Meeting Mania Part 2: Amity Board of Education, April 11

A (not so) brief summary of what was discussed at last night's Amity Board of Education meeting for those who want to know what's happening, but couldn't make it to the meeting:

• The board accepted a gift of $250 from the Class of 1980, which held its reunion recently and had the funds left over. The board decided to apply the money toward a purchase of an iPad for student use.
• A contract was awarded to Power Point Energy of Glastonbury to retrofit the remainder of the high school building that didn't have new energy-saving fixtures installed when the building was renovated. The school will obtain a no-interest loan for roughly $200,000 from . The payback is expected to take between 2 and 2.5 years. Seven vendors responded to the RFQ, and three, including Power Point Energy, submitted RFPs. According to Director of Facilities Jim Saisa, work will be broken into two projects--one will handle the lighting upgrades and a separate project will include watt mizers for vending machines and tools to help keep refrigeration cycles more energy efficient. A representative from NexGen, one of the other companies that submitted a bid, asked the board to re-evaluate the bids, since he believed the bids were not evaluated fairly or properly.
• In his student report, Student Council President Bob Brown reported that the student council received more than four tons of food donations for the recent food drive. The food bank faces its greatest need in the 20 or so years the drive has taken place, according to Brown. He also showed a flag that was given to the school from a Marines company in Afghanistan that Amity supports. The flag still has Afghan sand on it, Brown noted. The student council will decide where the flag should be displayed.
• Brown also read a letter from the student government, asking the board to consider changing the parking fees charged to students who drive to school. Since many students don't receive their driver's license, the student council felt that either a monthly $10 fee or a $50 half-year fee would be appropriate. Since the $30,000 parking revenue is already relied upon in the budget on the table today, the board told Brown that they would look more closely at it next year.
• During the public comment portion of the meeting, Orange First Selectman James Zeoli appealed once more to the board of education to consider reclaiming the $80,000 bill associated with the school resource officer who works full-time at . Around three years ago, Amity was faced with eliminating a teacher or the SRO and in order to keep the teacher, the towns picked up the cost of the police officer. Zeoli said that when times were tough for the school boards, he didn't mind 'picking it up,' but he believes the schools' budget is at a point where it could pay for the resource officer through its budget. He presented the board with a list of 101 calls that the resource officer handled between the start of school in August and last week. Though there was some discrepancy over whether those calls were all handled by the resource officer during school hours and not by other officers doing routine daily drive-through checks of the school, the board decided to look more closely at the issue for the next budget cycle. Board Chairman Bill Blake said that since the budget process started over eight months ago and is entering its final review, now is not a good time to have to produce $80,000. Zeoli, aware that the schools have some 'found money' in the form of state funding and grants, thought now would be a perfect time to take on the cost. Currently, the three Amity towns contribute to pay for the SRO, though there is question as to whether Bethany has been paying its fair share. Blake said he has been in contact with Bethany First Selectman Derrylyn Gorski who had confirmed that there was a misunderstanding about the amount each town is to pay.' Brady said he simply doesn't believe the SRO should be paid by the schools, since policing is a function of a town, and not a board of education. Board Member John Stirling said he was sympathetic to Zeoli's request, but, he said, "At this late hour in a budget process that began last August, to say we'll find $80,000 is just not prudent."
• The Board of Education approved a budget for the 2011-2012 school year. The increase to taxpayers will be 1.52%, slightly lower than the 1.56% presented at the public hearing earlier last evening. According to Superintendent John Brady, there are additional revenues coming in the amount the state reimburses the district for excess costs for special education. Amity is also eligible for a $64,000 Federal Affordable Care Act for retirees and their spouses. Phil Grande was the only board member who opposed approval of the budget, which goes before town voters on Wednesday, May 4.