School Committee Meeting Minutes 12/03/2018

Farmington River Regional School District

Farmington River Elementary School

555 North Main Road, Otis, MA 01253

Monday December 3, 2018

Minutes #368

 

Members Present:  Nicholas DellaGiustina, Jessica Drenga,, Carol Lombardo, Billie Pachulski,  John Skrip, Thomas Nadolny, and Eric Jesner

 

Absent:  Arlene Tolopko

 

Guests:  Derek Poirier

 

Call to order:  The meeting was called to order at 6:00 P.M. by Nicholas DellaGiustina.

Community Discussion:  Before Mr. Poirier was allowed the floor, the Chair, Nicholas DellaGiustina explained that the School Committee can only listen to his concerns but not make decisions.  If Mr. Poirier wants, the issue can be added to next month’s agenda as an Executive Session to be discussed.

Mr Poirier was in to complain and to make known how unhappy his is with the lack of unprofessionalism the Administration has at Farmington River.  Derek did speak with Mr. Nadolny on the subject prior to the meeting, and Tom acknowledged the problem and dealt with the issue professionally and appropriately.  Mr. Nadolny assured Mr. Poirier and the School Committee that firm actions were taken.

 

  1. Approval of Minutes #366 and #367: The School Committee voted and unannimously accepted both minutes # 366 and #367.  John motioned the vote, Billie seconded

 

  1. Principal/Superintendent monthly updates on school and staffing: Tom informed the Committee that Laurie Flower will be in next month to discuss the MCAS process.  No other updates needed to be discussed at this time.

 

  1. Financial update: Eric Jesner updated the Committee on the finances.  Eric touched base on the lighting situation.  We are going to wait until 2019 to further look into converting the lighting over to LED.  The State cut the percentage of the funding drastically due to overfunding, with the same amount provided by the school.  The adjustment was not in our favor.  The whole project was reconstructed and didn’t make sense to go forward.  Eric did contact the Head of the Program and will resubmit the information in 2019 to see if we can get better funding.

 

Eric received our E&D Certification.  We look as if we will stay under the 5% increase that the Towns wanted us to stay under.

 

Eric reviewed the Financial Report.  He was concerned with some of the line items such as Bus/Van Maintenance and Substitute Teacher pay.  Grounds maintenance is also a concern, even though there is a lack of snow plowing.  Otherwise we are in great shape.

 

Mike Kinney has given his resignation as our Treasurer as of February 1st.  Eric is going to ask Jane Gleason to consider the open position.

 

  1. School Committee voted on entering to Executive Session under MGL 39, Section 23B, Part 3, to discuss personel, only to adjourn back to General session only to adjourn:  Nicholas DellaGiustina suggested on entering an Executive Session only to discuss with Tom Nadolny on the topic of Human Resources.  Carol Lombardo motioned to adjourn into Executive Session, John Skrip seconded.

 

  1. Adjournment: Carol motioned to adjourn from the meeting at 6:45 p.m., John seconded.  The School Committee voted unanimously on the motion.

 

 

 

 

Respectively Submitted,

 

 

Teresa DellaGiustina

Assistant to the Superintendent

 

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