MINUTES
WATERTOWN BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING
Watertown High School
Technology Center
Monday, February 23, 2009 – 7:30 PM
Board Members Present: Gina Calabrese, Chairman
Richard Mazzamaro, Vice Chairman
Mary Colangelo, Secretary
Kevin Killeen
Joseph Apicella
Todd Griffin
Janice Pond
Thomas Lambert
Others Present: Thad Hasbrouck, Director of Curriculum & Prof. Services
Karen Baldwin, Superintendent of Schools
Gary Miller, Interim Director of District Operations
Richard Mastroianni, Student Council Representative
Matthew Geary, Principal Watertown High School
Fran Palmer
James Perucci, Reporter from the Town Times
Scott Lillie, parent
Other interested guests
A. Convene Regular Meeting - 7:30 PM
Ms. Colangelo called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. and called for a recess due to lack of quorum.
Meeting resumed at 7:50 pm.
B. Salute to the Flag
Ms. Calabrese led the Pledge of Allegiance
C. Report from Student Council Representative – Richard Mastroianni
Mr. Mastroianni: Good evening Madam Chair, Superintendent Baldwin, members of the Board of Education and everyone else with us this evening. Due to February vacation, I’m afraid that the information I have this evening is rather short in length. Nonetheless, despite the break in our few major events which will be unfolding in the next two weeks. First off, one quick note, if anyone is interested, the Valentines Day, Friday the 13th dance which was scheduled two Fridays ago, has been moved to Friday the 13th in March. Also battle of the beards which will be ending tomorrow, we’ll find out the winners of that of the 15 participants who are students and staff. Over $1600.00 was raised for the event in it’s entirety. Next, CAPT is just around the corner for anyone who is unsure of what this test is all about. It takes place over the course of 6 days. A different section each day, 2 writing, 1 response to literature, a science and 2 math sections. All answer booklets go directly to the State of Connecticut and eventually, students are evaluated on their scores as compared to results of other towns. These tests are important and should not be taken lightly by students. But parents, rest assured, since Freshman year, the school faculty gets students ready for this test with specialized worksheets and activities. I spoke with several people who are taking the test and they are well prepared for the challenge. It’s not all strict testing at the high school. This Thursday, the meaning of hard work will be put to the test. 14 young men and their female companions will perform in front of a major audience in Mr. Watertown 2009. It has been over a month and a half since these students started meeting in the pool lobby on a daily basis to practice their untalents, responses to questions and the official Mr. Watertown dance routine. As one of the contestants myself, I hope that you all can make it. The show itself will take place in the gym and almost 200 tickets have already been sold. It is expected to completely sell out by Thursday afternoon. As always the students of Watertown high school maintain their grades while remaining creative and fun. This program benefits Watertown and Oakville as much as it benefits school spirit and overall high school experience. Thank you.
D. Public Participation
Fran Palmer, 220 Middlebury Rd.: Back around 1990, I began coming to the Board of Education meetings because two of my children were in the school system and I wanted to be an informed parent. Over the years I would sit back and listen and observe. This was back when the meetings were held back in the old Watertown High School leaking library and Polk School. Some of you can remember those times. In those early years, another woman named Mary, Mary with a hard name to pronounce and a hard last name to remember would faithfully be there. She was more involved than I because she actually talked during public participation. She would ask important questions and expect relevant answers. It got to the point where I expected to see Mary and she and I would converse with each other before and after the meeting. Then one night I came to a Board of Ed meeting and Mary was not in her usual seat, instead she was on the board. A member had to give up his position on the Board and Mary Dzioba stepped forward and filled that vacancy. Through the years since then, Mary has been able to work on the Board by filling vacancies and by being elected by the people of Watertown and Oakville. No matter how she received the position on the Board, her efforts, while there were always with one purpose: to make sure the students of Watertown/Oakville received the opportunity for an excellent well rounded education. She took her responsibilities very seriously and worked hard while on the Board. On the Board of Education web page, you can find a page entitled “Strategic Plan”. These are some statements that I’ve taken from that plan, statements which I believe Mary has always been working towards. From your mission statement, the Mission of Watertown School District; With determination to be a world class educational leader and centerpiece of a dynamic and growing community is to meet the diverse needs of each student, academic, artistic, athletic, emotional, ethical, social and technological. To develop members of our community who embrace lifelong learning and care of responsible citizens and have a sense of social justice. All of Mary’s efforts while on and off of the Board of Education helped the Watertown school system pursue that mission. On the same web page, there are parameters for the mission statement. All educational decisions will be made with the best demonstrated interest of the students in mind, the district will collaborate with the community to maximize resources to benefit the student. The district will always maintain a safe and secure environment and never tolerate bullying, violence, harassment or prejudice of any kind. The district will maintain high expectations for all of our students. Again, all of Mary’s efforts while on the Board of Education centered on the students of our community. She made every effort to assure the Board of Education’s work was always within these parameters. As the board takes action on the letter of resignation of Mary Dzioba tonight, I want to publicly let her know that all of work she has done over the years to help our students achieve their best is greatly appreciated. She can give up her position and she can leave with her head held high knowing she has made a significant difference with the students here in Watertown. Watertown will miss Mary Dzioba’s dedication towards our students.
Ms. Calabrese: Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who wished to address the Board?
Scott Lillie : 57 Edgewood Rd.: I have a son, Anthony that up til tonight recently attended the high school here. I guess what we’re going to do is we’re going to try and learn off of this and I’m just curious to see if the school is going to make any adjustments. The coaching staff, I think abuses power…
Ms. Calabrese: I’m sorry. I have to stop you Mr. Lillie at this point because the hearing that you’re referring to, you vaguely referred to, is a confidential matter, first of all. And any comments about staff cannot be said publically. I just have to ask, could you please direct your concerns directly to the superintendent. That would be the correct avenue, not public participation.
Mr. Lillie: I guess my concern would be is I feel that the kids should have a person that they can go to when they’re being talked to about in school so they don’t have to keep in bottled up inside them. Not to make the matters worse, obviously, the teacher is going to ask these kids. I’m just wondering if there is anything we can do to prevent this, some kind of system we can put in place where if a kid is having problems, to try and not to make the matters worse, but better. I’ve learned first hand that, if the problem isn’t solved the right way, it’s going to continue into something more drastic. I’m just wondering if the school can get better social workers, or whatever the case may be because I do know that kids can leave and feel worse without someone to talk to.
Ms. Baldwin: Mr. Lillie, I appreciate your concerns and the sentiment in which you addressed them. I will be in touch with you to share with you what is in place, what we look to strengthen that we have in place so we can improve outcomes for all children and I think that your concerns are right on in terms of the work that we are doing in reform efforts here at the high school. And so an opportunity to talk to you about that and to get you on board with that I would welcome that opportunity and I will begin a discussion with you as soon as tomorrow and this will be ongoing work collectively between the high school administration and me as well as the teaching staff.
Mr. Lillie: I appreciate it.
E. Budget Summary – (Information Only – No Action Required)
No discussion
F. Committee Reports:
1. Advertising Committee – Mary Colangelo
No report
2. Athletics Committee – Joseph Apicella
No report
3. Budget Committee – Thomas Lambert
Mr. Lambert: In light of the Budget Committee, there has been an article in the Republican-American with respect to teacher’s contract. I wonder if it would be ok for Supertendent Baldwin to explain the teacher’s contract, short version.
Ms. Baldwin: Thank you, I do welcome that opportunity. As community members and board members are aware there was an article yesterday in the Waterbury Republican-American about the new agreement that the board of education reached with the Education Association Teacher’s Union. I’d like to first clarify and help you to have some talking points around that. Certainly, the article itself was quite large as you can see and put a lot of charts out. That may, in fact, confuse the public and perhaps misrepresent some of the good work that we have done in collective bargaining with the teachers. The first piece that I want to put out as a correction is the fact that the teacher’s contract is a 3-year agreement, it is not a four year agreement, which the Waterbury Republican-American indicates. The other piece, what these charts are, again for your talking points, this is called a teacher’s salary schedule and we have three pay areas on schedule. It’s a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree and a sixth year degree. This is not typical in teacher contracts. This a very standard schedule in terms of having three schedules. That’s important for the board to know. And also as board members recall, we looked very carefully at the salary schedules, specifically the 15 steps. That’s what else is illustrated here, the 15 steps, 15 being the top step. We looked very carefully at that during negotiations and it was clear that this was appropriately pitched and members of the committee may recall at the very end of mediation actually that the union had a proposal to change the schedule and we declined that opportunity. We felt that it was in our best interest to keep the schedule as it is. The other piece that this article does not explain is that we rank in the bottom half or the bottom third of our two tier comparison group. The two tiers of the two local counties that we compete with to get our best and brightest professionals and so at all three schedules, bachelor’s, masters and 6th year, we are either bottom half and bottom third and therefore, this article does not address that. What this article is showing is the 3.25% increase and in the final two years of the contract, it shows the general wage increase of 2% plus step increase at each level of the salary schedule. Our settlement data at the time of settlement, at the time that this was presented to the Town Council, we had the lowest general wage negotiated settlement in the state at that time in November. 2% in years 2 and 3 was the lowest GWI recorded to date. I don’t have updated settlement information, but I would be very happy to get that and I’m motivated to do so based on this article. The other piece of this is that we froze the teachers in year one of the contract for 2009-2010 and based on average settlements for 2009-2010, average settlements were about 4.7% and we settled in 2009-2010 for just 3.25. We avoided over $230,000 worth of costs by freezing in 2009-2010. The board needs to be aware of that. That’s a talking point. So, I will revisit this information to get updated settlement data so we can get a sense of what other districts have been doing, but certainly this article did not fully address all of the fine work that took place during negotiation and yes, we believe this compromised settlement was fair, yet recognized the economic realities that faced us at that time.
Ms. Calabrese: Is there anything else from the Budget Committee?
Mr. Lambert: Only that it’s an ongoing process as you will see on the agenda tonight. We continue to look for ways to save money in the district and to pare down our expenses and we’re moving forward.
4. Curriculum & Instruction Committee – Kevin Killeen
Mr. Killeen: The Curriculum and Instruction committee met on February 10th. For our review this evening, as well as an action item, we present to the Watertown High School Program of Studies at which time under the action items, we would have a discussion that Mr. Geary would be here to answer the Board’s questions.
5. Facilities Committee – Richard Mazzamaro
No report.
6. Policy and Labor Committee – Mary Colangelo
Ms. Colangelo: The Policy and Labor Committee met on February 9th and it brings to the full board this evening the restructuring of Central Office as listed under K5.
7. Cablevision –
Ms. Calabrese: Mrs. Dzioba was in charge of that, so obviously she is not here and we probably will have to reassign that to someone else, this evening there is no report regarding Cablevision.
8. PBC Representative – Richard Mazzamaro
Mr. Mazzamaro: At the February 18, 2009 Public Building Committee meeting, O & G gave the monthly project updates at Swift Middle School, Watertown High School and Judson Elementary. Mr. Joe Vetro, the Project Manager at Swift Middle School, hard to believe we’re still reporting on this, but he reported that the punch list that was reported last month was pretty much complete, except for three items that will be complete, and probably are complete by now. Those included exterior man gate at the loading dock, lock cylinders in the music room and painting a sheetrock return along the sides of a window in area D.
Mr. Vetro also reported on progress at Watertown High School project. His update was as follows: As far as site work, as reported last month, the northbound (inaudible) was stopped, placed on hold until the summer due to existing soil conditions. Paving of the bus loop and the north parking area is also scheduled for the summer. Site demolition in the courtyard is ongoing and the sanitary sewer work is started on the south side of the site. In area A, plumbing and electrical underground piping work are ongoing. Interior masonry installation in the renovation area is ongoing. Exterior masonry has also started. HVAC ductwork installation is ongoing and steel erection is complete and roof installation is ongoing. In area B, slab preparation is complete and concrete slab installation is complete as well as the steel erection and roof installation has started. The project is running on schedule and so far on budget. A walk through is schedule with the public building committee and the Board of Ed in the coming weeks.
At Judson, the Board of Ed and the Public Building Committee went on a walk through of the project on Saturday February 14th. Mr. Mark Sadenski brought the group through the entire project. Steel erection has started and much progress has been made in the classroom areas, in the café and in the kitchen since our last walk through. The committee plans another walk through in the next few weeks. O&G stated again, it’s confidence that the school will be ready for students on August 14, 2009.
9. Education Connection Representative – Janice Pond
Ms. Pond: Our next Board of Directors meeting will be the first Thursday in March, so we have not had a meeting, but any information of interest, I do forward to you.
G. Communications - Secretary
None
H. Minutes
1. Regular Board of Education Meeting – February 9, 2009
MOTION made by Ms. Colangelo, sec. by Mr. Lambert
To approve the minutes of the Regular Board of Education meeting of February 9, 2009.
Abstain: Mr. Griffin
MOTION CARRIED (7-0-1)
I. Superintendent's Recommendations and Report
Ms. Baldwin: Under letter I, numbers 1 and 2, again straightforward work at the board level in terms of an appointment of a long term sub due to a maternity leave, also a resignation for the purpose of retirement of one of our paraprofessionals.
1. Appointments – (Information Only – No Action Required)
Ms. Michele Ouellette to the position of long-term substitute Art Teacher at Judson and Polk Schools, effective March 24, 2009, until the close of the 2008-2009 school year, being paid the substitute teacher’s rate of $65.00 per day for the first ten days, and on the eleventh day, placed on the first step of the Watertown Education Association’s contract of $38,815.00 prorated.
2. Resignations – (Information Only – No Action Required)
Ms. Linda Farrell from the position of Paraprofessional at John Trumbull Primary School after 23 years of service for the purpose of retirement.
3. Three School Project Update – (Information Only – No Action Required)
Administration will present an update on the three school project
Ms. Baldwin: Item number 3 under reports is an update on the three school
project. Mr. Mazzamaro gave a very full report. I would just echo on the 14th we did engage in a walk through at Judson Elementary school and I think that momentum is evident there and there’s a fair amount of progress and we are pleased with that work. Just to reiterate some of the points that Mr. Mazzamaro made. The decking on the new addition has been installed at Judson and we are prepping and getting ready for the concrete pours there. Hopefully the temperatures will increase and spring will be on its way and that will help us with our progress there. Door frames are also starting to be installed in some areas of Judson. At the high school, as Mr. Mazzamaro indicated, concrete slabs were poured in area B. For those of you who aren’t familiar, area B is the pool and auditorium and music area and we are prepping and getting ready for the concrete in area A and part of that requires that we heat the ground surface so that it can sustain the concrete. Last week, we also, while school was closed we did engage in some asbestos abatement on Thursday and Friday of last week at the high school. As a point of interest, board members should be aware that we are getting ready to release the gymnasium area the boys and girls locker rooms as of March 30th to O&G for construction. We will most likely be moving a 40ft storage container on site to put some of that equipment in storage and also a point of interest, on March 9th, we will have a joint meeting with the public building committee before our regular scheduled meeting and the purpose of the that meeting is for the board and the PBC to approve the furniture, fixture and equipment as well as technology packages that we will be presenting to you for both the Judson project and the high school project. That is our update. I don’t have any new status on the Polk project as of yet. We are still moving forward with all of the approvals and once we know for certain what our plan is with our 500 year flood zone, I will report that to you and hopefully we’ll be on schedule to out for contractor bids early April. Do board members have any questions?
Mr. Killeen: Would repeat the part about heating the ground and what section?
Ms. Baldwin: Sure. That’s in area A, here at the high school. We are prepping that. They have heaters in place so that the temperature of the ground will elevate so that it will be ready for pouring. The contractor does not want to pour until the earth is ready.
Mr. Killeen: How long has it been? It’s presently enclosed, but it’s essentially an outside area, but it’s being heated.
Ms. Baldwin: The contractor is monitoring temperatures and is hoping that he might be able to do that later this week or the beginning of next week.
Mr. Killeen: Thank you.
4. Discussion and Review of FY 2009-2010 Operating Budget
There will be a presentation by Gary Miller on the Board of Education’s Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan.
Administration will answer any questions that Board Members have about the operating budget.
Ms. Baldwin: Item 4, discussion and review of FY 2009-2010 Operating Budget; as subcommittee members recall we had a very thorough presentation from Ray Cenicola, our facilities director about a month ago, relative to the maintenance and upkeep of our buildings and some of the projects we need to consider undertaking at the board level. Certainly, we don’t ever want to be in the position again, where we have to go out and bond and renovate as-new our schools. We need to now develop some long range plans about how to maintain our buildings and Mr. Ceniccola provided a list to board members and he and Mr. Miller have been working on the framework of what I would call a capital improvement plan. This is wise for us to delve into, to examine and to fully understand, and possibly even adopt as the board’s capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2009-2010 and the foreseeable future so that we have a record of what it is we need to do, what we’re aware of and that we can share with the public our intent our desire and will to maintain the schools so that we have safe, healthy, clean learning environments for our children. I will turn this over to Mr. Miller. He can walk you through the document that he just presented.
Mr. Miller: To explain the format that’s been presented. It’s presented to you in two parts. The top half are a list of items that are really beyond the scope of your operating budget. They’re items that, I’ve listed the school construction projects in here, because they are obviously Board of Education facilities which you need to have in your long range plan. Any future ones obviously quite a ways out, but you do have two active now and you have Polk coming and the way that the dollars are divided there, typically you have architectural and other costs at the beginning of a project, so even though the construction might be all in one year, you may have about 15-20% of your project costs kind of up front for architectural plans, designs, getting through referendum. I have divided the money up for display purposes. They’re not dollar for dollar accurate to what the real cash flow is, but it’s pretty close. They certainly do add up to what the approved budgets were. Other items are, we’ve talked about the maintenance of the turf fields. Obviously the high school is also going to have one at the completion of construction, so it will be time to start thinking about its eventual replacement. Ray and I have down in the lower piece which is items that you would typically fund in your operating budget, either through direct funding in your operating budget or if you were able to get a capital improvement plan process in place where you could actually transfer monies from your operating budget or any monies you might have at the end of fiscal year into a capital project account that would be maintained by the town for the purpose of specific projects to be done at some point in the future. Those you would identify here. There are also opportunities, particularly with technology to fund some of these dollars with grant money, Erate, discounts that we get, IDEA grant, other grants that are available to us at the operating level. I think it’s a fairly comprehensive list. It gives you an idea of where things are. We’ve even included items for Heminway in here knowing that this work will probably not get done during the time that we have ownership and custody of that building. But they are items that have been identified while we have had custody of it. At some point, it will have to get done. It may be part of a future renovation that the town may take on, but at least we have provisionally listed it in here. We’ve tried to put things out on a timeline, we tried to show where this should be an ongoing lines in your budget to maintain replacement of things so that you’re not trying to do it all at once every year or with huge spike that you build the money into your budget base to do some of these things in a programmed manner over the course of time, including technology replacement, floor maintenance, roof maintenance, all these kind of things that preclude having to wait until you can do a school construction project. That’s not really the way we should be doing small limited scope projects. It’s very extensive to do them as a school construction project, it’s a lot cheaper to do it with today dollars in small scope. I borrowed the project type, funding type and(inaudible) from the capital improvement plan I’m most familiar with, the one I managed for 13 years in Canton. I think it worked fairly well for us, we had a formal capital improvement plan in process. At some point maybe at a budget committee discussion or maybe policy we could talk about what that might be and I’d be happy to answer any questions. Obviously should you adopt this kind of a format I would provide you with one or two lines per item to give you a little bit more information then just what’s on here now. Since we’re just kind of doing this as a preliminary look at what a capital improvement plan might look like, I didn’t take the time to go into any great detail on any particular line item.
Mr. Killeen: We appreciate the comprehensive review and if I could make a recommendation that this be sent to the Facilities Committee for review and we’ll take it up under committee.
Ms. Calabrese: That sounds like a very good suggestion. Thank you.
Mr. Mazzamaro: Gary, on one of the documents that I saw, there were some lines that listed the history. Almost reoccurring type of maintenance things, so although it was under capital improvement plan, there was history. i.e. : boiler x,y,z was maintained and repaired on this date, you could go back to the document.
Mr. Miller: Right, we didn’t really have time to do that. We were working on that this week. The format that Karen showed you that we had used in Wethersfield was very good in that it showed work that had been done prior and so if you had a process in place where you actually had documents that you would develop your plan from, you would obviously have that history in an easy to access manner. We can talk about what format you want and what process want. We just put something on paper for you to talk about. I think it really needs to become part of your operating budget discussion process.
Mr. Mazzamaro: I think that document is excellent. I think it’s a great idea. With three new schools, actually four if you include Swift, it makes all the sense in the world to have a plan.
Mr. Miller: Because most people think, well we just built all these buildings. I guess we don’t have to do anything to them for a awhile and as I always kept reminding my board, you have carpet in those buildings, you have tile, you have hardwood floors. Those are all things that require replacement and if you don’t start planning for it now, when you do need it, you’re going to be behind the 8 ball to begin with.
Ms. Baldwin: Just to recap what I heard was that this document be forwarded to the Facilities Committee for further discussion about how to take the next steps relative to development and policy implementation and cooperation with the town government as well. We will get that in place with the Facilities Committee and thank you Mr. Miller and Mr. Cenicola for doing this.
Also under item number 4 is our opportunity to answer questions that board members have about the operating budget and as members will recall, their Friday packets on February 15th is quite (inaudible) with a line item budget provided to Board of Education members for line by line review and we did receive several questions. What we did at the administration level was compile each question in a document and respond to it. That was sent to you Friday, electronically. I have copies if board members need those or would like to revisit those. Hopefully, people understood the question and the answer and if there are further questions that board members have this would be a great opportunity for us to respond to them and determine our next steps with our 2009-2010 operating budget.
Ms. Colangelo: First of all, I want to thank you for the quick turnaround response time to the questions and answers. I do have a few questions that need clarification. The very first item, page 1, elementary teachers, it said 2008 budget did not reflect the new FTE teacher. Was that for this year, that the new FPE teacher wasn’t in the budget for this year and that’s why the increase is so high? Am I understanding that correctly?
Ms. Baldwin: I’ll let Mr. Miller answer that, but there was budgeted, I believe a half time PE teacher that the board of ed approved last year in the budget process for 08-09. I think the actual response is that the 07-08 budget obviously didn’t include that which is not written in line number 1. You’re query is well stated in that in the 2007-2008 budget, it didn’t reflect that half time position and that it is in the budget in 08-09 and we hired that position.
Mr. Miller: The manner in which things are budgets, particular with a line item budget to the detail, down to the menutia level, it’s makes it very complicated. Typically in a teacher salary count, if you know you’re going to have some transition of staff, either reduction, increase, a change in staff I’m used to having it be in the same budget line. I can identify for every FTE what dollars are directly associated with that, but what the practice has been in Watertown is to put potential placements, retirements, all those things in other lines, so when you look at any one line, you can’t look at any one line in isolation and the questions were very good and perfectly valid. I would have been confused too, had I not spent a whole day with Shirley asking a lot of, “why is it done this way?”. I think we need to talk about why it was done that way and do something about doing it differently in the future. But for now we’re living with the way it’s been done and it gets very confusing when some of the dollars are over here. We were able to identify that we had all the dollars because what we work from in the process is a list of all the staff, who is paid by board, who is paid by grant to make sure that we’d identified the total FTE and the right dollars and then we have to go fit them into all these different accounts which to me, makes no sense at all. I’m just not used to such a detailed chart of accounts as this and it makes it very complicated when you’re trying to get an accurate picture. I didn’t even bring the book tonight because I knew I wouldn’t be able to, without the volume of information that Shirley and I had at our disposal when we were answering these, I’m going to take notes. I can answer the ones that we’ve talked about and what’s in the budget book that we gave you. Anything else I may have to take back and respond right back to you on Wednesday so that we can get it back in a timely fashion. The kinds of questions, most of them were just a matter of placement which the percentages go all over the place. You’ve got to look at groups of accounts and that’s what we tried to do in this book. We grouped things into the way it actually works into reality and get away from the way it’s accounted for which I think we need to clean up drastically.
Ms. Colangelo: We’re pretty familiar with using this line item budget and I had other questions and I would see where there was a transfer or whatever, and referring to your summary, I was able to get most of my answers. I do have another question. The one that’s listed on page 3 guidance counselors at Swift. It says increase is due to an addition of 6th grade counselor. Where did that guidance counselor come from?
Mr. Hasbrouck: That was new staff.
Ms. Colangelo: We hired staff 08-09?
Mr. Hasbrouck: That was in last year’s budget and it was approved.
Ms. Colangelo: So that shows the increase with movement from one school to another.
Mr. Miller: I think there were a number of questions like that when you opened Swift, you basically collapsed from 6 to 5, which drove some of the percentage just in that process.
Ms. Colangelo: So that answers the library’s clerk question.
Mr. Miller: The custodian’s questions, pretty much. There was a lot of shifting around of existing staff with the shifting around of the school population.
Ms. Colangelo: The large increase in substitute custodians indicates that you’re going to be using more of them this year?
Mr. Miller: We had not used as much this year as was budgeted for.
Ms. Colangelo: The system used to hire temporary custodians. Are you still doing that?
Mr. Miller: We’ve had very low expenditures this year and I think we’ve been able to shift the existing custodial staff around. Within that staff so far, have been able to provide adequate coverage. But I think as you get back to normal, that’s going to be less and less possible.
Ms. Baldwin: That is part of our thinking. Our substitute usage is down. We believe it’s down because of our flexibility (inaudible) assignment. In examining this account, we do realize that it is typically higher. We’ve made an adjustment in 2009-2010 to anticipate typical usage whether we’re accurate in that adjustment or not, time will tell.
Ms. Colangelo: The only other thing I’m questioning is the equipment in Judson. Your response was that you’re not anticipating enough funding for a filing cabinet?
Mr. Miller: The staff needs to have fireproof filing cabinets. When the budget was prepared there was no money for FF&E or technology in the Judson budget. Now, since we got the $307,000 credit back from O&G and we have put some of that money into the FF&E technology and playground line in the owners cost segment of the budget, I mean it looks like we’re going to have enough money to fund at least the student area. There may still be a need to fund and I was told typically office equipment has come out of the board budget, not out of project. Now obviously if there is an opportunity to fund it out of the project, we’ll certainly to that. It would certainly qualify for reimbursement from the state. Relatively speaking, it’s a small amount of money. At some point in the process, we’ll know much better where we stand and effective March 18th we’re going to the state to get the FF&E playground and technology plan approved. Then we’ll go out to bid. We’ll have a much better idea of what we’re going to be able to do with the dollars. I would certainly be the first one to recommend funding it where you’re going to get some of the money back from the state, not where you’re going to pay 100% of the cost.
Ms. Baldwin: So to reiterate the question that you raised, it is a possible area for reduction later down the road as we learn more through our FF&E process and bidding process, but absolutely we would hope to have that project funded.
Ms. Colangelo: Thank you, those were my questions.
5. School Lunch Reports – (Information Only – No Action Required)
Attached for your information are the school lunch reports for December 2008. (Please see Attachment A.)
Ms. Baldwin: The next item I have is to just remind the Board that I did include in your packet the school lunch reports and if there are questions or if the board would like an opportunity for (inaudible) to come and make a presentation, I’d be happy to schedule that for future meeting. It’s the board’s decision.
J. Report from the Chairman
Ms. Calabrese: On this evening’s agenda under action items, is the consideration of the approval to accept Mary Dzioba’s letter of resignation from the Board of Education. Mary Dzioba has been a positive force for children during her years of service on the board, including her two years spend as board chair. She will be missed by all of us. Her resignation was effective February 10th. We’re inviting her back to our next meeting on March 9th to thank her and to present her with a token of our appreciation on behalf of ourselves and the staff and the students of Watertown.
K. Action Items – Adoption of Items to be Approved by Consent
1. Discussion and Approval of Proposed 2009-2010 Budget
MOTION made by Mr. Lambert, sec. by Mr. Mazzamaro
TEXT of motion: To accept the 2009-2010 budget as presented.
A copy of the Board of Education’s proposed budget for 2009-2010 is attached for discussion and action. The proposed 2009-2010 budget must be provided to the Town by March 1, 2009. (Please see Attachment B.)
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
2. Consideration of the Approval of Medical Leave of Absence
MOTION made by Ms. Colangelo, sec by Mr. Mazzamaro
Ms. Judie Gorra, School Psychologist at John Trumbull Primary School, requests a Medical Leave of Absence commencing March 11, 2009 for approximately six weeks.
It is recommended that the Board approve of a Medical Leave of Absence for Ms. Judie Gorra, School Psychologist at John Trumbull Primary School, commencing March 11, 2009 for approximately six weeks, with use of accumulated sick time and a medical doctor’s note to return.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
3. Consideration of the Approval to Accept Mary Dzioba’s Letter of Resignation
MOTION made by Ms. Colangelo, sec. by Mr. Mazzamaro
It is recommended that the Board accept Mary Dzioba’s letter of resignation from the position of Board Member, effective February 10, 2009, for personal reasons. (Please see Attachment C.)
Discussion: Ms. Pond: I would just like to say that we accept this with appreciation for what she’s done.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
4. Consideration of the Approval of the 2009-2010 Watertown High School Program of Studies and Included New Programs at Watertown High School
MOTION made by Mr. Mazzamaro, sec. Ms. Pond
At the Curriculum and Instruction Committee meeting of February 10, 2009, the Curriculum and Instruction Committee members endorsed the revised Watertown High School Program of Studies as well as the included new programs at Watertown High School. (Please see attached book.)
It is recommended that the Board of Education approve of the revised 2009-2010 Watertown High School Program of Studies and included new programs at Watertown High School as presented under separate cover, effective immediately.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
5. Consideration of the Approval of Restructuring Central Office Administration
MOTION made by Ms. Colangelo, sec. by Mr. Mazzamaro
It is recommended that the Board vote to approve to restructure Central Office Administration for the positions of Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Business Manager and a Supervisor of Special Education. Job descriptions for the Business Manager and Assistant Superintendent are attached. (Please see Attachments D and E.) The Supervisor of Special Education’s position already exists within the Board of Education structure.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
L. Future Agenda Items and Board Members’ Comments
None
M. Public Participation
None
N. Adjournment
MOTION made by Ms. Colangelo, sec. by Mr. Lambert to adjourn the meeting at 8:38 pm.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
Meeting adjourned at 8:38 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Colangelo, Secretary
Board of Education
Patricia A. Barber, Minutes Secretary
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