Board of Education Meeting Minutes

July 6, 2004

BOARD OF EDUCATION

JULY 6, 2004

ATTENDANCE: Jody Bishop-Pullan, Chairman; Thomas Vetter; Robert Polley; Richard Fuller; David Cole; Marina Rivera; Rosa Murray; Susan Hamilton; Judith Rivas

STAFF: Dr. Salvatore Corda; Dr. Nancy Cetorelli

CALL TO ORDER

Ms. Bishop-Pullan called the meeting to order at 7:45 pm.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

All present recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

SPOTLIGHT

Mr. Vetter read the written report, Spotlight on Norwalk Public Schools.

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

Dr. Corda said he wished to provide an update to the Board and the community about two items. The first is with regard to an inquiry made by Tom Hamilton (Director of Finance) about the settlement analysis and that information was sent on June 10, 2004. Mr. Vetter, Mr. Opdahl, the insurance consultant and himself met with the City representatives this morning that included a representative from the finance office, the Mayor and the city’s insurance consultant. A response to the inquiry was presented and then they answered any questions in order to provide clarification. Dr. Corda said that they had copies of the documents to give to Board members. He added that he had had an inquiry from the press today as to whether or not those documents could be distributed; he said this is an internal document but as the request has been made they would certainly try and find out. What was pointed out this morning, Dr. Corda stated was that he had made an error in the analysis that had been done regarding the implications of the settlement and it is his understanding that the Mayor had notified the press of this and said that he thought it was important to give the correct information so that everyone is aware of the implications of the settlement. Dr. Corda showed information on the projector and went through the figures.

Dr. Corda invited Dr. Nancy Cetorelli to speak inter-district magnet school.

Dr. Cetorelli said they have taken on the task of working with Stamford public schools to

develop a new inter-district magnet school that will serve all of lower Fairfield County. Stamford public schools worked with an architect to do a study of their specific needs in terms of buildings and it was determined that they needed more space especially at the elementary level. They looked at their current situation and they looked at what options were available to them through the state and they determined that they were very interested in beginning a new elementary inter-district magnet school and they called in CES to help them flesh out what this plan would look like. She said they were hired to develop the educational specifications, file the ED049 and to develop the operations plan for the school. She said they are almost at the end of the phase where they have developed the operational plan but by June 30th they have to submit the educational specifications as well as the ED049. Regarding the process they went through, first of all they gathered people from the Chamber of Commerce and they talked to them about the interest that communities might have an inter-district magnet school. They determined that they would start with the idea that they would be a three year school for families that worked in the Stamford schools, the transportation would be the responsibility of the parents and the school would run from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm and it would include a pre-school offering bringing in students from age three and going all the way through to grade eight. Next they set up a community task force to look at things such as mission statements and to figure out what the school would look like and what would make it different and what would attract people to the school. She added that in a survey that they did at the Chamber of Commerce we had about two hundred responses and of the two hundred, twenty-two of them were from Norwalk in the affirmative saying yes they would be interested in sending their children to such a school. She referred to the packet of information that had been distributed earlier; she reviewed the documents with Board members. She said the idea is that they hire a principal and some staff members one year prior to the opening of the school so that they can get all of the curriculum and assessments in place. One of the factors that they are looking at to make the school a little different is looking at some different organizational structures for the school itself. The pre-school and the kindergarten will be multi-aged so that if children come in with a higher literacy rate and can read as well as kindergarten students then they can participate in kindergarten reading. It will allow the children to have a very developmental approach to their early childhood education. The middle school will be from grades six through eight so it will be divided as a typical middle school; she pointed out that in the educational specifications they had paid a great deal of attention to the theme of the school into the age group trying to have a school that is very interactive with the environment, to make sure there were areas of the school that could separated from the pre-schoolers and they would specific areas for grades one through five and another area for six through eight at the same time sharing key facilities (she gave the example of a discovery center). In terms of school governments while the Stamford Public Schools would be the operating agent each of the school districts that participate would be invited to participate in an advisory council and that could be a Board member or a member of the central office staff. Dr. Cetorelli said they are asking for each school district in lower Fairfield County to give a letter of support and that will indicate to the state department the broad interest that the school has generated. She said they are looking to have 60% of the students come from Stamford and a 50/50 racial balance in the school. As with any magnet school the lottery system is how students will be selected for students outside of the district. In Stamford public schools the state allows the host of the district to create a selection zone so that Stamford may indicate a particular area from which 50% of students may come and the rest of the students may come from the rest of the community. Students who are coming from a particular Stamford area or suburban communities will have an equal opportunity to participate therefore they may have special needs students. If they do, it would be like any magnet school if a child has needs over and above what the per-pupil costs would be then that would fall back on the school district to pay those costs. She said they are lobbying very hard at the moment to get the state to look at transportation because this is a real deal buster when it comes to other districts participating. In terms of finance, because Stamford is the provider they have to decided that in order to attract students from the rest of the county this will be tuition free and what will happen is that they will receive the funding for the suburban students, the ECS money still stays with Norwalk. She said the last thing they need to do is to get the approvals from different Boards and then they have to submit the operations plan by October 1, 2004; the Commission has until December to decide on whether to move the school forward and then by the end of the Legislative session, the Legislature would decided whether or not if they are going to fund the school. They currently have the school priced out at $58 million that is 95% reimbursable from the state if that is all approved. She went through all of the different rooms in the school commenting on the size of the pre-school, a family room and the discovery room. Finally, Dr. Cetorelli said what the partnership involves is that Stamford is responsible for the operation of the school, all of the districts will have a representation on the Advisory Board, there will no tuition and Stamford will be responsible for the transportation of its students and parents will be responsible for the transportation of their own students.

Ms. Rivas asked about the new arrival center, asking if this is where everyone registers for the school.

Dr. Cetorelli said that would be for students coming from other countries.

Mr. Polley said it was his understanding that for schools like 6-6 the funding would have to be re-applied for every year so that people are not sure that it will open every September and if that would be the same situation here.

Dr. Cetorelli said this would not be the same situation in Stamford. She said that 6-6 does not have to re-apply for funding from the state; the problem is that communities are all on tight budgets and therefore there it is very attractive for town finance boards to take at inter-district participation and think that it might be acceptable. She said they struggle each year to get the maximum support from the district. The benefit is that Stamford is acting as the host community and therefore, assuming the financial responsibility for the operation of the building.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan thanked Dr. Cetorelli.

PUBLIC COMMENT

No members of the public wished to comment this evening.

ACTIONS

A. CONSENT

Ms. Bishop-Pullan indicated that the minutes had been pulled from the consent calendar.

2. Approval of Personnel Actions

** MS. RIVAS MOVED APPROVAL OF THE PERSONNEL ACTIONS. ** MS. HAMILTON SECONDED. ** MOTION PASSED EIGHT VOTES IN FAVOR, ONE ABSTENTION (MR. COLE).

Dr. Corda introduced the new assistant principal of the Roton Middle School.

1. Approval of the minutes (June 15 and June 18, 2004)

** MS. MURRAY MOVED APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF JUNE 15, 2004 ** MS. HAMILTON SECONDED. ** MOTION PASSED EIGHT VOTES IN FAVOR, ONE ABSTENTION (MR. VETTER).

** MR. COLE MOVED APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF JUNE 18, 2004 AS AMENDED. ** MR. VETTER SECONDED.

The following corrections were made:

Page two, first paragraph under Columbus Educational Specifications, Mr. Cole made the statements (not Mr. Polley). The same would apply under the Tracy School Educational Specifications. Under the attendance list it should indicate that Mr. Fuller and Mr. Vetter were both present and that Ms. Bishop-Pullan was not.

** MOTION PASSED FIVE VOTES IN FAVOR, (MR. POLLEY, MR. FULLER, MR. COLE, MR. VETTER, MS. HAMILTON), THREE ABSTENTIONS (MS. MURRAY, MS, BISHOP-PULLAN, MS. RIVAS).

B. APPROVAL OF DAVID COLE AS BOARD REPRESENTATIVE TO NFCC.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan indicated that she had clarified this with the Mayor today and as Chair of the Ed Spec committee, he automatically has this position on the NFCC unless they want to approve someone else.

** MR. FULLER MOVED TO APPOINT DAVID COLE AS BOARD REPRESENTATIVE TO THE NORWALK FACILITIES CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION. ** MR. VETTER SECONDED. ** MOTION PASSED SEVEN IN FAVOR, ONE ABSTENTION (MR. COLE).

INFORMATION AND REPORTS

Summary of NEASC report on Norwalk High accreditation visit

Dr. Corda pointed out that they are still reviewing the NEASC report and as Board members read it if there are errors or inconsistencies if they could let staff know.

Update on Administrative Workshop

Dr. Corda said the administrators (all of central office staff) met for three days and there were two thrusts that were operating simultaneously during the three days. One of these was the work that they need to do focusing on the development of individual school growth plans where each school will be developing a series of three to four objectives that they will be asking them to concentrate on relative to student achievement. The time they spent on this really focused on organizing themselves for that kind of activity because it really needs to be developed with the entire school staff. Simultaneously they were also examining the process that they were following through the lens of the commitment they had made to being a learning organization.

A. BOARD MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mr. Cole announced that at 3:00 pm tomorrow there would be a meeting to orient Jo Mann and Bob Duff about the activities of CES – he invited all to attend.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

** MR. COLE MOVED TO GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION FOR THE PURPOSE OF DISCUSSING ADMINISTRATIVE CONTRACTS. ** MS. MURRAY SECONDED. ** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

The Board went into executive session at approximately 9:00 pm.

Category: Minutes