May 4, 2016 at 6:30 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Rationale: 

I will report to the Board on the outcome of the budget referendum.

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

Please take note of the May enrollment report. We have a total of 1321 students enrolled.

In response to an RFP from Frontier Communications, we have submitted a grant proposal for $12,287 of video equipment to establish two recording stations, one stationary studio to be located in our BOE meeting room at Central Office and the second a mobile station complete with extending camera which can be operated remotely from the ground.  If funded, this  grant would enable us to produce quality videos of musical, athletic, school and community events to be broadcast via local TV stations.  This is a competitive grant so it is a bit of a long shot, but we have our fingers crossed to be one of the lucky ones selected for funding.

Congratulations to Connie Pan (LOLMS 7th grader) who was one of only 14 students statewide chosen to have their artwork displayed at the Legislative Office Building.  

Karen Pasiuk recently presented to a group of over 200 math teachers from all over the country at the National Math Conference(NCTM) in  San Francisco.  Earlier this year, she presented at a New England math conference as well.  This is a tremendous honor for both Karen and the district.

Please remember our upcoming Recognition Dinner scheduled for May 26.  RSVP's are due Friday.  I hope everyone can attend.

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

Rationale:  Olwen and I will review our marketing program to date and discuss future plans to recruit more students.

Rationale:  See attached backup for a Washington, DC trip proposal from the High School Social Studies Department. This requires Board action.

Rationale:  The State Department of Education required 49 school districts to go out to bid for a new Food Service Management Contract, mid-cycle, due to a glitch in the previous RFP process.  Region 18 is one of the districts.  Following all established guidelines by the state, the district has completed the process and one response was received.  Chartwells has met all the criteria of the bid and we are requesting approval by the Board of Education for Chartwells to again be named as the Food Service Management Company.  This requires Board action.

Rationale:  Assuming (and hoping) the communities have approved our proposed budget, we will be able to rescind the non-renewals of staff members.  This will allow us to make appointments for next year and finalize our scheduling and placements.  This requires Board action.

Rationale: 

This purchase is part of the high school initiative for the 2016-2017 school year to expand the digital learning environment for students. This initiative includes deployment of a learning management system and issuing laptops to all high school students. The computer lease is based on Connecticut State Contract pricing for the laptops. The base equipment cost is $128,250. The total expenditure following four annual lease payments is $130,957.  This is a $2,707 finance charge or 2.1% over the four-year lease.

Rationale: 

Starting with the 2016-2017 fiscal year, in lieu of replacing our desktop computers, we will be installing two remote desktop servers. These servers will provide the computing resources requiring our oldest desktops to function only as terminals. This plan extends the life of the oldest desktops reducing our long term desktop replacement plan costs. These servers’ chassis are expandable to accommodate additional aging desktops in future budget years.

This project does not require bidding. Pricing is based on previous bidding on HP Connecticut State Contract pricing and on our long term agreement with Connecticut Computer Services.

Rationale:  This is the second reading of this policy.