EAST ROCKAWAY UNION FREE
East Rockaway,
Regular Meeting of the
Board of Education
7:30 P.M., December 14,
2010 – East Rockaway Jr./
Preceded by a Curriculum
Presentation - Music and a Public Forum
Present: Members of the Board of Education: Linda
Schmidt; Neil Schloth; Michaelene Abbott-Cooper; Patti Nicoletti; Kristin
Ochtera; Superintendent, Dr.
1. The meeting was called
to order by Linda Schmidt at 7:55 pm and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by
Michaelene Abbott-Cooper.
2. Upon motion by
Michaelene Abbott-Cooper, seconded by Patti Nicoletti the minutes of the
November 16, 2010 meeting were unanimously approved.
3. Acknowledged Receipt of
Financial Reports – October 2010
4. Correspondence – None
5. Action Agenda
A. Personnel
Upon motion by Kristin Ochtera, seconded
by Patti Nicoletti, the following item #1 was
unanimously approved:
1.
Upon
the recommendation of the Superintendent, grant tenure to the following staff
member on the effective date indicated and subject to satisfactory evaluation:
Staff Member Position Tenure Date
Rebeca Pagan-Rodriguez........... Foreign Language Teacher................. January 12, 2011
Upon motion by Neil
Schloth, seconded by Michaelene Abbott-Cooper, the following items #2-11 were
unanimously approved:
2. Upon the recommendation of
the Superintendent, approve the request of Petra Schoen for a child rearing
leave of absence from her Library Media Specialist position, effective
January 3, 2011, through April 1, 2011.
3. Upon the recommendation
of the Superintendent, approve the request of Gail Beyrer for a child rearing
leave of absence from her elementary teacher position, effective January 18,
2011, through April 15, 2011.
4. Upon the recommendation
of the Superintendent, accept the resignation of Julee Sarno from her position
as short-term substitute speech language teacher, effective December 3,
2010.
5. Upon the recommendation
of the Superintendent, accept the resignation of Karen Polito from the position
of junior high track coach, effective November 29, 2010.
6. Upon the recommendation
of the Superintendent, approve the appointment of Richard Law to the position of
short term substitute teacher, effective January 3, 2011, through April 1,
2011, at the salary established by the East Rockaway Board of Education for the
2010-2011 school year.
7.
Upon
the recommendation of the Superintendent, approve the appointment of Megan
Della Valle to the position of food service
worker, effective December 15, at the Step 1 hourly salary set forth in the
East Rockaway Food Service & Monitor Union contract for the 2010-2011
school year.
8. Upon the
recommendation of the Superintendent, approve the appointment of Sheri Hummel
to the position of After-School Program Assistant, effective December 15, at the hourly salary set forth by the East
Rockaway Board of Education on the Non-Contractual Salary Schedule for the
2010-2011 school year.
9. Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, accept the resignation of
JoMarie Ivolella from the position of teacher aide, effective December 31,
2010.
10. Upon
the recommendation of the Superintendent, approve the following temporary
assignments at the salary approved by the East Rockaway Board of Education on
the Non-Contractual Salary Schedule for the 2010-2011 school year:
a. Allison Guarino, substitute nurse, effective December 15, 2010.
11. Upon
the recommendation of the Superintendent, approve the continuation of the
“emergency, conditional” personnel appointments for the following individuals
pending receipt of notification of their fingerprint clearance from the State
of
None
B. Other Items
Upon motion by Michaelene Abbott-Cooper,
seconded by Patti Nicoletti the following items #1 – 8 were unanimously approved:
1. Accept
a donation from the East Rockaway
Education Foundation in the sum of Five Thousand ($5,000.00) Dollars for the purchase of technology supplies for technology and
electronics education and approve an increase in budget code, A2110-450-01-0026
(technology department) by the sum of Five Thousand ($5,000.00) Dollars.
2. Accept a donation from the Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC in the sum of Three Thousand ($3,000.00) Dollars for the purchase of technology equipment and supplies for technology and electronics education and approve an increase in budget code, A2110-200-01-0026 (technology department) by the sum of Two Thousand Eight Hundred ($2,800.00) Dollars for the purchase of equipment and approve an increase in budget code A2110-450-01-0026 (technology department) by the sum of Two Hundred ($200.00) Dollars for the purchase of supplies.
3. Accept a donation from Francine Kohn in the sum of Twenty-Eight and 81/100 ($28.81) Dollars to the East Rockaway Music Scholarship Fund.
4. Authorize the Superintendent of Schools and/or President of the Board of Education to execute the Certification of Eligibility, Consent and Acceptance as a potential prizewinner in the MSG Varsity Network LLC’s Home Field Advantage Contest and authorize the District Clerk to file the Certification with MSG Varsity Network LLC.
5.
Approve the appointment of
6. Declare the RCA television, Model No. P46000T, Serial No 9096H5055, ER Tag No. 100895 broken and/or obsolete for the purpose of disposition.
7. Declare broken and/or obsolete for the purpose of disposition and/or recycling the following computer equipment:
Apple Computer...................... ER Tag No. 100769
iMac
Computer....................... ER
Tag No. 100217
Dell
240 Computer ................. ER Tag No. 101686
8.
Approve the contract with Crossroads, Inc. for
professional development workshops, for the period January 1, 2011, through
June 30, 2011, and authorize the President of the Board of Education to execute
the contract on behalf of the Board of Education.
C. Budget Transfers
1. Upon motion by Neil
Schloth, seconded by Patti Nicoletti the following budget transfers were
unanimously approved:
a. Transaction No. 11-0012
b. Transaction No. 11-0013
c. Transaction No. 11-0014
Upon motion by Kristin Ochtera, seconded by
Michaelene Abbott-Cooper the following items D&E were unanimously approved:
D. Approval of CSE
Recommendations
E. Approval of CPSE
Recommendations
6. Policy Matters for Review
Policy Number Title
004.91 (NYSSBA 6700) Purchasing
004.91-R (NYSSBA 6700-R) Purchasing Regulation
004.91-E.1 (NYSSBA
6700-E.1) Purchasing Exhibit
004.91-E.2 (NYSSBA
6700-E.2) Explanation of
Other Methods of Competition
to Be Used For Non-Bid Procurements
007.661 (NYSSBA 0115) Student
Bullying Prevention and Intervention
007.661-E (NYSSBA 0115-E) Bullying
Formal Complaint Form
7. Superintendent’s Report
Here’s
what’s happening in our schools.
At the secondary school,
the students are reading the following selections: Grade 7H--The Lord of the Flies; Grade 8--The Pigman; Grade
9R-- Raisin in the Sun; Grade 10--Twelve Angry Men; Grade 11R--The
Catcher in the Rye; English 12R and Senior Seminar--One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest.
Regents Academies are
now in place for students who need to retake a social studies or English regents
exam in January.
The Technology
Department is utilizing the services of MSG Varsity. Our students have been filming sporting
events and announcing the games, as well as editing film. Mr. Howard has been attending workshops,
working closely with Cablevision and MSG Varsity, striving to improve our
studio and video communications classes.
The Business Department
is beginning to prepare placements for the spring Senior Seminar course. Mr. Pajer attended a Senior Seminar workshop
conference at
At the elementary
schools, Grade 4 students participated in the 2nd Annual Computer
Lab Monster Exchange project. The 4th grade students in both schools drew a monster and
typed up the steps on how to draw it. The Rhame students then drew one of the
Centre monsters and the Centre students drew a Rhame monster. On Monday, they met to see how closely their
monsters resemble each other and how well they can create and follow
directions!
At
At
The Activity Works
program is now in place in both elementary schools for grades K-3. This adds additional minutes of physical
activity to our students’ day. In
addition, at Rhame, students are participating in a "Mileage
Club". At recess, students have the opportunity to earn foot charms based
on the amount of laps they walk, jog, or run around the grass field. For each
lap they complete they earn a sticker. When a student completes 15 laps, which
is the equivalent of 2.5 miles, they earn a foot charm to put on a chain
necklace. This is another opportunity for our students to work towards the
recommended 60 minutes of physical activity per day.
We have a record number
of teams earning NYS Scholar Athlete awards. The teams are as follows: Football;
Girl’s Soccer; Girl’s Tennis; Girl’s Cross Country; Boy’s Cross Country; and
Volleyball.
The Girl’s Cross Country
team received the highly coveted Nassau County Track Coaches Association
Sportsmanship Award and the Boys Varsity Soccer team was awarded the Nassau
County Soccer Coaches Association Team Sportsmanship Award, Conference V, at
their dinner earlier this month. Go
Rocks!
The elementary school
student musicians did a great job at their winter concert last week and the
Jr./Sr. High students will be performing on Thursday night. Tickets are now on sale for this year’s
musical, “The Sound of Music”. The
performances are Friday, February 4th at 7:30 pm and on Saturday,
February 5 at 1:30 and 7:30 pm.
Art classes are working
on Bird Appreciation day on January 5th with bird drawings. The students are also working on creating a
logo for the Village Foundation. In
addition, students created holiday cards for the annual Make a Soldier Smile
program and they are also creating posters in celebration of the Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Holiday.
Grade 3
students at Rhame received $50 worth of art supplies from a grant sponsored by
Ann Taylor and other companies. The
supplies will be used to create bulletin boards.
Our
SEDL words of the month are: Grade
6—Envious, Grade 7—Attitude, Frustration, Identify, Grade 8—Rebellious,
Elation, Intimate, and Loathe.
We have learned that NYS
has proposed to charge school districts for Regents exams to reduce their
expenses. The cost would be $5.93 per
student annually. If this proposal
becomes a reality, the cost will be deducted directly from our state aid.
Smartboards from the
technology reserve continue to be installed in all three schools.
Other news includes:
-$405 raised for Denim for Dollars at HS for the
Little St. Nick foundation.
-Our Quiz Bowl Teams had a meet on Wednesday, December 8. Our Varsity 1st and JV Team both
won their respective meets by a decisive margin. The 2nd Varsity lost to
-Nassau County Police Department will be at
-Our students participated in a Pearl Harbor Day Remembrance Ceremony on
12/7. Students are also writing essays on the historical event.
-Students also participated in the annual Make a Soldier Smile Ceremony
on12/6.
-Rhame Avenue PTA Reflections contest this
year had over 170 entries. I was pleased
to participate as a judge and proud of our students’ creativity.
-There was a parenting
workshop: Studying With Your Child. Fifteen parents attended.
-Rhame Avenue Grade 3 donated 250
books to schools in need.
-Rhame Avenue Grade 2 participated
in Scholastic Books’ Pajama Program. The students collected over 50 pairs of
new pajamas which will be delivered to a local shelter. Scholastic will match
each pair donated with a book donation to the same shelter. The children also
collected empty water bottles for recycling.
The funds will be used to purchase additional pajamas.
Follow-up from Prior
Meeting:
I know that some people
were upset about not getting a response to their questions last month. We are
trying to work out a system where community members can get their questions
answered by the person closest to their concern. We have created a document called, Who to
Call with a Question or Suggestion, that we hope will assist. This will also be posted on the website. We are all working hard to make these
meetings a positive experience for everyone.
Also, I know that there may be some people who may not be comfortable speaking
publicly but you may have some things on your mind that you don’t want to bring
to the PTA or board meeting. Please know
that you can talk with me either by phone or by arranging a meeting.
The flyer outlining the
BAC meeting dates and the charge to committee is now available.
There are two Board
policies on the table tonight. They are
also posted on the website under District Information. As we go forward, we will no longer be making
paper copies but posting the policies that come up for review on our
website. Eventually we expect to post
all the policies on the website.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the
holiday.
Happy Hanukah to those who celebrate the
holiday.
Happy New Year to all who celebrate the holiday.
This concludes my report.
8. Privilege of the Floor
One community member questioned the Regents costs.
Another community member asked about the bullying policy.
9. Board Member Comments
Patti Nicoletti –
Congratulations to Mrs. Rodriguez. I hope your tenure here at East Rockaway is
a long one. Thank you to the music department and especially to the very
talented students who performed tonight. I want to remind everyone that the Jr.
/
Michaelene
Abbott-Cooper
– Mrs. Tullo, the performance was great. Welcome Mrs. Rodriguez. Josh, thank you for
the plastic tunnel. Happy Birthday to John Piccarella.
Kristin
Ochtera
– Ditto. Happy Birthday John. I am looking into getting funds for 50 i Pads
with some out of the box thinking. Happy Festivus.
Neil
Schloth
– Thank you Josh Warner. You did a lot of work on your own. Mrs. Rodriguez,
congratulations on your tenure. We are lucky to have you. Have a great holiday.
Linda
Schmidt
– Thank you to the musicians. Have a happy and healthy holiday. Congratulations
Mrs. Rodriguez. See you next year.
10. Upon motion by
Michaelene Abbott-Cooper, seconded by Patti Nicoletti and unanimously passed,
the meeting was adjourned at 8:20 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Denise
Lobascio
District
Clerk