The Friendship Central School Board of Education held its regular monthly meeting on January 19, 2016 in the Board Conference Room. The meeting was called to order by President William Ritchie at 6:30 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance was recited followed by roll call.
William Ritchie Present
Craig Plaisted Absent
Wendy Blimline Present
James Lewis Present
Richard Stewart Present
Also Present:
Mrs. Judy May, Superintendent
Mr. Donald Putnam, Building Principal
Mr. Robert Lingenfelter, District Treasurer
Superintendent Report:
· Mrs. May shared the Governor’s state aid proposal from his January speech.
· We held a meeting with CA BOCES last week regarding the 2016-17 budget. 70% of Friendship’s 11th and 12th graders use BOCES CTE services.
· For the 2016-17 budget, BOCES is projecting an overall increase of 2%.
· Mrs. May also attended a shared services meeting with Belfast, Bolivar-Richburg, Cuba-Rushford and Scio.
· We will have a meeting with Erie I BOCES next week regarding the 2016-17 budget.
· Mrs, May had Mr. Oldham share a short review of the After School Grant that was submitted last week. There have been quite a few changes from the current grant. The grant covers $1,600/student and Friendship will be servicing 150 students with the grant for a grand total of $240,000. The new grant will have a high emphasis on STEM. We plan to have more enrichment opportunities for high school and elementary, clubs for high school students (3D printing for Architecture Club). It will focus on the four C’s – Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication and Collaboration. We hope to hear positive news soon.
· Mrs. May mentioned the new online field testing that will start with one grade level this year and depending on the success of the program, could expand in future years. Mr. Oldham, Mr. Brandes and Mrs. May attended a meeting regarding the online testing for 3-8 Math and ELA testing and Mrs. May was impressed with what they saw.
· There has also been work done on the 5 year plan with Mr. Brewer and Clark Patterson Lee. One area we will need to address is the fire safety board. It requires some updating which we will try to put into the 2016-17 budget.
· The latest APPR guidance was released by the state last Friday.
Principals Report:
· January regents will be given next week. Friendship will be doing regional scoring again with Andover, Belfast, Scio and Whitesville.
· Mr. Pearsall has been working hard on the College for All Students grant. He has been working on a trip to Pitt-Bradford. We have also had former students come back and speak at various classes to give our current students a perspective of what college is like.
· Report cards will be sent February 5th signifying the end of the 2nd quarter. The state assessments are coming up and should be shorter than they have been in the past.
District Treasurer Report:
Presentation of Budget Mr. Lingenfelter gave a review of the
first portion of the budget. Both Mr. Lingenfelter and Mrs. May mentioned
that we are so early in the process that there will be changes
coming up in the next few months as we get more information
from various sources (especially BOCES).
Public Participation:
Mrs. Eddy (union representative) gave a report on Bartons’ Reading and Spelling System. Friendship started using the program with one student and it went so well that they have expanded the program. They now currently work with 43 students. It is an Orten Gillingham based program. Friendship does not identify students, but the program recognizes patterns of dyslexia and teaches students alternate ways to learn. The program works better one on one, but that would limit how many students we’d be able to work with so we are working in groups. Mrs. Eddy has gone to special training the last two summers.
Wendy Blimline moved, seconded by James Lewis to act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to approve the following Consent Agenda items:
To act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of December 15, 2015 as submitted by District Clerk, Laurie Butts.
To act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to approve the Treasurer’s Report for the period of November 1, 2015 through November 30, 2015 as presented.
To act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to accept the warrant reports for the month of November for General, School Lunch, Federal, Extra Curricular and Trust and Agency as presented.
To act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to approve the Internal Audit report as presented.
Motions were unanimously approved.
Richard Steward moved, seconded by Wendy Blimline to act upon the recommendation of the Superi9ntendent to approve the following personnel items:
To act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to approve Jessica Weaver as Teacher Aide for a probationary period of one year to commence on January 20, 2016 and end on January 20, 2017 for 6.75 hours per day for 185 days at the current minimum wage of $9.00 per hour.
To act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to approve Sandy Golden as SEIT Teacher for Friendship Central School.
To act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent tto approve Ashley Brubaker as Substitute for Chelsea Miller while on Maternity Leave to commence on or about February 14, 2016 and end on or about March 28, 2016.
To act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to approve Nancy Sortore as Support Staff Subsitute.
Motions were unanimously approved.
James Lewis moved, seconded by Richard Stewart to act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to approve the following:
To act upon the recommendation of the Superintendent to approve the recommendations of the CSE, CPSE and 504 meetings o0n the following:
December 7, 2015 December 9, 2015 December 10, 2015
020210007 020230044 002015026
020290016
December 11, 2015 December 15, 2015 December 16, 2015
020290008 002020070 020280003
002016010 020250002 020250032
December 21, 2015
020300002
020300003
002020053
Motion was unanimously approved.
Judy brought to the attention of the Board that all doors are now locked during the school day for safety.
James Lewis moved, seconded by Wendy Blimline to adjourn at 7:14 p.m.