May 4, 2011 at 7:00 PM - Regular Board template

Rationale:  April 6, 2011 - Regular Meeting

Rationale:  Michelle Peterson - BCHS - Art

Rationale:  Edward Riccio - Baseball Coach - NEMS - Effective 3/28/11

Rationale:  Jenna Michaud - Softball Program - NEMS - Effective 4/20/11

Rationale:  The Superintendent will present the:

1.      Staff Achievement Award
2.      Professional Learning as Inquiry Presentation
3.      Teacher Evaluation Report

Rationale: 

Each year the Board of Education selects staff members who go above and beyond the expectations of their job description to be honored with a Staff Award.

 A dinner in their honor will be held on May 18, 2011 at 5:30 p.m.

AWARD RECIPIENTS:

Special Board Recognition:
Gary Maynard

 1^st Time Awardees:
James Antonucci – Instrumental Teacher – Bristol Eastern High School
Jennifer Benson – Literacy Teacher, Jennings School
Kara Caron – Language Arts Teacher – Northeast Middle School
Maria Chora – Grade 5 Teacher – O’Connell School
Maria Freitag – Library Media Specialist – Chippens Hill Middle School
Elizabeth Girard – Kindergarten Teacher – Greene-Hills School
Anne Gobes – Early Childhood Supervisor – Board of Education
Vito Hernandez – Building Paraprofessional – Bristol Central High School
Laurie LaRue – Grade 1 Teacher – Edgewood School
Jennifer Pace – School Psychologist – Ivy Drive School
Tracie Sinkwich – Literacy Coach – Hubbell School
Alan Theriault – Grade 3 Teacher – Stafford School
Patricia Zadrozny – Library Media Clerk – South Side School

Rationale:  Teachers and administrators have been engaged in professional learning through an inquiry model.  This presentation will focus on how inquiry is used in professional learning and the resulting improvements in student learning.

Rationale:  See Attached Report

Rationale: 

Members of the public are invited to comment to the Board on any topic related to school business.

Items requiring consideration by the Board must be approved as an agenda item by a 2/3ds vote of the Board members present.  Such items may be referred for further study and not necessarily acted upon at this meeting.

Anyone wishing to address the Board should adhere to the following procedures:

1. Sign in on the Public Comment sign-in roster.
2. Wait to be recognized by the Board Chair.
3. Proceed to the speaker’s table.
4. Preface your remarks by stating your name and address.
5. Direct your comments to the Board chairman.
6. Please limit your comments to three minutes.
7. Any comments should be made in an appropriate manner, particularly if concerning a personnel matter.

Rationale:  A Request for Proposal was issued to solicit proposals for redistricting consultant services.  Five proposals were received.  A committee comprised of Christopher Wilson, Cliff Block, Dr. Susan Kalt Moreau, Roger Rousseau, and Dennis Bieu selected three firms to interview.  The firm of Milone & MacBroom, Inc. was the unanimous choice of the committee.

Rationale:  Board of Education Members have asked to receive a quarterly review of enrollment figures.  These are the current enrollment figures for the fourth quarter.

Rationale: 

Bristol offers a variety of Summer School programming for students in kindergarten through grade 12.

Elementary:

Enrichment: These courses provide enrichment activities for elementary students. Enrichment courses are self-supporting. Tuition pays instructor salaries. The Director and secretary salaries are funded from the Board of Education budget. This program will be held at Ivy Drive School.

Middle School:

District Program: This program offers the opportunity for students to make up courses for which they did not receive a passing grade.  Grade 6-7-8 students required to make-up courses attend on a non-tuition paying basis. The Director of Secondary Summer School, the secretary positions, and teacher salaries for grade 6-7-8 make-up classes are funded by the Board of Education budget. This program will be held at Bristol Eastern High School.

High School:

Courses offered in this program allow students to obtain credit for courses not successfully completed during the academic year. Grade 9 and 10 students required to make-up courses attend on a non-tuition paying basis. The Director of Secondary Summer School, the secretary position and teacher salaries for grade 9 and 10 make-up classes are funded by the Board of Education budget. Students pay tuition for grade 11 and 12 classes. This program will be held at Bristol Eastern High School.

Rationale:  Since the spring of 2006, Bristol students have enjoyed an active exchange with the linguistic high school G. Noldi in the city of  Fan. In the 2011-2012 school year , we are expecting the arrival of another group of Italian students.  We request permission to travel to Italy from Friday night  November 4, 2011 – Fri November 11/Sat. November 12, 2011. While here, the Italian students attend classes with our students and enjoy daytrips to local attractions.  We are requesting permission to go to Italy e to continue with this educational exchange.  While there, our students will attend classes with their Italian hosts and will visit sites of historical and cultural importance.  We will return on 11/11-12 and will be back in school on Monday, 11/14.  Students will leave from BCHS on Friday, November 4^th after school, time to be determined based on flight schedules.  We cannot travel during February or April vacation because our exchange school is a sister school with a California school and they will be conducting their exchange during our break

Rationale: 

Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for the fall and spring at the elementary, middle and high school levels. 

The school year is divided into three marking periods for the elementary and middle school students and four marking periods for high school students.  This creates marking periods of approximately 60 days and 45 days for grades K-8 and 9-12 respectively.  

The schedule is similar to past years.

Rationale: 

Teachers trained to serve as TEAM (Teacher Education and Mentoring) mentors and cooperating teachers provide assistance and support 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-year teachers to provide mentoring and support to newly certified teachers; this program is required by the State Department of Education. Principals recruit teachers to apply to be a TEAM mentor/cooperating teachers; the applications are reviewed by the TEAM Coordinating Committee. The following teachers were approved by the TEAM Coordinating Committee and are recommended to be TEAM Mentors/cooperating teachers.  Approved teachers must attend a three day training program and update their training every three years. 

Teacher	Assignment
Sharon Dixon	Grade 5, Hubbell Elementary
Alissa Keane	Grade 5, Greene-Hills Elementary
Mary-Katherine Miller	Language Arts, Northeast Middle School
Corey Nagle	Science, Chippens Hill Middle School
Sherry Ontko	Special Education, Northeast Middle School
Neil O’Rourke	Grade 5, Stafford Elementary
Kristin Ortolani	Grade 1, Hubbell Elementary
Amy Sarantides	Grade 2, Hubbell Elementary
Walter Lewandoski	Elementary Art

Rationale:  Chippens Hill, Bristol Central, Memorial Boulevard and Greene-Hills Schools are requesting permission for their Odyssey of the Mind Clubs to be allowed to sponsor a “Hat Day” and a “Jean Day” Spirit Day to raise funds to offset the cost of their trip to the 32nd Odyssey of the Mind World Finals from May 26 to May 30, 2011 at the University of Maryland, College Park. Students participating in “Hat Day” will be asked to donate one dollar to participate in this fundraiser and staff participating in “Jean Day” will be asked to donate five dollars.

Rationale:  Engineering teachers have completed curriculum work to meet standards for another Project Lead the Way course in Civil Engineering and Architecture and scheduled to be offered at both high schools next year.  The Student Achievement Committee met on Friday, April 8, 2010 for a first reading of this curriculum and unanimously recommended that the curriculum be forwarded to the full board for a second reading.

Rationale: 

The elementary mathematics curriculum for Grades K - 2 was last revised in 2002.  Grade 4 was revised in 2010. 

• Since 2010, the Connecticut State Department of Education has released new standards for mathematics, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Connecticut.  Assessments are being developed for the 2014-2015 school year.   The curriculum needed to be revised to align with the CT Standards.
• The curriculum was written to follow the format and guidelines recently set by Bristol for developing new curriculum to guide the teaching and learning process.

The document submitted here is based on work by the Grade K, 2 and 4 Curriculum Committees which included Karen Nestico, Ann Marie Spinelli, Debra Vitale and Marlene Lovanio.  In addition, most all Grades K, 2 and 4 attended a curriculum preview meeting and were able to provide feedback.

Rationale: 

An English Department request to update a course textbook and the recent release of the Common Core State Standards led to a revision of the Journalism curriculum.  Before reviewing a new textbook, it is effective practice to review curriculum, since the former should not define or dictate the latter. 

Therefore, three journalism teachers from Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern worked collaboratively to review and revise curriculum for the semester-long course. They took this opportunity to incorporate standards articulated in the Common Core State Standards of English Language Arts that will help address  Bristol’s Tier I goal of preparing all students for college.

In particular, in their study of journalism, students will practice the following CCSS standards: 

· research to build and present knowledge;

· gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources… avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source;

· conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of

· the subject under investigation;

· produce and distribute writing.

To address ethical issues that undergird the practice of journalism, the revised curriculum also holds students to standards found in the Journalism Education Association’s Standards for Journalism Educators, which teach students about rights and responsibilities embedded in the First Amendment of the U.S.  Constitution.

Once the curriculum revision is approved, the process of reviewing updated textbooks will begin.

Rationale:  It has been a practice of the Bristol Office of Teaching and Learning to maintain the rigor and relevance of the district’s curriculum by revising it on a regular basis. Such was the case with the Spanish I curriculum, last revised in the 2005-2006 school year.  This spring, Spanish teachers from both Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern worked collaboratively to review each unit of the curriculum, their objective to infuse the type of rigor that would address the district’s heightened expectations, a Tier I goal, that all students be well prepared for college. As a result, students will learn more sophisticated grammar and will gain an updated perspective of Spanish culture. This revision will also enhance the use of Spanish instruction as a vehicle for interdisciplinary literacy instruction, especially in the areas of reading for information, writing, and editing -- skills not only tested on CAPT and on the SAT but also linked to success in various academic areas. This revision will also allow teachers to better meet the needs of Bristol’s native speakers of Spanish.

Rationale:  The Board of Education will discuss any old business proper to come before the Board:

1. Cafeteria Budget

Rationale:  At the April Board of Education meeting, Commissioners requested a review of the budget that was presented to avoid another deficit budget.  Attached is a revised budget that does not result in a deficit. Additional revenue needed to balance the budget will come from an increase in the student lunch price by .25 [to $3.00 Grades 1-8, $3.25 Grades 9-12) and an increase in the adult meal price by .50 [to $3.50].

Rationale:  The Board of Education will discuss any new business proper to come before the Board:

Rationale:  The Board of Education will receive various building committee reports.

Rationale:  Any communications received or any questions by Board members concerning items not on the agenda.

Rationale:  1. Student Expulsions

Rationale:  The Board of Education should reconvene into Public Session to take any votes on matters discussed in Executive Session.

Rationale:  The Board of Education should adjourn the meeting.