April 4, 2018 at 6:30 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Rationale: 

Please note the personnel report as you will find updated employee information reflected in it.

Please take note of the April enrollment report. We have a total of 1280 students enrolled.

We will hold an official vote to set a date for graduation as prescribed in statute. With the numerous snow days this year, the last day of school is scheduled for June 22, 2018. The recommended date for the high school graduation is June 19, 2018. 

The CSDE Performance Office has contacted Michelle Dean to participate in a national interview series regarding how our district has implemented SBAC practice tests and curricular test question models/prompts as part of the teacher evaluation process.  This is a result of Michelle's partnership with the performance office over the past two years on related matters. 

The annual staff banquet is scheduled for May 24 at Langley's in Waterford. This will be a celebration of all of our staff members. Please mark your calendars for this special event.  Invitations will be sent after April vacation.

OLRA has donated a Vespoli ’13 MK133E313 ES 8+, valued at $27,000. We made the down payment on this boat ($5,000), and OLRA has paid the balance of $22,000.  They also donated a Yamaha 8 hp outboard motor, for the coaching launch. The purchase price was $2,065.00.

The AP cohort information just came out and the results again placed us in the top schools in the state as noted below.  This a great honor and recognition for the hard work of our students and staff.

Rationale:  Mrs. McCalla will provide a year to date budget status report as well as a contingency fund report.

Rationale:  Noah Ventola, Assistant Principal, and Renee Molnar, Guidance Counselor, will review the middle school mentoring program.

Rationale:  Mary Seidner of the Lymes' Youth Service Bureau will present the results of their recent survey. 

Rationale:  Section 10-16l (Establishment of graduation date) of the C.G.S. states, “Notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes to the contrary, a local or regional board of education may establish for any school year a firm graduation date for students in grade twelve which is no earlier than the one hundred eighty-fifth day noted in the school calendar originally adopted by the board for that school year, except that a board on or after April first in any school year may establish such a firm graduation date for that school year which at the time of such establishment provides for at least one hundred eighty days of school.”  Per statute, I am recommending the Board vote to establish June 19, 2018 (180th day of school) as the firm graduation date for the Class of 2018.  This requires Board action.

Rationale: 

Per policy #2420, the Board is required to set a tuition rate for non-resident students by May 30.  The current tuition rate is:

A) Tuition Student Rates
• Grades 9-12 - $19,000
• Grades 6-8 - $17,000
• Grades PK-5 - $15,000
B) Students attending under Attendance Agreements (unless a multiple-year agreement to provide education facilities is entered into with another Board of Education)
• PK-12 $19,000
C) Children of current staff members will be charged 50% of the applicable tuition.
D) Children of active military parents will be charged 80% of the applicable tuition.
E) Foreign students attending under an F-1 visa as required by SEVIS will be charged 150% of the applicable tuition.
F) Multiple students from the same family attending together will be required to pay the following amounts:
• 1st child– 100% of the applicable tuition
• 2nd child– 75% of the applicable tuition
• 3rd child– 50% of the applicable tuition
• Any additional children will be charged 50% of the applicable tuition.

This requires Board action.

Rationale:  Michelle Dean will present information on a proposal for a new social studies textbook. The textbook will be available in the Central Office for those Board members who wish to review it. This will be voted on at the next Board of Education meeting.

Rationale:  As is annual practice to ensure compliance with state statute, and in accordance with Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-151(b), which gives authority to the Superintendent to determine whether a non-tenure teacher should be offered a contract for the subsequent school year, I am recommending the non-renewal of all non–tenured teachers. This requires Board action.

Rationale: 

The existing High School technology education lab computers are eight years old and will no longer support the educational program needs. The quote received is based on the State of Connecticut bid pricing and will be supplied by Connecticut Computer Services. These replacement computers will be delivered this summer, and they are part of the 2018-2019 technology budget.

Rationale: 

Our existing Tyler Technologies school district accounting system is installed on two eight- year-old servers. In addition to hosting this system on school district servers, a large sophisticated backup server is required which is also in need of replacement. After evaluating options, we recommend hosting the accounting system in cloud storage. This eliminates periodic server replacements, security and application updates, as well as backup. In addition, moving to the cloud provides the option of select personnel having access to the accounting system while outside the school district network.

This project is funded in the 2018-2019 budget.

Rationale: 

The existing district wide servers, storage, emergency backup, core switches and network controller were installed in 2010 and are ready for replacement. These replacements are consistent with the School District network infrastructure maintenance plan. All the equipment being purchased is priced at or below the HP Connecticut State pre-bid contract pricing. All of this equipment will be supplied and installed by Connecticut Computer Services, our network services contractor.

Total cost is within the 2018/2019 school district budget.

Rationale:  This is the second reading of newly revised Student Wellness Policy 3375.