Farmington River Regional School District
Farmington River Elementary School
555 North Main Road, Otis, MA 01253
Monday May 2, 2016 – 7:00 PM
Meeting #336
MINUTES
Members Present: Nick DellaGiustina, Jessica Drenga, Alicia Dunaj, Carol Lombardo, John Skrip, Arlene Tolopko, Tom Nadolny, Jane Gleason, JoAnn Austin, and Teresa DellaGiustina
Absent: None
Guests: Craig Drenga and Victoria Ernst
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by the chair, Alicia Dunaj.
Approval of Minutes of Meeting #335: The Minutes of Meeting #335 were unanimously approved as submitted. Motioned by Alicia Dunaj, Seconded by Carol Lombardo.
Annual school choice vote. Will the School Committee vote to accept school choice students in all grades, K-6, for the 2016-2017 school year: Motioned by Alicia, seconded by Jess Drenga. Unanimous vote by all School Committee members.
Report on Monday April 25th meeting with the Otis Selectmen—JoAnn Austin and Jane Gleason to report. JoAnn and Jane attended the April 25th meeting to ask the Otis Select Board to consider obtaining and funding with Sandisfield, a school stabilization fund. The funding would not start until FY18. The Select Board needs to vote to put an article on a town warrant. At that point the town would vote in favor or not of this stabilization fund. The fund would have a cap of $50,000. The Select Board voted yes to putting an article on the Town’s warrant.
Update on SBRSD/FRRSD Joint Planning Committee activities—Alicia Dunaj to report. There was no meeting to discuss. The next meeting will be May 23rd. Tuition agreements are a topic for discussion. There will be a tour of the SBRSD for our 6th graders on June 1st. Transportation will be provided by SBRSD to transport. There will also be scheduled tours for our 6th grade students to Lee and BHRSD.
Update on BHRSD visit/presentation by FRRSD School Committee Subgroup and District Administrative Personnel– John Skrip to report. John, Tom Nadolny, and Arlene Tolopko attended this meeting. The presentation was based on shared resources and services as a possibility to save money for both school districts. Brainstorming and ideas were shared. Our Subgroup was interested in the ideas that were brought forward to them. Some ideas presented were:
To bid out utilities
To share IT services
To bid out health insurance for employees (group policy)
Possible shared services such as a specialized teachers, PE/Art/Music
Have teachers from same grade levels meet to share ideas or brainstorm on the curriculum
Mr. Nadolny is going to attend a meeting on May 13th with BHRSD to go over and discuss
our Social Studies curriculum and see how to possibly align our program with theirs
to make the transition easier for our students.
Adjournment—The meeting was adjourned at 8:00pm. Motioned by Alicia Dunaj, seconded by Carol Lombardo. Voted unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Teresa DellaGiustina, secretary
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