March 4, 2015 at 6:30 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Rationale: 

Rationale:  Lon Seidman of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education will be at the meeting to present the CABE Communications Award to the district for the 2014-2015 Budget Book.

Rationale:  The 4 x 800 Relay Team for the high school's track team have been invited to the meeting so that they can be duly recognized for winning the Class S State Championship for this event.

Coaches: Barbara O'Leary, Courtney Payzant and Marty Lane

4 x 8 Relay Team: Ross Golebiewski, Thomas Roth, Will DeMott, James Kolb

Rationale: 

1. Please note the personnel report as you will find updated employee information reflected in it.  Although we will have a chance to recognize her at our annual banquet as well as our June meeting, please join me in congratulating Barbara Rayel on her retirement after 34 years of teaching.
2. Please take note of the March enrollment report. We have a total of 1360 students enrolled.
3. The budget edition of the Focus will go out in the mail at the end of next week. Last week we presented our budget to the OL BOF.  The presentation was well received and they are appreciative of this group's efforts in developing a responsible budget. We present to the Lyme BOF later this month. 
4. At our April meeting, we will have an official vote to set a date for graduation as prescribed in statute. Assuming no more closures beyond the four we have already had, the last day of school and the date for graduation will be June 18, 2015.
5. With all of the press coverage related to measles vaccinations, it is important to note what our policies and requirements are for students. I met with our nurses and they provided me with the following link from the CT department of public health school survey results. The latest information pertains to the 2013-14 school year. State law prohibits individual school district immunization results to be released, instead it is broken down by county. Our nurses have agreed that, " it is most useful to conclude from this data that the  risk to exposure within this population is low due to the overall high immunization rate. This high rate of vaccination helps to protect individuals and the community at large. A herd immunity occurs when the majority of the population has been vaccinated. The recent outbreak of measles supports this notion. 
   With the increasing globalization of our society coupled with our students who travel outside of the US borders, we need to stay ever vigilant in our standards of care and observant of emerging threats."  CT immunization survey results can be found at:
   http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/infectious_diseases/immunization/workplace/web_summary_page-school_immunization_data02102015_wlinksrevised_cs.pdf.  I have also attached our policies as well as state statute related to vaccinations for students. 
6. More great news from Mr. Allik in regard to our Art students, "The Visual Arts Department of Lyme-Old Lyme High School is proud to announce outstanding results from this year’s Future Choices Art Show, sponsored by the Shoreline Arts Alliance. In the Drawing category, Senior Jordan Bourne and Junior Silja Forstein took First and Second Place respectively, repeating the exceptional performance of last year’s LOLHS competitors; while in Painting two of our Seniors also took the top two spots, Adi Dahlke (First) and Sofia Restrepo (Second). Jordan earned First in Pastels, while Adi took an additional Honorable Mention in Painting. Also awarded Honorable Mention in Painting were Meredith Kegley and Claudia Mergy. In Ceramics Alix Turner won Third Place, with Rande Gearing and Veronica Rollins both earning Honorable Mentions. All 21 of our students’ submissions were juried into this year’s show, including a drawing by Sophomore Natalie Rugg and additional pieces by Sofia, Rande, Adi and Veronica. Best in Show overall was awarded to Jordan Bourne for a portrait drawing (attached). Students who reside or attend school in the 24-town Shoreline region are eligible to submit up to three works to this juried competition. Cash prizes are awarded to award-winners, and other prizes and scholarship awards will be announced after the opening reception Sunday, March 1, at 3:00, Sill House Gallery, Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. The show will run until March 11, with gallery hours from 10am – 4pm Monday – Friday. All artworks will also be available for viewing during our upcoming Region 18 Youth Art Show, also at Sill House, opening Thursday, March 19.
7. The month of March is Connecticut Board of Education Member Appreciation Month. I will take a moment to recognize all of our Board members for their dedicated service to our communities.

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

Rationale:  Dr. Borden and members of our Social Studies Department will report on the newly adopted Social Studies Frameworks.

In addition to the attached Social Studies Standards and Region 18 presentation slides, this link provides background information on the C3 (College, Career, and Civic ) Framework which served as the basis for the CT standards: 

http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/c3/C3-Framework-for-Social-Studies.pdf

Rationale:  See attached email from Loyda Diaz, a staff member at LOLHS. Loyda is asking for an additional 10 days from the AFT Sick Bank due to surgery. Loyda was granted 20 days from the Sick Bank during the earlier part of the 2014-2015 school year.

Per the AFT Contract, "should a special circumstance arise wherein an employee may require more than his/her accumulated sick leave plus 20 Sick Bank days, said employee must submit an additional letter to the Board of Education for review and decision..." The section of the AFT Contract relative to the Sick Leave Bank is also attached.

This requires Board action.

Rationale:  As is annual practice to ensure compliance with state statute, and in accordance with Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-151(b), which gives authority to the Superintendent to determine whether a non-tenure teacher should be offered a contract for the subsequent school year, I am recommending the non-renewal of all non–tenured teachers. This requires Board action.

Rationale:  Since 1994 the Board has provided liability insurance for the Safe Grad party. The Safe Grad Committee has again requested this coverage. This is general liability coverage for the event at the named facility which is known only to the Safe Grad Committee, the insurance carrier, and Holly McCalla (for purposes of requesting coverage). This requires Board action.

Rationale:  The attached RFP for our auditor allows for a two year extension of our contract upon approval by the Board (see page 2 of the attached RFP). The Finance Committee is recommending approval of this extension as the auditor has agreed to keep their costs stable in order to retain our business. We have been very pleased with the level of service we have received from Sandra E. Welwood, LLC. Approval of this extension, which includes waiving the bidding requirements of Policy #6330, requires Board action.

Rationale: 

The 2014/2015 facilities plan budgeted funds to install HVAC energy efficiency motor improvements at the Middle School, Mile Creek and Lyme Consolidated Schools. Since this plan was devised, it has become clear that focusing on upgrading the Middle School HVAC controls, boiler controls and gymnasium motors will have greater efficiency gains, resolve a number of Middle School HVAC control network issues, and result in a more efficient implementation by completing one entire building. 

It is also recommended that Connecticut Controls be awarded this work without public bidding. Connecticut Controls is our HVAC controls contractor. They have an intimate knowledge of our HVAC controls and have successfully performed maintenance on those controls in an efficient, timely and accurate manner.  

This approval requires Board action to waive the bidding requirements of policy #6330 and to award the contract to Connecticut Controls.

Rationale:  Replacing the Mile Creek and Lyme Consolidated floor coverings is a budgeted 2014-2015 facilities project.  The work was publically bid. We received only one bid through this process despite sending the request for proposal to multiple contractors. R&B Ceramic Tile and Floor Covering Inc., has a significant resume of completed and ongoing projects. They are used extensively by the large construction management companies in Connecticut.

Rationale:  As discussed last month, our previous bus contract expires at the end of this year.  We bid the contract this fall and have negotiated a proposed new five year contract with the lowest bidder, M&J Bus, who currently provides our service.  There are some cost increases from the previous contract related to the following: an increase in the lease payments to the Town of Old Lyme for the bus barn, new regulations related to the Affordable Care Act, electricity costs due to changes in lighting at the bus barn, and the State of CT Mandatory Sick Leave Law.  The cost of this contract is estimated at $820,000 for the first year with approximate increases of 4% each year for the term of the contract.  

As a number of questions were raised last month regarding the cost of the facility where we house the buses (the bus barn), I have included a number of documents that I will review relative to last month's discussion.

Board action is required for approval of this contract.

Rationale:  Report as necessary.