September 18, 2013 at 7:00 PM - Regular BOE Meeting

Rationale:  Star Spangled Banner performed by: Caramel Drizzle from Bristol Eastern
        
Students Performers:
Sophia Joseph
Annie Kaczmarczyk
Kylia Walker
Myrnada Pagan

Rationale: 

Special Meeting Minutes - August 14, 2013
Regular Meeting Minutes – August 21, 2013
Special Meeting Minutes - September 5, 2013

Rationale:  Student Achievement
Operations
Finance
Personnel

Rationale:  Dr. Solek will give a report/update on district topics.

Rationale:  Ashley LaBonte – WB – Grade 5 – Effective August 19, 2013
Andrea Mason – WB/EPH – Psychologist – Effective August 12, 2013
Grace Rupe – CHMS – Science, grade 7 – Effective August 12, 2013
Kevin Shaw – BEHS - .5 Math – Effective August 13, 2013

Rationale:  Melissa Cavalieri – STAF – Grade 5 – Effective August 26, 2013
Gavin Craig – STAF – Psychologist – Effective September 9, 2013
Jennie DiFranco – SSS – Grade 5 – Effective August 26, 2013
Molly Doub – BEHS - .5 Math – Effective August 28, 2013
Sara Hale – GH – Physical Education – Effective August 26, 2013
Katie Mercieri – CHMS – Science, grade 7 – Effective August 26, 2013
Sarah Morehouse – GH/MTV – Psychologist – Effective Date to be determined
Maureen Palmieri – GH - .5 Kindergarten – Effective August 28, 2013
Zachariah Savic – SSS – Special Education – Effective August 26, 2013
Andrew Schacht – BEHS – Latin – Effective August 26, 2013
Ruth Valentin – BEHS – Spanish – Effective August 26, 2013
Shannon Williams – MTV – Grade 5 – Effective August 26, 2013
Jessie Tijl – BCHS - .5 Science – Effective August 28, 2013   

Rationale:  Deborah Carrington – BEHS – English - Effective the 2013-2014 School Year
Janet Blauvelt – ID/MTV – Instructional Support – Effective August 26 through October 21, 2013   

Rationale:  Martha Stansel a .5 Special Ed teacher at EDGE has been hired as a full time Special Ed teacher at CHMS

Rationale:  Cory Nagle – CHMS – Instructional Resource Coordinator

Rationale:  Jessica Aliff - Edgewood - Grade 1
Jennifer Gura - West Bristol - Instructional Support

Rationale: 

The Bristol Public Schools are one of 30 districts named as Alliance Districts and as such receive an additional Education Cost Sharing (ECS) appropriation for 5 years, beginning with the 2012-2013 school year. The initial year of funding was $1,390,182.  The Year 2 Amendment increases that funding by $1,105,841 for a total of $2,496,023. A substantial majority of these funds were to be used for Priority #1 - curricular and instructional changes to meet the rigor of the Common Core of State Standards in preparation for the switch to the Smarter Balanced Assessment either in the spring of 2014 or 2015 and Talent Development- Priority # 2 through the new teacher and administrator evaluation programs. Bristol’s Priority #3 goal is to improve teaching of literacy skills across curriculum PK-12 and Priority #4 is to increase the number of children with high quality preschool experiences. A portion of these funds were used to stop the further reduction of teaching positions resulting from fiscal constraints. 

A brief description of how this funding will be used is attached.

Rationale:  Bristol has received a federal grant in the amount of $99,909.00 from the Carl D. Perkins Career & Technical Education Act of 2006. This grant supports Career & Technical Education programs at Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern High Schools.

Rationale:  Bristol has received reimbursement for 2012-2013 Telecommunication expenses from the Universal Service Fund and authorized by the Schools and Library Corporation in the amount of $150,420.04.  Funds from these reimbursements must be used to support the technology infrastructure of the school district

Rationale:  The FRC is applying for a grant to cover the cost of 4 PEP programs,offered at Greene-Hills, South Side, West Bristol schools in addition to one community PEP offered at Bristol Community Organization. The FRC will submit a grant requesting $17,000 to cover the cost of these PEP parent leadership trainings to SERC/CT PIRC for approval. People Empowering People Program is a twelve week curriculum designed to train parents in advocacy skills including setting goals along with devising and implementing an action plan that increases parent involvement in the schools and the community. PEP is designed to build on parent strengths and recognizes the unique life experiences and capacities of each person.  The ultimate purpose of this training is to encourage parent involvement in the school and work towards the elimination of the achievement gap. This is a one year grant (November 1, 2013 – 2014).

Rationale:  The State Department of Education has issued a Request for Proposal to assist school districts with “Technology Investments to Implement Common Core State Standards and Administer Common Core aligned Assessments, Specifically Smarter Balanced Assessments”.

The district will apply for $410,850. in funds to purchase wireless infrastructure for  school classrooms and mobile ChromeBook labs for SBAC assessments and other instructional use. If funded, the state will utilize Bristol’s current school construction reimbursement percentage to determine the final grant award

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:

 Sign in on the Public Comment sign-in roster.

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

 

Rationale:  Teacher hiring overview attached.

Rationale: 

The ELL population has grown in Bristol over the past several years.  Bristol Central first offered ELL Math Courses in the 2010-2011 school year.  Bristol Eastern offered ELL courses in 2011-2012.   Curriculum work was started to reflect the 2005 curriculum documents, but in the midst of this work, the Connecticut Common Core State Standards were adopted.  Bristol began revision of the high school curriculum in the summer of 2012 and the work on the ELL Addendum to the curriculum followed.  The addendum provides the guidance for teachers to meet students where they may be on the levels of English Language Proficiency while at the same time helping students understand essential content from the CCSS Geometry course.  This is the third course in a sequence to provide students with 3 credits of mathematics at the high school level.   

The document was completed by Lisa Bernabe and reviewed by Marlene Lovanio and Maria Groody. 

Costs include stipends for curriculum work.

Rationale:  Curriculum revisions to high school English courses are being offered to meet the expectations of the Common Core State Standards. The curricula were revised to reflect recommended shifts toward more reading of nonfiction and writing of information/explanation and argument. The courses are also more vertically aligned to foster collegial conversations among teachers of different grade levels. That is, when particular standards are being taught in Grade 9, the same are in Grade 10 and 11, which will allow teachers to discuss the progression of learning from one to the other and to compare student work.  

Rationale:  1. 2267 Negotiations
2. BAPS Negotiations
3. Superintendent Goals