TOWN
OF ROCKY HILL
BOARD
OF EDUCATION
MEETING
OF APRIL 27, 2006
Members
Present: Neil
Geldof (Chairman)
Nadine Bell
Peter Arico
Mark E. Carberry (7:48 p.m.)
Charles McMonigle
Rene R. Rivard
Anne Schmidt (7:17
p.m.)
Catherine Vargas
Members
Absent: Jennifer
Viggiano-Grosse
A meeting of the Board of Education was
held on Thursday, April 27, 2006, in the Council Chambers of the
The pledge of allegiance was recited.
APPROVAL
OF MINUTES
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Bell, to accept the
minutes of the March 16, 2006, Board of Education meeting.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Bell, to accept the
minutes of the March 14, 2006, Facilities Committee meeting.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Bell, to accept the
minutes of the March 16, 2006, Facilities Committee meeting.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Bell, to accept the
minutes of the March 21, 2006,
Facilities Committee meeting.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Rivard, seconded by Mr. McMonigle, to accept
the minutes of the March 21, 2006,
Finance Committee meeting.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mr. Rivard, to accept the
minutes of the March 30, 2006, Facilities Committee meeting.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
CORRESPONDENCE
Dr. Vautour reported receipt of the
following correspondence:
AUDIENCE
PARTICIPATION
RHTA
Liaison Committee – No report.
Student
Representatives
Tim Kooney, 7th grade
student at Griswold Middle School, reported on the many activities at GMS
including, Family and Consumer Science donations to the St. Vincent DePaul and
physical education classes collected almost $2,000 for the Am. Heart Assoc.,
Hoops for Heart; and the Student Council’s Pennies for Patients collected close to $2,500 for the Leukemia
and Lymphoma Society.
Nick Vargas and Nichole Grzick of Rocky
Hill High School, Drama Club, invited
everyone attend the spring production of Footloose on May 5 & 6 at 8:00 p.m.; May 7 at 2:00 p.m.; May 12
& 13 at 8:00 p.m.
Meeting
Open to the Public
Lori Littmann, requested the Board of
Education consider holding subcommittee meetings in the Chambers which would
allow the town to videotape the meetings which could then be shown over Channel
16, thus providing information to the general public.
Mrs. Littmann said she has been
following the Feasibility Study process and has attended several of the
meetings that were held in the evening.
Unfortunately, the meeting held today was at a time when she was working
so she was unable to attend. It is
important for her as a Town Council member to be informed. The Board will be making a recommendation for
the Town Council to consider which will have a financial impact on the
residents of the Town, and she would like to have all the information she can
when making her decision.
She requested a copy of the minutes
from today’s meeting.
1. Consent Calendar
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
COMMITTEE REPORTS
2.
Personnel and Negotiations. No report.
3.
Policy. Dr. Vautour requested the second reading of
Policy 1330, dealing with Community Relations, Facilities Use and the fee
structures associated with the use. Dr.
Vautour explained that the changes were reviewed in detail at the last Board of
Education meeting and he requested a second reading and a vote for adoption of
the revisions to the Policy.
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Bell, for a second
reading of,
and to approve and adopt the revisions of, Policy 1330,
Facilities Use Fees.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
4. Finance.
Mrs. Schmidt reported the Committee met this past Tuesday for the sole
purpose of discussing insurance with Mr. Lindberg. The Committee is pleased to report that
through very stringent negotiations with the teachers resulting in changes made
to their contract, the town was able to secure several companies that would bid
for the business of the Rocky Hill benefits.
Through that process and the diligent work by Mr. Lindberg, we were able
to secure a savings of approximately $330,000 of expenses we anticipated. We were pleased to share this information
with the Town Council during their deliberations over the Board of Education
budget - which has gone very well. It
appears that they will be fully funding the Board this year for the needs of
our program.
5. Curriculum. Mr. Rivard reported the Committee met and
discussed the difficult situation facing administration, staff, and faculty
over the past year with trying to keep a Latin instructor. They addressed the concerns and optimism of
parents and well as the curriculum committee and have, hopefully, set aside any
misconceptions that may have occurred. He applauded administration and staff
for recognizing the situation and trying to bring the students whole within the
year.
The Committee also reviewed an update
on the math program. Mr. Rivard said the
Committee recognizes the efficacy of our Trailblazers program and looks forward
to a future analysis from our math specialist on the achievements that have
been accomplished in the past year.
6. Professional Development. No report.
7.
Facilities. Mr. Arico reported that since receiving the
Feasibility Study the Committee has met seven or eight times, including this
morning, with Mr. Sollmi, the Town Engineer, and has been provided with a list
of potential school sites for further consideration.
8. Technology.
No report.
9.
Transportation/Accommodations.
No report.
OLD
BUSINESS
None.
NEW
BUSINESS
Mrs. Bell made a recommendation to
modify the order of Agenda Items 10, 11 and 12 as follows: 10. Donation; 11. Hockey-Co-Op; and 12.
Technology Report.
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mr. McMonigle, to modify the
order of Agenda Items 10, 11 and 12 as follows:
10 Donation; 11. Hockey Co-Op;
and 12. Technology Report.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
10. Donation
Dr. Vautour explained that Dr. Barry
Rosenberg made a donation to
Mr. Watson explained that four
after-school programs have been added due to a generous donation made by Dr.
Rosenberg. Teachers have volunteered to
conduct the clubs utilizing the donated funds to purchase materials.
1.
Solar Powered Car Club.
Mr. Patarini, a TechEd teacher, is leading about 12 students who get to
make solar powered cars, experiment with them, and then keep them.
2.
Science Club. First
year teacher, Christine Haney is conducting a science club for sixth graders,
which includes activities that may not be part of the curriculum but do support
scientific concepts.
3.
Scrapbooking Club.
Lisa Brockel, a Guidance Counselor, is conducting a scrapbooking club
that’s worked out really well; she has been able to purchase materials for
students who haven’t been able to do that.
4.
GMS Book Club. Mrs.
O’Brien and Mrs. Matava will continue to run book clubs and will now be able to
get a copy of each book for each student.
Mr. Watson said they are very happy
with the clubs and very much appreciate the donation, and thanked Dr.
Rosenberg. Dr. Vautour also expressed
his appreciation and thanks to Dr. Rosenberg for helping to enhance programs
for our students and for making these four after-school activities possible.
11. Hockey Co-Op
Mr. Pitocco explained
Rocky Hill has about 13 students who
would like to continue playing hockey and RHAM has a group of parents who want
to initiate hockey in their school system.
If the Board approves entering into a co-op, the matter then goes to the
RHAM BOE for approval. After both boards
have approved, we file our application with the CIAC.
Mrs. Schmidt asked how a co-op team
competes. Mr. Pitocco said we are the
host school so it will still be in the northwest conference. The league has to approve it, which they have,
and nothing changes other than we have RHAM and Rocky Hill students playing
together as one team, in the same league and conference.
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Schmidt, for
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
12. Technology Report
Mrs. Boutilier explained through the
budget process she frequently referred to a requirement regarding a technology
plan; our need for a new course because of the technology plan, a need for 8th
grade literacy because of the technology plan, etc. She will now introduce the plan which
contains a look back to 2000 where we were, where we are, and the goals for the
next three years in the area of technology.
Mrs. Boutilier introduced three members
of technology staff: Catherine Gaudinski, software specialist, trainer and
professional developer: Ginny Clark, data analyst and web site person who is
responsible for obtaining email addresses for board members; and Fred Ames,
hardware specialist. She also introduced
two parents in attendance, Joe Casparino, who has been on the committee since
2000, and Howard Horn, a former board member involved with the Committee since
2000.
Mrs. Boutilier explained what they have
done when developing the technology plan is utilize a new concept in education
that is referred to as backwards design
wherein you define where you want to be at the end of a set period of time then
make step-by-step plans to get there. When
looking at where we want our students to be when they leave us, they used the
State Department goals: Improved student academic achievement through the use
of technology. They have added to that
something from our vision statement: We
want all students and staff to employ technology as a tool to access, analyze,
and utilize information.
Mrs. Boutilier explained with regard to
the goal of improved student academic achievement, in 2000 they set the
standards for how many computers should be in a classroom/computer lab, etc.,
and went about acquiring them through lease purchase plans. The 2003-2006 plan, which we are presently
working under, became more involved with the infrastructure, providing wireless
networks, storage space, and began data-driven decision-making, and we brought
to you a number of policies on the use of technology, websites, and internet policies
for students. We are now into the next
phase of the SDE plan and this will take us through 2009, the goals of this one
are more to look at the curriculum and integration of technology. We have developed a scope-and-sequence of
where do we want our students to be in 12th grade and how do we
assure that every student will be at that point. We continue to support staff with this, and
another goal is to look at access to make certain all of our students have
access to computers both at home or outside the school as well as within the
school.
Work began last November with a
committee of 22, looking at literature, talking to staff members about where
they are, what they need, and how can we help them move forward. We talked with former students who are at the
college level and learned that they are still very involved with technology, wishing
they learned typing early on – rather than in 9th grade – and that
they learned best when technology was applied to some real-life
experience/integrated into the class.
Mrs. Boutilier explained a draft plan
was submitted to CREC and received their “stamp of approval” and she needs
approval from the Board to submit the plan to the State Department of
Education. We shared our plan with the
Professional Development Committee and their overwhelming response was this is
pretty ambitious but we believe we can meet these goals over the next three
years.
The following seven goals were set by
the State Dept. of Education: (1) improve student academic achievement; (2) make
sure all staff members are also proficient; (3) make sure educational
institutions have the capacity – infrastructure, staffing, and equipment; (4) make certain all students have access to
computers and develop a way to ensure that all 8th grade students
have technological literacy; (5) make sure we are using data; (6) plan for funding; and (7) E-rate plan
whereby districts receive reduced costs for telecommunications fees.
Mrs. Boutilier said to meet the goal of
improving student academic achievement they started with what is already
working. A K-12 technology
scope-and-sequence was developed that defines where we want our students to be,
and when is the appropriate time to introduce the skill, and when should it be
mastered. We will be revising the role
of the library/media specialists because with our focus on integration they
will need to be working with classroom teachers. She met with library/media specialists to
discuss what parts of the plan should they own and be responsible for and the next
step will be to go to each grade level and department to see where in their
curricula we can put some of these other skills.
We will be developing an 8th
grade portfolio, we will start collecting work in the elementary school and by
the time students leave us in 8th grade they will be able to share
with parents their electronic portfolio using technology. Mrs. Boutilier spoke about a keyboarding
skills course discussed during the budget process stating that the feedback
provided by Board members is being utilized to develop a new proposal for next
year. We recognize some students come to
technology quickly and are further along than other students so one of our
tasks will be to develop assessments so we can differentiate and allow students
to move ahead at their own pace.
Catherine Gaudinski explained education
and professional development goals for educators to also achieve at a high
level using technology so they can be proficient at instruction of
students. She explained that it is not
enough that teachers and students have the skills, but that they are proficient
in the integration of technology with the curriculum. The first proposal is to perhaps create a
technology mentor/mentee system where experienced and novice teachers are
paired-up to collaborate allowing them to assist each other as needed. Another goal is to expand professional
development options in technology integration.
We have some resources available in-district, on-line, such as Microsoft
E-Learning Library where staff can access information for the skills set they
need for students. Other items we would
like to investigate are anytime, anywhere, on-line training resources, and to
include technology curriculum integration with the curriculum review cycle and
curriculum maps. The most important goal
of the Committee is the achievement of students in learning. We want to work with the technology to
support that. We will be working with
the Curriculum Review Committee to identify and develop lesson plans that will
be targeted and attached to the curriculum map so we will have resources
readily available to staff.
Fred Ames spoke about the
infrastructure in 2000 as compared with today.
He said in 2000, there were approximately 500 computers in the schools
that were all over five years old.
Today, we have approximately 720 Windows-based computers in the district
with approx. 100 computers over seven years old, approx. 200 over five years
old, about 300 over three years old, and 120 less than three years old. Within the buildings all computers are wired
at 100 Meg, wireless in most buildings and areas where laptops are used, and
all buildings are connected to CEN network where we get our internet. A municipal area network is how we interconnect
the buildings, and all buildings are interconnected at various speeds. In 2000, all data was saved to floppy
discs. Today, all staff and students
have storage on the network which is available anywhere within the town’s
wireless network.
Mrs. Boutilier said this is great, but
we still have some needs such as the interconnection speeds between buildings
has become inadequate which we are hoping will be taken care of next year. Many of our computers have reached the end of
their useful life, so when we look to spend our technology lease next year we
will look at a way to address that. With
regard to the hardware replacement plan put in place, it is essential we
maintain that. This is the first time we
have not been able to maintain that and we knew in October that our stockpile
of replacement computers had been used up so next year we will need to
catch-up. Same thing with software
acquisitions – there are some wonderful applications out there that move beyond
game playing and tutorial drills. This
year we purchased software that supports our math Trailblazers program which I
observed in use in first grade at West Hill that was found to be highly
motivating to students. We are
continuously looking for alternative funding sources such as
Mrs. Boutilier said another area we
need to grow is that of special education.
There is more and more assistive technology that’s been developed and we
need develop ways to determine what’s the right thing to purchase for which
student, when, and how to get teachers and students trained. Dr. Levy has put together a pupil personnel
services assistive technology team and we will be working with that team to
make sure that we are going hand-in-hand and that the stuff they are
recommending through the IEP will run on our system and Catherine can be
involved in the training.
Ginny
Mrs. Boutilier stated this past year
they conducted an analysis of the early intervention reading programs offer to
students in grades K and 1 using information from the data warehouse. In the past we had anecdotal data about the
effectiveness but could not point to any hard data about whether it really
worked. What we were able to do is take
this year’s fifth graders and back up to those students as first graders and
determine what interventions were in place for them, did they have remedial
reading assistance, did they have the TLC program, what kind of grades did they
receive on their regular assessments and report cards, how did they do on the 4th
grade CT mastery tests, etc. We were able
to take a snapshot of that group of students and from that extrapolate
information about the programs they had and the effectiveness. We are meeting tomorrow with
paraprofessionals who deliver that program to share the results and ask them
what can we learn from this, and out of that will come some program changes for
next year. It is a process based on hard
data instead of gut instinct.
Mrs. Boutilier explained presently we
have internal E-mail only for staff both within a building and across
buildings, however, they would very much like to be able to communicate outside
of the school system and as yet we do not have that capability.
The school web sites need some
work. We haven’t found the time or the
right person with the expertise to fully develop those so they are a much
better communication tool for parents.
Mrs. Boutilier explained that one of
the items in the technology request was to look at the financial software
package and the hardware that goes along with it because they are experiencing
difficulty with it partly due to the age of the software and more because the
package runs only on the older machines. We will probably be addressing that for next
year.
The downside of the elementary report
cards being done electronically is that teachers cannot do them from home and
they do not have a chunk of time at school to bring up that program and enter
all the information. We are looking at
something web-based that they would be able to utilize from outside the
building.
We are very grateful for the support
we’ve had, we’re proud of the progress that we’ve made but we know that we are
not done yet. With technology changing
so fast, we will never be complete so with your support we will be able to meet
the goals we’ve set over the next three years.
Mrs. Boutillier introduced Steve
Demasavich, a senior at RHHS, who has been accepted at
Steve said he would have never gone
into this field if he hadn’t been introduced to the technology in school. Now, I am taking an independent study with
Mrs. Schnyder studying web design and it is just a great class. It is imperative to have the newest software
which updates every year and the features that we have now compared to older
software are absolutely amazing. I would
never be able to do what I am doing now with Adobe 3.0 or any of the programs
we had back then. Just keeping current
with software is a necessity. The
interest is there to have all the new computers and software. It has just been a great experience for me
and I think we need to keep it going. I
believe if you keep going with changes as you have since 2000, it would be a
great place to introduce kids to the art world and what computers have to
offer.
Mrs. Boutilier introduced Joe
Casparino, a wonderful supporter and committed committee member since 1999, and
the father of a former Rocky Hill student who has been selected at UCONN to
take care of networking and helping other students as they come to the
university bring hardware that needs to be integrated into the system.
Mr. Casparino said there has seen
tremendous progress since the committee began.
As you see from the presentation, as we apply technology into the
curriculum we must have the technology available for the teachers in the
class. He has heard teachers express
concerns about the hardware failing during class. When that happens, Fred has to run around and
“cannibalize” equipment from one machine to another to make it work and to have
computers that are seven years old, it is tough to keep them running. A seven year old machine cannot handle the
technology of today. Technology is
moving very fast. For the education of
our children, we must make it a priority in the budget so we know that the
technology will be there to allow the curriculum to keep on going. I’d like to express my concern that we keep
up the good work and have the funding necessary to keep technology rolling so
that staff can teach our children.
Mrs. Boutilier explained that’s the
good news and the bad news. We are
making a lot of progress and doing some wonderful things, but the bad news is
we need to continue it. We’ve got
teachers who are very committed to making this happen in their classes for
their students so we have an obligation to continue to support them.
Mrs. Schmidt asked about the need for
“interconnecting” at West Hill and if the wireless upgrade would solve that
problem. Mr. Ames said that it would.
Mrs. Schmidt asked about data
warehousing of student information and if it is secure. Mrs. Boutilier said the data is being
protected, it is a secure site and we have student ID numbers that have been
assigned by the state when students enter school and that number and the data
follows them all the way through.
Mrs. Bell commented that Steve is a
wonderful example of providing enriching career oriented activities for our
students. He is a wonderful example of
why we so aggressively advocate for the funding that we do to provide this for
our students. It is just wonderful to
hear someone say that it made a difference because that is what we are trying
to do.
Mr. Carberry said as the special
representative to the technology committee, that over the few months he’s been
involved with it there has been a lot of really good work done and it can only
go up and we have to keep working hard. Staff
is excellent and we need to keep advocating for that money in the budget is
really important.
Mr. Geldof commented that the slide he
finds most disturbing is the one showing the ages of our computers and that is
something we need to publicize. He said
maybe the slide needs to be on hard copy in everyone’s office, in public
buildings, because we are sitting here with 700 computers of an age over five
years. These are machines that need to
be replaced. If we all remember those
numbers and how old the machines are, we will have some financial support to
replace them as we go through the several budget sessions over the next few
years.
13. Executive Session
Mr. Geldof requested a motion to move
the meeting into Executive Session, a two-part session; one dealing with
student discipline, and the other dealing with the evaluation of the
Superintendent of Schools.
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs. Schmidt, to move the
meeting into Executive Session (8:17 p.m.).
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Moved by Mrs. Vargas, seconded by Mr. Arico, to come out of
executive session. (9:40 p.m.)
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Moved by Mrs. Vargas, seconded by Mr. McMonigle, to approve
the recommendation of the superintendent regarding student discipline for
Student A and ratify the agreements set forth by the superintendent.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Rivard, seconded by Mrs. Schmidt, to approve
the recommendation of the superintendent regarding student discipline for
Student B and ratify the agreements set forth by the superintendent.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Carberry, seconded by Mr. Arico, to approve the
recommendation of the superintendent regarding student discipline for Student C
and ratify the agreements set forth by the superintendent.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Motion by Mrs. Vargas, seconded by Mr. McMonigle, to adjourn
the meetings. (9:43 p.m.)
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Respectfully submitted,
Juanda Simons, Recording Secretary
Accepted by: ____________________ Date: _____________________