Special Meeting Minutes

 

A Special Meeting of the Board of Education of the Scotia-Glenville Central School District was held in the Cafeteria of the Middle School in said district on April 3, 2006.

 

President of the Board of Education Margaret Smith called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. 

 

Present:      Ahnert, Bradley, Carbone, Carpenter, Conlon, Crisafulli, Smith, Superintendent Swartz, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Kavanaugh, Business Administrator Nolie and District Clerk DeLong.

 

Absent: none     

 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

 

HEARING/PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR

 

Gerry Moore, 122 Jay St., spoke to the Board in regards to ability grouping at the Middle School.

 

Steve Sargent, Alexander Ave., also spoke to the Board in regards to ability grouping at the Middle School.

 

Claire Houlihan, 213 Alexander Ave., thanked the Board for considering the possibility of ability grouping at the Middle School and stated that the proposal set forth the previous week by Mr. Kavanaugh was a good compromise.

 

Michelle Kraines, 8 Barry Lane, spoke to the Board in regard to ability grouping and stated that she feels the Middle School teachers will support whatever decision is made by the Administration in regard to this issue.             

 

BUDGET WORK SESSION:  INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM

 

Superintendent Swartz presented a revised Budget proposal to the Board. The revised priority list

included the following:

 

 

Superintendent Swartz explained to the Board that some of these items were a reduction of what had previously been presented to the Board.   She also explained that several other items included in the revised budget had no financial impact due to the fact that they were a reallocation of existing resources.  The final revised budget would be $41,945,901 as presented, with an expenditure increase of 4.71%.  Ms. Swartz explained to the Board that although it is difficult at this time to calculate the increase in the tax rate due to the uncertainty of the impact of the property reassessments, she believes the estimated increase in the tax rate would be approximately 2.54%.  The Board discussed several items in the revised budget proposal.  The Board stated that they would like to see some of the funding put back into the budget for the following items:

 

á      $15,000 into Facilities and Equipment

á      $5,000 into Field Trip funding

á      $10,000 into Staff Development

á      $25,000 into the Exploratory Foreign Language Program for 6th grade

 

President Smith asked the Board to please vote on these items.  All were in favor with the exception of Mr. Crisafulli who voted no on the Exploratory Foreign Language Program, but was in favor of the other three proposals.

 

The Board also discussed the proposal set forth for a 7th grade ELA honors course, in which qualified students would be pulled from tutorial for an ELA enrichment opportunity.  Several members of the Board stated that they do not agree with this concept and would like to consider other options. The Board discussed the option of adding funding to the budget for the equivalent of a .2 teacher for the creation of an ELA honors course for 7th grade.  The Board will consider this issue and revisit it at their next meeting. 

 

President Smith concluded the Budget discussion by thanking Superintendent Swartz for her   revised budget presentation.

 

 

MOVED by Conlon that the Board of Education approve the following two items under Routine

Business:

 

ROUTINE BUSINESS

 

a.    Staffing

 

1)     Approve the revised Salary Lists for 2005-2006 for the following, as submitted:

 

                      Teacher Aides

                      School Monitors

                      (This salary list is contained as Appendix A to these minutes).

 

     

 

 

 

 b.  Placement of Children with Disabilities

   

       Approve the Placement of Children with Disabilities as recommended by the Committee on

       Preschool Special Education at their meeting on 3/24/06 and by the Committee on

  

      Special Education at their meetings on 3/15, 3/16, 3/17, 3/20, 3/8, 3/9, 3/13, 3/15, 3/23, 3/24,

      3/14, and 3/23/06.

      

ROLL CALL

AYES: 7

NOES:0

MOTION CARRIED

 

OTHER BUSINESS

 

 

The Board discussed rewording the Audit Committee Charter in regards to the issue of other        Board members attending when the Audit Committee goes into Executive Session. 

 

 

MOVED by Carbone that the meeting be adjourned.

 

ROLL CALL

AYES: 7

NOES:0

MOTION CARRIED

 

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:32 p.m.

 

         ____________________________

                                                                                                              Bobbie DeLong, District Clerk