The meeting was delayed by a half-hour because we had a "non-meeting meeting" with Attorney Bill Drescher before the regular school board meeting, and the non-meeting ran longer than expected. A meeting is technically defined by NH RSA 91-A:2, and according to 91-A:2 (c), consultations with legal counsel are by definition not a meeting, so It's not appropriate for me to discuss what was reviewed in the non-meeting.
The regular session was a rather lengthy meeting, and covered a variety of hot topics. We skipped the Superintendent's report this week due to time constraints.
Vote Regarding Sale of Bonds - We passed a formal motion to authorize the sale of bonds for the High School renovation project. We had some trouble a month or two ago where the bond bank had some problems with the wording of the warrant article, but those are all resolved now. Passing this motion will enable the sale of bonds to go forward.
High School Renovation Project - The Phase I track portion of renovation project is progressing well. The first course of pavement was laid this week and the field work is on schedule. We processed a change order to revamp the way the electrical and data feeds to the field are arranged.
Bids were received for the main building renovation portion, or Phase II of the project. We awarded the mechanical and electrical bids at the previous meeting, and we awarded about a dozen additional bids during this meeting. Netting everything out, it appears that we are on budget for the project, with about $250K of contingency still available. This is needed since you never know what you will run into on a renovation project, and we need to be able to cover whatever problems arise during the project.
Policy Reviews - Bert Becker was appointed to the policy committee, replacing Bob Willete who will focus on the Bales study committee. We reviewed 8 policies, moving 4 to a first reading and 4 to a second reading and enactment.
We passed new policy 5095 on Searches of Students, Student's Property and School Owned Property. This policy was modeled after the NH School Board Association model policy. The policy documents current practice, and provides details on what procedures are allowed.
We also passed revised policy 6030 Computer Software and Hardware Policy. The major changes in the policy relate to the use of non-district owned equipment within the district. The main point is that anyone wishing to use non-district equipment must first gain the approval of the Technology Director.
Matt Ballou will soon be installing equipment that will automatically identify new equipment that is added to the network to help to curb any unintentional or intentional violations of this policy.
Budget Items - This was the meat of the meeting. We held a joint meeting with the budget committee on Saturday where the administration reviewed all aspects of the budget. We followed the basic flow that we have developed over the years, and we were able to gain good insight to the budget during the day.
The main problem is that there were a lot of special situations this year, and the budget was higher than desired.
Kindergarten - We first reviewed Kindergarten in some detail, since that is a topic that has a lot of influence on the overall budget. The state committee that is addressing the cost of an adequate education had made some preliminary decisions, and these were discussed at the meeting by Peter Bragdon. Some of the more significant proposals.
- The state will allow districts to delay implementation of public kindergarten by one year. they will need to present a plan to the state showing how they will be implementing it in the following year.
- Kindergarten construction will be eligible for 75% state aid for the portions of the building that are actual classrooms or connecting corridors.
- Kindergarten students will be eligible for 1/2 the adequacy money that is made available to full-time students. This amount is still to be determined, but will be at least $1200 per student according to Peter Bragdon. The Telegraph reported today that it will be at least $1900.
- One of the key drivers of how the state will calculate adequate education cost is the cost of teachers. Some members of the state committee want to set it at the cost of the lowest paid teacher in the state, and others want to set it at the average salary of new teachers in the state. In either case, this will be much less than the average cost of teachers in the state since only a small portion of teachers are new teachers.
- The state authorized 100% of portables for three years to help get the programs started.
Kindergarten delayed - I made a motion to delay the implementation of public kindergarten until 2009. There was some confusion about the motion, and it was not initially supported. We changed the wording slightly, and the motion passed.
Kindergarten Bond Issue - The main issue with implementing kindergarten in Milford is that we need to have a facility to provide the program. There are several options, but the one that makes the most sense to me at this time is what is known as option 3, where we tear down the Bales annex and add a four room addition to Jacques. This is the option that is supported by the district administration.
The advantages of option 3 are that it is relatively low cost ($1.8M), and gets the kindergarten and first grades under the same roof. This eliminates the issues relating to moving across the parking lot to get to the annex as would occur in option 2 (renovating the annex). The downside is that there is little upside space options, and a sustained upturn in enrollments may require a new construction fix at some time in the future. The space looks like it will meet our needs for the near term, and I don't see anything on the horizon that would indicate a large upturn in enrollments. The trend in New Hampshire in recent years has been for declining enrollments, and this should continue, at least for a while.
I had been originally in favor of constructing a new building at Brox (option 4) as the preferred choice for two main reasons. One is that it is the option that provides the most future flexibility. If we get an upturn in enrollments, then we would still have the option to add four classrooms to Jacques to handle the first grade enrollments, and we would be able to add classrooms to the Brox building to handle the kindergarten increases.
The second reason that I supported the Brox construction option is that it is likely that we will get 75% building aid now, but we will only get 30% if we build the same project in the future. The difference in state aid is roughly $2M on the $4.5M Brox construction project. Our portion of the increase from option 3 (Jacques addition) to option 4 (new Brox construction) is roughly $700K. It seemed to me that spending an extra $700K now would be a good investment to save $2M at some time in the future (perhaps 10-15 years down the road. Another way to look at is that we would get four extra classrooms plus some other supporting functions for only $700K. (The Jacques addition is for four classrooms, and the separate Brox building would be eight rooms).
The point that changed my mind on this is that the administration brought some new information to us at the budget meeting last Saturday. It turns out that there a several additional people required to run a separate building instead of just adding on to an existing building. I knew that there would be an additional expense, but I did not expect it to be so high. Adding all the additional support staff for a separate building adds roughly $250K to the operating budget each year. Over 10-15 years, this would add up to $2.5m to $3.8M in additional operational costs, which is more than the $2M savings. Since it is a negative number, we might as well go with the lower cost option and save the money.
There has been some discussion about what will happen if sometime soon we change to full-day kindergarten instead of half-day kindergarten. My response to that is that in my opinion it is very unlikely that the Milford voters would approve a move to full-day kindergarten on their own any time soon, so we should not plan on that as a viable option. On the other side, if the state mandates that we move to full-day kindergarten, then that would be a new mandate, and they would provide funding at that time at some increased level (perhaps the same 75% that is offered now). We would be in the same position as we are now, so there is no reason to plan for it.
I doubt that the state will mandate full-day kindergarten any time soon either. The cost to the state would be very high since there are very few districts currently providing full-day programs. As a rough estimate, if there are 15,000 kindergarten students in the state, and it costs $2500 in adequacy aid to upgrade them from half-day to full-day, then that is an extra $38M for the entire state. They are struggling to make the current situation work, so I doubt that they want to make the cost problem $38M worse.
I made a motion to choose option 3 as our method for implementing public kindergarten in the 09-10 school year. Bert Becker appeared to support the motion, but it did not look like anyone else would support the motion at this time, so I withdrew it. We have some parliamentary rules that make it more difficult to pass something that had already been defeated once, so it is not helpful to have a losing vote on the record.
I am hopeful that we will be able to come up with some sort of a plan that can be supported by a majority of the board. The issue is that we are now legally obligated to provide public kindergarten, and if we choose to ignore that legal requirement, then we could be liable to pay penalties if we are sued by an aggrieved party.
Operating Budget - The administration has done another fine job this year with developing the first draft of the operating budget. They reviewed all the costs and provided forecasts based on reasonable expectations. Their first draft was based on the assumption that we would continue along the same path as we have been following where we make continuous improvements each year with respect to curriculum and programs. The district as a whole has been on the right track for several years, and we have gotten better each year, perhaps not at a rate that everyone would like, but at least at a steady pace that yields positive improvements.
The problem was that the first pass of the budget came in too high relative to what we can afford. A rough rule of thumb that we frequently use is to keep our cost increases to a level not to exceed the inflation rate as measured by the CPI plus the net change in enrollment. The current trailing 12 month CPI is 3.1%, and we expect an enrollment increase of 1.4% for a total target increase of 4.5%.
Peter Bragdon made a motion to bring the increase down to 4.9%. There are some additional special education costs expected next year, with the need for three additional one-on-one associates to meet IEP requirements. Special education costs are mandated by federal law, and we are required to fulfill them. It seems reasonable to allow a slightly higher increase when there are significant increase in special education costs. The net effect of this motion was the creation of the need to identify $400K of cuts to be made to the proposed budget. The administration was tasked with coming back to the next meeting with a prioritized list of cuts to meet the $400K requirement, with the proviso that the cuts not come out of debt service, food service, or fund transfers. The motion passed 5-0.
Even with these cuts, this increase results in a large tax increase. The main factor is that the state had their big increase in adequacy aid this past year, and unless the rules change, the adequacy aid will be the same next year. Since there will not be an increase in state aid, all of the increase in costs will have to be borne by local property taxes. Since the increase will be divided by a smaller base, the percentage increase is higher. The adequacy aid and other revenues source are excluded from the local tax rate calculation.
Now, the state is currently going through their adequacy costing formula and there could be huge shifts in adequacy aid which throw this out the window. We will have to wait and see.
My philosophy is to watch the actual spending closely since that is what we have the most control over. If we manage our spending, then the corresponding taxes will tend to follow over time. Sometimes we make out with revenue sources, like last year where we ended up with a decrease in taxes due to increased state aid. Other times we lose out, such as this year were it looks like there will not be an increase in aid.
Default budget: We received our first draft of the default budget. I haven't had a chance to review it in detail yet, so I don't have a comment on it at this time. As presented, it does not include kindergarten funding. It is not clear to me if kindergarten funding should be in the default budget this year or not since the legal status of the kindergarten mandate for this year is murky at best. It was mandated for the o8-09 school year by the law that passed in June, but the adequacy aid group has indicated that they plan to ask for it to be moved to the 09-10 school year. The question is, do you follow a course of action based on the rules as they currently exist, or do you follow a course of action based on how you think that the rules will end up?
I think that it is clear that it will need to be in the default budget next year since it is very likely that the law will mandate it for that year.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Milford School Board 10/15/07
Superintendent's Report
* The Volunteer New Hampshire Organization named Milford a 2007 Spirit of New Hampshire Program Award Winner. The award will be presented on November 7th at the Grappone Center in Concord, and Governor Lynch will attend the ceremony.
The Volunteer Program Champion Awards recognize outstanding volunteer programs that provide the infrastructure for volunteers to be successful in their service. Awards in the Volunteer Program Champion category recognize excellent program management, fund development efforts that sustain volunteer programs, and commitment of time/resources to engage employees in community volunteer roles.
* Reading information night will be held at the Jacques Memorial School on Thursday 10/18 at 6:30. This will be hosted by the early education literacy team.
* The open houses at each school were completed and all were well attended. The Global Connect telephone messaging service was used to notify parents of the nights, and the notification system seemed to work well.
* Rivier College is sponsoring a professional development program titled "Developing Teacher Leaders of Elementary and Middle School Science" for some of the science teachers in the District.
Project Management Committee
Tom Hurley (Committee Chair) gave an update on the various issues that were addressed at the committee meeting on Thursday. Tom updated all the items that were described in my previous posting. The board approved the fencing and the bleacher recommendations.
ATC Curriculum
Rosie Deloge (Director of Technical Studies) presented the ATC curriculum that was recently developed. This book was the result of a lot of work by various individuals throughout the state. The objective was to develop a common curriculum for many of the ATC's (Applied Technology Center) around the state. Previously each ATC developed their own curriculum for each program, which led to an inability to compare the results from each school.
The new curriculum seems quite good. Each of the 12 program areas has a defined curriculum that is in a structured format.
Kindergarten
The school administration presented the results of their studies on the feasibility of various kindergarten options that are available to us in our efforts to implement public kindergarten as is now required by state law.
Laurie Johnson (Assistant Superintendent of Schools) was the lead presenter of the information, but everyone chimed in as needed.
State Funding
There was a lot of discussion about what are the potential funding sources for the programs from the state. We will not know for some time as to what portions will be funded by the state. Len Mannino seemed pessimistic about the potential for state funding, but based on what I have read about the subject, I am much more optimistic that we can expect to receive significant funding levels for implementation.
The old formula for construction aid for kindergarten start-ups was 75% kindergarten construction funding for the project plus 30% building aid for the portion not funded, for a total of 82.5% aid. It is my opinion that we can expect to receive at least that level of funding, and there is a possibility that it could be even greater.
While there is some debate on this topic, the feeling of many people is that an adequate portion of public kindergarten costs is a new state mandate, and the state constitution requires that all new mandates be funded by the state. I expect that the legislature will decide to 100% fund an "adequate portion" of new kindergarten programs, and that they will be generous with support of construction projects.
Peter Bragdon, who is on the state committee that is working on the funding aspects of an adequate education, seemed to agree with my assessment of the situation, and that there would be some significant level of funding.
Five Options
Five construction options were presented. The start-up costs and annual operating costs for each option were estimated, and the resulting tax impact was also estimated based on various assumptions. Options one to four were for half-day kindergarten and option five was whole-day kindergarten.
We identified some relatively minor items would need additional costing review prior to submitting a warrant article, but the options were developed in enough detail where we can get a fairly good estimate of the tax impacts of the choices.
The four half-day options have similar ongoing costs of about $0.22 per 1,000, or $55.80 for a $250k house. This is net of state adequacy funding of $1,200 per student. The whole-day option is $.86/1,000, or $176.00 for a $250k house.
The main differences in cost are for the construction costs for each option.
These are the options (with tax impacts based on continuation of existing state funding):
1. Jacques 2 Portables - Add two portables containing four classrooms to the rear of the Jacques school. This is the least cost option, but did not get support from any board member. My opinion is that this version is OK as a stopgap measure to enable us to get the program implemented next year if needed, but is not suitable as a long-term solution. Portables are OK when future needs are uncertain, but when it appears that you have a long term need, then it is less costly in the long run to have a long term solution. The construction cost is $190k, or an extra $0.01 on the tax rate for five years, or $2.50 for a $250k house.
2. Renovate Bales Annex - Construction is $1.3M or $0.05 on the tax rate for ten years, or $12.50 on a $250k house. The is the option that I have discussed in the past. It is the least cost option for a semi-permanent solution. The total cost (start-up and operating costs) for this option is about $0.27 per 1000, or $68.30 on a $250k house.
3. Four-room addition to Jacques - This would include tearing down the Bales Annex, and adding a four-room addition to the front end of Jacques. This has the advantage of putting all the students under one roof so they don't have to go outside to move to other areas of the building. The traffic patterns may be better also, but I'm not sure of that. Construction is $1.8M or $0.07 on the tax rate for ten years. Total cost is about $0.29 per 1000, or $73.30 for a $250k house.
4. Stand-alone building on Brox property - This is an eight room stand-alone building on the Brox property near the Heron Pond school. This would include six rooms for kindergarten and two for pre-school. Construction cost is $4.5M, or $0.17 per 1000 on the tax rate for 20 years. Total cost is about $0.39 per 1000, or $98.30 for a $250k house.
5. Full-day stand-alone building on Brox - This is similar to option 4, but is a 14 room building to allow for the full day programs. Construction cost is $10.4M, or $0.39 per 1000 on the tax rate for 20 years. Total cost is about $273.50 for a $250k house.
Options 2 and 3 are lower cost options that provide a solution for the nearer time periods, say perhaps 10 years. At some point the enrollments will rise and further solutions would be required. They do save money in the near term, and it may even extend to longer periods if enrollments rise slowly.
Option 4 costs more now, but provides a longer term solution. It leaves open the option of expanding Jacques or renovating the Annex at some time in the future if the first grade enrollments expand, and the Brox building will be designed to be easily added to if needed.
Option 5 costs the most, but provides for a full-day kindergarten program which is educationally desirable.
In my opinion, although a full-day program is desirable, I think that we should stick with a half-day program for now. We need to walk before we can run, so lets move forward with a half-day program and leave the full-day program discussion for future times.
I think that it probably makes sense to go with the complete new building instead of the renovation/addition options. The stand-alone building gives us more flexibility for future changes. There is also the chance that the state will pay for most or all of it at this time, and this might be a one-time shot at a high funding level for construction. The cost adder of $25 or $30 per household for this option seems like a good value for the future flexibility.
Enrollment Projections
We went over the enrollment projections for next year. We do this at this time each year in preparation for the budget development process. We use average cohort survival rates for most of the estimating, but we use a different process for the R-1 grades. The cohort process seems to work well, but we are less successful at estimating the numbers of students that are enrolling in R-1 for the first time. We reviewed the numbers, and we will formally adopt them at the next meeting.
* The Volunteer New Hampshire Organization named Milford a 2007 Spirit of New Hampshire Program Award Winner. The award will be presented on November 7th at the Grappone Center in Concord, and Governor Lynch will attend the ceremony.
The Volunteer Program Champion Awards recognize outstanding volunteer programs that provide the infrastructure for volunteers to be successful in their service. Awards in the Volunteer Program Champion category recognize excellent program management, fund development efforts that sustain volunteer programs, and commitment of time/resources to engage employees in community volunteer roles.
* Reading information night will be held at the Jacques Memorial School on Thursday 10/18 at 6:30. This will be hosted by the early education literacy team.
* The open houses at each school were completed and all were well attended. The Global Connect telephone messaging service was used to notify parents of the nights, and the notification system seemed to work well.
* Rivier College is sponsoring a professional development program titled "Developing Teacher Leaders of Elementary and Middle School Science" for some of the science teachers in the District.
Project Management Committee
Tom Hurley (Committee Chair) gave an update on the various issues that were addressed at the committee meeting on Thursday. Tom updated all the items that were described in my previous posting. The board approved the fencing and the bleacher recommendations.
ATC Curriculum
Rosie Deloge (Director of Technical Studies) presented the ATC curriculum that was recently developed. This book was the result of a lot of work by various individuals throughout the state. The objective was to develop a common curriculum for many of the ATC's (Applied Technology Center) around the state. Previously each ATC developed their own curriculum for each program, which led to an inability to compare the results from each school.
The new curriculum seems quite good. Each of the 12 program areas has a defined curriculum that is in a structured format.
Kindergarten
The school administration presented the results of their studies on the feasibility of various kindergarten options that are available to us in our efforts to implement public kindergarten as is now required by state law.
Laurie Johnson (Assistant Superintendent of Schools) was the lead presenter of the information, but everyone chimed in as needed.
State Funding
There was a lot of discussion about what are the potential funding sources for the programs from the state. We will not know for some time as to what portions will be funded by the state. Len Mannino seemed pessimistic about the potential for state funding, but based on what I have read about the subject, I am much more optimistic that we can expect to receive significant funding levels for implementation.
The old formula for construction aid for kindergarten start-ups was 75% kindergarten construction funding for the project plus 30% building aid for the portion not funded, for a total of 82.5% aid. It is my opinion that we can expect to receive at least that level of funding, and there is a possibility that it could be even greater.
While there is some debate on this topic, the feeling of many people is that an adequate portion of public kindergarten costs is a new state mandate, and the state constitution requires that all new mandates be funded by the state. I expect that the legislature will decide to 100% fund an "adequate portion" of new kindergarten programs, and that they will be generous with support of construction projects.
Peter Bragdon, who is on the state committee that is working on the funding aspects of an adequate education, seemed to agree with my assessment of the situation, and that there would be some significant level of funding.
Five Options
Five construction options were presented. The start-up costs and annual operating costs for each option were estimated, and the resulting tax impact was also estimated based on various assumptions. Options one to four were for half-day kindergarten and option five was whole-day kindergarten.
We identified some relatively minor items would need additional costing review prior to submitting a warrant article, but the options were developed in enough detail where we can get a fairly good estimate of the tax impacts of the choices.
The four half-day options have similar ongoing costs of about $0.22 per 1,000, or $55.80 for a $250k house. This is net of state adequacy funding of $1,200 per student. The whole-day option is $.86/1,000, or $176.00 for a $250k house.
The main differences in cost are for the construction costs for each option.
These are the options (with tax impacts based on continuation of existing state funding):
1. Jacques 2 Portables - Add two portables containing four classrooms to the rear of the Jacques school. This is the least cost option, but did not get support from any board member. My opinion is that this version is OK as a stopgap measure to enable us to get the program implemented next year if needed, but is not suitable as a long-term solution. Portables are OK when future needs are uncertain, but when it appears that you have a long term need, then it is less costly in the long run to have a long term solution. The construction cost is $190k, or an extra $0.01 on the tax rate for five years, or $2.50 for a $250k house.
2. Renovate Bales Annex - Construction is $1.3M or $0.05 on the tax rate for ten years, or $12.50 on a $250k house. The is the option that I have discussed in the past. It is the least cost option for a semi-permanent solution. The total cost (start-up and operating costs) for this option is about $0.27 per 1000, or $68.30 on a $250k house.
3. Four-room addition to Jacques - This would include tearing down the Bales Annex, and adding a four-room addition to the front end of Jacques. This has the advantage of putting all the students under one roof so they don't have to go outside to move to other areas of the building. The traffic patterns may be better also, but I'm not sure of that. Construction is $1.8M or $0.07 on the tax rate for ten years. Total cost is about $0.29 per 1000, or $73.30 for a $250k house.
4. Stand-alone building on Brox property - This is an eight room stand-alone building on the Brox property near the Heron Pond school. This would include six rooms for kindergarten and two for pre-school. Construction cost is $4.5M, or $0.17 per 1000 on the tax rate for 20 years. Total cost is about $0.39 per 1000, or $98.30 for a $250k house.
5. Full-day stand-alone building on Brox - This is similar to option 4, but is a 14 room building to allow for the full day programs. Construction cost is $10.4M, or $0.39 per 1000 on the tax rate for 20 years. Total cost is about $273.50 for a $250k house.
Options 2 and 3 are lower cost options that provide a solution for the nearer time periods, say perhaps 10 years. At some point the enrollments will rise and further solutions would be required. They do save money in the near term, and it may even extend to longer periods if enrollments rise slowly.
Option 4 costs more now, but provides a longer term solution. It leaves open the option of expanding Jacques or renovating the Annex at some time in the future if the first grade enrollments expand, and the Brox building will be designed to be easily added to if needed.
Option 5 costs the most, but provides for a full-day kindergarten program which is educationally desirable.
In my opinion, although a full-day program is desirable, I think that we should stick with a half-day program for now. We need to walk before we can run, so lets move forward with a half-day program and leave the full-day program discussion for future times.
I think that it probably makes sense to go with the complete new building instead of the renovation/addition options. The stand-alone building gives us more flexibility for future changes. There is also the chance that the state will pay for most or all of it at this time, and this might be a one-time shot at a high funding level for construction. The cost adder of $25 or $30 per household for this option seems like a good value for the future flexibility.
Enrollment Projections
We went over the enrollment projections for next year. We do this at this time each year in preparation for the budget development process. We use average cohort survival rates for most of the estimating, but we use a different process for the R-1 grades. The cohort process seems to work well, but we are less successful at estimating the numbers of students that are enrolling in R-1 for the first time. We reviewed the numbers, and we will formally adopt them at the next meeting.
Friday, October 12, 2007
High School Renovation Project
The MHS Project Management Advisory Committee met last night to review the status of the Milford High School renovation project.
Schedule
Leighton White is making excellent progress on the field work. The weather has been favorable, and the on-site materials have been relatively easy to work with. Everything seems to be tracking on schedule to this point. They are going to go as long as they can before the weather turns against them. They expect to have most of the significant site work done before winter. A couple of big items that will hold until the spring are the top surface on the track and the sod for the fields. One item that might get done this fall or it might wait for the spring is the rough surface underlayment for the track. This will depend on the weather.
Bleachers
The committee reviewed the bids that came in for bleachers. We had long discussions on the pros and cons of the various alternatives, but in the end, we decided to recommend to the School Board that we purchase the seven-year-old used bleachers that came from Adelphi University that are currently being stored in New Jersey. They are available from Seating Solutions. The company is headquartered in Commack, NY, but the bleachers are being stored in Newark, NJ.
As of now, the configuration will consist of seating for roughly 1,000 people on one side only with no visitors side. This is not a final decision, but based on cost issues, it seems like it is the right thing to do. Once we have a better handle on the overall costs for the project, we will revisit this since the general consensus is that breaking up the bleachers into a home and a visitors side is a better alternative.
We have $210k in the budget for bleachers and press box, and this alternative will be about $179k. This savings will help to make up some of the overages that we have seen elsewhere.
Fencing
We received three bids for fencing, and the committee voted to recommend to the School Board that the work be awarded to the low bidder for $47,525. Penney Fence from Londonderry was the low bidder, but I did not find a web site for them.
The fencing budget was $40k, so we are over budget in this area. There were some significant changes to the plan recently where the state environmental review required us to add more fencing around the detention pond and a 12 foot swing gate into the area.
Change Orders
The committee approved two change orders.
1. The water line going down West street is on the west side of the road instead of the east side of the road as shown on the town plans. Leighton White now has to cut across the road to tie into the main to feed the irrigation system. This extra work is going to cost $5,991.
2. The School District decided that we need to increase the size of the manhole access cover to the below ground sprinkler system shut-offs. The old design was a 32" circular egress and the new design is a 36" square opening. The cost for this change is $1,627.
Engineering Oversight
We are not going to hire a clerk of the works for the project (to avoid a $54k cost), and try to seek alternative less expensive options to achieve the same results. Mostly this will consist of Mike Trojano and Bill Cooper spending more time overseeing the project at no added cost, but their knowledge is limited in some areas. We are going to hire Bill Davidson from Meridian Land Services to oversee various aspects of the field construction, including the drainage. They would be doing some of this work as part of their normal part of the process, but this is for additional work that is excluded from their normal scope. We will pay him by the hour, and we capped the expense for him at $6k for now.
Interior Work
Most of the work that will be done on the interior is out for bid now. The bids are due back next week, and the committee will meet again on October 25th to review all the bids. We expect to get bids on all the major items such as mechanical and electrical, but there may be some items that get no-bid by everyone. This is a renovation project that will be a pain for some trades to do because of the timing or access issues that have to be dealt with.
We should have an excellent overall view of the cost of the program at our next meeting. We all have our fingers crossed that the bids will come in low, and we will be able to complete the project as originally planned.
Schedule
Leighton White is making excellent progress on the field work. The weather has been favorable, and the on-site materials have been relatively easy to work with. Everything seems to be tracking on schedule to this point. They are going to go as long as they can before the weather turns against them. They expect to have most of the significant site work done before winter. A couple of big items that will hold until the spring are the top surface on the track and the sod for the fields. One item that might get done this fall or it might wait for the spring is the rough surface underlayment for the track. This will depend on the weather.
Bleachers
The committee reviewed the bids that came in for bleachers. We had long discussions on the pros and cons of the various alternatives, but in the end, we decided to recommend to the School Board that we purchase the seven-year-old used bleachers that came from Adelphi University that are currently being stored in New Jersey. They are available from Seating Solutions. The company is headquartered in Commack, NY, but the bleachers are being stored in Newark, NJ.
As of now, the configuration will consist of seating for roughly 1,000 people on one side only with no visitors side. This is not a final decision, but based on cost issues, it seems like it is the right thing to do. Once we have a better handle on the overall costs for the project, we will revisit this since the general consensus is that breaking up the bleachers into a home and a visitors side is a better alternative.
We have $210k in the budget for bleachers and press box, and this alternative will be about $179k. This savings will help to make up some of the overages that we have seen elsewhere.
Fencing
We received three bids for fencing, and the committee voted to recommend to the School Board that the work be awarded to the low bidder for $47,525. Penney Fence from Londonderry was the low bidder, but I did not find a web site for them.
The fencing budget was $40k, so we are over budget in this area. There were some significant changes to the plan recently where the state environmental review required us to add more fencing around the detention pond and a 12 foot swing gate into the area.
Change Orders
The committee approved two change orders.
1. The water line going down West street is on the west side of the road instead of the east side of the road as shown on the town plans. Leighton White now has to cut across the road to tie into the main to feed the irrigation system. This extra work is going to cost $5,991.
2. The School District decided that we need to increase the size of the manhole access cover to the below ground sprinkler system shut-offs. The old design was a 32" circular egress and the new design is a 36" square opening. The cost for this change is $1,627.
Engineering Oversight
We are not going to hire a clerk of the works for the project (to avoid a $54k cost), and try to seek alternative less expensive options to achieve the same results. Mostly this will consist of Mike Trojano and Bill Cooper spending more time overseeing the project at no added cost, but their knowledge is limited in some areas. We are going to hire Bill Davidson from Meridian Land Services to oversee various aspects of the field construction, including the drainage. They would be doing some of this work as part of their normal part of the process, but this is for additional work that is excluded from their normal scope. We will pay him by the hour, and we capped the expense for him at $6k for now.
Interior Work
Most of the work that will be done on the interior is out for bid now. The bids are due back next week, and the committee will meet again on October 25th to review all the bids. We expect to get bids on all the major items such as mechanical and electrical, but there may be some items that get no-bid by everyone. This is a renovation project that will be a pain for some trades to do because of the timing or access issues that have to be dealt with.
We should have an excellent overall view of the cost of the program at our next meeting. We all have our fingers crossed that the bids will come in low, and we will be able to complete the project as originally planned.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Milford School Board 10/1/07
Superintendent's Report
* Marc Maurais (Athletics Director) announced that Milford High School was one of 24 schools that received the NHIAA/ National Federation of State High School Association Award of Excellence for the previous school year, recognizing that the school did not receive a game disqualification by a player or a coach. The Milford football team also received the Division III Sportsmanship Award, which was selected by the NH Football Officials Association.
* The adult education classes were starting, with 8 to 14 enrolled in Spanish, Photoshop, Excel, and Word. We are restarting adult education this year, and this will be our trial run to see how much interest there will be in the classes.
* The evening classes for High School students in need will start later in the year, perhaps after the holidays. It takes a few months for students to recognize that they need the extra help to make good progress.
* The Freshman Transitions program was held in late September, and was well received by all. Parents and students attended a variety of classes that addressed common problems encountered by students in High School.
High School Renovations
Field work and earth moving by Leighton White has moved into high gear. The weather has been good, and they have made significant progress towards the field portion of the project.
There will be more loam available than originally estimated. This will be discussed at the next Renovations Committee meeting to be held on 10/11, but it is likely that there will be a proposal to sell off some of the excess material. We are going to store some of it on the Brox property for future use, but the amount that will be available will be more than we expect to use in the near future.
2006-2007 Test Scores Presentation
Laurie Johnson (Asst. Superintendent of Schools) gave a very informative presentation on the results from standardized testing during the previous year. The tests that were reviewed were:
NECAP - New England Comprehensive Assessment Program. This is the test used by Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont to calculate the No Child Left Behind scores. It is administered to grades 3-8 and 11 in Reading, Math, and Writing in October, and Science in the Spring. It can take months to get the scoring for this test.
NWEA - North West Evaluation Association. This is a computerized adaptive assessment program that Milford administers in grades 3-8 and in the Sage School, usually 2-3 times per year. There are two tests, one in Reading and one in Math. The results are available right after the test is taken, and this test can be effectively used by teachers to personalize educational plans for students.
SAT - Scholastic Aptitude Test. College entrance exam taken by Juniors and Seniors.
Core Performance Assessments - Local assessments created by Milford teachers to insure that uniform core competency is learned across the various classes that are offered in a subject.
Laurie provided detail explanations on all of these tests, but here are some of the highlights.
No Child Left Behind. The NCLB test results for Milford were generally good for this past year, with one exception. Milford met "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) in all areas except the Reading portion of the Heron Pond Special Education subgroup. If any Heron Pond subgroup does not meet AYP in Reading next year, then Heron Pond will be designated as a school in need of improvement. There are specific actions that will need to be taken if that occurs.
The NECAP scores that are used to calculate AYP were fairly good this past year. Milford's scores were higher than the state average in all areas except for 3rd grade reading.
NWEA - Milford scored above the national average in Reading, and well above the national average in Math. We are guessing that this indicates that the math curriculum that we instituted several years ago as the first implementation of our ongoing curriculum coordination program has been working well. The reading program is much newer and has not had a chance to work yet.
SAT - SAT scores in 2007 were either at or above the NH state average scores and the National average scores.
Core Assessments - These are new rubrics that are are being created for many classes. There are a few tests in existence today, and they expect to have a full complement by next year.
Jacques Summer School Program
Johanna Johnson (Director of Special Studies) and John Foss (Jacques Memorial School Principal) presented an overview of the summer school program that was held this year for students that were entering Readiness or First grade this fall and who were classified as in need of strategic or intensive support.
The DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) test was used to identify students in need. This is a test that enables a very quick assessment of the relative abilities of early learners. Identified students were given two levels of support. The lowest level was the District provided learning kits to parents to work with their children at home. The kits had various elements, but typically contained games that help students to learn things like letters, shapes and colors.
The more intensive program was a summer school program where the students came to the Jacques School for 1- 4 days per week for about a month.
Johanna and John gave a very detailed review of the activities and results of the summer school which I won't go through here. But netting it all out, it appears that the program was very successful at raising the literacy level of the incoming students. Learning to read is critically important to students, and we need to do all we can to get them started on the right foot. Many of the students were at very low levels of literacy after kindergarten, and after having gone through just one month of intensive summer school, they had made significant progress towards meeting the benchmark levels.
Mason Withdrawal Letter
The town of Mason is still trying to leave the Mascenic School District, and they asked for the Milford School Board to provide a letter indicating our support of the proposal. We voted 5-0 to send a letter stating that we would probably be willing to ask our voters if they would support Mason coming to Milford.
Deanna (Dee-Dee) Carter came to the meeting and expressed her strong disapproval of this idea. She discussed the history of Amherst coming to Milford, and then eventually leaving to go on their own. She warned us to be careful, as there is a lot of undeveloped land in Mason and their population could skyrocket in just a few years.
In my opinion, this is a different situation than what was encountered with Amherst. Amherst was about equal to Milford in size, and Mason is only about 5% the size of Milford. They are currently at about 100 students in grades 6-12, and we should be able to absorb the 12-15 students per grade without too much added cost. They will pay tuition based on a formula that will be roughly $8K per year, and our real added variable costs will be much less than that, perhaps only about half as much. This would be very favorable to the Milford taxpayers.
Report of the Schools Document
This has been finalized and will be distributed. Copies are available at the SAU office if you want one. This is a nice folded document that provides summary information about various items of interest about the District.
Bales Study Committee
Rodny Richey and Lorraine Marchildon were appointed to the Bales Study Committee. They join previously appointed members Ron Carvell, Paula Durand, and Bob Willette.
* Marc Maurais (Athletics Director) announced that Milford High School was one of 24 schools that received the NHIAA/ National Federation of State High School Association Award of Excellence for the previous school year, recognizing that the school did not receive a game disqualification by a player or a coach. The Milford football team also received the Division III Sportsmanship Award, which was selected by the NH Football Officials Association.
* The adult education classes were starting, with 8 to 14 enrolled in Spanish, Photoshop, Excel, and Word. We are restarting adult education this year, and this will be our trial run to see how much interest there will be in the classes.
* The evening classes for High School students in need will start later in the year, perhaps after the holidays. It takes a few months for students to recognize that they need the extra help to make good progress.
* The Freshman Transitions program was held in late September, and was well received by all. Parents and students attended a variety of classes that addressed common problems encountered by students in High School.
High School Renovations
Field work and earth moving by Leighton White has moved into high gear. The weather has been good, and they have made significant progress towards the field portion of the project.
There will be more loam available than originally estimated. This will be discussed at the next Renovations Committee meeting to be held on 10/11, but it is likely that there will be a proposal to sell off some of the excess material. We are going to store some of it on the Brox property for future use, but the amount that will be available will be more than we expect to use in the near future.
2006-2007 Test Scores Presentation
Laurie Johnson (Asst. Superintendent of Schools) gave a very informative presentation on the results from standardized testing during the previous year. The tests that were reviewed were:
NECAP - New England Comprehensive Assessment Program. This is the test used by Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont to calculate the No Child Left Behind scores. It is administered to grades 3-8 and 11 in Reading, Math, and Writing in October, and Science in the Spring. It can take months to get the scoring for this test.
NWEA - North West Evaluation Association. This is a computerized adaptive assessment program that Milford administers in grades 3-8 and in the Sage School, usually 2-3 times per year. There are two tests, one in Reading and one in Math. The results are available right after the test is taken, and this test can be effectively used by teachers to personalize educational plans for students.
SAT - Scholastic Aptitude Test. College entrance exam taken by Juniors and Seniors.
Core Performance Assessments - Local assessments created by Milford teachers to insure that uniform core competency is learned across the various classes that are offered in a subject.
Laurie provided detail explanations on all of these tests, but here are some of the highlights.
No Child Left Behind. The NCLB test results for Milford were generally good for this past year, with one exception. Milford met "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) in all areas except the Reading portion of the Heron Pond Special Education subgroup. If any Heron Pond subgroup does not meet AYP in Reading next year, then Heron Pond will be designated as a school in need of improvement. There are specific actions that will need to be taken if that occurs.
The NECAP scores that are used to calculate AYP were fairly good this past year. Milford's scores were higher than the state average in all areas except for 3rd grade reading.
NWEA - Milford scored above the national average in Reading, and well above the national average in Math. We are guessing that this indicates that the math curriculum that we instituted several years ago as the first implementation of our ongoing curriculum coordination program has been working well. The reading program is much newer and has not had a chance to work yet.
SAT - SAT scores in 2007 were either at or above the NH state average scores and the National average scores.
Core Assessments - These are new rubrics that are are being created for many classes. There are a few tests in existence today, and they expect to have a full complement by next year.
Jacques Summer School Program
Johanna Johnson (Director of Special Studies) and John Foss (Jacques Memorial School Principal) presented an overview of the summer school program that was held this year for students that were entering Readiness or First grade this fall and who were classified as in need of strategic or intensive support.
The DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) test was used to identify students in need. This is a test that enables a very quick assessment of the relative abilities of early learners. Identified students were given two levels of support. The lowest level was the District provided learning kits to parents to work with their children at home. The kits had various elements, but typically contained games that help students to learn things like letters, shapes and colors.
The more intensive program was a summer school program where the students came to the Jacques School for 1- 4 days per week for about a month.
Johanna and John gave a very detailed review of the activities and results of the summer school which I won't go through here. But netting it all out, it appears that the program was very successful at raising the literacy level of the incoming students. Learning to read is critically important to students, and we need to do all we can to get them started on the right foot. Many of the students were at very low levels of literacy after kindergarten, and after having gone through just one month of intensive summer school, they had made significant progress towards meeting the benchmark levels.
Mason Withdrawal Letter
The town of Mason is still trying to leave the Mascenic School District, and they asked for the Milford School Board to provide a letter indicating our support of the proposal. We voted 5-0 to send a letter stating that we would probably be willing to ask our voters if they would support Mason coming to Milford.
Deanna (Dee-Dee) Carter came to the meeting and expressed her strong disapproval of this idea. She discussed the history of Amherst coming to Milford, and then eventually leaving to go on their own. She warned us to be careful, as there is a lot of undeveloped land in Mason and their population could skyrocket in just a few years.
In my opinion, this is a different situation than what was encountered with Amherst. Amherst was about equal to Milford in size, and Mason is only about 5% the size of Milford. They are currently at about 100 students in grades 6-12, and we should be able to absorb the 12-15 students per grade without too much added cost. They will pay tuition based on a formula that will be roughly $8K per year, and our real added variable costs will be much less than that, perhaps only about half as much. This would be very favorable to the Milford taxpayers.
Report of the Schools Document
This has been finalized and will be distributed. Copies are available at the SAU office if you want one. This is a nice folded document that provides summary information about various items of interest about the District.
Bales Study Committee
Rodny Richey and Lorraine Marchildon were appointed to the Bales Study Committee. They join previously appointed members Ron Carvell, Paula Durand, and Bob Willette.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Pavilions are Popping Up All Over
There are two new pavilions being built in Milford right now, and another one was built last year. These are great examples of projects that get done in town behind the scenes by dedicated citizens, often without town funding.
1. The old pavilion at Keyes field was in bad shape and was torn down a couple of years ago. Through the work of a group of people and the donations of a few, a new pavilion was built and dedicated this year. Some of the key organizations and people were the Trustees of the Keyes Memorial Trust, Milford Lumber Company, Granite State Concrete, Skip Gautier, and Jerry Guthrie. Thanks everyone!
2. The Lions Club is building a pavilion at the MCAA fields on North River Road based on the same plans that were created for the Keyes field pavilion. A major portion of the cost of this pavilion was donated by Peter Leishman in memory of Muzzy Morell. This is the bio of Muzzy that was published in the 2006 town report:
"Arthur J. “Muzzy” Morell Jr. - “A life long resident who gave back to the community he loved so much”
We all mourn the passing of a friend who has touched so many people in this wonderful town. His generosity was felt by so many and went unnoticed by those who honored him with the 2006 Citizen of the Year.
One of the founding members of the Milford Community Athletic Association (MCAA) and was instrumental in creating the Keyes Field Recreation Complex. He was a coach, mentor, friend and Dad who loved sports. He also volunteered many hours to the SHARE program and was known as the “guardian angel”.
Muzzy was a member of the American Legion, Knights of Columbus and the Milford Lions Club who honored him with a Melvin Jones Fellow. He was an Army veteran having served during the Korean War. Over the years he served on various Town committees.
A graduate of Milford High School class of 1947 and a self employed electrician for more than 40 years, you could always find him in service with a smile. His dedication of service and friendship will be surely missed by all."
The construction project is headed by John Miller who has spearheaded all aspects of the project, and has done a great job. Joe Stella has contributed a lot, and a few other Lions have helped out. There will be a dedication ceremony on Sunday October 22nd. Thanks John!
3. Matt Clemens(a senior at Milford High) is building a stage at Keyes field for his Boy Scouts Eagle project. The stage is between the pool and the other pavilion that was recently built. This is an ambitious project for a young man like Matt, and it is a real test of character. He had to decide what to do, develop the plans for the project, gain the proper approvals (which was especially difficult due to all the red tape in town), fund raise all the money for the project, beg for help from lots of people, and do a lot of the work. He is about 75% done on the project, and is planning a dedication concert on Saturday October 21st in the afternoon. Great work Matt!
1. The old pavilion at Keyes field was in bad shape and was torn down a couple of years ago. Through the work of a group of people and the donations of a few, a new pavilion was built and dedicated this year. Some of the key organizations and people were the Trustees of the Keyes Memorial Trust, Milford Lumber Company, Granite State Concrete, Skip Gautier, and Jerry Guthrie. Thanks everyone!
2. The Lions Club is building a pavilion at the MCAA fields on North River Road based on the same plans that were created for the Keyes field pavilion. A major portion of the cost of this pavilion was donated by Peter Leishman in memory of Muzzy Morell. This is the bio of Muzzy that was published in the 2006 town report:"Arthur J. “Muzzy” Morell Jr. - “A life long resident who gave back to the community he loved so much”
We all mourn the passing of a friend who has touched so many people in this wonderful town. His generosity was felt by so many and went unnoticed by those who honored him with the 2006 Citizen of the Year.
One of the founding members of the Milford Community Athletic Association (MCAA) and was instrumental in creating the Keyes Field Recreation Complex. He was a coach, mentor, friend and Dad who loved sports. He also volunteered many hours to the SHARE program and was known as the “guardian angel”.
Muzzy was a member of the American Legion, Knights of Columbus and the Milford Lions Club who honored him with a Melvin Jones Fellow. He was an Army veteran having served during the Korean War. Over the years he served on various Town committees.
A graduate of Milford High School class of 1947 and a self employed electrician for more than 40 years, you could always find him in service with a smile. His dedication of service and friendship will be surely missed by all."
The construction project is headed by John Miller who has spearheaded all aspects of the project, and has done a great job. Joe Stella has contributed a lot, and a few other Lions have helped out. There will be a dedication ceremony on Sunday October 22nd. Thanks John!
3. Matt Clemens(a senior at Milford High) is building a stage at Keyes field for his Boy Scouts Eagle project. The stage is between the pool and the other pavilion that was recently built. This is an ambitious project for a young man like Matt, and it is a real test of character. He had to decide what to do, develop the plans for the project, gain the proper approvals (which was especially difficult due to all the red tape in town), fund raise all the money for the project, beg for help from lots of people, and do a lot of the work. He is about 75% done on the project, and is planning a dedication concert on Saturday October 21st in the afternoon. Great work Matt!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Manifest Educational Hardship
I've been doing some work on the school district policies, and there is one obscure one that I just reviewed I'd like to bring to your attention. This is Milford School District Policy # 5090, Manifest Educational Hardship.
In general, resident students of a New Hampshire school district are assigned to a public school within the district by the Superintendent or his designee.
However, in unusual and extraordinary circumstances, parents or guardians may request a change of assignment to another public school within the district, or to another public school in a another district. When the parent or guardian believes that the assignment which has been made will result in a manifest educational hardship to the student, the School Board will consider these requests, according to the procedures in the policy.
This policy is based upon New Hampshire RSA 193:3 Change of School or Assignment; Manifest Educational Hardship or Best Interest; Excusing Attendance.
There are a bunch of details on how this works, but basically, the idea is that if a student has a problem with their assigned school, then there is a mechanism for the student to move to a different location.
Normally, the sending school board (where the student is first assigned) will review that case and decide whether they will support the change in venue for the student. If the move is approved, then the Superintendent for the sending location will contact a Superintendent for a proposed receiving location to see if the receiving district is willing to accept the student. If the school board for the receiving district approves the request, the the student will move to the new district. The sending district would then pay full tuition to the receiving district for the student.
This is a rare event, but has the potential for being very important to an individual student. Students can have major difficulties with interactions with a particular peer group where a complete divorce from the situation is the best course of action.
It is good for people to know that this process exists. You never know when the need to apply it will arise. A student may have drug, alcohol, or relationship problems that are best addressed by a completely new environment.
In general, resident students of a New Hampshire school district are assigned to a public school within the district by the Superintendent or his designee.
However, in unusual and extraordinary circumstances, parents or guardians may request a change of assignment to another public school within the district, or to another public school in a another district. When the parent or guardian believes that the assignment which has been made will result in a manifest educational hardship to the student, the School Board will consider these requests, according to the procedures in the policy.
This policy is based upon New Hampshire RSA 193:3 Change of School or Assignment; Manifest Educational Hardship or Best Interest; Excusing Attendance.
There are a bunch of details on how this works, but basically, the idea is that if a student has a problem with their assigned school, then there is a mechanism for the student to move to a different location.
Normally, the sending school board (where the student is first assigned) will review that case and decide whether they will support the change in venue for the student. If the move is approved, then the Superintendent for the sending location will contact a Superintendent for a proposed receiving location to see if the receiving district is willing to accept the student. If the school board for the receiving district approves the request, the the student will move to the new district. The sending district would then pay full tuition to the receiving district for the student.
This is a rare event, but has the potential for being very important to an individual student. Students can have major difficulties with interactions with a particular peer group where a complete divorce from the situation is the best course of action.
It is good for people to know that this process exists. You never know when the need to apply it will arise. A student may have drug, alcohol, or relationship problems that are best addressed by a completely new environment.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Stellos Stadium
I went to the Milford High School "Home" football game last weekend that was held at Stellos Stadium near Nashua South High School. I had heard about Stellos Stadium on many occasions, but I had never been there before this game.
I left the game with that dreaded disease, (first described by Freud?), commonly known as "Stadium Envy". Stellos is a great football stadium with every amenity that is needed for a local football game. It has great parking, stands, concessions, lighting, and artificial turf.
The stands in particular were noteworthy. The home stands appear to hold about 2500 people and the visitor stands hold about 500, for a total of about 3,000 seats.
We are upgrading the Milford football facilities, but they will not be anywhere near the class of Stellos. We are hoping to get stands with seating for a total of 1,000 people. This is a far cry from the 3,000 at Stellos. Our field will be sod, which will be an upgrade from the dust bowl that we had previously, but it is not as nice as artificial turf.
Well, I'll just have to get over my Stadium Envy and be happy with what we are getting in Milford. The new track and field will be light-years ahead of what we had before and will be a wonderful improvement for the town. (I can still dream though...)
I left the game with that dreaded disease, (first described by Freud?), commonly known as "Stadium Envy". Stellos is a great football stadium with every amenity that is needed for a local football game. It has great parking, stands, concessions, lighting, and artificial turf.
The stands in particular were noteworthy. The home stands appear to hold about 2500 people and the visitor stands hold about 500, for a total of about 3,000 seats.
We are upgrading the Milford football facilities, but they will not be anywhere near the class of Stellos. We are hoping to get stands with seating for a total of 1,000 people. This is a far cry from the 3,000 at Stellos. Our field will be sod, which will be an upgrade from the dust bowl that we had previously, but it is not as nice as artificial turf.
Well, I'll just have to get over my Stadium Envy and be happy with what we are getting in Milford. The new track and field will be light-years ahead of what we had before and will be a wonderful improvement for the town. (I can still dream though...)
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