November 6, 2019 at 7:00 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Rationale: 

1. Please note the personnel report as you will find updated employee information reflected in it.  

2. Please take note of the enrollment report as we have had some changes in enrollment since last month. In-house enrollment is now 1290 (two more students than last time this month).
 
3.  We are holding our first Open House at LOLHS this week.  Jim, Tracy Lenz, and I will meet with students and their families who also are given tours of the school by student representatives.  

4.  On that same day we will be hosting a contingent of teachers and administrators from China in an effort to promote our school for possible future admission of foreign students.  They will be given tours by students and we will host them for lunch.

5. Our first edition of the Focus on Education for the year is expected to be out soon as an insert in the Lyme Times. Please keep your eye out for it.   I think you will be pleased with the content and the presentation.  Our committee made some changes regarding BOE information in this publication as well as on the website.

6. I would like to report two donations.  The first was the gift of a tree to Mile Creek School on behalf of George Ryan who donated in memory of his wife Joan, a lifelong educator.  I have attached the information he shared with me regarding her life.  The second donation was an anonymous donation of $3000 to cover costs for students on the Spanish immersion trip who could not afford to participate in this incredible opportunity.

7. Our amazing staff continues to be recognized for their work.  Both Mr. Vazquez- Caballero and Mrs. Traver were recognized recently.  Mrs. Traver was recognized for her receipt of the Gold Star Teacher Award from W!SE, which is a personal financial literacy certification test, and Mr. Vazquez- Caballero for his presentation at the annual COLT conference (see attached).

8. I am pleased to announce that we were awarded the 2018-2019 CIAC Michaels Cup "Class Act" Sportsmanship Award.  The award will be presented on Thursday, November 21, 2019 at the CIAC Sportsmanship Summit being held at the Aqua Turf.  

9.  LOLHS made the list of Newsweek’s Top STEM High Schools.  We won't know where we are on the list until later this month, but we are pleased to have been recognized.

10.  Congratulations are in order as we were once again awarded the Bonnie B. Carney Award of Excellence for Educational Communications for both our website (winner) and our budget book (honorable mention).

11.  As mentioned last month, if you have not signed up for the CABE/CAPSS Convention through Jeanne, please do so.  We have traditionally had a good turnout as it tends to be an interesting and inspiring event.

12. I will update the Board on progress toward our district goals.  Also, during the Chair's report, we will recognize our three outgoing board members.

Rationale:  Mrs. McCalla will provide a year to date budget and revenue status report as well as a contingency fund report.

Rationale:  Representatives from The Tim Buckley Project will present what they have done (and hope to do) supporting our students and staff with therapy animals.

Rationale: 

Policy 1000 Mission and Vision Statements for LOL Public Schools (delete)

Policy 1100 Statement of Beliefs for LOL Public Schools (delete)

Policy 2350 Drug Free Schools (Policy 2360 "Smoke Free Environment" combined into 2350)

Policy 2670 Communicable and Infectious Diseases (Policy 2665 "Bloodborne Pathogens" and Policy 2675 "Tuberculin Testing" combined into 2670)

Policy 4525 Naming of School Buildings, Components of Buildings, School Grounds (keep as is) and delete Policy 6595 (Policy with same name).

Policy 5141.214 Student Sunscreen Use (new)

Policy 5310 Appointment of Certified Personnel (Policy 4270 "Community Members as Employees; Personnel Appointment and Conditions of Employment" combined into 5310)

Policy 8550 Voting Method (Policy 8555 "Voting Recording" combined into 8550)

 

 

Rationale:  In response to a number of questions regarding recycling and the use of certain materials in our cafeterias, I have asked Chartwells to provide options for alternative products that may allow us to reduce our impact on the environment.

Rationale:  As you are aware, we have been investigating the possibility of bringing foreign students to LOLHS.  We have finally found a program that seems to meet all of our needs and has an established reputation in the state for this purpose.  I will review their proposal.

Rationale:  See attached Building Committee Charter for the Lyme Consolidated School gymnasium air conditioning project. This requires Board approval.

Rationale:  See attached educational specifications for the Lyme Consolidated School gymnasium air conditional project. This requires Board action.

Rationale:  See attached resolution for the Lyme School gymnasium air conditioning project. This requires Board approval.

Rationale: 

Following some of the recent highly publicized cyber-attacks, we have reevaluated our network security. Included in this reevaluation was the investigation of the nature of the attacks and some of the measures others have employed to address these attacks. Lyme–Old Lyme Schools has a master agreement with Connecticut Computer Services to provide network consultation, maintenance and upgrade services.  Following our investigations of recent cyber-attacks, webinars with the Connecticut Educational Network administrators and discussions with our consultant, Connecticut Computer Services, we are recommending several network security upgrades to be deployed over the next two months. Not only will these security upgrades increase our perimeter security, install improved authentication measures to sensitive data, they will improve our ability to recover if an attack gets into our network. 

Lastly, we are also educating our staff and students on how to recognize an attack and respond to a cyber-attack.