintendent Mary Jo McPhail said.

The new position coincides with the April 10 return of middle school principal David Pearlman after being absent from the campus for almost three years.

Pearlman said Wednesday that he would not be "particularly interested" in such a position.

"It wouldn't be the direction I'd like to go in," Pearlman said.

School district attorney Hank Sobota said that the position is not official until the board announces it. On Monday afternoon, Sobota was still working on the job description. Earlier in the day McPhail said the job could include grantwriting, as the district has long needed a staff member to seek and secure sources of alternative funding for the district.

"This is especially crucial given the situation with the state," McPhail said.

The board does not anticipate having to advertise for the position, she said. Salary has not yet been determined because the position has not yet been assigned.

In April of 1999, Pearlman went on medical leave for depression. When he returned to the district later in the year, the CCS school board brought him up on 3020-a disciplinary charges. After more than two-and-a-half years, hearing officer Ronald Kowalski found Pearlman guilty of two of three charges; insubordination and conduct unbecoming a principal. As a result, Pearlman was suspended by the board of education without pay for three months.

After meeting with legal counsel in January, school board president Kelly Branigan said, "The hearing officer, in his decision, has required continued counseling for an undetermined period of time. Apparently he feels this is an overriding concern. It now becomes the board's responsibility to verify Mr. Pearlman's fitness for duty. We are requiring Mr. Pearlman to take an exam with a psychiatrist under Section 913 of the Education Law."

Pearlman has not yet taken the exam and it is not likely, given scheduling difficulties, that it will happen prior to April 10, Sobota said. Section 913 does not specify a time statute, Sobota said, meaning that both sides must be reasonable about limitations.

"They are now cooperating and we hope that will continue," Sobota said of Pearlman and his attorney, Louis Patack. "I don't want to speculate about what might happen if that were to cease. I don't want to point fingers at anybody. I don't want to be quoted as faulting anyone. But we have not delayed anything. We're operating on a spirit of cooperation at this point."

Pearlman's attorney Louis Patack said that the appointment has been scheduled for the near future and agreed that both sides are cooperating.

The proposed budget for the coming school year will now contain salaries for five administrators, McPhail said.

"When Michael Cring was the athletic director," said McPhail, "his salary was reflected in the program section of the budget. Now it is reflected in the administrative portion."

This may pose a problem, she said, if the budget is not passed by taxpayers and the district uses a contingency budget. The collective salaries of the five current administrators; McPhail, Cring, high school principal Gary Kuch, Pearlman and elementary principal Teresa Gorman, would exceed the standard increase permitted by law under a contingency budget.

McPhail said the current version of the CCS budget reflects "the same ballpark salary," for acting middle school principal Michael Cring, who has been earning $296 per day in leiu of his $54,827 salary as athletic director.

If the district has to adopt a contingency budget, McPhail said, the least senior administrator, Gorman, would lose her position. McPhail said that each of the buildings, by law, must have a principal. This would leave the board with the task of restructuring administration.

Pearlman said the creation of a new administrative position given the "current state of the budget, would be rough."

The board met on March 13 and went over the budget "line by line," McPhail said. At a recent school board meeting, McPhail said the proposed budget is $12,935,896, reflecting an increase of 3.8 percent.

BOCES programs that are "optional yet beneficial" may be lost in the crunch. These include staff development and student leadership programs.

"Our staff and students have benefitted greatly from these programs," McPhail said.

Board president Branigan said the board is in the process of conducting research to determine whether some inservices can be better performed at the school.

A freeze on BOCES aid by the state helped put the district in the hole this year. A thirty percent rise in health insurance costs is another source of concern.

On the bright side, McPhail said, the district is looking to increase the middle school counselor to full time, create a position for a half-time remedial high school math teacher and take small steps toward improving programs. Students may again be learning how to drive.

"The lack of driver's education has been a source of concern," McPhail said. "And we're hoping to reinstate it."

McPhail said the tax levy increase is currently hovering above ten percent, but the board has not adopted it yet. She anticipates it "may be in the nines" by the time it is formally adopted on April 3.

District business manager Jim Collison agreed.

"The board has had three meetings to work on the budget and they seem to stand by it. The fund balance will end up being higher, so we'll be able to pass the decrease along to the taxpayers."

Branigan said the board trusts Collison's figures and believes the tax levy will be lower than ten percent when it is adopted.

The budget will go up for public approval on May 21.