Mid Hudson Times Apr. 11 2018

T IMES MID HUDSON Vol. 30, No 15 3 APRIL 11 - 17, 2018 3 ONE DOLLAR Goldbacks win Remember him? Page 39 Page 10 SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR Newburgh Prep Charter School to close Skartados By SHANTAL RILEY [email protected] After five years of providing students with an alternative path to graduation, the Newburgh Preparatory Charter High School will close. Located on Broadway in the City of Newburgh, the charter school will shut its doors following a final graduation ceremony in June. “On behalf of the staff and the teachers and the board, I want to say how proud we all are of what we’ve been able to do with the school and what the students have been able to accomplish,” said Newburgh Prep Board President Lisa Silverstone last Friday. The main cause of the closure is low enrollment, Silverstone said. “The crux of it is the issues we’ve had with enrollment, retention and attendance, which have resulted in issues of long-term financial viability,” she explained. “We’re compensated per pupil. That means we are paid a fee per student, per attendance. When we have low enrollment, it’s very difficult to make the numbers work.” The school budget is based on having 75 students enrolled during the school year, said Newburgh Prep Comptroller Cheryl Gross. “The minute we go below that, we have to review the budget to ensure we meet our fiscal responsibility,” said Gross. The current enrollment is 64 students, she said. A total of 65 students have so far graduated from the school with New York State regents degrees. Another ten Continued on page 4 Winter carnival? Inflatable toys get caked with snow last Friday, at the Newburgh’s Mall’s annual spring carnival. The weather wasn’t always cooperative with snow showers last Monday, Friday and Sunday, the last day of the fair. WWW.MIDHUDSONTIMES.COM dealing with health issues By MARK REYNOLDS [email protected] New York State Assemblyman Frank Skartados (D-Milton) is presently dealing with a serious illness, according to his Chief of Staff Steve Gold. He said Skartados entered the hospital on March 23 to attend to this matter. Skartados was born in 1956 on Astypalaia, Greece, a small island in the Aegean Sea. He immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 14 with his mother, settling in Riverdale, NY. Gold said S k a r t a d o s focused on his education, graduating from George Washington High School and went on to earn a BA in Political Science Frank Skartados from SUNY New Paltz and a MA in International Studies from the University of California at Sacramento. After graduation, Skartados entered an internship at the Center Against Apartheid at the United Nations. Eventually Skartados returned to the Hudson Valley and was a small businessman and later purchased a small farm in Milton. Skartados lost a bid for a seat on the Marlborough Town Board but got back in the game and won a seat in the New York State Assembly in 2008. Two years Continued on page 4