Schools
Bullying in the School, New Officers, Mold Concerns, Replacing the Oil Tanks and Irene Make Up Days
Bethany Board of Education Meeting Sept. 14, 2011
- The new 2011-2012 Bethany Board of Education met for the first time last night. During the public speaking portion one parent discussed about how her son has been bullied, and after several complaints to the school had not received a satisfactory answer or plan. She was concerned that the school was not complying with or enforcing anti-bullying policies. Another mother spoke about her concern regarding the smell of mold in the annex buildings and wondered what could be done to safely rectify the situation.
- New officers were elected after a discussion regarding how the BOE was not compliant with state law by having co-chairs and a secretary. According to Superintendent Tim Connellan Bethany was the only district in the state that had not switched to electing a chair, vice chair and secretary. The board opted to comply, and elected Brian Fournier as chair, Mary Sofair as vice chair, and Adam Carrington as secretary.
- Bids have been received for the new oil tanks at the Bethany Community School. Underground installation is no longer a recommended option, so all bids were for above-ground tanks. The board voted to approve the bid recommended by the superintendent, which falls within the approved budget amount of $30,000. The removal of the old tanks, which includes pumping them out, removing them and testing the soil, is a separate project. Quotes for that work have come in at around $4,600.
- The board voted to allow a non-resident teacher to enroll her child in the kindergarten class. The teacher had made the same request in the spring but was denied based on predictions that the kindergarten class would have 52 students. The current class only has 46, so the board unanimously agreed to pass a motion to accept the child.
- Progress continues on the new school roof. Superintendent Connellan said that in two to three weeks the design for the roof will be ready and the project will go out to bid.
- Connellan also discussed the newly passed law that strengthened how schools are required to deal with bullying. He said all the Amity superintendents were working together on a plan so that each school could consistently address the issue as students moved up and through the system. The new law requires training for much of the schools’ staff, including teachers, cafeteria workers and bus drivers.
- Principal Robert Spino discussed CMT scores and provided a new view of them by using a breakdown according to “cohort” groups, which he said more easily and accurately measures progress. In this way it could be shown that steady progress has been made, although he and the superintendent warned that test scores are a “static” measure and scores that are lower or even higher are not necessarily a good indicator of actual progress.
- Connellan said the Amity superintendents have spoken about school makeup days following the delayed start of school due to Tropical Storm Irene. No firm decisions have been made, however, two days can be made up by using two professional development days as half days. While last winter had a record number of snow days, Connellan said most years have no more than two snow days. Should there be another severe winter, snow days will be made up during April vacation, and there is currently no plan to touch February vacation. He added that the superintendents were going to take a wait-and-see approach to the situation.
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