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

Rationale:  The Memorial Day essay contest winners have been invited to the meeting to read their winning essays. We will welcome and recognize them for their accomplishments.

1st Place - Max Novak (Lyme Consolidated School)

2nd Place - Justin Bonatti (Mile Creek School)

3rd Place - Hannah Johnston (Lyme Consolidated School)

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Our Talented and Gifted Teacher, Nila Kaczor, will be present to recognize student inventors that were selected for the State Invention Convention and an inventor that was invited to the National Competition.

Mile Creek School- Natalie Barndt, Shane Eastman-Grossel, Anna Eichholz, and Abby O'Brien

Lyme School- Thomas Danford, Eli Goldberg, Ella Kiem, Peter Kuhn, and Simon Karpinski

Middle School- Bridget Allan, Grace Colwell, Jacob Rand, and Arber Hoxha

 

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Phil Parcak, representing the Lyme-Old Lyme Lion’s Club, will be present to recognize four LOLHS students for their academic prowess, athleticism and community service accomplishments.

Mr. Parcak will also present the award for the Peace Poster contest.

 

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Mark Ambruso will recognize two middle school students (Aidan Ward and Ellie Wells) for receiving the Connecticut Association of Schools' Scholar Leader Award.

 

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Each year, CABE invites its member Boards to recognize outstanding student leaders at the middle and high school levels.  The principals of each school are asked to facilitate the selection of the students based on a given set of criteria.  Mr. Wygonik and Mr. Ambruso will recognize the award winners.

From Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School: Felse-Alexandra Kyle and Nihad Bicic

From Lyme-Old Lyme High School: Emily O'Brien and Gary Bocian

Rationale:  A representative from CABE (Eileen Baker) will be at the meeting to present the CABE Communications Award for the district website.

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The following teachers, who are retiring in June, will be present at the meeting so that the Board can recognize them for their years of service to the district:

Grace Bartlett, Elementary Teacher at Mile Creek School, 31 years of service

Mary Bradford, Elementary Teacher at Mile Creek School, 30 years of service

Myra Gipstein, School Psychologist at Center School, 18 years of service

Pam LaMesa, Social Studies Teacher at Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School, 20 years of service

Margaret Lupone, Elementary Teacher at Lyme Consolidated School, 22 years of service

 

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Information on the Public Comment section of the meeting

While  boards  of  education must hold their meetings in public, they are not public meetings. Boards of education can adopt reasonable restrictions as to time and manner  of  speech  at  their  meetings.    Boards  of  education  can  require  that  speakers  sign  up  to  speak and  they can adopt a rule that each speaker will be allowed no more than three minutes to speak.  Boards can also require that speakers adhere to reasonable standards of decorum.  As provided in Robert’s Rules of Order, the chair may require that speakers be courteous, avoid personal attacks, refrain from the use of vulgarity and the like.  No speaker at a meeting of a board of education has a First Amendment right to be disruptive or rude. (Mooney, Thomas B. A Practical Guide to Connecticut School Law. 9th ed., Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, 2018.)

The Lyme-Old Lyme Board of Education encourages public comment at all of its public meetings on issues of concern. The Chairperson of the Board of Education may also provide opportunities for comments and/or questions by the public at appropriate junctions of public meetings. However, due to the usual length of such Board of Education proceedings, the Chairperson reserves the right to place a reasonable time limit on comments by individuals. Where a member of the public wishes to exceed the stated time limit for public comment, advance notice of seven days to the Chairperson of the Lyme-Old Lyme Board of Education is requested. If an individual wishes to inform the Board of Education in writing regarding a particular issue, such written material shall be presented to the Board Chairperson ten days in advance of the meeting in question to allow ample time for all Board of Education members to receive said written material prior to the stated meeting date.

In the event that a Board of Education meeting is interrupted by any person or group of persons who render the orderly conduct of the meeting unfeasible, and order cannot be restored by the removal of individuals who are willfully interrupting the meeting, the Chairperson of the Lyme/Old Lyme Board of Education shall order the meeting room cleared and continue in session. Only regular items on the agenda may be considered in such case. Media representatives, unless they were disorderly, shall be permitted to attend the sessions held in this manner.  After time has passed, the Chairperson, in his or her discretion, may recess the Board Meeting and invite back those members of the public not responsible for the disruption. (BOE Bylaw 8500)

 

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

Please take note of the June enrollment report. We have a total of 1285 students enrolled.

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

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We have a request from a family to allow their 9th grader be admitted to LOL High School for the 2018-2019 school year on a tuition basis.

We also have a request from a family to allow their children (a 9th grader and a 4th grader) to be admitted to our schools in the fall on a tuition basis. 

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Each year, the USDA and State of Connecticut require school districts to renew their food service management contracts. We are under agreement with Chartwells until June 30, 2021; however, we must renew the terms each year after receiving state approval.

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As part of our continued efforts to increase the safety and security at our schools, we are proposing to enhance our existing lockdown communication system. This enhancement will provide the capability to activate a lockdown from any phone in our school district. Currently, a lockdown is initiated from the administrative office of each school. The current system activates a building lockdown alarm as well as notifying the police. The enhanced system will add text messages and voice messages to all responders and administrators along with the location of the lockdown initiation.

This enhancement was not bid since it is integral to our existing phone system design and programming. It will be engineered, installed and programmed by our phone system service provider, Telspan.

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As part of the Middle School cafeteria upgrade project, we will be installing sound absorbing materials to improve the room’s environment. This part of the project will replace all ceiling tiles with high performance sound absorbing tiles and install 32 sound absorbing panels on the walls. Installation will be performed by our Facilities Staff.

Based on recommendations, we will be using Armstrong products. These specialty sound absorbing panels are available through Armstrong distributors. In lieu of publicly bidding, we obtained quotes directly from the Armstrong distributors.  Results of the quotes are listed below:

Central CT Acoustics                                      $22,380.83

Kamco Supply Corp. of New England               $18,687.47

Marjam Supply Company                               $17,807.36

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The Policy Committee is bringing forth several policies for removal (3020, 3030, 3050, 3060, 3300) and a first reading of the Summer School policy.

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