Dear Readers! I am sorry to have left you in the lurch for the past few meetings. I have been ill for a couple of months and finally required surgery. I was hoping to keep up my pace, but alas was forced to slow down. I will concentrate on my health for now. The facebook site will continue to act as a communication port for all us Parents . If you are interested in picking up my slack here on the blog while I heal send me a message and we can figure it out. i look forward to getting back to this as soon as possible.
Invitation to Meet & Greet the Permanent Superintendent
Meet & Greet Our New Superintendent
The Pawling Board of Education proudly invites parents, staff and community members to a “Meet and Greet” welcome session with newly appointed permanent Superintendent of Schools, Dr. William Ward at the Pawling Elementary School multipurpose room on Monday, April 8, 2013 from 7-8 p.m. Please plan to join us!
On the Agenda- Appointment of New Superintendent, 3 seats open for elections on the BOE, resignation of Assistant Superintendent of Finance..BOE Meetting 4/2/13
Meeting opened at 7:42
It is budget season and many numbers and percentages are discussed and debated. The documents are made available on the BOE s web page. Please refer to those for more specific information about the budget lines. I will give the broad overview.
First presentation:
Budget presentation by Mr Mahoney- the proposed budget to budget increase is 2.6%. The proposed tax levy increase is 1.75% which comes in below the 2% tax cap. The budget is the same as that which was outlined at the last meeting. There followed a long conversation and many questions about where monies are and how they are being appropriated.
Second presentation:
Mr Donohue presented the line by line budget and discussed the Fund Balance. He clarified lines, answered questions and gave suggestions and alternatives.
The newly appointed Superintendent of Schools is Dr William Ward effective July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2016
Mr Donohue is resigning effective June 30th. He is taking a job at BOCES.
I left the meeting at 10:30. It was not yet over. If any readers stayed and can fill in any interesting happenings please post a comment. Thanks!
Join us for the BOE meeting tonight. There are also special session scheduled for 3/12 and 3/14 however those will go directly to executive session to discuss the employment of particular persons (I’m thinking it’s continuing the hiring process for the new superintendent- just conjecture
BOE Meeting 3/11/13-
Meeting opened at 7:45pm
Eagle scout proposal- Kevin Langone- project proposal construct a long and triple jump area with a sand pit at the end for the use of the track of field team for their events- he would have fundraisers to gather the funds for the construction. Mr. Hill asked that they are sure that the insurance aspect of the project is taken care of. The board approved the project unanimously.
Capital market advisors- the schools financial advisors- they have been with the school district for about 10 years- the presentation was about debt and bonds- he explained how these bonds are purchased and what steps need to be taken to do this successfully. This presentation was to explain the process of how the district will finance the monies needed for the transportation facility and other upgrades to the schools that were voted on and approve by the community back in December. Please listen to the podcast from about the 5 min mark until the 16 min mark. Clarifying questions to the presenter from about 16 min to the 45 min mark. Mr Donohue then also spoke from about the 43 min to the 48 min Mark to clarify some information about how monies can be used and how it will impact our budget in regards to the tax cap.
Discussion of the BOCES budget presented by Mr. Donohue- the BOCES budget is basically a cost analysis of shared services among school districts (coser). This is like a co-op for schools to get the best prices by sharing services among districts. Services that our school districts use at BOCES include state aid planning, purchasing, fingerprinting, employee benefit coordinator, e-learning, driver training, athletic scheduling and officials, highspeed internet access, security systems… The BOCES budget for this year is $3,383,386. This is a decrease of $163,657 or -4.61% from last year. The biggest increase in the budget is for technology purchasing that was requested by building principals in their presentations. Purchasing through BOCES gives the best price and adds to the state aid we receive. Also the more schools that participate in BOCES the less expensive these shared services come.This discussion was from about the 48 min mark until the 75 min mark.
Mr. Mahoney- Final Review of Services- these staffing reviews are a summation of the presentations we have heard and seen over the past few months. The bottom line is / PES +1.5 staff. PMS/HS +4.4 staff. This staff includes library services, teaching assistants, added teacher hours (.7 to 1.0…) in english, art and PE with increases in related services as well (guidance, speech…).
Discussions followed about security ( recap of what kinds of things are needed) , wireless infrastructure in the buildings,
Congratulations to colleen snow on being the new vice president of the board of ed.
The superintendent search is down to 2 candidates – they will keep us posted.
BOE meeting start time8:00 pm- The vacancy on the BOE has been filled by John Ragusa- welcome. He is excited to be a part of the BOE and hopes to continue the work of the current BOE.
Presentations-
Special Education budget Cheryl Basch- she started with an outline of what the program looks like this year, what our cohort of children looks like and what their needs are. Over the last few years there has been a decrease of about 18 special education staff. This year’s budget proposal is $867,273.00 below what the budget was last year for a total of $2,510,109.00. There were decreases in the boces services and out of district tuitions. She has proposed an increase in staff training and conferences to give our teachers the training they need to support the students they work with and prepare for new mandates and curriculum. She has requested an addition of 2.5 additional teaching assistants, .5 speech/language pathologist.
Athletic budget John Bellucci- he started with highlighting the achievements of our athletic department from sectionals to states- we have over 50 sports teams available for our students from modified to varsity- with 700+ participants there are many pieces that go into each sport and team- supplies, equipment, officials, ice time, sheriffs, trainings, dues, fees, repairs… The largest increase in the athletic budget is for a trainer- concussion management- health program support coordinator ($35,000 increase). The total proposed budget is $172,043.00
That rounds out the proposed budgets for the schools. There will be a budget workshop at the next BOE meeting on March 11 th to look at staffing numbers and budget for the district for next year.
There are 3 seats open for the next term of BOE more information from the district clerk. Petitions must be filed by the middle of April. (21st??) you can get them from the district clerk.
The science fair was fantastic- thank you to all who participated.
Colleen Snow commented that the BOE members did not agree with the statements that the Board President made at the last BOE meeting. They have submitted a letter to the comptrollers office in response to the letter that the Board President had sent on his own accord in response to the NYS Comptrollers report. This is all in regards to the comments and information from the last BOE meeting regarding the NYS Comptrollers report.
There was a heated argument at about the 1 hr 55 min mark that included the demand for the BOE President to step down, this statement was followed by an accusation that the Board President did not abide by the laws (charters) that govern Boards of Educations and should therefore be removed from his post. Then the board took a 5 minute recess.
The BOE voted to extend MrMahoney’s contract until the end of the year, unanimously
The BOEwill be meeting with candidates for the new superintendent position in the next few weeks. They hope to narrow the candidacy from 5 to 2 and then take the next steps.
Posted at 10:30 pm- excuse the grammar will fix in the morning. Wanted to post for all you night owls
Interesting NY State audit of our district’s finances from 2009-Jan.2012. Gives a clearer picture of the mess that our current administrators are trying to clean up now. “The results of our audit and recommendations have been discussed wit…h District offi cials and their comments, which appear in Appendix A, have been considered in preparing this report. District offi cials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they have already initiated, or plan to initiate, corrective action.” (Thank you Pawling Press for bringing it to my attention.)
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. If you are interested in picking up my slack here on the blog while I heal send me a message and we can figure it out. i look forward to getting back to this as soon as possible.
