Superintendent to Board of Ed: "Remember the Cliff? We're Here."

Much of Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting revolved around the 2011-2012 School Year Budget, but not because BOE members were talking specific details about how to cover the $2.4 million gap between the BOE's requested budget and Mayor Giuliano's proposed budget. Superintendent Michael Frechette told the board that he's make a zero budget work for two years, but that he can't do it for a third year. "We've done what we need to do to get this far, but it will be devastating next year with $2.4 million in cuts. Summer school will be gone because that's $200,000 right there. Class size is going to go up and programs are going away. Oh, and we're losing $700,000 in grant money too for next year."

BOE Chairman Ted Raczka commented: "This is a watershed year. It's important that we remember what we've done in the past. What got us through those tough, tough times was to make sure it was a community decision. Is Middletown going to support education? It's our duty [the Board of Education's] to make sure folks understand the significance of this budget." Raczka went on to say that he hopes passionately to avoid making the budget about a conflict in personalities: "This is a decision for us as a community to make about supporting education."

Several parents spoke during the public session about the impact on Macdonough if significant cuts are made to the summer program. Ed McKeon urged the BOE to be open with parents: "help us be your advocates to the Common Council." His plea was echoed by another parent: "We want to stand up for you at the Common Council meeting, and we want to make sure our schools get the resources they need. " PTA President Jennifer Alexander told the BOE that the $12,000 for 60 kids to attend a half day program for 5 weeks was a "very frugal way to give these kids a chance at stopping the summer slide" in academics. Alexander also asked the BOE to revisit the districting boundaries as the projected Kindergarten numbers might push Macdonough over its ideal student population number of about 240. "I would hope the board takes the opportunity to consider a more nuanced tool like some kind of parent choice option to manage this issue."

During Asst. Superintendent Barbara Senges' report on the District Data Team (this is the group that manages implementation of the District Improvement Plan as required by the State), it became very clear that from her perspective, Middletown will not be able to continue the progress it has made over the last three years if drastic budget cuts take place. "This work [the District Data Team's work] is critical to our future success....we are going to take a huge step backwards in this process if we can't continue."

Of the 18 districts required to implement District Improvement Plans because of CMT results that failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (APY), Middletown is considered the "poster child" for the progress it has made. The State has finished its official monitoring and, according to Senges, "feels we've accomplished what they wanted and they are confident the process will continue." While Middletown met APY this past year for the first time in several years, the benchmarks went up again for this next year, and it is likely that the district won't meet APY this year. Senges told the BOE that while she hopes Middletown is "off the list," her actual goal is "to make consistent progress in closing the achievement gap."

Budget Committee Chairman Jay Keiser asked Business Manager Nancy Haynes to gave an update on the 2010 audit and the current budget. Posted on the District's webpage, the 2010 audit had "no findings of anything" for both the state and federal audits.

On the current budget, the $400,000 shortfall that occurred because of the cost of snow removal from school roofs has been whittled down to about $257,000. If this shortfall can't be covered, it immediately impacts next year's budget by this amount. However, Haynes is currently holding back the 2nd payment the BOE owes the city for health insurance for classified salaries because the city won't give her a statement showing the official cost of the insurance. "I think the city is overcharging us because several other departments had reductions in the cost of this insurance but we haven't and they won't give me any kind of bill or documentation to show the actual amount owed. It's not good practice to pay a bill without seeing the bill, so I'm holding payment for now." Haynes speculated that the savings might be enough to cover the shortfall, but that she won't know until the attorneys work it out.

The vote to approve changes to when the public session is scheduled during the meeting and what can be talked about by the public at what time was tabled until the next meeting. Three BOE members were not present (two had significant family issues this past week), and BOE Member Bill Boyd asked to table the discussion/vote until these members were present: "I know that they [the missing BOE members] have significant opinions on this subject and we shouldn't decide without them." Corinne Gill commented that while she completely understood the reason for the absences, she didn't want it to become a BOE habit to put off discussion because someone with a significant opinion wasn't there. Jay Keiser commented that he would not be voting for the new policy: "I agree we have a number of people who come to be disruptive and not helpful, but does this mean it's OK to make legitimate people with legitimate concerns wait until the very end of the meeting? Is this fair?" William Grady then stated, "We have to remember that this is a board meeting held in public, not the public's meeting. Public comment should have to do with our agenda because we're not here to just sit and listen. We can't respond, we can't engage. It's not that we don't want to, but it's not the time to do it. We have to run our meeting and our agenda." [Author's note: the proposed policy would split the public comment session into two segments. The first segment, at the beginning of the meeting, would be only for comment on items specifically on the agenda for that meeting. The second segment at the very end of the meeting would be for comments on any subject pertaining to the board's purview.]

In other business, the MHS graduation date and closing of school is June 21st, but Woodrow Wilson graduates on June 22 because it lost an extra day due to electrical issues. The BOE meeting on June 21st was moved to June 28. The Vo-Ag program was authorized to begin the application process for a $50,000 equipment grant to replace its 18 passenger school bus. The vehicle is used to take students to off-campus locations for training and visits that can't been accomplished at MHS.

The BOE's next meeting with the Common Council is April 26th at 6:30pm. There will be a public hearing before the Common Council on April 28th at 7pm. All members of the public are encouraged to attend and to voice their opinion on what education in Middletown will look like for 2011-2012 and beyond.