TOWN
OF ROCKY HILL
BOARD
OF EDUCATION
MEETING
OF
Members
Present: Neil
Geldof (Chairman)
Jennifer Viggiano-Grosse
Nadine Bell
Peter Arico
Mark E. Carberry
Charles McMonigle
Rene R. Rivard
Catherine Vargas
Members
Absent: Anne Schmidt
A meeting of the Board of Education was
held on
The pledge of allegiance was recited.
Chairman Geldof welcomed everyone
including Mayor LaRosa.
APPROVAL
OF MINUTES
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Bell, to accept the
minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mr. Carberry, to accept the
minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Mr. Rivard requested that minutes of
committee meetings list the chair of the committee, members who were present,
and identify any persons from the public who speak at the meetings.
Moved by Mr. Rivard, seconded by Mr. Carberry, to accept the
minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Carberry, seconded by Mr. Rivard, to accept the
minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse, to
accept the minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mr. Carberry, to accept the
minutes of the January 17, 2006, Board of Education Special Meeting.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse, to
accept the minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse, to
accept the minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse, to
accept the minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Carberry, seconded by Mr. Arico, to accept the
minutes of the February 2, 2006, Board of Education Special Meeting.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Mrs. Vargas and Mr. Geldof thanked the
Board Secretary on behalf of the entire Board for an excellent job in reporting
the budget sessions.
CORRESPONDENCE
Dr. Vautour reported receipt of a
letter to Mr. Nick Vargas at
Mr. Geldof reported on a verbal
correspondence he received at last week’s Town Council meeting from Mayor
LaRosa asking the Board to appoint two members to a Liaison Committee between
the Town Council and the Board of Education.
Mr. Geldof appointed Mrs. Vargas and Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse.
AUDIENCE
PARTICIPATION
RHTA
Liaison Committee – No report.
Student
Representatives
Jesse Turgeon, fifth grade student from
Amelia Pizzoferrato reported the
following on behalf of
Meghana Damaraju and Rushi and Parik
Shah of
James Italia, eighth grade student at
Nicholas Italia, sixth grade student at
Meeting
Open to the Public
Mrs. Tracey Mozdzierz,of 63 Grimes Road
and member of Concerned Parents In Action, recently sent a letter to members of
the Board and is here this evening to learn of any progress that’s been made on
the following questions presented in that letter.
(1)
Whether or not the Board of Education would be able to invite the Town
Council to view the schools and do a walkthrough based on the pending
facilities study. Mr. Geldof said
yes. The Committee that was appointed
between the Town Council and the Board will be working together and will invite
all members of the Council and the Board to do a walkthrough of the schools.
(2)
One of the middle schools in the area was recently locked down which
raised the question of the current policies and procedures for securing our
schools and whether or not the public has access to those policies and
procedures. Dr. Vautour responded that
there is a detailed emergency operations manual in each of the schools that
covers a variety of possible emergencies; i.e., weather-related emergencies,
intruders, bomb threats, etc. Procedures
are reviewed annually and discussed with faculty, however, upon advisement of
the police department it is not available to the public for the reason that if
the emergency procedures were know to individuals, such as intruders, it would
defeat the purpose of having the manual.
Mrs. Mozdzierz asked if parents would be notified if Rocky Hill had a
lockdown situation. Dr. Vautour said,
yes, if there was such a unique situation everyone would be contacted.
Mrs. Ethna Lamontange, of
Mr. Geldof thanked the Concerned
Parents in Action for bringing these situations to the Board’s attention.
1. Consent Calendar
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse, to
approve the February 16, 2006, Consent Calendar.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
COMMITTEE REPORTS
2.
Personnel and Negotiations: No report.
3.
Policy:
Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse reported that there would be no reading of the policy
tonight; the first reading will be at the March 16th Board of
Education meeting.
4. Finance:
Mr. Rivard reported that the Finance committee held it’s budget meetings
during the month of January. Board
members and administrators conducted a line item review of the budget as
proposed by the superintendent and encouraged public input. After careful deliberation and consideration,
the superintendent’s proposed budget was reduced by $493,650 and 7.05
FTE’s. The budget approved by the Board
for submission to the Town Manager reflects a requested increase of $1,588,365
or 6.88% over last year’s approved budget.
The budget allows for maintenance of current educational programs,
continues the incremental improvements begun in previous years and allows for a
very modest improvement in student instruction.
On behalf of the Finance Committee, Mr. Rivard thanked Board members,
administrators, the Finance Director and Superintendent for their time,
consideration and careful deliberations.
5. Curriculum: No report.
6. Professional Development: No report.
7.
Facilities: Mr.
Arico reported that the facilities report has been completed. It was prioritized and presented to the
Facilities Director for action and approval, and the Feasibility Study has been
completed and has been received.
8. Technology:
No report.
9.
Transportation/Accommodations:
No report.
OLD
BUSINESS
None.
NEW
BUSINESS
10. Art Recognition
Mr. Pitocco introduced Penelope Yocum
and her partner Louis Palmieri who received the Gold Key Award in animation in
a recent national Scholastic Art Awards competition, which is a nationwide
competition. In
Mr. Pitocco said a great deal of credit
also goes to their art teacher, Mrs. Schnyder, who was not in attendance, but
sent along a note congratulating the students and explaining the amount of work
they put into the project. They also
received the Dick Blick award for best animation (in which some of the vendors
judged entries) and their entry was one of five American Vision nominations for
this state. This is the first American
Visions nomination for any student at
Mr. Pitocco said the art department
submitted a total of 16 works. 10
received recognition. Students who
received honorable mention were: Michele
Pagorski in mixed media and painting; Erica Baloign in photography; Katie Bayne
in ceramics and glass; Katlyn Lee in ceramics and glass; Sarah Schmidt in
ceramics and glass; Steven Demasavich in graphic design; Dustin Stellar in
graphic design; and Barbara Zaluski in graphic design. Mr. Pitocco said they are proud of work done
by all the students.
The claymation project was presented.
11. Project Lead the Way (PLTW)
Mr. Pitocco explained the Project Lead
the Way certification process.
Self-evaluation documents were submitted prior to the visit that enabled
the certification committee to get a sense of where we are and what we see as
our strengths and areas of need.
The certification committee from the
Students do have to pay for the courses
similar to advance placement credits, but if the college of their choice
accepts the credits, they are credits they do not need to achieve there.
A letter from the Executive Director
said the site visit team was very impressed with all aspects of the program and
with the vitality and interest of students, staff, and the community.
He explained some recommendations made
by the committee. As a result of making this an inclusive program one of the things they struggled with was the
range of students in a class that created the need to modify instruction and
also created a level of frustration among students. They recognized this and it was pointed out
as an area of need and weakness.
The three high school counselors went
to new training again this past fall after the visit so we are up to
speed. The committee was pleased with
our attempts to attract female students but made a recommendation that we try
to formalize it a little more. At
freshman parent orientation, Mr. Iavarone had a specific brochure about
engineering and females and today all three tech-ed teachers go to
There was another recommendation that
we change the sequence of classes.
Another area the committee spoke to us
about was the issue of the correlation of what is required in mathematics
relative to the specific course students are taking. We have been aware of that and what we are
doing now is putting it in black and white in the Program of Studies. Students and their parents can read in the
course description the level of mathematics that is recommended if they want to
go into the course.
Mr. Pitocco concluded by stating we are
still growing, we feel good about the report, are proud of acknowledgment of
the program’s strengths, and accept the recommendations concerning areas of
need.
Mrs. Bell asked if it looks like most
students are staying in the program. Mr.
Pitocco said it’s a combination. Some students have taken the courses as
electives. In terms of any students who
could have completed the sequence this year, we won’t have anybody taking the 5th,
the capstone course next year. If the
students that are in the program continue, the year after we should have some students
taking the capstone course.
Mrs. Bell asked if a year-to-year
comparison reveals that more students are getting involved. Mr. Pitocco said the numbers are growing in
the entry level classes last year and this year, so the base is getting bigger.
12. School Calendar
Dr. Vautour explained that this is an
item of clarification. Subsequent to the
Board’s approval of the 2006-2007 school calendar a counting error was
uncovered. An adjustment was made the
result of which is rather than June 15th being the last day of
school it will be June 18th baring snow days.
Mr. Geldof asked how snow days
work. Dr. Vautour explained there is a
requirement that school be completed by June 30th. If the situation occurs where the number of
snow days is excessive and would take us beyond June, as outlined on the school
calendar such days will be taken from the April vacation commencing with the
last day of the vacation period. So, if June 18th is the anticipated
close of school, take out Saturday and Sundays for the remainder of the month
and that’s the maximum number of snow days you can have. If we should exceed those, then we will move
into the April vacation. The highest number of snow days Dr. Vautour could
recall was, nine.
Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse asked about going
back to school before Labor Day. She
said she feels it’s inconvenient for people when considering vacations and end
of summer activities and asked if it wasn’t disruptive to students to begin
school on a Thursday, have Saturday, Sunday and Monday off, then go back on a
Tuesday, which is when the school year really starts. Dr. Vautour explained that every year he
reviews the CREC recommendations that define when to start before or after
Labor Day. He uses this guideline
because they strive for consistency; there are 35 towns that are feeding
students into CREC programs and we have attempted to maintain that calendar.
13. NCLB Reports
Dr. Vautour stated Board members have a
series of reports that the State Department of Education has issued in compliance
with the No Child Left Behind act - federal legislation that has set as a
target that by the year 2014, 100% of all students in the United State of
America will achieve proficiency at a designated level in the areas of reading,
math, and writing. Each year the report
comes out and indicates whether or not we have made sufficient progress, it’s
known as Annual Yearly Progress (AYP).
The target for 2004-2005 was in the area of math. Students performing at
or above proficiency had to be 65% or greater in order for the school to have
achieved AYP. On the CAPT for math it
was 59% of the students; in the area of reading on the CMT it was 57% of
students; and on the CAPT 62%. Also for
a 2004-05 target, there is a writing requirement where 70% of students need to
be at or above basic performance levels in writing and high schools need a
graduation rate of 70% or greater. The
target is moving annually because by 2014 the target is 100%. For all grades and all subjects tested Rocky
Hill has achieved the AYP targets.
Dr. Vautour explained the report on the
qualifications of Rocky Hill teachers and the minor fluctuation in the range
from 100 to 95 percent of teachers deemed to be highly qualified. He explained that 5% of a teaching population
at Griswold translates into one, maybe two, teachers. When the classification
is not highly qualified what is
triggering that is we have a long-term sub in place that may not have the exact
certification, but is certainly qualified. We have on average 98+% of our staff that meet
all criteria for NCLB.
Dr. Vautour said next year we are
moving from testing in grades 4, 6, and 8 to testing grades 3 through 8. There will be an aggregate number in
subgroups that requires us to look at their performance; i.e., the state and federal
government will report out on. We are
predicting that for
Mr. Arico asked if Dr. Vautour had any
idea of the financial impact this will have on our budget in two to five
years. Dr. Vautour said, no. Financial impacts are already in place. We have an array of special education and
support service programs. The unknown is
what the state will do as schools are deemed to be failing. Under the law parents of children attending
schools that have been deemed to be failing for two years running may elect to
have their children attend another school in the district. But when all are failing, where do you
turn? People are beginning to realize
that there are a lot of independent entities surfacing that will provide
tutorial services and we don’t have any idea of how many individuals might be
involved and/or what the cost might be.
Commissioner Sternberg has done some estimates that indicate it’s going
to be millions and millions of dollars at the state level.
Mr. Rivard asked if regarding the 100%
mandate that in the classroom teachers might be tempted to teach to the test
rather than as they typically would in a classroom. Dr. Vautour said not only teach to the test,
but to rig the test. He said there are a
couple of middle schools currently under investigation because of suspected
staff correction of bubbles that students did. The more you increase the high
stakes in a situation like this you invite that possibility. We are taking every precaution with our CMT
and CAPT test materials to ensure they are in a locked location each evening to
eliminate the possibility of that presenting itself. There have been instances in this state prior
to NCLB where teachers or administrators have lost their jobs because of the
desire to make the scores look that much better.
Mr. Rivard asked if Dr. Vautour has the
confidence in our professional teachers that they recognize students who might
be falling behind and direct themselves to improving those students performance
without this mandate. Dr. Vautour said
absolutely. We did not need NCLB in
Rocky Hill.
Mr. Rivard asked Dr. Vautour if
students who are aware of these upcoming tests do they feel additional stress. Dr. Vautour said yes.
Mrs. Bell asked Dr. Vautour if he
expected to see any trend in the scores due to the tests now given in March
instead of September. Dr. Vautour said
the effect is going to be that you have no comparative base; we will be
establishing a brand new base this year and we will work from that. One major difference with testing fourth
grade in March, fourth grade teachers are very, very focused on the fact that
their teaching is going to be under greater scrutiny; which clearly puts the
ownership of this year on the current teacher. In the past, tests taken in fourth grade and were
really testing third, second, and first grade.
So, it builds pressure in a number of different ways. During the two-week period when exams are
being given, it will be no surprise if there is a spike in the number of
stomach aches and other behaviors because children become somewhat stressed
out.
14. Audit Report
Mr. Turansky explained some time ago
Board members received four documents concerning the audit. The first is the
Town’s comprehensive annual financial report.
Pages 6 and 7 contain the independent auditor’s report which is the
unqualified audit opinion that we look for that states the financial statements
fairly represent the financial position of the town and is basically a sign
that everything is in good shape within the town. Beside the unqualified
opinion, the audit also provides reasonable assurance that statements are free
from material misstatements. It also
indicates evidence has been reviewed that supports the amounts and disclosures
in the financial statements and also indicates the accounting principles used
in the town have been assessed and meet the accounting standards and meet the
auditor’s approval.
Mr. Turansky said they also received
two documents that look similar; one is a report on federal awards, and the
other is the report on state financial assistance programs, or grants. In both of these reports, there have been no
reportable instances of noncompliance with program requirements. There were no reportable conditions regarding
internal controls over financial reporting and there were no findings or
questioned costs identified during the audit.
Mr. Turansky said the final document is
the auditor’s management letter. That is the letter that would indicate any
findings or “slaps on the wrist” that might be included of which there were
none in this audit. So, there are no
questioned costs or reported items here.
Mr. Turnasky explained this letter is also
used for constructive suggestions and for giving a “heads-up” on occasion. Here, there is a significant heads-up that is
associated with the governmental accounting standards board, GASB. Statements numbered 43 and 45 relating to
post-employment benefits other than pensions specifically refer to
post-retirement and medical benefits.
Currently, the way our budget is set up is on a pay-as-you-go basis, so
our operating budget includes an amount that’s used for the premiums that are
paid for both our current employees and our retired employees - the cost of the
benefits are recorded when the benefits are actually paid. GASB 43 is requiring that the costs of the
benefits be recognized when services are rendered rather than when the benefits
are paid; i.e., when the employee is working and earning those post-retirement
benefits. This is similar to the way
pensions are treated where you have to record a liability and start funding
that obligation prior to the person retiring. The actual cost of the benefits is a
combination of the normal current costs plus an amortization of prior service
costs. So, if you have a number of
employees that have been here for a number of years, they have essentially
accumulated a liability on their post-retirement benefits even though they are
not receiving those yet. The law calls
for those costs to be amortized over a possible 30-year period. This will be determined by an actuarial study
that’s going to have to be undertaken. This
statement is going to be effective in the 2007-08 budget for the first time.
Mr. Turansky went on to explain that
GASB 45 which will go into effect in the 2008-09 budget takes this a step
further and requires actual reporting on the financial statements of the annual
cost plus the funding that is put against that liability. There are no requirements to actually fund
the liability, but the problem is that if you don’t fund the liability your
balance sheet will show a substantial liability with no asset to offset it and
will eventually get to the point where your financial condition is going to be
compromised in terms of the bond rating which will be significantly decreased
if you don’t keep up with this liability. A trust fund will have to be established on
the Town’s side in order to hold the funds over a period of time in which case
it could be a period of 30 years at least to cover that initial amortization.
Mr. Turansky said he and Mayor LaRosa
have attended workshops to learn more and their plan is after this budget cycle
they will meet with the auditors and learn more about the requirements. The process will involve many discussions
between the Superintendent, the Town Manager, and other individuals to map out
a course. We will need to select
actuaries to do a study and map out a plan.
Mr. Turansky explained there are several alternatives involved in each
step along the way and it’s going to require careful study, and wanted the
Board to be aware that it is coming up.
Mr. Geldof reminded everyone that next
week is winter recess and the Rocky Hill Education Foundation and the Rocky
Hill Junior Women’s Club are holding an art auction and exhibit on Saturday,
March 11, in the St. James parish hall admission is $10.
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse, to go
into Executive Session.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Moved by Mrs. Vargas, seconded by Mr. Carberry, to come out
of Executive Session. (8:58 p.m.)
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Moved by Mrs. Vargas, seconded by Mrs. Viggiano-Grosse, to
adjourn the meeting. (8:59 p.m.)
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Respectfully submitted,
Juanda Simons
Recording Secretary
Accepted by: ____________________ Date: _____________________