October 7, 2020 at 6:30 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Rationale: 

Caroline Doughty has been driving a school bus in Old Lyme for 48 years. She plans to retire on October 30, 2020. She started her career in August/September of 1972 and has driven for six different companies, as contracted by Lyme-Old Lyme Schools. Some of her work has included driving students daily to each of the schools, bringing athletic teams to their games, and providing transportation for field trips. At times, she drove residents out of the South Lyme (Point O' Woods Beach) area when it flooded. She also drove for the Special Olympics Games that took place in our area during the 1990's. One of the most rewarding experiences has been driving the children of former students that she used to transport.

Caroline’s 72^nd birthday is November 2, which is the impetus for her retirement. While she’s looking forward to not waking up so early in the morning, she’s worried about her students and families that depend on her every day. Her retirement plans include enjoying more of her hobbies such as gardening, sewing, knitting, and enjoying her family. She and her husband, Vincent, have been married for 47 years and are lifelong residents of Old Lyme. They have two married children and five grandchildren, ages 5 to 21.

Rationale:  Jonathan Goss, Tech Ed Teacher at LOLHS, and Ray Belval, Campus Security, will be present so that they can be recognized as the 2020-2021 Teacher of the Year and Employee of the Year.

Rationale: 

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

Please take note of the enrollment report as we have had some changes in enrollment. In-house enrollment is now 1283. I have requested updated enrollment projections from both NESDEC and Peter Prowda. This new information will be examined as it relates to our official enrollment count of October 1. In addition, our October 2020 enrollment report indicates that 81.6% of our students are from Old Lyme, while 18.4% of our students are from Lyme. This is a similar percentage to what we saw last October when 18.8% were from Lyme and 81.2% were from Old Lyme. Our billings to the towns are based on an average of the October 1 and April 1 student counts. 

I will update the Board on progress toward our district goals.

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

Rationale:  Mrs. Dean will review how we have addressed any potential learning losses from the remote learning model used last spring.

Rationale:  Attached is the calendar for the development of the 2021-2022 budget. This requires Board approval.

Rationale:  Sec. 10-51(d)(2) allows regional Boards of Education to appropriate up to 1% of the current fiscal year’s budget to a reserve fund for capital and nonrecurring expenditures. The unaudited budget balance for fiscal year 2019-2020 is $1,099,096. The Board of Education may appropriate up to $347,116 to the reserve fund.  This requires Board action.

Rationale:  With the Town of Old Lyme using the Middle School for voting and the Town of Lyme needing our field for parking, I am recommending we make Election Day a PD day.  This will make the number of student days 180 for the year which is above the new 177 day requirement.  This requires Board action.

Rationale:  Mrs. Dean will review the proposed changes to the Teacher Evaluation Plan (TEVAL) based on a lack of standardized data from SBAC or SAT.  The PDEC (Professional Development and Evaluation Committee) is recommending adoption of the state approved changes for just this school year.  This requires Board action.

Rationale:  Jenn Miller will review the most recent proposal from the Sustainability Committee regarding the Trex Challenge.  This requires Board action.