Farmington River Regional School District
Farmington River Elementary School
555 North Main Road, Otis, MA 01253
Monday May 1, 2017
Meeting #348
MINUTES
Members Present: Nick DellaGiustina, Jessica Drenga, Hillary Howard, Carol Lombardo, Billie Pachulski, John Skrip, Arlene Tolopko, Tom Nadolny and Jane Gleason
Absent: none
Guests: none
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. by the chair, Nicholas DellaGiustina.
Community Participation: none
- Approval of Minutes of Meeting #347: Carol Lombardo motioned to approve minutes #347 Arlene Tolopko seconded the motion. Unanimous vote yes on both.
- Principal/Superintendent monthly updates on school and staffing: Nadolny was not present so Jane Gleason and Teresa DellaGiustina updated information from Tom to the School Committee.
Several School Committee members plus Jane and Tom received a letter from Attorney Joseph J. D’Amour, Esq. about “Fist Bump Friday”. Some Otis residents filed a complaint with Attorney D’Amour stating that children who should not have been filmed on television were. Mr. Nadolny tried reaching out to Attorney D’Amour to discuss the acclaimed letter. The Attorney did not want to discuss the issue and hung up abruptly. The school has not received any type of formal complaint from Social Services or DCF about this issue.
The School Committee has decided to discuss this matter further next month and come up with a procedure to follow when media is involved.
- Budget updates: Jane Gleason updated School Committee on the finances. Transportation
was discussed. We have a surplus higher than anticipated in the transportation budget. Jane would like to transfer some money from the extra transportation funds into the transportation revolving funds. It may help with purchasing a Preschool van, which is the next vehicle that needs to be replaced.
Also, we used less school choice money as anticipated and that can roll over into the E&D
account at the end of the fiscal year.
We had an informational meeting with MIIA Health and Medicare, about our insurance and
changes in coverage for Medicare. The meeting went well and the representatives were
extremely thorough.
There is interest with incoming school choice students. Parents from Granville School are
looking into Farmington River since the closing of their school for next year.
The Preschool Grant is getting less and less with each passing year. Within the next 3 years
there will be no grant money left. With this said, we may have to continue to raise the
tuition to accommodate the costs of the Preschool Program.
The School Budget overall went up around 1 ½ %, but the assessments for the towns’ were
not bad. Sandisfield went down ½ % and Otis went up 2.4%.
- 4. Adjournment: Jess motioned to adjourn at 7:34pm, John seconded the motioned. Passed
unanimously.
Respectively Submitted,
Teresa DellaGiustina
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