School Committee Minutes 10/03/2016

Farmington River Regional School District
Farmington River Elementary School
555 North Main Road, Otis, MA 01253
Monday October 3, 2016

Meeting #341

MINUTES

 

Members Present: Nick DellaGiustina, Jessica Drenga, Hillary Howard, Carol Lombardo, John Skrip, Arlene Tolopko, Tom Nadolny, and Jane Gleason

Absent: Sandy Snyder

Guests:

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. by the chair, Nicholas DellaGiustina.

Approval of Minutes of Meeting #339 Executive Minutes, #340 & Executive Minutes #340: Carol Lombardo motioned to approve minutes as submitted. Arlene Tolopko seconded the motion.
Discuss MASC conference coming in November 2016: None of the members can make the conference.
Update on school and staffing: Mr. Nadolny discussed maternity leave for Mrs. McArthur. She will be leaving the end of November early December. Rachel Canon is pregnant and is expecting in May 2017.
Tom will give the Board a more detailed overall report on the MCAS results. Not everything is back yet. We do know that we are maintaining a Level 2 status.

There were a few concerned parents that would like to have a discipline policy implemented for busing issues. The School Committee will look into a new policy and present ideas for disciplining problems and issues that occur on the bus rides. This will be discussed and talked about in the November meeting.

Nature’s Classroom was a success. No problems or occurrences happened during the week away. Positive feedback was given from students, chaperones, and parents. A great time was had by all.

Mr. Nadolny attended the September Otis All Boards meeting. Sandisfield was a major concern. Otis is concerned about the plowing situation in Sandisfield. They wanted to know if Otis could still run school even if Sandisfield may not be able to. Tom and Jane attended the Selectmen’s meeting on October 3, 2016. The Chair, Alice Boyd, assured them that the roads will be done and the highway department is up and running with the proper equipment. Ms. Boyd also stated there is an ad in the paper to hire a subcontractor for plowing this winter for Sandisfield. The road supervisor will call Jane earlier than last year to inform her of the roads, and Jane also told him that he can initiate by calling her as well if he knows early enough. Tom will get in touch with the Board of Selectmen of Otis and inform them of this information.

Lastly, Tom suggested to the School Committee to consider stopping our ½ day lunches. The students arrive at school around 8am, eat breakfast, then they have lunch at 10am. School is released at 11:45. A snack would be fine. Most kids bring a snack, but the kitchen can provide one too if a child gets hungry. By cutting out lunch on half days, the school can also cut down kitchen staff costs. The School Committee supported Tom in the decision of stopping ½ day lunches.

 

Jane asked to add an item to the agenda. The item was overlooked in a past meeting. The Business Manager’s office needs to have two people in charged to sign on school accounts. The School Committee agreed to add this item and agreed to Jane’s suggestion of having Tom Nadolny and Ilona Packie as designated signers to the school accounts.

Motion to move to executive meeting and to adjourn school committee meeting: Nick DellaGiustina motioned to move to executive meeting. Jess Drenga seconded.
Respectfully submitted,

Teresa DellaGiustina, secretary
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