September 1, 2010 at 7:00 PM - Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

Rationale:  The Killingly 2011 Teacher of the Year will be present for the Board's recognition and appreciation.  [The identity of the teacher is kept secret until it is announced at the annual Convocation, which occurs after construction of this agenda.]

Rationale: 

Beth Royer has been selected as the 2010 Connecticut Winner of the Outstanding Young Member Award given by the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE).  Outstanding Young Member Award winners are agricultural educators who have been teaching for no more than six years and who have demonstrated significant progress toward establishing a successful agricultural education program.  They’ve been judged on a variety of criteria, including teaching philosophy, effective classroom and experiential instruction, development of partnerships, and professional growth.  Beth will now compete against Outstanding Young Member winners from surrounding states for the opportunity to be named the 2010 NAAE Outstanding Young Member for Region VI.  Regional winners receive a plaque and an expense-paid trip to attend the 2010 NAAE convention in Las Vegas, as well as a dinner in their honor one night during the convention.

Rationale:  Members of the Killingly community are encouraged to share their thoughts with the Board of Education and are invited to do so during this segment of the meeting.  When appropriate to do so, members of the Board and the administration may respond to comments. However, in consideration of those in attendance and in an effort to proceed in a timely manner, follow-up discussion may need to take place outside of the meeting setting.

Rationale:  Steve Rioux, the new principal of KIS, will give a brief report on KIS news and the start of the new school year.

Rationale:  The State Department of Education released the 2010 CMT, CAPT, and AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) reports and press releases mid-summer.  You have already received copies of most of these documents.  Brad will present a brief 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 actions plans will be presented at a later date.

Rationale:  Since April, with the help of the CSDE and SERC, the District Data Team has been working on the refinement of a District Improvement Plan.  The attached plan was most recently modified during the Administrative Institute.  Each building will be responsible for drafting a School Improvement Plan that will align with the district plan and articulate how the district plan will be implemented.  Also attached are the "standards" by which the district, school, and instructional data teams will assess their effectiveness three times a year.  Brad will provide further detail about how the Holistic Accountability System is evolving.

Rationale: 

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

Rationale:  A brief report on the opening of the new high school will be given, focusing on the August open house for parents and students, and the status of construction, FF&E, punch list, and playing fields.

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).  It is anticipated that for most of the year the second meeting of the month will be reserved for Lighthouse Project activities. 

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 or additions.  A final calendar will be presented in October for board adoption.

Rationale:  MOTION:  to approve the consent agenda:

a.  regular meeting minutes of June 2, 2010 and special meetings of May 25, 2010 and June 16, 2010
b.  payment of bills (Payment of Bills information will be distributed the night of the board meeting.)
c.  Employee of the Month for September 2010 

Rationale:  In accordance with Policy #3260, Mrs. Oat is requesting permission to dispose of obsolete textbooks which are no longer useful to the educational program.  Mostly these items have copyright dates in the 1980's; some are newer but are no longer used.  If approval is granted, every effort will be made to either sell these texts to used book vendors or to donate them to a school or charity that could make use of the materials.

MOTION:  to approve the disposal of obsolete textbooks.

Rationale:  During the spring budget process, the Board made reductions to the high school athletic budget during each set of approved cuts.  Despite reinstating some funding, significant reductions were made based on the recommendations of Athletic Director John Krot.  As in past years, some of the reductions were offset by revenue enhancements.  One such enhancement was a proposed raffle.  It is not clear to John, or me, that the Board recognized that this fund raising effort was still part of the athletic budget, and we wanted to clarify the original proposal and suggest an alternative.

Rationale:  After allocating all instructional assistants, including reassignments, there is a need for 5.5 FTE to meet the IEP needs of students (see attachment for details).  The cost for these IA's will be between $107,366 and $153,670 depending on the combination of part-time and full-time positions.  Although it is too early in the fiscal year to clearly identify specific available funds from the local budget.  That said, it is likely that most of this cost could be covered by funds available from the unemployment insurance account since many of the teachers and non-certified staff RIF'd last spring were either recalled or found other jobs.  Alternatively, funds are available from the new Federal stimulus jobs bill. 

MOTION:  to approve the addition of 5.5 FTE special education instructional assistants.

Rationale:  As you are aware, the new Federal education jobs fund bill gave the state of Connecticut approximately $110 million, with Killingly receiving $891,423.  The Education Jobs Fund requires that school districts use the funds to pay the salaries and benefits of teachers, school administrators and other essential staff.  Districts can use the money to recall or rehire former employees, retain existing employees, and hire new employees.

The reason to have this on the agenda this evening is to have a preliminary conversation about possible uses of the fund.  Administrators met  to share ideas for the most productive use of these dollars, knowing that the district has two years to expend the funds and that it is unlikely to be renewed.  Criteria we considered included direct impact on students, early intervention and impact, low cost/high impact, relationship to goals in the district improvement plan, and impact on teacher performance and growth.  Some high ranking ideas were reinstating the late buses and after school intervention programs, providing embedded professional development for staff, and reinstating the elementary assistant principal position.  Other ideas included remedial instruction staff, literacy coaches, credit recovery options, staff to supervise on-line courses, district math coordinator, and additional teachers at targeted grade levels to reduce class size.

In addition to soliciting additional ideas and general direction, work still needs to be done to cost out the various ideas and to allocate funding across the two years.

Rationale:  Attached is the "final" FY10 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 and the usual transfers to balance account expenditures.

Please note that the end-of-year "balance" on the final report is $3,267,526.  Of this total, $2,175,018 represents the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) set-aside to replace the loss of ECS funding to the town.  [Recall that the Governor reduced ECS aid by 14.1%, backfilling state aid to towns by using the SFSF funds; that money, by federal law, went directly to school districts.  It did not, however, increase our overall budget appropriation.] 

The resulting balance of $1,092,508 returns the entire supplemental appropriation of $921,724 for outplacement tuition; Excess Cost Aid in the amount of $1,377,018 was received by the Town and credited to lines 5561 and 5562. [Excess Cost Aid, like all education aid - other than SFSF - goes directly to the town.]

In summary, we reimbursed the town for the entire supplemental appropriation, and returned an additional $170,784 to the Town Fund Balance. 


MOTION:  to approve final FY10 budget and line item transfers.

Rationale:  Brad is currently working without a contract.  A one year agreement is proposed, with the terms unchanged from last year. 

MOTION:  to approve the contract for Bradford Thompson for 2010-2011 as presented.