December 14, 2011 at 7:00 PM - Board of Education

Rationale:  In accordance with BOE by-law 9120, election of board officers, and by-law 9110, terms of office, Mrs. Rich will continue to chair the meeting until the completion of election of a new chairperson.  Voting for officers are by written ballot, as required by statute and by-law.

Rationale:  Voting will be done by written ballot.  Please be sure to sign you name to your vote.

Rationale: 

It is my pleasure to congratulate  Karen Lagace as Employee of the Month for November 2011. Karen's  work deserves commendation given the scope of her responsibilities and the quality with which it is done.

 Karen wears many hats at Killingly High School. She is a teacher, student government liaison, student activities director, yearbook advisor and she is dedicated in everything she does. Karen  works extremely hard and she is always pleasant and helpful to the students, faculty and staff. Many of her colleagues have recognized her commitment and they all agree that Karen goes above and beyond in everything she does. 

 On behalf of the Board of Education, we commend you for your dedication to the Killingly Public Schools.

Rationale: 

The following students and their families have been invited to attend the board meeting so that they may be publicly recognized for being selected as the CAPSS (CT Association of Public School Superintendents) Superintendent Student Award recipients. The ceremony was held on Monday, Nov. 14 and a total of 50 students  from the northeast area were recognized.

Students from Killingly who received this award were:

Killingly Central School - Alyssa Gaudreau  and Jackson Lopes (Grade 4) 
Killingly Memorial School - Faith Boateng-Afranie and Daniel Sychevsky (Grade 4)  
Killingly Intermediate School - Stephen Conde and Madison Sheldon (Grade 8)
Killingly High School -  Jesse Richeeds and Heather Slattery (Grade 12)

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:  Ms. Jennifer Thompson, chairperson of the Committee on School Reconfiguration, will provide a progress update to the Board as directed in the Board's charge to the committee.  The committee has met regularly this fall; agendas and minutes are attached.

Rationale:  Chairperson Rich asked that board members who attended the convention bring one item they thought noteworthy to share with the board and community.

Rationale:  The regional superintendents groups (URSA and NASA) held their annual legislative breakfast with our area state representatives on December 8.  I will share any pertinent information gleaned at the breakfast regarding their views of the upcoming General Assembly session.

Rationale:  Enclosed is the latest NESDEC enrollment projections.  The projections show that enrollment will be relatively stable over the next several years, with a longer-term slow decline. Unless there is an increase in birth rate or new housing starts, we will lose about 5% of our K-8 enrollment over the next decade.  Some of that loss will be offset by increased out-of-district enrollment at the high school.  I believe NESDEC continues to underestimate the size of the freshman class, and enrollment will be slightly greater than projected next year since the efforts to attract out-of-district tuition students were successful this year and will continue to be successful.

Rationale:  Attached is the budget development calendar for the 2012-13 (FY13) school year. 

Christine Clark has just started meeting with principals and department heads to build the budget, but some issues that the Board will need to deal with are already apparent.  For example, even assuming that state aid will remain flat since we are entering the second year of the biennium, the loss of federal stimulus funding (Ed Jobs) will require that a number of positions and programs be absorbed into the local budget.  Also, even with ECS aid flat, other state aids - special ed excess cost, transportation, nursing, adult ed - all have caps that have resulted in losses of funding or lower reimbursements the past few years.  It is also not known what will happen with Federal grants (Title I and II, ELL, homeless) given federal budget issues and the slow pace of ESEA reauthorization.

Negotiated salary increases for next year and anticipated insurance rate increases will also require additional funding.  Additionally, the ability to make reductions to the budget are significantly restricted this year - recall that over the past three years we've cut 31.5 (net) teaching positions (11.7%), 3 administrative positions (17.6%), and 3 secretarial positions (10%).  These cuts have increased class sizes, reduced supports for students and staff, and reduced the ability of the system to meet regulatory requirements.  The purpose of this "preview" is to start the budget conversation earlier than we usually do.

Rationale:  As part of the new bullying legislation, the Board must approve a "Safe School Climate Plan" by January 1, 2012, which then must be submitted to CSDE.  Due to a delay in implementation guidance from CSDE, we (and many other districts) will not have a plan ready by the first of the year.  EASTCONN is working collaboratively with local school districts to develop a common plan that meets legislative requirements.  A draft plan was produced and is being shared internally, with a timeline for a final draft to be presented to the board at the January meeting, with approval scheduled for February.

For your information, attached are two Shipman & Goodwin documents that summarize the district's obligations.  The first is a School Law Alert on the legislation, and the second is a Q & A.  You are probably familiar with most of this information since the Board already adopted a new bullying policy to reflect changes in the law.

Rationale:  The General Assembly delayed the implementation of many elements of the secondary school reform act originally passed in 2010 for two years due to the economic condition of the state.  They did not, however, delay the requirement for Student Success Plans for each student in grades six through twelve.  The plan must include a student's career and academic choices; attached is a summary of the elements that are required.

This will have budgetary implications for the FY13 budget in software, staff time and training.

Rationale:  The RESC's have been legislatively charged with studying regional transportation costs and possible savings if regional calendars were adopted.  This is widely seen as a precursor to state-mandated regional calendars.  The northeast corner has a long history of collaborative school calendar construction and resource sharing (such as professional development on common PD days).  This year, the superintendents' recommendation is to try to construct and commit to a regional calendar with major elements common to the extent possible (first day of school, professional development days, February and April vacations) as a way of forestalling action in Hartford. 

Doing so will require boards of education to make compromises in their traditional calendars.  The attached proposed regional calendar conforms nicely to our traditional calendar, and will require few changes on our part.  This is presented as a conceptual idea; we will go through our normal calendar adoption procedure in the early spring.

Rationale:  As many of you are aware, after two years of study and development, CAPSS issued a comprehensive set recommendations for transforming public education in Connecticut.  It has received wide attention from the press, and CAPSS representatives have made presentations to other leading educational organizations in the state (for example, CABE, CAS, CEA), at the CABE/CAPSS Convention, to the Governor and Commissioner Pryor, and this week to the State Board of Education.  In what has been dubbed by Governor Malloy as the "year for education," this report will help set the agenda for discussion and legislation.

Attached is the press release announcing the plan, and the executive summary from the plan.  I will provide a more detailed presentation for you after the first of the year, but wanted to make sure you had the basic information and background.  More information can be found on the CAPSS website at <http://www.capss.org/page.cfm?p=437>.

Rationale:  a. approval of regular meeting minutes of November 2, 2011

b. approval of regular meeting minutes of November 16, 2011

c. approval of payment of bills for the year 2011-12 year in November in the amount of 1,298,779.50
d. approval of checks issued in November 2011
e. approval of December Employee of the Month
f. approval of status of Grants

Rationale:  As required by law, the Board must approve its regular meeting dates for the next calendar year.  The proposed regular meeting dates are attached.  As has been our practice, it is planned that the first meeting of the month is our business meeting and the second meeting is focused on curriculum and instruction. 

This list of proposed dates for approval is for 2012.  Also listed are tentative dates for January through June, 2013 that will be included as we develop the school calendar for 2012-13.

Rationale:  The chairperson may choose to make committee assignments, in accordance with Policy 9121(a), at this meeting, or wait until the January meeting. 
Standing committees are:
- Fiscal
- Policy
- Curriculum
- Community Engagement

Ad hoc committees that have been in place:
- Negotiations
- Student Board Members

Liaison Positions
-EASTCONN-
- Economic Development-
- CCJEF- 
- Town Council -
- Parks & Recreation-
- Scholarship -
Town Commissions
- Building Maintenance- 
- Consolidation Services -