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
Charles McMonigle
Francis Palazzolo
Anne Schmidt
Catherine
Vargas
Jennifer
Viggiano-Grosse
Members Absent: Neil Geldof
A
meeting of the Board of Education was held on
The pledge of allegiance was recited.
Moved by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by Mr.
Arico, to accept the minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by Mr.
Bostwick, to accept the minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by Mrs.
Vargas, to table the minutes of the
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
Page 2
Correct the second motion to
“seconded by Mr. McMonigle”.
The Board members received an
invitation from Dana Whitman, Parade Chairman, to march in the Memorial Day
Parade.
Dr. Vautour noted the
resignation letter from Tamara Kelly, School Psychologist at the high school.
Moved
by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by Mr. Palazzolo, to accept Tamara Kelly’s
resignation as School Psychologist at the high school with regret.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
RHTA Liaison Committee
There was no report.
Sarah Noricka and Amanda
Jovino reported from
Tomorrow the faculty,
students and staff have been invited to wear UConn hats, shirts and
sweatshirts.
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
Page 3
The students in Miss Kelly’s
class have entered the capstone press What’s Great About the 50 States and
territories. They created an entry
showing the greatest places to visit in each of the states. On Friday, April 2,
the PTO will hold its annual toy bingo. On April 7, fourth and fifth graders
will be participating in the annual science fair.
Camille Gilbert and Courtney Gutteredge
represented the
Eighth graders have been
working on the stock market game, which helps the students learn about
percentages. Students discuss the
history of stocks. On March 15, students
took $1,500 to help restore part of the Bushnell Carousel.
An inter-disciplinary unit is
going on in the sixth grade. Students
have to write a research paper with causes and effects about natural
disasters. The boys’ baseball and the
girls’ softball tryouts have been occurring after school. Inter-murals have started.
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
Moved by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by Mr.
Bostwick, to accept the consent calendar of April 1, 2004.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Committee Reports
1. Personnel
and Negotiations
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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Mr. McMonigle reported that
during the next few days the RFP for the legal services will be going out. During the first week of May, the Personnel
and Negotiations Committee will meet to review the responses.
2. Policy
No
report.
Mrs.
Schmidt reported that the Finance Committee met this week. They discussed the early retirement incentive
program. It has financial merit to the
Board of Education, and has been passed to P&N. The status of the current budget is that the
district is in good financial shape.
The Committee was discussing the adult education program. They were
looking at alternative sites; there were sites in
The
district was previously running a slight surplus in the insurance account, but
now is running with a slight deficit which has no direct impact financially because
they are fully insured.
The
alternative education program will be held at the Connecticut Student Loan
Foundation. It will be cost beneficial
as well as an opportunity to bring Rocky Hill’s students back in district.
The
fourth quarter transfers are a financial adjustment to be made at the end of
the year to balance the books.
Everything is on task. The
Committee continues to monitor that up until the end of the year.
Mrs.
Schmidt discussed the special milk program which Mr. Turansky identified to the
Finance Committee. Mr. Turansky reported
that the Board currently participates in the National School Lunch Program,
which provides the opportunity for needy families to receive either free or
reduced price meals. Currently, there is
another program that the district is not participating in, which is the Special
Milk Program, which makes free milk available to needy families if they qualify
under the current income guidelines.
That program would be available to families that do not have access to
the National School Lunch Program, which would be the Kindergarten
students. He recommended that the
district move forward with the program.
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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Moved by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by Mr.
McMonigle, that the Rocky Hill Board of Education approve a new agreement for
the Child Nutrition Program that includes the Special Milk Program. The Board authorizes Dr. Vautour and Mr.
Turansky to sign the agreement and sign the claims for reimbursement, and
authorize Mr. Geldof as Board Secretary to certify these actions.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
4. Curriculum
Mrs.
Vargas reported that the next meeting will be on April 15, at
5. Professional Development
No
report.
6. Facilities
Mr. Bostwick reported that the Facilities
meeting is tentatively set for April 13 at
7. Technology
No
report.
8. Transportation/Accommodations
No report.
NEW BUSINESS
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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10. State
Fair Presentation
Mr. Pear explained that
tonight two fourth grade students would present part of their State Fair
Presentation. Alex Fulco and Brittany
Cardillo were the fourth grade students.
Four fourth grade teachers were also present: Mrs. Crawford, Mrs. Elliott, Mrs. Hassett and
Miss Woodin.
Alex Fulco and Brittany Cardillo
addressed the Board. Their first step
was to research in the classroom the state bird, the state tree or state
flower. They looked on line or in encyclopedia
to find information. They put the
information into their own words and kept notes.
The students had to find
three main ideas. They used a clean page
for their PowerPoint, and typed their titles in word art, and pasted their
pictures. They used bullets and text
boxes. Inside the text boxes they typed
their text. Some of the problems
encountered were with font color not matching the background, or not showing up
on the background, people forgetting to save their work, the teacher having to
check the work, or students having to use the spell check. Students used animation and then made their
project read-only so no one could change it.
The two students showed their
power point presentations. The students
invited the Board to attend the state fair on Wednesday, May 5, from
11. Food
Services Presentation
Mr. Turansky reported that
with the new contract with Sodexho, they proposed the introduction of a point
of service of a cash collection and monitoring system into the district. The computerized system is intended to
introduce enhancements and efficiencies into the system. Connie McCartney and John Fradiello, representatives
from Sodexho were present to explain the computerized systems for processing
the purchase of student lunches. They decided to investigate POS, or point of
sales systems, which are like electronic cash registers. A company outside of
One of the advantages is that
it is easy to train employees on, it is easy for students to use, and it is
located outside of
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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Students would purchase lunches only at first. The money would go into the cafeteria fund. The system is equipped to take photos of the students or use the class pictures. Students would use a pin pad to key into the system. They could also have a card to swipe. The program could be running at West Hill within five weeks.
12. Energy Consortium
Mr. Turansky attended a meeting with Mr. Mehr recently on the topic of the energy consortium. Mr. Turansky explained that through the deregulation of the electricity industry, as consumers, the district has the opportunity to purchase electricity from any supplier that they want to. They are no longer obligated to buy electricity from CL&P. CL&P is still obligated to provide the electricity to the district, but they can pick another supplier.
Strategic Energy has approved
the school system in the state, through the regional education service centers,
in an effort to get bulk purchasing power.
They are trying to get every school district in the state to sign and
form a big purchasing block in order to get an electricity block that should be
better than what is offered by CL&P.
They have done this in other states.
Schools have little consumption relative to the rest of the year during
the summer. Most of the activity is shut
down during the summer, and that coincides with the peak cooling season for the
rest of the state. Any energy that would
be saved from the schools could be turned over to other consumers. The company is proposing that each Board of
Education pass a resolution that authorizes the Superintendent or appropriate
designee to enter into a contract if it is beneficial for the school district,
and if a district is interested in participating, they want to see the front
page of each electric bill for each account involved, and they can determine
what the energy consumption needs are of each district and pool that together
and come up with a strike price. They
would purchase energy in the spring and the fall. They want to establish a price in May that
will carry from May until December 31, and during that time period, they would
shop for another block of energy that may extend twelve to eighteen months
beyond that, starting in January.
Before any contract is signed, they would let the district know what
the price is for the available block of energy, and the district will be able
to compare it with the rate that CL&P is charging. The other benefit is that it is a maximum
price. In the school systems, early in
the morning and late at night, there is little energy consumption relative to
the rest of the day. They are called
scraps of energy that are not really used, but were purchased. They sell those scraps back onto the open
market, and turn the profit back to
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
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the districts as a rate reduction.
The contracted price is the maximum price that would be paid.
John Mehr and Mr. Turansky attended a workshop at CREC last week. They could not see any downside of
investigating the possibility of entering into a contract. There would be no harm done, and the district
could see if it can save significant money on the electricity bills.
He recommended that the Board seek a resolution from the Council that
authorizes the Town Manager or designee to enter into a contract for the
purpose of purchasing electricity if it is found that entering into that
agreement will result in cost savings to the Town. He recommended that the topic be forwarded to
the Town Council. Dr. Vautour believed
it would be a Finance Committee referral.
Mrs. Schmidt asked how the scrap sales would come back to the district
as a rate reduction. Mr. Turansky
explained that the district would still be billed monthly by CL&P, and it
would be up to CL&P to pass on whatever funds are necessary to the
supplier. That is a monthly adjustment,
and as the scraps are sold, there would be an adjustment on each month’s bill.
Mrs. Schmidt was concerned that if the district voluntarily went out of the pool of services, and went to another carrier, and comes back, it would come back into a different pool of services, where power would be secured in three and six month blocks, which would put the district into a more expensive slot. She asked if there was anyone who ever came back into it.
Mr. Turansky had conversations with other business managers, and they have led him to believe that there should be no penalty for going back. It was still a regulated industry, and CL&P was still obligated to provide the power.
Mr. Arico asked if the Town would take part in the proposal as well; Dr. Vautour noted that the Board of Education only had authority to recommend a review of the schools. He felt the proposal warranted further investigation.
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs.
Viggiano-Grosse, to refer the matter of the energy consortium over to the
Finance Committee of the Council
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION
CARRIED
Town of Rocky Hill
Board of Education
Page 9
13. Status Report on Curriculum Reviews
Moved by Mrs. Schmidt, seconded by Mr.
McMonigle, to table the status report on curriculum reviews in the absence of
Laura Boutillier.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Chairman Bell noted the public hearing on the proposed budget has been
changed to April 12 at
14. Executive Session
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mrs.
Schmidt, to go into executive session at
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mr. Arico, seconded by Mr.
Bostwick, to come out of executive session. (
FAVOR:
ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Mrs. Vargas, seconded by Mr.
Palazzolo, to adjourn the meeting. (
FAVOR:
ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Respectfully
submitted,
Rosalie
W. O’Neill
Recording
Secretary
Accepted
by: ___________________________________