Milford School Board 9/17/07

Superintendent's Report

* Liz O'Hare and Toby Tarnow are offering a new course for students at the High School that is geared toward creating radio drama shows. The course is called the Riverbend iTheater, and they will be creating radio theater productions at the Amato Performing Arts Center at the Boys and Girls Club. More information on the program can be found if you click this link.

* NECAP testing will occur during the first three weeks of October. A summary of last year's NECAP test results will be presented to the school board within the next month.

* There has been some developments on the issue of the windows at the Heron Pond School. Some of the windows in the original portion of the building are difficult to open, and we have been trying to figure out what to do about the problem since the building was originally built. I have tested roughly 15 windows in different rooms, and I have found that I can open all of them, but they are somewhat difficult to operate. Some of the women teachers do not have the physical strength to open some of the windows since it takes a bit of force, and you usually have to lean over a bit to apply the force. We had determined several years ago that the windows were within spec, but were still more difficult to open than we wanted. Recently I have heard that there are at least a small number of windows that are more difficult to open than others, and they may be out of spec.

The manufacturer of the windows, Mannix Windows from Brentwood, NY, has agreed that the windows are in warranty, and that they are guaranteed to be within opening force specifications, which is a pull of 45 pounds. By coincidence, they have a company representative in the area this week, and he will come to the school and do an inspection on all the windows to see if they are within spec or not. If they are out of spec, then Mannix will bring them back within spec.

The company representative will also provide training to District personnel as to how to adjust the windows. They will also provide information on kits that may be available to retrofit windows that are within spec but still harder to open than what is desired.

* The Mason School District is still looking to leave their current arrangement and send their students to Milford schools instead. They are asking for a letter from our District to the Dept of Education that indicates that we want to have them. We had looked at this in some detail a couple of years ago, and this is a win-win situation. They have slightly less than 100 students in grades 6-12, and we should be able to accommodate them in Milford with minimal impact. They would pay tuition based on a formula, and the tuition payments would be in excess of our incremental costs for educating the students. It is likely that at our next meeting we will authorize the administration to issue the letter that Mason is looking to receive.

Potential Warrant Articles

At the beginning of the budget preparation period each year, we try to identify all the potential warrant articles that may be on the March ballot. Putting this list together helps to insure that we consider each item during the budget preparation, but it does not mean that we will necessarily have each of these warrant articles. These are the potential articles, in no particular order.

* Asking for authorization for Mason or other school districts to send tuition students to Milford schools

* One or more construction requests for the creation of Kindergarten facilities. Possibilities include the renovation of the Bales Annex, new construction on the Brox property, and/or purchase/lease of other unidentified facilities.

* Purchase of the property next to the High School on West Street for use as a parking lot.

* Authorization to sell two building lots off of the Heron Pond site. These lots would be used to build houses by the building trades ATC program.

* Potential contract with classified staff bargaining unit.

Bales Study Committee

Ron Carvell and Paula Durand were appointed to the Bales Study Committee. Bob Willette is the School Board Rep.

High School Renovations

The board voted to award the track surfacing bid to Maine Tennis and Track for $203,045.

Leighton A. White has started construction in a big way on the field. They have torn down the bleachers and have started the dirt work.

Our construction management firm, Turnstone Corporation, is looking into the availability of some used bleachers from Adelphi University on Long Island. They have some bleachers that are relatively new that they have taken down because they are building a new stadium. A lot of details need to be worked out, but if it dows work, then there is the possibility that we could get larger bleachers for the same money they we were planning on spending on new. It is unusual to be able to buy used bleachers in good condition, so it is not even something that we had originally planned on investigating.