July 7, 2010 at 7:00 PM - Regular Board template

Rationale:  Dominique Fox - BCHS - Assistant Principal
Martin Semmel - BCHS - Principal

Rationale:  Pamela Brisson - BOE - Supervisor of Teaching & Learning, Grades 6-12

Rationale:  Debra Moreau – MBMS – Social Studies, grade 7
Mary Sirianni – EPH - .5 Special Education Teacher
Monika Wierzbicka – BEHS - Math

Rationale:  Tina Twiggs - BCHS - Family & Consumer Science

Rationale:  Andrea Rajotte – BEHS – World Language Department Head
Steven Tillinghast – MBMS – Blue Team Leader

Rationale:  Joseph Capitaini - CHMS - Instructional Resource Coordinator

Rationale:  Kenneth Bagley – City Wide Music Curriculum Coordinator - Effective July 1, 2010    Sarah Champagne – BEHS – Team Leader, grade 10 – Effective August 30, 2010
Gina D’Amato – BEHS – Team Leader, grade 9 – Effective August 30, 2010
John Stavens – BEHS – Team Leader, grade 9 – Effective August 30, 2010

Rationale:  Misty-Dawn Palaia a .5 kindergarten teacher at MTV has been hired as a full time grade 5 teacher at EDGE.

Rationale:  Charles Driscoll – Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach – BEHS, eff.:  5/25/10
John Krampitz – Athletic Coordinator – MBMS, eff.:  5/28/10
John Smachetti – Head Girls Swim & Dive Coach – BEHS, eff.:  6/15/10

Rationale:  Bristol Eastern High School has submitted a proposal to partner with the Education Management Credit Corporation Foundation and join the Education Scholars Program.  ECMC provides scholarship funds for a maximum of ten students in each selected high school.  Students considered must be completing their sophomore year of school and beginning their junior year in the 2010-11 school year.  Only one high school per school district can apply.  ECMC will award each selected high school $1000 for each cohort participating in the ECMC Scholars’ Program and each student participating in the program will have the opportunity to receive a $4000 grant during the first year of accredited postsecondary school and a $2000 grand during year two of accredited postsecondary school. The grant period will run from August 1, 2010 and conclude by June 30, 2012.

Rationale:  Bristol Adult Education has received addtional funding form the CSDE, increasing the State contribution from $274,130 to $305,240 an increase of $31,110.

Rationale: 

The extension/continuation grant for the Family Resource Center at O’Connell School will permit the FRC to continue services to families and students.  O’Connell FRC has been operating for the past eleven years providing seven components of service including preschool playgroups and programming, school age care, Parents As Teachers home visiting program, home daycare provider training and support, adult education support, positive youth development and resource & referral services.  Almost 400 O’Connell School students and family members have the opportunity to participate in one or more of the components of the Family Resource Center. The FRC sends one staff member to Cubs Corner to assist with mentoring, homework help and a variety of age appropriate activities.  In all of these programs there is a close working relationship with the O’Connell School staff and as a result there is improved communication between the school, family and community.  This is an extension- continuation grant for one year grant for $98,000 allocation for FY11: July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011

Rationale: 

The extension/continuation grant for the Family Resource Center at South Side School will permit the FRC to continue services to families and students.  South Side School FRC has been operating for the past thirteen years providing seven components of service including preschool playgroups and programming, school age care, Parents As Teachers home visiting program, home daycare provider training and support, adult education support, positive youth development and resource & referral services.  Almost 600 South Side School students and family members have the opportunity to participate in one or more of the components of the Family Resource Center. The after school program in partnership with the Family Center provides mentoring, homework help and a variety of age appropriate activities.  In all of these programs there is a close working relationship with the South Side School staff and as a result there is improved communication between the school, family and community. The continuation grant for one year for $98,000 allocations for FY11: 

July1, 2010 – June 30, 2011.

Rationale:  The Board of Education has agreed to waive the staff dress code for monthly dress down days that would benefit students and/or staff. Attached is this year's list of charities and the monthly amount raised. Staff donated a total of $29,002.00.

Rationale:  See Attachment

Rationale: 

Teachers trained to serve as mentors/cooperating teachers provide assistance to student teachers and first year beginning teachers in the district in areas such as lesson design and classroom management, and provide feedback and support in the areas of instructional planning and student assessment. Cooperating teachers are those teachers who are trained to work with student teachers. We need to increase the number of cooperating teachers in the district in order to meet the need of student teachers. Mentors must be assigned to first and secondyear teachers to provide mentoring and support to newly certified teachers; this program is required by the State Department of Education. The following teachers have applied for this training:

 

Teacher	Assignment
Sarah Brown	CHMS, Technology Education
Elizabeth DiLernia	BEHS, Science
Jennifer Hoang	BCHS, English
Karen Hurlbert	O’Connell, grade 5
Mary Hyde	BEHS, Science
Isabel Imfeld	MBMS, Science
Jennifer O’Donnell	Edgewood, grade 2
Kara Rossi	O’Connell, grade 2
Brian Troccolo	CHMS, art
Melanie Vetrano	BEHS, science

Rationale:  The Board of Education voted to participate in the Healthy Food Certification Compliance Act. Each year the district must certify full compliance with the program.

Rationale: 

The Student Accident & Athletic Insurance Program is put out for bid on a biennial basis. This insurance covers students who participate in our athletic programs and is available for purchase by parents for other students.

The current provider – Bollinger, Inc. – was the only bidder for this service.

The voluntary student insurance program is available for $64 per student.

Rationale:  The curriculum for study skills was approved by the Board of Education in June 2006.  The curriculum is taught in the Unified Arts rotation in a 15 day during one trimester each year.  It was determined after a review of the implementation of the curriculum was conducted that the study skills curriculum be revised.  In this revision, English language arts standards as well as the CT standards for Comprehensive School Counseling were used.  Clear distinctions between the three courses of study skills were made by creating new and/or different units for the three years and by scaffolding learning objectives in units of study that remain a part of the three year program.

Rationale: 

The Bristol Grade 3 Mathematics Curriculum has been recently revised in order to align to the 2007 Connecticut Prekindergarten-Grade 8 Mathematics Curriculum Standards and the grade-level expectations (GLEs).  The current text, Growing with Mathematics, was chosen prior to the adoption of the 2007 Connecticut Prekindergarten-Grade 8 Mathematics Curriculum Standards and does not align well with this new curriculum. In addition, the publisher, McGraw-Hill Wright Group, does not intend to support the program by revising or updating it further.  It has become necessary to find a text that more closely matches the Bristol Mathematics Curriculum and the 2007 Connecticut Prekindergarten-Grade 8 Mathematics Curriculum Standards.  Furthermore, as the needs of our students continue to change and grow, it is important to find a text that can adapt to these changing needs and expand to the increasing demands of technology as a resource for educating and enhancing instruction for our students.

 

In order to address these issues, a committee of K-5 teachers was formed to examine two different texts to determine if either would be a stronger match to the newly adopted mathematics curriculum and support student achievement in Bristol.

 

• The K-5 committee met over a period of six weeks to fully examine two different texts, using a rigorous evaluation form that compared the elements and design of the texts to a variety of criteria including math content and processes, instructional design and pedagogy, student engagement, and assessment opportunities.
• The two texts that were evaluated are the most current materials on the market that address mathematics education at the elementary level and contain resources appropriate for instruction.
• The two texts that were evaluated are similar in terms of approach to content, use of technology, opportunities for differentiated instruction, supplemental materials, and ease of use.

The K-5 committee recommends the adoption of enVisionMATH, published by Pearson for Grade 3. enVisionMATH supports student understanding by providing scaffolded instruction that begins with a significant problem-based activity at the start of each lesson. Students utilize concrete materials and then create pictorial representations of similar work, through a specific stepped-out visual model.  They then move towards the abstract, connecting the prior two experiences.  enVisionMATH was chosen for its unique, problem-based approach to mathematics content coupled with cutting-edge technology that engages students and allows for discussion surrounding key concepts and essential questions.  There is a strong alignment with the Bristol Mathematics Curriculum and the 2007 Connecticut Prekindergarten-Grade 8 Mathematics Curriculum Standards.  enVisionMATH allows teachers to provide engaging, relevant, and meaningful mathematics instruction for students.  Every lesson contains ideas for differentiating instruction and homework based upon student needs and provides teachers with multiple entry points with which students may access the content. 

The follow proposal submitted here is based on work by the K-5 Textbook Adoption Committee which included: Leah Baron, Marie Conlan, Nancy Fuller, Karen Hurlbert, Debra Kligerman, Meghan Kulak, Derrick Lachance, Kathryn O’Neil, Katje Pearson, Diane Pratt, Jennifer Silva, Tania Palmieri, Ann Marie Spinelli, Debra Vitale and Marlene Lovanio.

Rationale:  Forestville K-8 School Presentation by Tai Soo Kim Architects

Rationale:  Having completed the design development stage for this project, the architects from Tai Soo Kim Architects will provide the Board with an update on their progress, future work to be completed and visual displays of the new school. The Board will be asked to meet in early August to approve the plans for the Forestville School just prior to plan submission to the School Facilities Bureau of the State Department of Education, for the Plan Completion Test [PCT].

Rationale:  1. Student Expulsions
2. 3551 Negotiations
3. BFT Arbitration