Board of Education Meeting Minutes

April 1, 2008

ATTENDANCE: Susan Hamilton, Chair; Jody Bishop-Pullan; Glenn Iannaccone; Bruce Kimmel; Greg Burnett; Jack Chiaramonte; Rosa Murray; Shirley Mosby; Migdalia Rivas

STAFF: Dr. Salvatore Corda, Superintendent of Schools

OTHERS: Diane Lauricella; Sue Haney; Paul Blumenthal; Christina Haskins; Mary Budrawich; Stuart Opdahl

I. CALL TO ORDER – 7:45 P.M. – Rm. A300

Ms. Hamilton called the meeting to order at 8:02 p.m.

II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Ms. Hamilton led those present in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

III. SPOTLIGHT ON NORWALK PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Mr. Iannaccone read the following statement:

Congratulations to Nathan Hale Middle School, one of the schools selected by the New England League of Middle Schools to be recognized as a NELMS Spotlight School. Nathan Hale was selected because of its record of powerful learning for young adolescents and its consistent observance of middle school best practices. The award and designation will be in place for three years, assuming that the excellent practices continue. The school’s involvement with teaming, flexible scheduling, standards based instruction, appropriate grouping practices, smaller teams, interdisciplinary instruction, multiple intelligence’s, active hands-on classrooms, and parent involvement are but a few of the schools outstanding qualities. The district is very proud of this worthy recognition.

The Board then congratulated Mr. Robert McCain, Principal of Nathan Hale Middle School.

IV. SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT Budget Update

Dr. Corda said that whenever one of the schools gets recognized for such a worthy award, it is a result of the hard work that the entire staff does in recognizing that the process of getting better is keeping an eye on the ultimate goal, in the best interests of the children.

Dr. Corda discussed the personnel items, introducing the two new House Masters at Brien McMahon High School. Ms. Mary Michialidis, currently the Chairperson of the Math Department at Stamford High School, comes with a high level of commitment to excellence.

Dr. Corda then introduced Mr. Scott Hurwitz, currently a staff member at Brien McMahon High School, who demonstrated excellent leadership skills during the recent NIASC process.

Dr. Corda said that he was saddened to hear that Mr. Stuart Opdahl will be leaving Norwalk in another month to go to Oxford, working in a similar capacity. Dr. Corda said Mr. Opdahl made a tremendous impact on the City of Norwalk with regard to the school construction process over the last five years.

Dr. Corda said that the Board of Estimate delivered to the Common Council their recommendations in terms of the budget for the next fiscal year. The recommendation is a 4% increase for the Board of Education’s operating budget. A 4.9% increase had been recommended to the Board, so to reconcile this difference, planned expenditures would have to be reduced by $1.4M. The action would be official in the first week of May. He clarified that the budget to budget change in the operating budget is 4%. In the material that has been distributed about the change in the budget, the City presented it in a way that indicated changes in costs outside of the Board of Education’s operating budget for those expenses related to the Board of Education. For example, he mentioned debt service and its connection to the cost of renovating the schools. He said that he hoped that they won’t have to make significant reductions in programs.

V. PUBLIC COMMENT

Ms. Diane Lauricella, representing the League of Women Voters, spoke about recycling in the schools, and updating the program that already exists in the city which is administered by the DPW. She said it would be a great curriculum enhancement for the students to be more involved in this effort. She said that the LWV would like to set up a meeting in April, prior to Earth Day, with various city groups and individuals.

She then mentioned that there is a free workshop at the Greenwich Audobon Society on April 10 from 1-4 p.m. for supervisors and groundskeepers regarding pesticide use and the transition from traditional turf maintenance to organic maintenance.

Ms. Sue Haney, from Norwalk Speaks, said that the comments made earlier about Nathan Hale Middle School were true; she has two children there and she felt it is a wonderful school. She spoke about the Friday report, where it mentioned that Norwalk has submitted a request for a proposal to assess special education. The position paper that the Darien Superintendent submitted brings up several issues, specifically excess cost reimbursements and the shortage of special education teachers and specialists. She said there were three categories considered high incident, representing the bulk of special education cases, and they are learning disabled, speech, and other (ADHD). Combined, they represent over 80% of special education referrals. By definition, the children have average to above average intelligence. She said this represents 20% of the budget, and each special education student costs about $25,000 to educate.

Mr. Paul Blumenthal said that recently the Board approved an enrollment allocation for the Center for Global Studies, at 50/50, which meant 50% would be within the district of Norwalk, and 50% would be outside the district. He said that traditionally it is 70/30. He thought that they should give some consideration to the students that have gone through the Norwalk Public School system, and perhaps rewarding them on a better basis than 50/50. He didn’t want it to be a disadvantage to the City.

VI. ACTIONS

A. Consent

1. Personnel actions

** MR. IANNACCONE MOVED TO APPROVE THE PERSONNEL ACTIONS.

** MS. RIVAS SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

B. Approval of Minutes (March 18, 2008)

** MS. BISHOP-PULLAN MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF MARCH 18, 2008.

** MR. KIMMEL SECONDED.

The corrections to the minutes are as follows:

On page 1, under Superintendent’s Report, 3rd paragraph, 1st sentence, change “one of which was led by Ms. Bishop Pullan” to “two of which were led by Ms. Bishop Pullan”.

On page 3, under Appointments, 2nd paragraph, change “JEHASZ” to “JUHASZ”.

On page 6, last paragraph, the 1st sentence should read “Ms. Bishop Pullan asked Ms. McCarthy for clarification of the intended 50/50% ratio vs. the 60/40% ratio”.

On page 11, the last sentence is incomplete.

On page 12, the last sentence is incomplete.

** MOTION PASSED AS AMENDED WITH SEVEN VOTES IN FAVOR (CHIARAMONTE, BISHOP-PULLAN, KIMMEL, IANNACCONE, HAMILTON, BURNETT, RIVAS) AND TWO VOTES ABSTAINED (MOSBY, MURRAY).

C. Budget transfers

** MS. MURRAY MOVED TO APPROVE THE BUDGET TRANSFERS.

** MS. RIVAS SECONDED.

Mr. Burnett said that he had asked for more detail on the $15,000+ fringe benefit transfer. Ms. Mary Budrawich explained that the budget transfer is in her account for the School Readiness Monitoring as required by the State. The funds had been used for that purpose for the last two years. There was a question about Barbara Smart’s fringe benefits from the Youth Services Department budget, since she is an employee of the Board of Education. She said it was not unusual to split costs within the early childhood department. She said the Mayor and Mr. Hamilton asked them to seek an alternate solution. The agreement established was that they would make an even exchange, i.e. the money that Ms. Budrawich normally would use for School Readiness would be attributed to Ms. Smart’s fringe benefits and an equal amount would come from the Youth Services Department to pay for the School Readiness monitoring.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

D. Approval of field trips

1. Brien McMahon High School Marching Band to Texas

** MR. IANNACCONE MOVED TO APPROVE THE BRIEN MCMAHON HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND FIELD TRIP TO TEXAS.

** MS. RIVAS SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

2. Roton Middle School Odyssey of the Mind to Maryland

** MS. MURRAY MOVED TO APPROVE THE ROTON MIDDLE SCHOOL ODYSSEY OF THE MIND TRIP TO MARYLAND.

** MS. RIVAS SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED WITH EIGHT VOTES IN FAVOR (CHIARAMONTE, KIMMEL, IANNACCONE, MURRAY, HAMILTON, BURNETT, RIVAS, MOSBY) AND ONE VOTE ABSTAINED (BISHOP-PULLAN).

3. Rowayton Elementary School Odyssey of the Mind to Maryland

** MS. RIVAS MOVED TO APPROVE THE ROWAYTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ODYSSEY OF THE MIND TRIP TO MARYLAND.

** MR. KIMMEL SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

VII. INFORMATION AND REPORTS

A. Videotaping of Board Meetings

Ms. Christina Haskins, a videographer and producer of a public access show on Channel 77, spoke about the possibility of her videotaping the board meetings. She said it is simple and straight taping, and fairly inexpensive to do. She said that it could become more complex and professional as they went along. Her services are $50.00 per hour, or for longer meetings, she would charge on a project basis. She offered some suggestions to make the process more involved, such as interviewing teachers to make the contribution to the public access channel more significant.

Mr. Burnett asked if they had competitively bid out for this project. Dr. Corda clarified that the Board had asked them to bring a professional in the field to the meeting to give them an overview of the process and costs.

Some concerns were raised by the board members regarding the positioning of the camera, how some members of the community would access the tape via cable or computer, how some members of the community would be able to access the tape in another language, and who would foot the costs of the taping. It was agreed that the objective was to spend money on education, not to take money away from education for a service like this. Ms. Haskins suggested that a copy of the tape(s) be available in both the school library and the public library. It was suggested that it would be a great idea to use high school students. Ms. Mosby suggested that a proposal be brought to the table to include all groups in the community.

B. Policy 5131.6 Students – Tobacco

Ms. Bishop-Pullan explained that the 5000 series is for students; when the policy was written, it included the adults. The Policy Committee is making a recommendation to remove all the consequences for adults.

C. Policy 4118.231 Personnel – Smoking, Drinking, use of Drugs on School Premises

Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that the Policy Committee is recommending the removal of all consequences for Personnel and adding it to the Personnel 4000 series.

She said that there is one change that the Policy Committee is recommending. Instead of a verbal warning, it would be written acknowledgment of a verbal warning. This would be in the 4118. policy.

Mr. Kimmel said that some programs are becoming less and less available, and if no program is available for the student to attend, then the student is stuck with a fine.

D. Policy 6146 Graduation Requirements – “Requirements for Valedictorian and Salutatorian”

Ms. Bishop-Pullan said it was suggested that the Policy Committee review this.

Mr. Burnett wanted to clarify, regarding the Center for Global Studies, that if a student outside of the district opted to get a Norwalk High School diploma, and they put in four semesters and got the highest GPA, they would qualify for valedictorian. If any transfer student put in four semesters, they would also qualify.

E. Board members’ announcements

Dr. Corda discussed the reallocation of funds from the construction monies for work to be done at Norwalk High School. He said there is approximately $6.4M remaining in the construction account, and the Budget Committee heard a recommendation from the administration of the utilization of those dollars. There were discussions with the City concerning the utilization of those dollars in light of the anticipated projects and what the implications would be if the recommendations were followed as it related to the remaining buildings. The second long range plan, once this is concluded, involves the approach to addressing the remaining work that needs to be done. In collaboration with the City, they would look at the projects that would need to be done in a second round, along with the projects that they believe need to be addressed now, and then view both as a whole. The Norwalk High School project has a greater urgency because that project is coming to conclusion. If there is going to be more work at Norwalk High School, they would need to determine how much of the $6.4M needs to be allocated for that work. Those projects total $1.5M. He said that they are recommending that $1.5M of the $6.4M be allocated to Norwalk High School, and the remaining projects would be considered in the second phase.

Mr. Kimmel said that there is a prioritized list of 13 projects, and it is prioritized so that all the projects could all be completed.

Some discussion followed regarding the use of the $6.4M. Mr. Burnett confirmed that there were 5 schools that were looked at, and they had discussed the uncoupling of $1.5M to address the priority items in order to complete the project at Norwalk High School, with the remaining amount of money to be prioritized among the other four schools.

** MS. BISHOP-PULLAN MOVED TO SUSPEND THE RULES TO ADD THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION TO THE AGENDA.

MOVE THAT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION APPROVES THE REALLOCATION OF $1.5M FROM THE REMAINING CONSTRUCTION FUNDS IN ORDER TO FUND THE ITEMS ON THE ATTACHED LIST.

** MR. KIMMEL SECONDED.

** MOTION FAILED WITH FIVE VOTES IN FAVOR (CHIARAMONTE, BISHOP-PULLAN, KIMMEL, BURNETT, HAMILTON) AND FOUR VOTES OPPOSED (MURRAY, IANNACCONE, RIVAS, MOSBY).

Dr. Corda said this item would be on the agenda for the next meeting.

Mr. Kimmel left the meeting at 10:00 p.m.

VIII. HEAR CT HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATES EMPLOYEE GRIEVANCE

Ms. Hamilton said that this item was removed from the agenda.

IX. DISCUSSION OF TEACHER REQUEST FOR EXEMPTION UNDER ARTICLE XXX OF TEACHER CONTRACT (Executive Session Anticipated)

** MS. BISHOP-PULLAN MOVED TO GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION TO DISCUSS THE TEACHER REQUEST FOR EXEMPTION UNDER ARTICLE XXX OF TEACHER CONTRACT.

** MS. MURRAY SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

The Board entered into Executive Session at 10:15 p.m. and recovened into Public Session at 11 p.m.

X. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Carolyn Marr Telesco Secretarial Services

Category: Minutes