September 9, 2009 at 7:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  Colleen Lugauskas, Reading Resource Teacher at Killingly Central School, was chosen as Killingly's 2010 Teacher of the Year.  The Board will be honoring her at this meeting.

Rationale:  Mr. Palmeter will report to the Board on the impact to date of changes to the KHS band program approved as part of the FY10 budget process.  In particular, he will highlight the summer band program.

Rationale:  As you know, Richard Murray has earned the CABE Master Board of Education designation this year.  Don Blevins, Waterford Board of Education Chair, will be at the meeting to present Richard with a certificate on behalf of CABE.

Rationale:  Sheryl Kempain will give a report on KIS news.

Rationale:  The State Department of Education released the 2008 CMT, CAPT and AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) reports and press released toward the end of the summer.  Brad and Jan will briefly report on the district's status on these three key measures, including the implications of these measures due to NCLB required remedial efforts, and initial responses.

More complete reports and action plans will be presented at a later date.

Rationale: 
A review of the 2006-2007 CAPT and CMT data by the State Department’s Bureau of Special Education (BSE) revealed that Killingly did not meet various state target performance levels.  As a result of their findings, the BSE conducted a focused monitoring visit in Killingly in the spring of 2009.  Brad will review the findings and summarize the action plan created by district personnel in response to the state’s recommendations. 

Rationale:  An overview of the start of the school year will be provided, including updated enrollment and attendance reports.

Rationale:  An informational meeting was held for parents of grade nine students (as part of the Freshmen Orientation Meeting), with parents then signing contracts and paying for insurance after the meeting.  Updated handbooks and contracts were distributed to sophomores.  Finally, there will be a parent meeting for Vo-Ag juniors and seniors on September 10.  Laptop distribution is planned for the weeks of September 14 and 21.

Rationale:  Donna Doyle, Nursing Supervisor, will report on planning efforts during the summer to prepare for the expected recurrence of the H1N1 flu this fall.  Much of the planning has been done in conjunction with the Northeast Department of Health, and reviewed by our school physician, Dr. Wilterdink.

Rationale:  The district's new website went "live" on August 21.  Since that time, most teahcers have started their own web pages and school and central office staff have busily added content and updated information.  I will briefly show key features of the site, and encourage parents and community members to register on the site to personalize their experience.

Rationale:  A draft of the annual board meeting calendar will be distributed.  Key agenda items are listed for the regular business meetings of the board (the first meeting of the month); items for the second meeting of the month will be determined in conjunction with the Board's Curriculum Committee.  This is a draft; items may be added, deleted or moved to different months, but this provides a guide for members of the board and the public for when topics will be covered. 

Please review and make suggestions for changes.  A final calendar will be presented in October for board adoption.

Rationale: 

Approval of Consent Agenda:

a. approval of regular meeting minutes of June 3, 2009 and special meetings of June 11, 2009 and June 19, 2009
b. approval of payment of bills for the year 2008-2009 year in July in the amount of $359,168.28 and in August in the amount of $118,857.52 and for the 2009-2010 year in July in the amount of $247,229.44 and in August in the amount of $1,603,322.94.
c. approval of Employee of the Month for August 2009
d. approval of grants - State Farm Service Learning Initiative.
e. approval of line item transfers

Rationale:  Fran Lagace was nominated for the September Employee of the Month. He is the product of the Killingly system who came home to help better the lives of Killingly students. This summer he coordinated a group of dedicated teachers at the high school in developing a workable AB block schedule, a better intervention program, and a so badly needed mentoring system which is to be used during the advisory period. This whole program aligns Killingly High School with many of the guidelines in the Commissioner's 21st Century Schools.

Rationale:  The Ad-Hoc Textbook Approval Committee (Richard Murray, Buzz King) met on Tuesday, September 1^st and approved the purchase of a tenth-grade Civics textbook entitled Civics: Government and Economics in Action, Published by Prentice Hall, 2009.  One of the strengths of this particular book over the previous edition (2001) is its strong emphasis on economics.  The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills has identified financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy, as well as civic literacy, as areas of expertise all students will need to successfully prepare for work and life in the 21^st century.  The book, which has a 9^th-grade readability, is being purchased for grade 10 general students.

Rationale:  Attached is the "final" FY09 budget report that served as the basis for the ED001 filing with the State on August 31.  Recommended transfers summarize pre-purchases authorized by the Fiscal Committee last spring.

Please note that the end-of-year balance on the final report is $563,947.  Additionally, due to the supplementary appropriation for special ed tuition, $92,613 of excess cost aid remained with the town.  [Excess cost aid, like all education aid, goes directly to the Town.  Based on our agreement with the Town, the Town credits us with the aid necessary to balance those line items, so there was a portion of the aid that was not credited to lines 5561 and 5562.  The balance stays with the town.] Consequently, the BOE's "contribution" to the Town Fund Balance was $656,560, greater than the supplemental appropriation of $604,639.

Rationale: 

The joint Facilities Study Committee has requested that the BOE give approval for its wishes for the existing high school (how that particular building would be used, as compared to the larger question of district reorganization as explored in the Design Partnership facilities study of last year).  The Committee feels that their charge is to determine renovations needed for the physical plant of the building, but that the educational use is in the purview of the BOE.

The recommendation of the study was for the high school to be used for central office (including PPS) in the vo-ag wing, ALPS in the current tech ed/IT/weight room space, and grades 3-5 in the two story portion of the building.  This would allow the district to save money by shutting down two facilities – the white house and the leased ALPS building – and maximize use of available square footage.  The board subcommittee endorsed this idea, but the BOE as a body never explicitly took a position.  This has been placed on the agenda for next week’s BOE meeting.  You might want to review the recommendations and conceptual floor plans in the study. In particular, review Section 4, Section 5 (p. 5-3, and floor plan for HS Option A,D,F,G), and Section 8.