ENFIELD BOARD OF EDUCATION

MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING

May 8, 2007

A regular meeting of the Enfield Board of Education was held at John F. Kennedy Middle School, Cafeteria, 155 Raffia Rd., Enfield, CT. The meeting was called to order by Mrs. Racine at 7:45 PM.

Members Present Judith Apruzzese-Desroches, Donna Corbin Sobinski, Andre Greco, Joyce Hall, Albert Harrison, Susan Lavelli-Hozempa, Charles Johnson III, Samuel McGill, Sharon Racine

Members absent none

Also Present Dr. John Gallacher; Superintendent of Schools, Anthony Torre; Assistant Superintendent of Schools, EHS Student Representative, Ryan Stratton, FHS Student Representative, Ashley Nyman

1.  Call to Order – Sharon Racine

2.  Invocation or Moment of Silence – Andre Greco

3.  Pledge of Allegiance – Andre Greco

4.  Approval of Regular Meeting Minutes – April 24, 2007

Ms. Hall moved, seconded by Mr. Greco that the minutes of the Regular Meeting on April 24, 2007. There were no changes, corrections or omissions.

A vote by show of hands 9-0-0, motion passes.

5.  Board Guests

a.  School Readiness Council Members

Ms. Karen Weseliza, Co-Chairman of the School Readiness Council and Karen Edeleson, Executive Director of The Enfield Child Development Center presented the Enfield Board of Education with the School Readiness Grant application for the fiscal year 2008. This grant, submitted jointly by the Town Manager and the Superintendent of Schools to the State Department of Education, is $107,000 a year for a two year period. The grant provides 15 or more pre-school enrollments for the Enfield Child Development Center located at the Family Resource Center on High Street. The other site, located on South Road could possibly gain a few more spots as well if there are additional funds awarded to the town.

Miss Nyman asked why the Alcorn district was targeted for recruiting pre-school children to the program. Ms. Weseliza stated that the Alcorn district, demographically, has the highest concentration of children with the most needs but the school is available to any child that qualifies.

Chairman Sharon Racine thanked Ms. Weseliza and Ms. Edeleson for the presentation and stated that this grant is much needed and much appreciated.

b. Demographic Committee

Board Member and Demographic Committee Member, Mrs. Apruzzese-Desroches, introduced the members of the Demographic Committee as follows: Mrs. Corbin Sobinski; Board Member, Chris Drezek; Business Manager, Maureen Brennan, Ellie Goldberg; ESS Principal, Glenn Hart, Rebecca Kalagher, Mary Lombardo; Alcorn Teacher, Bonnie Mazzoli; Alcorn Principal, Lisa Rogers and Bob Tkacz.

Mr. Hart and Mrs. Brennan presented the Board with a power point presentation of the findings of the Demographic Committee. Mr. Hart reviewed the committee’s charter items and presented the findings to the Board. The committee exhausted all scenarios, including a K-2, 3-6 configuration. Among the conclusions, the committee stated that no cost savings could be found, any scenario should have room for all parochial students, full-day kindergarten will be difficult to fit without increasing class sizes and Pre-K can be done if limited to half-day and students do not have to go to their home school.

The committee made the following recommendations regarding the re-districting:

1. No change to the current school zones at this time;

2. Re-examine redistricting/reconfiguring in 2 years because student population may change or in two years, the State may require racial balancing, absolving Enfield from legal liability.

Mrs. Brennan presented the Board with the school zone transfer request policy. The committee suggests developing such a policy. The school system has an administrative regulation that allows the Superintendent to grant transfers. The committee recommends that the Board develop a policy giving that control to the Board. The committee felt the simplest ruling would be not allowing any transfers. Enfield has been very accommodating to families with children in day care. If the Board wants to grant transfers, it is suggested to keep 3 seats open below the ideal class size limit in each grade in every school for new students entering a neighborhood school before allowing transfers. This would be fair to students moving into a district. Another suggestion would be to look at before and after-school programs to accommodate families that would not be able to take advantage of a zone transfers because of capping the limit. This could be a self supporting program if a third party such as the YMCA is contracted.

The daycare transportation options are also flexible. Several daycares contacted will work with parents about transportation options.

Chairman Sharon Racine thanked all the members of the Demographic Committee for their dedicated time and effort to completing this enormous task.

Mr. Greco commented that this committee answered all the questions that have been surrounding the re-districting study for several years. The conclusion not to re-district at this point is a sound and complete assessment of the study. The committee ultimately proved that what the town has right now is working well for us. The information and data gathered is very important to the district and can and will be used for future studies. Mr. Greco thanked the committee for all their hard work and due diligence in reaching this very beneficial conclusion for our community.

Miss Nyman commented that racial diversity is very important. We need to always strive for racial balance in our community. She congratulated the committee on an impeccable report and accomplishment for our community.

Mrs. Corbin Sobinski thanked the committee for all their time and effort put into this study. It was a pleasure working with everyone.

Dr. Gallacher clarified that the committee is recommending leaving 3 seats available per grade in each school, not per classroom. Mrs. Brennan stated that the recommendation is for 3 seats per grade level.

Mr. Torre commented that the administration is modifying the regulation for transfers now and the committee’s suggestion to leave 3 seats open is a very good one. The administration keeps that in mind when making these decisions and adding this to the regulation is a welcome suggestion.

6. Correspondence and Communications

1. Board Resolution, corrected copy (yellow paper)

2. EHS Spring Concert invitation

3. EHS Scholarship Night invitation

7. Audiences

Meghan Dodd, David St. Miss Dodd has been accepted to the GHAPA for her freshman year. Miss Dodd stated her passion is dance and intends on making dance her lifelong career. Miss Dodd urged the Board support her attending the GHAPA in September.

Jim Dodd, David St. Mr. Dodd requested that the Board support his daughter, Meghan, in achieving her goal of becoming a dancer. She has been accepted to the GHAPA and has been dancing since she was 3 years old. He urged the Board to support Schools of Choice for all students who choose to advance their desires.

Susan Hart, Cynthia Circle Mrs. Hart stated she was apoplectic watching the budget being presented two weeks ago. She feels it was classless partisan posturing of the three Board Members who chose to show disrespect for the Board Chairman and the process; shame on them. The budget hearing was a time for the audience to speak and a time for you to listen. The suggestions made were not a reasonable alternative to the Board approved proposed budget. All it did was infuriate the community. Mrs. Hart reviewed several of the suggestions and discredited each one. Mrs. Hart also stated that she finds it hypocritical that there were absolutely no cuts made to Schools of Choice, a republican initiative.

Maurice LaRosa, Daro Dr. Mr. LaRosa requested that the Board do what the Town Council has requested and produce a zero based budget. He stated that utilities alone can be reduced because he has driven by every school in our district at 3:00 AM and observed that they all have lights on. The Board has not tried to reduce the budget. There is no such thing as “can’t do”. He stated that in ten years there will be no one living in this town because there won’t be anyone able to afford it. Mr. LaRosa asked if status quo means a 3.6% increase every year, where will that leave the taxpayer. He urged the Board to help the taxpayers by reducing this budget because you were elected to serve the community. He questioned if curriculum adoptions mean hiring more staff? Mr. LaRosa stated that more people would attend these meetings if you had them at the same time and centralize the meetings at one place. He feels it is ridiculous to go to all the different schools and have start times that are 6:30 or 7:30 or after a function.

Maureen Brennan, Sandpiper Rd. Mrs. Brennan commented that by working on the Advisory Committee, she was very impressed with the principals, Board Members and administration that put in long days and came to all the meetings to assist in working out all the issues that needed to be dealt with. These are quality people we want working for our town and our school children. She stated that she was born and raised and educated in Enfield as were many of her friends. She stated that a great number of families are moving out of Enfield. One of the main reasons is because they do not feel their town values the importance of education. Once that starts, property values will go down and revenues will go down. The situation will get worse. Town officials need to invest in education and consider education a high priority.

Robert Tkacz, Enfield Mr. Tkacz commented that he has enjoyed working on these committees and thanked the Board for having confidence in him. He stated that back in the very early 1990’s, one of our administrators who subsequently became our first Curriculum Director, George Perry, contributed vast amounts of time and effort to our schools. Mr. Perry set the future of our school system with re-districting and new curriculum twenty years ago. It becomes more evident as time goes by how his vision of our school system holds up to the test of time. He urged the Board to display a plague in his honor listing Mr. Perry’s many accomplishments.

Jack Sheridan, Buchanan Rd. Mr. Sheridan stated he feels there are opportunities to cut the budget. He stated that the swimming pools can be closed in an effort to save budget funds. There is a $200,000 co-generation system to collect the heat from the pumps, gym classes are scheduled for the pool because of the FHS contaminated grounds. There are surrounding towns that cap their spending and are still surviving with good viable school systems. He does not understand how we can continue to increase the budget. He stated that at this rate of increase our taxes will double in eight years. It is important to know these facts. He stated that this community cannot forget either end of the spectrum: children to senior citizens. Young families cannot afford the tax increases and the mortgage payments and seniors on a fixed income cannot afford tax increases either. What portion of the town’s $5 million dollars in social services helps to offset taxes for our senior citizens? People will not stay here if they cannot afford the taxes and town officials have to be very conscious of that when considering the tax rate.

Kathy Thomson, Duff Dr. Mrs. Thomson stated that she had read Mr. Greco’s letter in the newspaper. Mr. Greco states that the document presented at the town budget hearing was not for political gain but she can’t help wonder why it was the Republican Town Committee Chairman, Mary Ann Turner who presented the document and distributed it to the public on behalf of 3 republican board members. The fact that that you had the Republican Town Committee Chairman distribute this document without first discussing it with your colleagues on the Board of Education is a real stab in the back to your fellow Board Members. Mrs. Thomson asked about the Budget Advisory Committee members who put in hours and hours of hard work scrutinizing every budget line. Basically, she feels you ignored their hard work and told them they wasted their time. Mrs. Thomson questioned all the claims to cut the budget and asked what kind of back up they have to support these claims? Mrs. Thomson pointed out that no research was done when it was suggested that AP courses be done on-line. She feels that there was also no research done when publishing these claims to reduce the budget too.

Glen Hart, Cynthia Circle Mr. Hart stated that there were two fiscally conservative board members who served on the Budget Advisory Committee and came up with a recommendation to the Board. These same members then went and published this document and discredited the service of the Budget Advisory Committee. He does not understand why you did that. Applications to the Budget Advisory Committee should have been overflowing if so many people have the answer to the budget. He is concerned about all the cuts being offered. AP courses, swimming, CAD courses, technology courses. The people buying homes in Enfield are the ones with children. They are not coming to Enfield because of what we are doing to our education system.

Chairman Sharon Racine addressed each audience member as follows:

- Congratulations to Meghan Dodd for her acceptance to the GHAPA, it is quite an accomplishment. The Board will make their decision as soon as the budget is set by the town.

- Curriculum revisions are done on a seven year cycle and we do not add teachers when they are revised.

- Education is very important to me and I have always been a profound supporter of education. I will continue to do so in this role and as a citizen. Education is the basis for everything and we never stop learning.