August 6, 2014 at 6:30 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Rationale: 

Aron D’Aquila, our Outdoor Track Head Coach, along with some members of the track team will be recognized for their all-state performances last spring.  Their feats occurred after our June meeting so we were unable to recognize them before the end of school.

 

Rationale: 

The Boys and Girls Crew Teams have been invited to the meeting for recognition of their accomplishments this spring, most notably, their “clean sweep in the fours at the Connecticut Public Schools Rowing Association Championships, where both the Boys 1st and 2nd varsity fours and the Girls 1st and 2nd varsity fours, won the State Championships.”   Much like the track team, their accomplishments took place after our June meeting so we were unable to recognize them before the end of school.

 

Rationale:  There is no student report for August as school is not in session.  Next month we will welcome our two new student representatives from LOLHS.

Rationale: 

1. Please note the personnel report as you will find several new hires reflected in it.  
2. While there is no enrollment report this month, the Board should be aware of our current kindergarten numbers which we have been tracking closely.  At this time, we have 34 students enrolled in Kindergarten at Lyme and 32 students enrolled at Mile Creek for a total of 58 students.  Our class size guidelines for Kindergarten remain at 15 students per section.  While this 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. We are holding our annual Convocation during the two professional development days on August 25^th and 26^th.  You are all invited to attend the convocation ceremony on the morning of the 26th.  In addition, we are running a new staff orientation the morning of August 21st. 
4. Please join me in congratulating the AP calculus class at LOLHS who ALL received 5's on the AP test last spring.  In addition, two of our students took both the AB and BC tests and earned 5's on both!
5. It has been a very busy summer as far as facilities projects and maintenance.  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: 

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

Rationale:  As we no longer have CMT or CAPT scores to report as we have traditionally done at this time, I will present the final draft of the Strategic Plan.  Following my presentation, I will ask the Board to approve this final draft so we can begin the goal setting cycle.

Rationale:  The Board needs to approve our new Business Manager, Holly McCalla, as an authorized signer on the ED-099 Agreement for Child Nutrition Programs.  This requires Board action.

Rationale:  As you may recall from our earlier meetings, we approved a tuition rate for the 2014-2015 school year of $18,500.  We currently have two tuition students and now have an additional student who has requested to attend LOLHS as a tuition student.  As agreed upon, I will not review the child's record or information in public session.  Instead, I will recommend that the Board approve the admission of this child.  This requires Board action.

Rationale:  John, Jim, and I have been working with the PTO at LCS to improve the playground facilities.  We included monies in this year's budget to purchase new equipment that was selected with consultation from the PTO.  The PTO has generously included $10,000 to support an upgrade to the playground.  At this time, we are considering using their allocated funds to pay for installation of the equipment we are asking to purchase through our budget.  Approval of the purchase of the equipment requires Board action.

Rationale:  Annually we renew our extended warranty service contracts on all of our district wide major network computer equipment.  This requires Board action.   

Rationale:  We currently lease 18 copiers across our entire district. Copier leases have traditionally been coordinated by the individual schools. To create a more competitive bidding environment, and ensure a standard process across the district, we are now bidding copiers in groups based on their existing lease expiration dates. We hope that this will produce a cost savings in the future not just in terms of leasing costs but also in terms of ink and toner.  This requires Board action.