Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
Page 1
TOWN OF ROCKY HILL
BOARD OF EDUCATION
MEETING OF
Members Present: Peter Arico
Nadine Bell (Chairman)
Kirk Bostwick
Neil Geldof
Charles McMonigle
Francis Palazzolo
Anne Schmidt
Catherine Vargas
Jennifer Viggiano-Grosse
Members Absent: None
A meeting of the Board of Education was held on
The pledge of allegiance was recited.
Moved by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by Mrs.
Vargas to accept the minutes of the
Page 7 was missing from the set of minutes. On Page 9, sixth paragraph, change
“Commissioner” to “Mr.”.
Moved by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by Mrs.
Vargas to table the acceptance of the minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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Moved by Mrs. Vargas, seconded by Mrs.
Schmidt, to accept the minutes of the
FAVOR:
ALL
MOTION CARRIED
A thank you note from Pat Saponare for flowers was
noted. Notification was received that
Shawna Wisnioski, a teacher at
Another piece of correspondence was a reference to material
seen in the Hartford Courant today. Dr.
Vautour gave the members a document he had received late yesterday
afternoon. It was a news announcement
from the State Department of Education, indicating that there are 99 districts
in the State of
Dr. Vautour noted that Rocky Hill was on the federal list because of the area of science and in writing across the curriculum at the tenth grade level, where there was a requirement to have 154 out of 162 students participate on the CMTs and CAPTs; Rocky Hill had 152 students participating. The participation rate was 93.8%; the federal government requires a 95% participation rate. It is not mandatory for students at the tenth grade level, and some tenth graders elect not to participate. Other tenth graders are repeating the test and elect not to participate.
In terms of meeting goals in math, reading, science and writing, in grades 4, 6 8 and 10, Rocky Hill exceeded the federal expectations in every instance.
AUDIENCE
PARTICIPATION
RHTA Liaison
Committee
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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There was no report.
T. J. Viggiano, a fourth grader at
Darianna Fitzgerald reported that the Stevens town meeting
will be held on Friday, December 12, in the gym, for grades one and three. Mayor Cusano will be swearing in the officers
of the student council. The annual craft
will be held tomorrow night, December 5 at
Chris Bortolan and Laura Salinas, West Hill reporters, said that October ended with an annual Halloween parade. The student center representatives have begun holding meetings. The school was treated to a presentation of poetry in motion, which consists of a father, mother, and son team, who travel around the country, transforming children’s poetry into performance art. Students at West Hill celebrated Thanksgiving.
The Kindergarten students are making kind deed trees. First grade students held an authors’ tea. Students re-enacted the pilgrims’ voyage on the Mayflower, and studied the first Thanksgiving. Students were involved in the holiday craft festival. The second grade will be involved in a multi-cultural project in December, where they will learn about different holiday traditions around the world. They will perform dances and share crafts at the December 10 meeting.
During the month of November third graders participated in a fund raising activity, the heifer international project, and students donated $90. Fourth grade students have finished the animal studies unit, and will view a live rain forest animal program in December. Students learned multiplication skills and facts. They chose their state in preparation for the state fair project. Fifth graders have also begun DARE, and many of them have joined the Mustang community service club.
Allison Landy, a
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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Griswold is having their mugs for meals sale on December 11. The Robotics Club is involved in a competition on December 14. Emily reported that the Student Council was planning its next Spirit Day on Tuesday, December 23, which will be a pajama day. They are also planning a toy drive, on December 5 through December 15. The school was very successful in its non-perishable food drive.
Meeting Open to
the Public
There was no one from the public wishing to address the Board on any item not on the agenda.
1. Consent Calendar
Mrs. Bell explained that the consent calendar allows Board members to vote on a group of items that include non-controversial business.
Moved by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by
Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse, to accept the consent calendar of December 4, 2003.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
2. Personnel and Negotiations
No report.
3. Policy
No report.
No report.
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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5. Curriculum
Mrs. Vargas reported that the Committee was planning its first meeting during the first week of January.
6. Professional Development
No report.
7. Facilities
Mr. Bostwick reported that he was in the process of getting information and working with the Town Manager, Barbara Gilbert, and Council Member, Lori Littman. The first formal meeting will be held next week.
8. Technology
No report.
9. Transportation/Accommodations
No report.
NEW BUSINESS
10. Reading in Unison Project
Dr. Vautour explained that administration had come to the
Board several years ago with an idea that if the schools were able to conduct
reading instruction at the earliest ages possible, using a multiple
disciplinary approach, the district would make inroads in terms of improving
student success. The district has been
involved with a collaborative approach with Cromwell and
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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Ruth Levy addressed the Board. She introduced members of her staff who were
involved in the
The Reading in Unison project focused at meeting diversity of all students, including special education students and general education students, students who have English as a second language, students who were at risk, as well as students who were proficient readers to enrich their abilities in reading and to encourage them.
The State Department of Education and the Special Education
Resource Center provided the training to begin the project.
Administration knew about the benefits of inclusion and meeting the needs of diverse students in the classroom. There were additional benefits as well. The focus was on pre-reading and literacy skills. Teachers who taught phonemic awareness have been shown to accelerate writing and reading success and effective reading success.
Members of the team discussed the different components in phonemic awareness, which is the knowledge of sounds and how those sounds blend together to form words, phrases and sentences. The goal is to help children develop an ear for language. Phonemic awareness skills are assessed in Kindergarten. The Moser team piloted the process for their professional development in 2002/2003. This year, the entire district is using the screening to assess all Kindergarten students. Screening is given three times a year, in September, December and June.
The assessment tool screens phonemic awareness skills in developmental order. Students start with rhyming, segmentation, isolation, and deletion. Teachers teach substitution using blocks, blending skills, letter and graph themes. They learn the impact of basic skills acquired in Kindergarten.
The team discussed the impact of phonemic awareness. Students learned substitution as well as rhyming and segmentation. Of the 33 children in a class, who were tested at
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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the beginning of the year, one child was in the 90th percentile; the rest of the students were in the 40% to 50%; by the end of the year, there was only one child who fell below the 90% percentile. That child was an ESOL child, and obtained a 58% percentile by the end of the year.
This year the students were working on rhyming and segmentation. Only ¼ of the students understood rhyming at the beginning of the year, and most of the class can now tell what rhymes are and produce their own rhymes. At West Hill the two strong areas are the children’s progress and the development range of students’ needs which is being met in a consistent way. The children are benefiting. Speech therapists and special needs teachers are involved. The pre-Kindergarten interview process has changed. There are speech and language persons, OT and PT, so the teachers have information before the children come to school. More children are now reading in Kindergarten, or are ready to ready when they get to first grade.
Literacy skills are important, and similar skills are being taught in Kindergarten, preparing the students for beginning to read. Classroom teachers, special education teachers and reading consultants are collaborating to develop the most appropriate instruction for the individual needs of each child. Students are introduced to rhyming and learn the difference between letters, words and sentences. They learn to segment sounds and blend sounds.
Collaboration is between special and language pathologists,
regular education teachers, special education teachers and reading
specialists. All planning is done once a
month. Teachers discuss individual
weaknesses and monitor the success and difficulty levels the children are
having. An inclusionary model is used,
where everything is taking place in the classroom. Staff maintains a small group for a thirty
minute session and then the group rotates centers, which are up to
The classroom teachers identify the readers at each level. The special education teachers identify the students at risk. The speech and language pathologist identifies the language based deficits in all articulation areas that go beyond the developmental level, and the reading specialist identifies the reading readiness skills in each individual child.
Ms. Levy explained that the assessment instrument was piloted last year, and was based on research done in the area of phonemic awareness. The overall score in Moser was 58% correct on the phonemic awareness in the beginning of the year; the number included all students. By the end of the year, 94% scored well on the exam.
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Board of Education
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Teaching Literacy Competencies (TLC) is the early
intervention program provided in Grade One.
Curriculum, early intervention, self esteem and motivation were discussed. As a result of Public Act 99227, an early reading success panel was developed, which included elementary school teachers, librarians, reading specialists, state legislators, early and higher education experts, who were knowledgeable in the field of reading. The report used phonemic awareness skills as a pre-requisite to early literacy skills. Teachers must have a wide range of instructional strategies and extensive knowledge about reading acquisition as well as the cause of reading difficulties.
Teachers learn how to teach the critical phonemic awareness skills and incorporate them into daily lessons. Information enables teachers and support staff to provide strategies to help children at risk development oral language skills needed for reading. Within early intervention, children who struggle with reading in the primary grades are at high risk of long term reading failure.
Using appropriate instructional strategies in Kindergarten will enable children to acquire pre-requisite skills for reading. Repeated failure has a negative effect.
Ms. Levy noted there were benefits for children, for adults, and for looking at the district’s curriculum and aligning its efforts in order to use approaches that are reaching every child. Using a data base will help administration be able to track every child’s progress from Kindergarten on. The district will use ongoing research in early literacy to help define the techniques the district is using and the strategies. The district will continue to use inclusion efforts that will be motivators that will make children life-long learners.
Chairman Bell felt it would be worthwhile to follow this group of students throughout their academic careers and to determine if there are any differences in the Mastery Tests, CAPT and the SATs.
Mrs. Schmidt asked about the phonemic skill awareness of substitution. The teachers had said they used colored blocks; she asked if the students could identify letters, and if they
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Board of Education
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could, whether they would be confused by using blocks that had colors with no letters to reinforce what the letters were.
The teachers explained that they were not introducing any letters at that point; they were using auditory skills and trying to teach the students that words have a beginning, middle and ending sound.
Mrs. Schmidt asked how many times a week the program was offered to students; she was told it was held once a week, but that the Kindergarten teachers used the skills on an ongoing basis. The class was a half hour class once a week. Every seven to ten minutes, the students move from staff to staff member.
Mrs. Schmidt asked if the program replaced something else that was previously taught for that period of time; she was told that collaboration was taking place before; the phonemic awareness with the survey and the specificity of the skills provided the staff with a nice curriculum with a more organized approach.
11. School Calendar 2004-05
Dr. Vautour had submitted a proposed calendar for the year 2004-05, and within that calendar, new teacher orientation would occur on August 24. The first three days for the regular staff would be August 25 through 27, which would be devoted to professional development. School would start on August 30.
Election Day will be coupled with the preceding Monday so there will be two days for professional development in November, and another day in April. The calendar has a standard Christmas break, Thanksgiving break, and a mid-winter break around President’s Day, and the April break in the third full week of April. The calendar conforms to the Capitol Region Education Council proposals. With the magnet schools and CHOICE program alternatives, it is more critical for districts to coordinate their calendars. The CREC guidelines are that the opening of school would be before Labor Day whenever Labor Day falls on September 5, 6, or 7. If it falls on September 1, 2, or 3, the district would contemplate a post-Labor Day opening.
The district would deal with a holiday recess, including December 24 through January 1. If January 2 falls on a Friday, it would be a vacation day. There would be a full week winter recess beginning with President’s Day, and the spring recess should be scheduled for the third week in April. In other years, when Good Friday has been close to the third
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Board of Education
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week in April, the district has coupled those two together. There is now a further restriction, since April 1 through 16 has been identified by the State as test administration
time for CAPT and CMTs. The last day of school is scheduled for June 15, assuming no snow days. Dr. Vautour pointed out that there were nine snow days in 1993. State law does not allow school to remain open later than June 30. The district would have to draw time from the April vacation if it ran out of days.
Moved by Mrs. Vargas, seconded by Mrs. Schmidt, to accept the 2004-05 school calendar as presented by Dr. Vautour.
Mr. McMonigle was opposed to starting school before Labor Day, even though he realized that starting school before Labor Day allowed for professional development days. Dr. Vautour explained that the district allowed for six professional development days, meeting requirements. The district provided three, and made it possible for staff to do curriculum and departmental work on those other days. Starting school after Labor Day would bring the schedule to June 22 without snow days.
Mrs. Bell pointed out that several years ago, the district had a late school closing date, and it caused problems with graduating seniors who had mandatory college orientations. Mrs. Schmidt noted that a few years ago, the district gave up its February and April vacations, and had one in March. The Board members noted the magnet schools, GHAMAS and the School for Performing Arts and their schedules, which Rocky Hill had to coordinate with.
FAVOR: Members Arico,
Geldof, Palazzolo, Schmidt,
Vargas,
Viggiano-Grosse
AGAINST: Mr.
McMonigle
MOTION CARRIED
12. Budget Interpretation Sheets
Mr. Turansky stated that next month the Superintendent would present the proposed budget. The budget will be divided into 41 separate programs or areas of concentration, and cost centers. He reviewed the account code structure and budget estimate categories. In the budget document there will be a detailed budget page followed by back up. Mr. Turansky reviewed the page set up which will be used for each program.
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Board of Education
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Mr. Geldof asked why each program area did not have a description page behind it, giving the Board members an overview of what the program was trying to achieve with a synopsis of what has taken place in the past two years.
Mr. Turansky explained that that review was part of the discussion that occurs during the budget process. Dr. Vautour added that several years ago, administration went into that much detail. Discussion typically occurs during the budget charge in October; he noted the timing problem of changing the process this late.
Dr. Vautour explained the process begins in October with the high school principals with their staff, who begin generating their requests. The focus has been on the Board’s allowing the school administration to express its needs.
13. Acronyms List
The Board members had received a list of acronyms used by the school district.
14. Workshops for New Board Members
The Superintendent proposed orientation workshops for new members, in the following areas: Special Education Mandates/Due Process/Funding; Teacher Employment/Evaluations/Termination; Strategic School Profiles; Curriculum and Instruction, and Student Discipline/Suspension/Expulsion. He ranked them in order of interest and recommended a two hour workshop every other week. The Board members would be polled as to available dates and times.
Chairman Bell reviewed the list of upcoming events in the district.
Moved by Mrs. Vargas, seconded by Mrs. Schmidt, to adjourn the meeting
at
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie W. O’Neill, Recording Secretary
Accepted by: _________________