Education

Tuthill tapped for tenure

REPORTER FILE PHOTO Shelter Island Director of Guidance Martha Tuthill was granted tenure effective in February.
REPORTER FILE PHOTO Shelter Island Director of Guidance Martha Tuthill was granted tenure effective in February.

It was mostly a night for celebration at Tuesday’s Shelter Island Board of Education meeting where guidance counselor Martha Tuthill was granted tenure that becomes effective on February 23.

Ms. Tuthill came to Shelter Island from the Greenport School District starting in February 2015.

She was appointed to a three-year probationary position as guidance counselor that year, replacing Mark Palios who resigned after five years to accept a job as assistant principal at Newfield High School in the Middle Country Central School District. Ms. Tuthill was a guidance teacher in Greenport for students in kindergarten through grade 8. She was also a former Board of Education member at Oysterponds.

Among the programs she has brought to the Island is the DECA competition in which students compete with those from throughout the state in various business skills that require public speaking, problem solving, interviewing and a host of other talents.

Following the Board of Education vote on her tenure, there was a pause for a brief reception in her honor.

In other business, the Board:

  Approved an agreement with the Suffolk County Department of Health Services for the school to serve as a mass dispensing site for medications in the event of a public health emergency

• Accepted a $2,200 contribution  from the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church with $1,200 to be designated for the National Honor Society’s Habitat for Humanity Project with the balance to pay for college visits

• Accepted a $2,000 contribution from the Shelter Island Educational Foundation to cover the cost of the Nutcracker trip

• Accepted a $700 contribution from the Shelter Island Educational Foundation to offset costs of DECA students to attend state competition in Rochester in March

• Approved a senior class tip to Orlando to run from June 1 through June 4

• Granted a childcare leave to math teacher James Theinert to begin on or about January 22 and run through approximately February 16

• Appointed Susan Eschrich and James Read III as additional substitute teacher aides at a salary of $95 per day, pending clearance of their fingerprint checks required by the New York State Department of Education.

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