WINDHAM-ASHLAND-JEWETT CENTRAL SCHOOL
Board of Education Minutes
January 10, 2008Members Present:
A. J. Savasta
William Haltermann
Teri Martin
Drew Shuster
Members Absent:
Jacqueline Maier
Others Present:
John Gratto
Michael Ryan
Anne Rode
Bridget Pelham
John Wiktorko, Superintendent
Marge Curran, Treasurer
Parents of Presenting Students
Board President, A. J. Savasta, called the meeting to order at 7:11 p.m.
Mr. Savasta led those assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Before Regular Business began:
Mr. Wiktorko thanked all of the parents who came to this meeting.
A plaque was presented to Maria Constantinides for achieving National Board Certification in Middle Childhood Education.
Genevieve DeBoyace and Deborah Valerio’s 4th and 5th grade classes gave a presentation on their visit to a Staten Island school to meet
with their partners from the Green Connections Program. The Catskill Center pays for this program. Their partners from Staten Island will be coming to visit us next.
Mr. Wiktorko thanked the teachers and children for sharing their experience with the Board and remarked that he had heard the children
were well behaved and were good representatives of WAJ.
A short recess was announced in order to allow the children who gave the presentation to leave the meeting.
The meeting resumed at 7:35 p.m. with Regular Business.
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, the Minutes of the December 18, 2007 meeting were read and approved
on motion by Teri Martin and seconded by Drew Shuster.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Audit Finance Committee and the Superintendent, the Treasurer’s Report for November
2007 was read and approved on motion by William Haltermann and seconded by Teri Martin.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Audit Finance Committee and the Superintendent, the Board approves the Bill Schedule for
January 2008 as presented, on motion by William Haltermann and seconded by Teri Martin:
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Audit Finance Committee and the Superintendent, the Superintendent’s Transfers were
approved on motion by Teri Martin and seconded by Drew Shuster
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Audit Finance Committee and the Superintendent, the Board approves the
Extra Curricular Activities Account for the month of November 2007 on motion by William Haltermann and seconded by Drew Shuster.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
There was no correspondence and there were no public comments.
Bruce Pallas, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds giving the Board an update and his preliminary budget for the coming school year:
We will have all of the recycling bins in place next week
A company, U. S. Greenfiber, will pay us per ton for all of our paper
Cafeteria’s recycling program is going very well
He will have more firm budget numbers next month. He is having difficulty estimating the utilities because of the 2005 Capital Project renovation.
He has no history yet for the conversation to propane and the new boilers
The energy management system and the new boilers will be in by the end of the summer
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, the Board does hereby congratulate and recognize
Maria Constantinides for earning National Board Certification in middle childhood education on motion by Teri Martin and seconded by Drew Shuster.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, the Board approves a maternity leave of absence for
Michelle Beaumont, teacher of Special Education, beginning on March 25, 2008 on motion by William Haltermann and seconded by Teri Martin.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, the Board appoints the following individual to the extra
curricular position for the 2007-08 school year as presented :
Spelling Bee Advisor – Melissa Glennon
on motion by Teri Martin and seconded by Drew Shuster
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, the Board adopts the 2008-2009 School Calendar as presented
under separate cover on motion by Drew Shuster and seconded by Teri Martin.
Mr. Wiktorko added that the two conference days in September are due partly to the 2005 Construction Project. It will allow time
for the custodians to clean the building before the children begin school
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, the Board modifies the District Strategic Plan, by updating the District’s
Intermediate Goals, as presented under separate cover on motion by William Haltermann and seconded by Drew Shuster.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent and the Audit Finance Committee, the Board accepts the Internal Audit Risk
Assessment Report presented by the District Internal Auditors Sichler, Torchia, Allen and Churchill CPAs, PC as presented under separate
cover on motion by William Haltermann and seconded by Drew Shuster. Mr. Haltermann added that the District’s Action Plan will go back to the Internal Auditors.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, the Board accepts a $2,000 donation given to the Windham-Ashland-Jewett CSD
in memory of Leona Bingel Smith, a former teacher of biology at WAJ. The money is to be used by the high school science department to purchase
equipment for their science labs on motion by Teri Martin and seconded by Drew Shuster with a phrase deleted. Mr. Wiktorko added that it will be used for microscopes.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent and the District Construction Manager, that the Board of Education hereby
awards the contract for Telephone Technology Network Integration Systems on the 2005 Capital Project to Carousel Industries, at a
base bid of $140,535, alternates T-1 at $27,096, T-3 at $3,283, Unit Cost B at $4,184, Unit Cost C at $3,167 for a total price of $174,465
as presented under separate cover and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President of the Board of Education is hereby authorized to
execute such contract for the District on motion by Drew Shuster and seconded by Teri Martin with a phrase deletion. Mr. Wiktorko
added that he was very comfortable with this bid.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
RESOLVED, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent and the District Construction Manager, that the Board of Education hereby
awards the contract for Theatrical System Construction on the 2005 Capital Project to Janson Industries, the lowest responsible bidder,
at a base bid of $189,500 as presented under separate cover and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President of the Board of Education
is hereby authorized to execute such contract for the District on motion by Teri Martin and seconded by Drew Shuster. Ms. Martin asked about
the bid which Mr. Wiktorko summarized for the Board.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
Resolved, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, the Board approves the recommendation from the Committee on Special Education,
Committee on Pre-School Special Education and the Americans with Disability Act, Section 504 for student #’s: 1081, 1167, 0522.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
Important dates were read by the Board and a correction was made to the time that the AFC committee meets. It is reverting to 6:00 p.m. instead of 6:30 p.m.
Dr. Gratto updated the Board on the following:
Since WAJ has been identified as a School in Need of Improvement (Year 1) for not meeting participation and AYP for 3-8 ELA Special Education,
the New York State Education Department regulations require that the District develop a Comprehensive Education Plan.
The Plan requires broad-based participation by district stakeholders. Teachers have been asked to volunteer from all grade levels, particularly ELA, math,
special education, and AIS teachers.
The team will work to find a “Causal Analysis” for our test scores that did not result in Adequate Yearly Progress being made. Completing this causal
analysis based upon an analysis of students’ test results will be the nuts and bolts work of the School Leadership Team culminating with the development of an Action Plan for Improvement.
Item analysis of the Grade 5 Social Studies test was completed showing that students scored lowest at “Location and Geographic Characteristics of
World Communities.” Knowing that information, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers will work to strengthen our students’ knowledge in those areas.
Similar item analysis will be done of the English Language Arts exams
Have been meeting with groups of teachers to plan specific strategies to meet goals specified in the Comprehensive District Education Plan (reviewed by the Board 10/11/07).
Effective Monday, December 17th, EdLine implemented allowing parents of students in grades 7-12 to access their children’s grades via the internet.
Parents (who requested one) have been given a password to access only their children’s grades
Started a new initiative designed to keep teachers abreast of current research and best practices
The Advisory Program is showing positive trends
Absences are skewed due to suspensions of students but attendance is up from last year
The AP English class, AP Calculus and AP Studio Art have been approved by the Advanced Placement Audit Committee for this school year.
The course syllabus for AP U.S. History has been submitted and we should know the results soon.
K-6 teachers attended training in two textbook series that will be piloted during the second 10-weeks of the school year (Open Court and Scott Foresman)
Anne Rode gave a report that included the following:
Referrals are down. The Advisory Program is helping with the referrals
Students of the months of November and December were named
At the next Morning Program, a video on bullying will be shown
January 31st is the deadline for “points” ordering, a program “Tools for Schools” at Price Chopper that gives us points for receipts.
The teachers then get to choose various items from a catalogue provided.
Sports report was given
5 seniors for their Senior Project coordinated a field trip to NYC for 10th graders. The 10th graders will go to the UN and Ground Zero
March 15 is the new date for the NYC theater trip
High school students are still participating in the recess program for the younger students
Mr. Wiktorko gave his report:
The Bond sale today for the amount of $2,927,396 at a 4.2257% return. It was bought by Wachovia, the lowest bidder.
Our bond rating has been upgraded to A+ without our having to purchase insurance
The bond rating agency was impressed with our financial stability
The Board was asked to please look at the Cooperative Investment packet among their materials to consider this possible option in the future.
Program visits to high performing schools have been scheduled.
There were no public comments or additions to the agenda.
RESOLVED, that the Board go into Executive Session at 9:13 p.m. for the purpose of discussing the employment history
of 4 employees leading to the possible appointment of employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal
or removal of these persons on motion by Teri Martin and seconded by William Haltermann.
Yes Savasta, Haltermann, Martin and Shuster.
No 0 Motion Carried
The items discussed during the Executive Session will be made public as appropriate at future meetings of the Board of Education.
The Board reconvened into regular session at 10:35 p.m. on motion by Teri Martin, seconded by William Haltermann and carried by those present.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:36 p.m. on motion by William Haltermann, seconded by A. J. Savasta, and carried by those present.
Felicia Senigo, Clerk of the Board
John Wiktorko, Clerk Pro Tem