August 7, 2013 at 6:30 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Rationale: 

 

1. Please note the personnel report as you will find several new hires reflected in it. I will review for the Board what has been a very busy season for hiring.
2. While there is no enrollment report this month, the Board should be aware of our current kindergarten numbers which are lower than the projected total of 80 students. At this time, we have 24 students enrolled in Kindergarten at Lyme and 45 students enrolled at Mile Creek for a total of 69 students. Our class size guidelines for Kindergarten remain at 15 students per section. While this lower enrollment will not impact our sections for this year, it is important that we continue to monitor our enrollments to ensure that we are planning appropriately.
3. Our open enrollment period for health insurance options occurred in June. Of the 126 employees who were eligible for the HSA option, 82 chose to switch to the new high deductible plan. This 65% participation rate is considered good by industry standards for the first year of a new plan. This number may increase based on recent developments with Anthem billings.
4. Our administrative team has spent a significant amount of time this summer training and testing for the implementation of the teacher and administrator evaluation programs. Each administrator spent a week at LEARN participating in the state sponsored training. At the conclusion of the training, we each had to complete an assessment to determine our skill level when doing evaluations. On a related note, the CSDE accepted and approved our teacher and administrator evaluation plans at the end of June.
5. Our small group (Ian, Jim, Paul, and Allison) assigned to coordinate the new Strategic Plan has begun the process. On August 22, we are holding the first meeting of the steering committee to begin to develop some core concepts that will help guide the development of this plan. Doreen Marvin from LEARN, who helped facilitate the last strategic plan, is again assisting us in the process. As we move forward, we will continue to report to you on our progress as well as look to the Board for your input on plan development.
6. We are holding our annual Convocation during the two professional development days on August 26 and 27. In addition, we are running a new staff orientation the morning of August 22.
7. We recently learned that LOLHS placed 7^th out of 105 schools that participated in Connecticut’s annual CTE (Career and Technical Education) testing. Congratulations to Dr. Hedwall and her department for another strong showing on this annual assessment.
8. Recently CABE sent an email to all of you regarding actions boards must take in 2013. While this list is not a comprehensive list of new laws that impact schools, it does cover those items that could require board action. I have included this list and noted on the attachment which group will address each area. Fortunately, we already meet the standard of many of these laws while others are not applicable to our district.
9. It has been a very busy summer as far as facilities projects. Later, we will hear an update from John Rhodes on the current status of all projects. In the meantime, I want to thank all involved for their hard work maintaining and improving upon our school facilities.

Rationale: 

Ms. Warren will provide a year to date budget status report as well as a contingency fund report.

Rationale: 

Traditionally at this meeting Dr. Borden would present the preliminary CMT and CAPT results from the March administration. In July we received the attached memo which states that, “data will likely be made available in early August this year.”  I hope to be able to report this data to you at our September meeting.  In addition to this information, a closer reading of the aforementioned memo would reveal that indeed the CSDE has applied for a waiver from the federal government regarding state mandated assessments this spring and the use of said assessments in the new teacher evaluation program.  I will let you know as soon as I receive more information on the progress of this waiver. In the interim, I will update the Board on how this potential waiver will impact Region #18.  

In lieu of the traditional CAPT/ CMT presentation, LOLHS Assistant Principal Michelle Dean will present the high school’s revised detention model.  Mrs. Dean, along with a committee of teachers, has revised the detention model to provide a consequence for inappropriate actions while ensuring students are still receiving in class instruction.  In addition, this new model represents a cost savings for the district.

Rationale: 

Traditionally at this meeting Dr. Borden would present the preliminary CMT and CAPT results from the March administration. In July we received the attached memo which states that, “data will likely be made available in early August this year.”  I hope to be able to report this data to you at our September meeting.  In addition to this information, a closer reading of the aforementioned memo would reveal that indeed the CSDE has applied for a waiver from the federal government regarding state mandated assessments this spring and the use of said assessments in the new teacher evaluation program.  I will let you know as soon as I receive more information on the progress of this waiver. In the interim, I will update the Board on how this potential waiver will impact Region #18.  

In lieu of the traditional CAPT/ CMT presentation, LOLHS Assistant Principal Michelle Dean will present the high school’s revised detention model.  Mrs. Dean, along with a committee of teachers, has revised the detention model to provide a consequence for inappropriate actions while ensuring students are still receiving in class instruction.  In addition, this new model represents a cost savings for the district.

Rationale:  John Rhodes will present a proposal for the renewal of our Microsoft licensing, which includes the Office products, the Windows operating system for our PCs, and the Windows and SQL Server licenses for our servers.  The total cost through SHI International is $26,760.40.  This requires Board action.

Rationale:  The Facilities Committee selected Fuss & O’Neill EnviroScience, LLC to perform hazardous material consulting and monitoring for the Mile Creek window replacement project. Fuss & O’Neill EnviroScience, LLC was contracted to perform pre-abatement services to support the remediation design and regulatory permitting. However, they were not contracted at that time to perform abatement monitoring or post abatement testing. The proposed action contracts Fuss & O’Neill EnviroScience, LLC to perform these tasks. This requires Board action.