November 6, 2013 at 7:00 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Rationale: 

Please note the personnel report as you will find new hires reflected in it.

Please take note of the November enrollment report. We have a total of 1,439 students enrolled. We expect to receive updated enrollment projections from both NESDEC and Peter Prowda sometime this month.

I am pleased to recognize LOLHS for being selected for the 4th Annual AP District Honor Roll. A total of 477 school districts across the U.S. and Canada are being honored by the College Board for simultaneously increasing access to Advanced Placement coursework while maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on AP Exams. We are one of only eighteen districts in Connecticut that met the criteria to be placed on the AP Honor Roll this year. This is a great recognition for our high school.

The Strategic Planning process data collection phase is continuing and will end the week of Thanksgiving. Our student surveyors are still collecting data, and we have already held one focus group session. We have an additional focus group session on Wednesday, November 13, at 6:30 p.m. in in the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Library Media Center. As well, our electronic survey is open until the end of this month. The Strategic Planning Steering Committee is scheduled to meet to review the data collected thus far. This meeting will be on December 3. I will provide a follow-up report to the Board at our December 4 meeting.

The topic of lunch has been discussed at previous meetings with a focus on outstanding balances, feeding those with balances, and the use of Styrofoam trays versus plastic trays. A review of outstanding lunch balances over the first few months of school shows that the amount owed to the district is in the range of $35,000. As of 10/31 it was $35,863.10. Our practice to date has been for Chartwells to send letters to parents of children who owe money five times per year. This has not been effective. As a result, I have asked each of the principals to call the parents of those students who owe over $100 to inform them of their outstanding balance. This phone call will be followed by a letter from Region #18 for those that do not settle their debt within a reasonable period of time. In addition, I am going to ask the policy committee to review policy language (which currently does not exist) to address the issue of outstanding balances. 

A review of the use of Styrofoam trays versus plastic trays is attached.  I will discuss the impact of the decision to move to plastic trays.             

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

Rationale: 

Dr. Borden and our entire elementary SRBI team will present an update on the status of the newly revamped SRBI program.

 

Rationale:  Members of the LOLHS Social Studies Department are requesting approval of a trip to Washington, D.C. on Thursday, November 21, 2014 through Saturday, November 23, 2014. Information related to the proposed trip is enclosed. This requires Board action.

Members of the LOLHS faculty are requesting approval of a trip to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic in April of 2015. Information related to the proposed trip is enclosed. This requires Board action.

Rationale:  The finance and policy committees met this fall to review our purchasing policy (#6330.) Recommendations from that meeting have been incorporated into the policy for your review. This is a first read and therefore does not require Board action.

Rationale:  The CSDE has added additional layers to the new teacher and administrator evaluation plans. While the statute does not require the Board to approve these plans, the CSDE is recommending that all boards do just that. You will recall that last May, you approved our plans. I will ask you to do that again this evening and will explain the process that led to the CSDE’s decision to “require” this additional step. This requires Board action.

Rationale:  Please share written minutes and/or oral reports as necessary.