August 17, 2011 at 7:00 PM - Regular Board template

Rationale:  Barbara Y. Doyle - French Teacher - September 5, 1961 to June 30, 1992 and Board of Education Member - November 1995 to July 2011, Serving as Chairwoman from November 2003 to July 2011.

Rationale:  July 6, 2011 - Regular Meeting Minutes
August 3, 2011 - Special Board of Education Minutes

Rationale:  Edward Keleher - BEHS - Assistant Principal

Rationale:  Scott Gaudet - Forestville K-8 - Principal - Effective Date to Be Determined

Rationale:  Justin Gusy – BCHS – Literacy – Effective July 20, 2011
Nora McHugh – BCHS – Science – Effective July 20, 2011
Cara Persico – BEHS - .5 English – Effective June 30, 2011
Danielle Rivard - BEHS - Math - Effective August 4, 2011

Rationale:  Beaudoin, Lauren – JJJ – Special Education
Brody, Tamresa – BEHS – Special Education
Cyr, Colleen – BEHS – Special Education
Diaz, Gregory – BEHS – Technology Education
Durr, Justine – City Wide – Speech Language Pathologist
Fekete, Nicole – BEHS/MBMS – English/Literacy
Gomes, Matthew – EDGE – Physical Education
Keegan, Chelsea – CHMS – Wellness
Kelly, Colleen – JJJ – Grade 4
Lupo, Sarah – SSS - Physical Education
Mroz, Rachel – SSS/CHMS – School Psychologist
Okoski, Karen – BEHS – Special Education

Rationale:  Kimberly Hazelton - Special Education Department Head

Rationale: 

The Board of Education annually appoints, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, personnel to fill the A-2 positions in the contract.  The attached list reflects those individuals being recommended. 

Vacant A-2 positions will be posted and filled as required by contract.

See Attached Listing

Rationale:  Maria Calabro – SSS – Science Leader & TEAM Mentor
Tricia Chesnes – EPH – K-5 Technology Co-Leader
Maria Chora – CTO – Gifted Coach
Kristin Ortolani – EPH – K-5 Technology Co-Leader

Rationale:  Merriah Currao – EPH – K-5 Technology Leader
Shirley Preleski – CTO – Gifted Teacher
Laurie Roberge – BCHS – Curriculum Coordinator of Business, Family & Consumer Science and Technology
Amanda Szmalc – STAF – K-5 Technology Leader

Rationale:  Chase, Gina – BEHS – English
Corcoran, Gerald – EDGE – Grade 1
Kalat, Kevin – CTO – Physical Education
Kilray, Mark – BEHS – Special Education
LeVasseur, Michelle – SSS – Grade 3

Rationale:  David Jackman a .5 music teacher at CHMS has been hired as a full time music teacher at BEHS. 

Rationale:  Richard Klett - Head Basketball Coach - NEMS - Effective 3/25/11
Michael Jessie - Assistant Girls Basketball Coach - BEHS - Effective 4/1/11
Ananda Gilbert - Assistant Cheerleading Coach - BCHS - Effective 7/1/11
Michele Howlett - Assistant Volleyball Coach - BEHS - Effective 7/20/11 

Rationale:  The Board of Education annually appoints, upon recommendation of the Superintendent, personnel to fill the athletic A-2 positions in the contract. The attached list reflects those individuals being recommended.

Vacant athletic A-2 positions will be posted and filled as required by contract.

Rationale:  Bristol FRC’s in collaboration with The Family Center/Bristol Boys & Girls Club (FC/BBGC) has received a three year grant from United Way to provide Ages & Stages Screenings (ASQ) to approximately 150 children per year, ages birth to five served by the FRC and by the FC/BBGC. FRC Staff will conduct Ages & Stages screenings at the FRC and at the FC/BBC.  The ASQ is designed to screen children for developmental delays during the critical first 5 years of life. In addition to a screening tool it is also a learning tool for parents. The ASQ is completed by the parent and a certified FRC Parent Educator who reviews their child’s development across these developmental domains: communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal-social. Parent Educator recommends services/interventions depending on the results of the ASQ.

United Way will disburse funds directly to FC/BBGC as the official 501(c)3 agency partner.  The FC/BBGC will remit payment to the Bristol Board Of Education on a monthly basis for a total of $10,910 for fiscal year July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012.  This is the final year of a three year grant.

Rationale: 

The Consolidated State Grant consists of the following state entitlement grant:

    The Priority School District grant

The 2011-2012 school year is the last year for Bristol to receive funding as a Priority School District.  The funding for this year is $509,304.  Due to the reduction in this grant, we reduced 3.0 FTE literacy support teachers at the elementary level. Funding for 2011-2012 will be used to pay 4.4 teachers – 3.4 literacy support teachers at the elementary level and 1.0 literacy teacher at the middle school level.

Rationale: 

Since 2004, Bristol students have enjoyed an active exchange with the La-Queue-lez-Yvelines in France.  This trip has cost around $1600.

In order to provide all students with the opportunity to experience immersion in French, I am requesting permission to take 20-40 students to Quebec to Friday, February 17, 2011 (after school) until Monday, February 20 (during February vacation).   I have done similar trips in 2008 and 2010 and both were successful.   During this trip, students will experience activities in French based on the Quebecoise folkloric lifestyle and visit sites integral to the Quebecoise experience.  The tour group, Jumpstreet, specializes in providing educational tours that enhance the world language classroom and focus on students speaking French.  We will travel by bus, thus avoiding airport security levels. 

Rationale: 

The Student Accident & Athletic Insurance Program is put out for bid annually. This insurance covers students who participate in our athletic programs and is available for purchase by parents for other students. We solicited bids from five vendors and Bollinger Insurance Solutions was the only bidder. We would recommend that the student accident and sports insurance be awarded to Bollinger Insurance Solutions at the rate of $38, 850.00. This is an increase of $19,425.00 from our last contract due to the experience history.

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

The voluntary student insurance program is available for $64.00.

Rationale:  2. A Grant in the amount of $2,900 from the Hartford Financial Group was received by the Bristol Business Education Foundation to purchase a SmartBoard for South Side School.

Rationale:  In the Fall of 2010, the College Board released a revised version of AP World History, due to be taught in 2011-12.  To be consistent with the College Board’s version, the course offered at Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern needed to be revised. 

The revision does not involve significant changes to the course content, which allows students to examine major societal developments from pre-history through the modern era. However, the revision requires a shift from a chronological approach to one that places additional emphasis on themes rooted in various periods of time. For example, one unit is named “Organization and Reorganization of Human Societies, 600 B.C.E. to 600 B.C.” Another is “Industrialization and Global Integration, 1750 C.E. to 1900 C.E.” It is expected, both nationally and locally, that students will better relate to a thematic approach to understanding history, and will, therefore, be more successful in this survey course and in their performance on the AP exam.

Rationale: 

The Skills for Success pilot courses – one for English and one for mathematics – are brought forward for Board of Education approval following a special request by Bristol Eastern High School to address a specific population of students who do not find success in freshman English or math courses, respectively. The focus of the courses will be threefold: development of executive skills; acceleration of students through previews of the English 1 or Algebra curriculum; and remediation through attention to foundational skills necessary for success.  

Curricular units draw from state and national counseling standards that reflect executive functioning skills, such as time management and goal setting, as well as discipline-based and literacy standards from English or mathematics. Students will have the opportunity to apply these skills to their current coursework in English 1 or Algebra with the support of the teacher and aide from tutors. This will require students to develop effective communication skills to seek appropriate help and will require the teacher to develop a strong system of communication with the students’ core teachers.   

Rationale: 

This is a revised policy and regulation.  The new State Statute requires the Board to adopt a Safe Climate Plan by January 1, 2012 that will be forwarded to the State Department of Education.

Revisions include: extending the definition of bullying to acts outside of school, a requirement for schools to have a safe climate plan and evaluate the success of that plan biannually, and to include all school staff as required reporters of bullying to school administration, to appoint a Safe School Climate Coordinator whose role is enumerated in this policy.

Rationale: 

Online courses are an option for students in some situations.  The Bristol Board of Education does not have a policy regarding this.  The provision for providing credit for online courses is included in the proposed revision to Policy 6146, Graduation Requirements.  This policy was developed to address the situations in which students could take online courses.

The policy was amended from the First Reading to include a statement that awarding of credit will be retroactive to the start of the 2010-2011 school year. This may be found at the bottom of page 3.

Rationale: 

Several revisions to this policy and regulations are proposed. These include (1) a reduction in the number of credits required for graduation from 26.25 to 25.25 due to the elimination of teaching positions in the elective areas; (2) addition of courses allowed for high school credit, including (a) World Language courses taken privately through a non-profit provider , (b) online courses, (c) Higher Education courses, and (d) Algebra I and Geometry high school courses taken in grades seven and/or eight; and (3) provisions for meeting the graduation requirement in writing and mathematics by English Language Learners. 

The policy was amended from the First Reading to clarify that credit will be awarded for Algebra I and/or Geometry taken in grade seven or eight. The word “or” was added on page 2, items D-1 and D-2.

Rationale:  The recommendation has been made to revise Policy 6146, Graduation Requirements, reducing the number of credits required for graduation from 26.25 to 25.25.  This necessitates revision to the Co-Curricular and Extra-Curricular Policy regarding high school full and partial eligibility for extra-curricular activities.  For a high school student to be eligible to participate in extra-curricular activities, the credit requirement is reduced from 6 to 5.5.  These changes may be found on page 4, item I-2 under full eligibility, and on page 5, item 1 under partial eligibility.

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

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

Rationale:  The Board will receive various building committee reports.

Rationale:  1. CABE Acknowledgement of Commissioner Luczkow

Rationale:  The Board of Education should vote to convene into Executive Session for the purpose of discussing:

1. BFT Negotiations

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

Rationale:  There being no other business to come before the Board of Education the meeting should be adjourned.