No Fireworks Tonight: BOE Regular Meeting Lasts 45 minutes

It's 8:58 pm as I'm writing this, and since the Board of Education meeting started at 7pm, I had time to go to the meeting, go to the grocery store for one item, go to Dairy Queen, eat my Dairy Queen, get gas in my car, drive across town back to my house, chat with my husband, laugh at Ed's article on Izzi's email plight, print out the registration form for the circus for my soon-to-be-ten-year-old, and finally get started on my very short meeting summary. (I had to make the intro lengthy because there isn't much BOE business to talk about...)

Five of nine BOE members were present tonight, so the meeting was pretty short. Elizabeth Nocera (Director of Grant Services) introduced Comer Hobbs, Jr. (DATTCO's Director of Commercial Bus Sales) to the board as part of a presentation on the hybrid school bus Middletown is trying to acquire. The bus costs $187,000 and New Britain is currently the only town in Connecticut to have such a bus. Middletown has applied for a grant to purchase the IC Bus CE plug-in hybrid electric school bus, and if the grant is approved, the district would own the bus with a DATTCO buy-back at the end of the bus's service life.

The IC Bus advertising flyer states that the average school bus uses over 1,700 gallons of fuel annually, with the average IC Bus using only about 600 gallons. It also states that IC Buses reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 39%. There are zero particulate emissions when idling, and as DATTCO VP Phil Johnson commented, "you could wipe the tailpipe with a white glove and it would be wet, not black." More information is available at ICBus.com.

The "success" of a hybrid bus depends on the driver and the bus route. Under 35 mph, the diesel engine doesn't engage, so this bus needs a route with lots of starts and stops. (I would recommend the route with the most kindergartners on it so they can be picked up in front of their homes like they used to be...) DATTCO also has to provide special training for police and firefighters in Middletown since a hybrid bus accident has to be handled differently than a regular bus would be. Specifically, first responders SHOULD NOT cut the battery cables on a hybrid bus because there's enough voltage in the system "to really cook the first responder." The bus should run all day on its charge (it will only be charged at night), and if the battery should run out while the bus is still operating, the diesel engine will just take over.

BOE Chairman Ted Raczka commented that "we have to take chances and try something new" in order to protect the environment and to set an example for being responsible, so that's why he's pursuing a grant for a hybrid bus. Raczka thanked Jack Piper (New Britain's Purchase Order Director) for showing him the paperwork and suggesting that Middletown get a hybrid bus.

During the public comment session, Kevin Smith asked the Board to support the MHS Girls Soccer team's extended field trip to Vermont for the State Tournament. This trip was approved, and the team will travel in late August or early September.

Assistant Superintendent Barbara Senges talked about the Summer Reading Program (The Chronicle had a big article on this program just recently) and the efforts to standardize the forms that each school uses. The Kindergarten Registration process was redone (new forms, easier process, etc.) and the Kindergarten Orientation was May 25th.

There was a moment of feather ruffling when the Perkins Grant was discussed: BOE member Corinne Gill was very upset to learn that the grant proposal was written to include a staff position in the technology department that would have been cut otherwise. While Bill Boyd thought it was great to get someone else to pay for a staff position, Gill wanted to talk about how to cut $800,000 from the budget before agreeing to spend grant money on a staff position: "I'm very distressed to hear this now...we didn't get the full story when you were talking about the budget. Maybe the board didn't want to spend money this way, but you didn't give us the chance to even know what you were doing." She was outvoted, 3 to 2, and the BOE approved the grant as written.

Superintendent Michael Frechette updated the board on the redistricting process: only 15 fourth-graders asked to be "grandfathered" to stay at their current schools, and the approval letters for these requests were mailed on May 26. There was no pattern to these requests, so there was no impact on class sizes/planning for the new school year. Frechette also reported that the district is within its budget for teachers and classes for next year, so "we're right on track for what we need to do."

Ken Jackson (Facilities Director) reported that the stage floor at MHS will be removed and replaced. The new type of flooring will resolve the structural issues the stage was having (this is part of closing out the construction process for the high school).

BOE member Bill Boyd said the Curriculum Committee is working on a proposal to increase the number of credit hours required for high school graduation from 21 to 22 hours. That proposal should be ready for the next BOE meeting. Boyd told this reporter after the meeting that most MHS students average 23-24 credits by graduation, so this increase won't cause sudden hardship for next year's graduating class.

The BOE meeting then closed to the public and went into Executive Session.

Commentary:

In case you're wondering about the $800,000 budget gap, the Common Council voted to give the BOE the same budget as last year instead of the 1.28% increase the BOE asked for. Budget Committee Chairman Jay Keiser wasn't present at tonight's meeting, so there was no budget discussion. The next budget committee meeting is Monday, June 14 at 4pm at the District Office. The next BOE regular meeting is Tuesday, June 15 at 7pm in the Common Council Chambers at City Hall. The 2010-2011 Budget starts July 1st, so there's very little time left to cut $800,000. Other than Corinne Gill's comments about the Perkins Grant, there was no evidence of a looming budget deadline and no money to fill the gap. I admit that I'm more than curious about how this will play out...stay tuned!