Superintendent's Report
The new school year started last week, and it went very well. The staff was in on Monday and Tuesday with start-up activities, grades K-9 started on Wednesday, and grades 10-12 started on Thursday.
They held the District-wide meeting on Tuesday. Bert Becker and I were able to attend the meeting, and it was quite good. I was impressed with the positive outlook that everyone exhibited during the meting. Everyone seemed to be really looking forward to a new school year and the influx of new students. It is difficult to positively motivate large organizations, and our District appears to have excellent morale. There are a lot of factors that go into this, but I think that some of the major ones are our Superintendent's performance, and the fair contracts that we have with our bargaining units.
The three largest classes in the district are the 6th, 9th, and 10th grades, with all of them over 240 students. The formal enrollment numbers will be presented at the first October board meeting, with the board setting the enrollment projections for the next year's budget at the second October meeting. The numbers can fluctuate during the first few weeks of the year, which is why the state waits until October first summarize the enrollment figures for the entire state.
The calendar that was created by Sue Asselin was distributed to the board. Sue has been creating these calendars for a couple of years, and does a great job of it. She raises the money to produce the calendars by selling ads in the calendars, and she prints enough of them to enable all students in the District to get one. The calendars list all the standard school events for the year, and they are a wonderful tool for keeping track of school activities. We use them at our house, and they work great. Thanks Sue!
Beth Powers (High School English Teacher) received the Champion of Human Rights award about a month ago from the NEA. This was partially due to her support of the Peach jam program in Milford.
The district had received written notice from the state that they felt that our ballot question was not detailed enough, and that we might not be authorized to sell bonds for the high school renovation project. Additional information was provided to the state, including the voter guide that was mailed to all residences in town, and the state decided to allow us to sell bonds. We will need to be more critical with the wording of future articles to insure that we do not get into similar situations.
Adequate Yearly Progress
Laurie Johnson gave a brief overview of the AYP results that had been announced by the state last week. She is going to do a much more in-depth overview within a month or so once she has all the detailed data to summarize.
In short, the District made AYP but the K-8 Reading program did not make AYP. The Heron Pond educational disability sub-group did not make AYP for Reading, and as a result, the entire K-8 program did not make AYP for Reading. If the K-8 Reading program does not make AYP next year, then it will be designated as being in need of improvement.
Buildings and Grounds Reports
Bill Cooper gave his annual report summarizing the B&G activities that occurred during the summer break. He passed out a four page report detailing all the actions, but these are some of the highlights:
* Replaced carpeting and painted in the Front Office areas of the High School, Middle School, and Jacques.
* Remediated Asbestos in 15 rooms in the High School in preparation of the renovations that will mainly occur next summer.
* Installed guard rails at the Middle School and Bales.
* Installed a second culvert at Heron Pond to help drain the pond during very high water events.
* The ball field at Heron Pond is in great shape with new fencing, loam, and seeding. It will be rested this fall and go into heavy use starting next spring. It is expected that the MCAA will be allowed to use it in addition to various school uses.
* There were a series of security camera improvements at most schools.
Budget Process Guidelines and Parameters
Peter Bragdon submitted the budget guidelines that we used last year, with a few slight modifications to make some needed corrections.
We changed it during the meeting to add a reference in the voters guide section that the guide should not include political advertising, except that a free candidate profile section would be allowed, similar to the voters guide that was produced last year.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Monday, September 3, 2007
Labor Day Parade 2007
The VFW did their usual fine job with this year's Labor Day Parade. The weather was perfect, everything went on time, and there were no big gaps between groups.
The funding for the parade was limited this year due to the VFW gambling crackdown that occurred earlier this year, so they were not able to afford the out-of-town bands that usually show up for the parade. I like having the extra bands, and I hope that they find a way to fund them next year.
There are a few events that go on each year that really make a difference in Milford. These are things like the pumpkin festival, the Fourth of July fireworks, and the Labor Day parade. These are all key contributors to improving the spirit of the town, and as such, they indirectly help to increase the economic vitality of the town. Because they are so important to the town, I think that we should support them at least partially though taxes rather than though private funding. I would be in favor of putting at least partial support of the Labor Day parade on the ballot as a separate warrant article next year to see if others in town agree. It would be a shame if the parade were to disappear due to lack of private funding.
There was a good selection of politicians this year since it is a Presidential primary year. I like having the politicians in the parade, and I'd like to see that continue. There are some people that really don't like having the pol's around, but I think that they add a lot to the mix.
We had two top tier presidential candidates with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, a second tier candidate with Chris Dodd, our Congressman Paul Hodes, and Governor John Lynch as the Grand Marshall of the parade.
I sat in an area with a mix of residents ranging from little kids to seniors. Everyone in our area seemed to really enjoy themselves.
Barack Obama came over to our area to shake hands, and it was really interesting. You could feel the electricity in the air when he came by, with just about everyone getting excited. Mitt Romney also shook hands in our area, but the response was much more muted.
The funding for the parade was limited this year due to the VFW gambling crackdown that occurred earlier this year, so they were not able to afford the out-of-town bands that usually show up for the parade. I like having the extra bands, and I hope that they find a way to fund them next year.
There are a few events that go on each year that really make a difference in Milford. These are things like the pumpkin festival, the Fourth of July fireworks, and the Labor Day parade. These are all key contributors to improving the spirit of the town, and as such, they indirectly help to increase the economic vitality of the town. Because they are so important to the town, I think that we should support them at least partially though taxes rather than though private funding. I would be in favor of putting at least partial support of the Labor Day parade on the ballot as a separate warrant article next year to see if others in town agree. It would be a shame if the parade were to disappear due to lack of private funding.
There was a good selection of politicians this year since it is a Presidential primary year. I like having the politicians in the parade, and I'd like to see that continue. There are some people that really don't like having the pol's around, but I think that they add a lot to the mix.
We had two top tier presidential candidates with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, a second tier candidate with Chris Dodd, our Congressman Paul Hodes, and Governor John Lynch as the Grand Marshall of the parade.
I sat in an area with a mix of residents ranging from little kids to seniors. Everyone in our area seemed to really enjoy themselves.
Barack Obama came over to our area to shake hands, and it was really interesting. You could feel the electricity in the air when he came by, with just about everyone getting excited. Mitt Romney also shook hands in our area, but the response was much more muted.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Milford School Board 8/27/07
High School Renovation Project
The school board met in a special meeting on Monday to review the recommendations of the High School Renovation Committee regarding the bids for the track and field site work.
The board discussed the status of the project and the budget implications of the bids that were higher than expected. Tom Hurley (Committee Chair) updated the board on all the discussions that had gone on at the building committee meeting and the background on all the issues. After all the discussions, the board held two votes.
The board voted 5-0 to award the site work project to Leighton White as per his bid. It is expected that Leighton will start work soon after labor day. Mike Trojano and Bill Cooper will look into the feasibility of doing something with the visitor bleachers (such as moving them to the soccer field), and if it seems viable, to act on the option. If it doesn't appear viable, then they will just be torn down as per the specifications.
The board voted 4-1 (Peter Bragdon in opposition) to authorize the building committee to not hire a Clerk of the Works if the Committee decided not to. This vote allows the building committee to make the decision without having to come back to the School Board for further approval. The vote does not obligate the Committee to not hire a Clerk, but the votes gives it the option to do so.
The board did not act on the award of the track surface bid to Maine Tennis and Track as had been approved by the building committee. The documentation of the bid was not presented at the meeting, and it was felt that it would be better to have the paperwork in front of everyone prior to a vote. This was not a time-critical item like the site-work bid since the track work will not be done until next May or so in any case. The bid information will be summarized and brought to a future meeting for approval.
The cost increase was discussed at length, with the basic consensus being that while it was a problem, it seemed to be of a manageable level given the context of the overall project. We will need to be careful moving forward that we make the proper decisions to keep the project within the overall budget and still have a quality result.
Superintendent Suprenant Contract
The board went into non-public session once the track and field discussion was complete. At the end of the non-public session, it was announced that Superintendent Suprenant and the board had reached agreement on a new three-year contract that is a follow-on to his initial three-year contract that recently ended.
I'd like to publicly thank Superintendent Suprenant for his performance during his first three years with Milford. We have made great progress in that time period, and the Milford School District is in great shape and getting better all the time.
While we don't use these terms to describe it, we have instituted processes that are essentially continuous improvement programs. Continuous improvement as a management philosophy is a prime foundation of quality systems, and we do it well in Milford. An example is our curriculum improvement process that is well entrenched in the district now. Every year we look at portions of the curriculum to plan future changes, we test the options for the changes, and we implement the changes. Each subject area flows thought this process on a regular schedule. This allows us to keep our spending relatively uniform from year to year while at the same time insuring that all aspects of the curriculum are refreshed on a regular planned basis.
We set goals each year, and we measure our progress towards meeting the goals. This closed-loop process helps to insure that we are working on the proper items, that we are coordinating our efforts towards meeting common goals, and that we are communicating our efforts to all interested parties.
The school board met in a special meeting on Monday to review the recommendations of the High School Renovation Committee regarding the bids for the track and field site work.
The board discussed the status of the project and the budget implications of the bids that were higher than expected. Tom Hurley (Committee Chair) updated the board on all the discussions that had gone on at the building committee meeting and the background on all the issues. After all the discussions, the board held two votes.
The board voted 5-0 to award the site work project to Leighton White as per his bid. It is expected that Leighton will start work soon after labor day. Mike Trojano and Bill Cooper will look into the feasibility of doing something with the visitor bleachers (such as moving them to the soccer field), and if it seems viable, to act on the option. If it doesn't appear viable, then they will just be torn down as per the specifications.
The board voted 4-1 (Peter Bragdon in opposition) to authorize the building committee to not hire a Clerk of the Works if the Committee decided not to. This vote allows the building committee to make the decision without having to come back to the School Board for further approval. The vote does not obligate the Committee to not hire a Clerk, but the votes gives it the option to do so.
The board did not act on the award of the track surface bid to Maine Tennis and Track as had been approved by the building committee. The documentation of the bid was not presented at the meeting, and it was felt that it would be better to have the paperwork in front of everyone prior to a vote. This was not a time-critical item like the site-work bid since the track work will not be done until next May or so in any case. The bid information will be summarized and brought to a future meeting for approval.
The cost increase was discussed at length, with the basic consensus being that while it was a problem, it seemed to be of a manageable level given the context of the overall project. We will need to be careful moving forward that we make the proper decisions to keep the project within the overall budget and still have a quality result.
Superintendent Suprenant Contract
The board went into non-public session once the track and field discussion was complete. At the end of the non-public session, it was announced that Superintendent Suprenant and the board had reached agreement on a new three-year contract that is a follow-on to his initial three-year contract that recently ended.
I'd like to publicly thank Superintendent Suprenant for his performance during his first three years with Milford. We have made great progress in that time period, and the Milford School District is in great shape and getting better all the time.
While we don't use these terms to describe it, we have instituted processes that are essentially continuous improvement programs. Continuous improvement as a management philosophy is a prime foundation of quality systems, and we do it well in Milford. An example is our curriculum improvement process that is well entrenched in the district now. Every year we look at portions of the curriculum to plan future changes, we test the options for the changes, and we implement the changes. Each subject area flows thought this process on a regular schedule. This allows us to keep our spending relatively uniform from year to year while at the same time insuring that all aspects of the curriculum are refreshed on a regular planned basis.
We set goals each year, and we measure our progress towards meeting the goals. This closed-loop process helps to insure that we are working on the proper items, that we are coordinating our efforts towards meeting common goals, and that we are communicating our efforts to all interested parties.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Bales Mystery Solved
The mystery of what was behind the Bales Elementary School sign has been solved. The District took down the sign early this week, and this is what they found:
The sign says:
The newly-visible old granite sign is very nice, but I don't think that it will work for us going forward. The building is currently used as a combination middle/high alternative school, and there is a good chance that it will be a multipurpose building at some point in the future.
The school has some nice "bones" to it, and I think that it deserves to have a long future.
We are going to put on a new roof and replace the soffits as a side project of the current High School renovation project that was approved last year. The building needs a lot more to get it usable for a potential long term function. There will be a study committee starting up this fall that will investigate the potential uses for the building, and to guide us in figuring out what should be done with the building.
The sign says:
* MILFORD HIGH SCHOOL *
** 1894 **
** 1894 **
The newly-visible old granite sign is very nice, but I don't think that it will work for us going forward. The building is currently used as a combination middle/high alternative school, and there is a good chance that it will be a multipurpose building at some point in the future.
The school has some nice "bones" to it, and I think that it deserves to have a long future.
We are going to put on a new roof and replace the soffits as a side project of the current High School renovation project that was approved last year. The building needs a lot more to get it usable for a potential long term function. There will be a study committee starting up this fall that will investigate the potential uses for the building, and to guide us in figuring out what should be done with the building.
Friday, August 24, 2007
High School Renovation Project
We held another meeting last night of the High School Renovation Committee. The purpose of the meeting was to review the bids that came in for "Phase 1" of the track portion of the project. Phase 1 is primarily for the site work and field aspects of the project.
In summary, the budget for the track and field portion of the overall project is $945k, not including any contingency funds or other soft costs. Our current best estimate for this portion of the project (including items that were bid and place holders for items that were not bid) is $1,274k, or $328k higher than budgeted.
This was based on awarding the site work contract to Leighton White, who bid roughly $619k for the site work, while the next lowest bid of the five received was roughly $697k for the same work.
It was disappointing to get such bad news right at the start of the project, but I don't think that it is a killer to the overall project. There are some things that we can do to ease the pain.
While we don't really have a good explanation as to why the bids were so much higher than our planning budget that was used for the budget, our best guess is that the drainage portion of the project ended up being much more complicated than originally envisioned. The final design included a new separate retention area for the water overflow whereas the original thought was that we could just use the retention pond just below the Middle School. The elevations were such that the existing area was too high to make it work, so a new retention area closer to West street was needed.
We made a couple of changes to the project during the meeting to help solve this cost problem. We decided to eliminate the Clerk of the Works position to save $54k. (We did not actually vote to do this at the meeting, but it is highly likely that we will do so at a future meeting.) The position is not really required since we decided to go with a Construction Manager arrangement instead of strictly using a general contractor. The Construction Manager and our own on-site personnel will keep tabs on the project instead. Having a Clerk of the Works might be marginally better than not having one, but it doesn't seem like it is worth the $54k that it would cost.
We spent a lot of time talking about track surfaces. The original plan was for a urethane based surface, and that is what was included in the estimate. We decided to change to a red-colored latex surface instead of going with the urethane surface. The information that we had was that the latex surface would probably need more frequent maintenance actions than the urethane, but the maintenance would be less expensive each time. The urethane might last longer than the latex, but no one could give us any hard numbers as to how long either surface would last. Both surfaces come with a five-year warranty, so from that perspective, they are about equal. Changing to red-colored latex saves $52k in installation cost as compared to the urethane. Latex seems to be the surface of choice for high schools in this area, with Bedford and Pinkerton both planning on installing latex for their recent projects.
We talked about using a blue surface instead of red just to get it to match our school colors, but supposedly the blue color fades fairly quickly while the red seems to be relatively color-fast. We were given a list of 11 schools that had a latex track, and 9 were red and 2 were blue. We decided that color-fastness was more important than matching the school colors.
Eliminating the Clerk of the Works, and changing the track to latex saved a total of $106k, bringing our cost problem down to $223k. The contingency on the project is budgeted at 15% of the construction costs. The 15% contingency associated with the $945k is $141k. If we apply all of that contingency to this portion of the project, then that decreases the cost problem down to $82k. One hates to tap into contingency so early in the process, but that is what it is for so we might as well go for it now since it is needed.
There are still a number of items that are in the cost build-up with a place-holder number that is an estimate and not an actual bid. One of the bigger items is the bleachers, with a place-holder number of $150k for a 680 seat bleacher on the home side and a 320 seat bleacher on the visitor side. This compares to the roughly 400 home/200 visitor set-up we have today. This $150k figure may be more or less once the bids come in. If we really needed the savings, then would could downsize the bleachers a bit to save cost. For example, it was estimated that changing to a 560 home/200 visitor set-up would save about $35k.
The committee voted to award the bid to Leighton White and to therefore move ahead with the project using the current designs. We will have to deal with the remaining $82k cost problem in some manner on the project, but we left that task to a later date once we get better figures for the other items.
The School Board will review this on Monday, and make a final decision on whether to award the contract to Leighton White. Assuming they do, then it is likely that Leighton will start work soon after Labor Day, We are going to have one final home football game at home on August 31st, so he can't start before then. There may be other issues that delay him a bit, but the work should begin soon.
In summary, the budget for the track and field portion of the overall project is $945k, not including any contingency funds or other soft costs. Our current best estimate for this portion of the project (including items that were bid and place holders for items that were not bid) is $1,274k, or $328k higher than budgeted.
This was based on awarding the site work contract to Leighton White, who bid roughly $619k for the site work, while the next lowest bid of the five received was roughly $697k for the same work.
It was disappointing to get such bad news right at the start of the project, but I don't think that it is a killer to the overall project. There are some things that we can do to ease the pain.
While we don't really have a good explanation as to why the bids were so much higher than our planning budget that was used for the budget, our best guess is that the drainage portion of the project ended up being much more complicated than originally envisioned. The final design included a new separate retention area for the water overflow whereas the original thought was that we could just use the retention pond just below the Middle School. The elevations were such that the existing area was too high to make it work, so a new retention area closer to West street was needed.
We made a couple of changes to the project during the meeting to help solve this cost problem. We decided to eliminate the Clerk of the Works position to save $54k. (We did not actually vote to do this at the meeting, but it is highly likely that we will do so at a future meeting.) The position is not really required since we decided to go with a Construction Manager arrangement instead of strictly using a general contractor. The Construction Manager and our own on-site personnel will keep tabs on the project instead. Having a Clerk of the Works might be marginally better than not having one, but it doesn't seem like it is worth the $54k that it would cost.
We spent a lot of time talking about track surfaces. The original plan was for a urethane based surface, and that is what was included in the estimate. We decided to change to a red-colored latex surface instead of going with the urethane surface. The information that we had was that the latex surface would probably need more frequent maintenance actions than the urethane, but the maintenance would be less expensive each time. The urethane might last longer than the latex, but no one could give us any hard numbers as to how long either surface would last. Both surfaces come with a five-year warranty, so from that perspective, they are about equal. Changing to red-colored latex saves $52k in installation cost as compared to the urethane. Latex seems to be the surface of choice for high schools in this area, with Bedford and Pinkerton both planning on installing latex for their recent projects.
We talked about using a blue surface instead of red just to get it to match our school colors, but supposedly the blue color fades fairly quickly while the red seems to be relatively color-fast. We were given a list of 11 schools that had a latex track, and 9 were red and 2 were blue. We decided that color-fastness was more important than matching the school colors.
Eliminating the Clerk of the Works, and changing the track to latex saved a total of $106k, bringing our cost problem down to $223k. The contingency on the project is budgeted at 15% of the construction costs. The 15% contingency associated with the $945k is $141k. If we apply all of that contingency to this portion of the project, then that decreases the cost problem down to $82k. One hates to tap into contingency so early in the process, but that is what it is for so we might as well go for it now since it is needed.
There are still a number of items that are in the cost build-up with a place-holder number that is an estimate and not an actual bid. One of the bigger items is the bleachers, with a place-holder number of $150k for a 680 seat bleacher on the home side and a 320 seat bleacher on the visitor side. This compares to the roughly 400 home/200 visitor set-up we have today. This $150k figure may be more or less once the bids come in. If we really needed the savings, then would could downsize the bleachers a bit to save cost. For example, it was estimated that changing to a 560 home/200 visitor set-up would save about $35k.
The committee voted to award the bid to Leighton White and to therefore move ahead with the project using the current designs. We will have to deal with the remaining $82k cost problem in some manner on the project, but we left that task to a later date once we get better figures for the other items.
The School Board will review this on Monday, and make a final decision on whether to award the contract to Leighton White. Assuming they do, then it is likely that Leighton will start work soon after Labor Day, We are going to have one final home football game at home on August 31st, so he can't start before then. There may be other issues that delay him a bit, but the work should begin soon.
Milford one of 10 Coolest Small Towns
Budget Travel Magazine named Milford one of the 10 Coolest Small Towns in America! Go Milford!
Too bad it was Milford, PA.
Milford, PA is a small resort town that seems nice from the write up in their story, but I'll take Milford, NH any day.
I ran across the story because I saw an article that mentioned that Peterborough was also named one of the ten coolest small towns in America. The Budget Travel article talks about how the town is cool because it is kind of artsy. Although I hardly ever go there, I am impressed with Peterborough, and I agree that it is a cool little town.
My grandmother grew up in Peterborough, and I remember some of the stories she told me 40 years ago about her life in Peterborough during the first decades of the 20th century. She was there when cars were rare, roads weren't paved, and you were well off if you were able to go to school up to the eighth grade. People routinely worked long hours for low pay, and struggled to make ends meet. Life is so much easier today, in so many ways, and we don't appreciate how well off we really are now.
Too bad it was Milford, PA.
Milford, PA is a small resort town that seems nice from the write up in their story, but I'll take Milford, NH any day.
I ran across the story because I saw an article that mentioned that Peterborough was also named one of the ten coolest small towns in America. The Budget Travel article talks about how the town is cool because it is kind of artsy. Although I hardly ever go there, I am impressed with Peterborough, and I agree that it is a cool little town.
My grandmother grew up in Peterborough, and I remember some of the stories she told me 40 years ago about her life in Peterborough during the first decades of the 20th century. She was there when cars were rare, roads weren't paved, and you were well off if you were able to go to school up to the eighth grade. People routinely worked long hours for low pay, and struggled to make ends meet. Life is so much easier today, in so many ways, and we don't appreciate how well off we really are now.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Milford School Board 8/20/07
Superintendent's Report
Superintendent Suprenant reviewed some of the activities that occurred during the summer including:
* 339 students attending some sort of summer school program,
* Lots of training was held for various staff members,
* The schools were all cleaned and prepped for the new year,
* Some asbestos at the high school was abated in preparation for the upcoming renovations.
He announced that the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) scores would be released by the State Dept of Education on Tuesday August 28th.
He issued some press releases to highlight various items. One item in particular that he is trying to promote are the new Evening Community Education programs that will be offered this fall. In summary, there are several courses that will be offered on a tuition basis this fall in the evening at the High School. The courses are:
* Conversational Spanish
* We the People...the Citizen and the Constitution
* Digital Scrap Booking with Photoshop
* Microsoft Word 2003
* Microsoft Excel
More information on these offerings can be found on the school web site.There is a link on that page to a description of the courses, and another link to the registration forms. Most of the courses start on Tuesday October 2nd.
Superintendent Suprenant invited the School Board members to attend the opening session for the staff on Tuesday the 28th. I was able to attend the session last year, and I thought that it was very helpful to hear the messages that were given to everyone. The session is used to try to get everyone on the same page for the year, working towards common goals.
PEG Access
David Kirsch is the new PEG Access Director. PEG is Public, Educational, and Government Cable TV Access. Milford has improved the channel 21 access over the past couple of years, and we are making more progress all the time. Dave has some good ideas on how to improve things, and he will be working to add to the program over time.
Some of the things that we discussed were:
* He is hoping to add sports coverage, but there are a bunch of details that need to be worked out. There is just one true home football game this year, and he is hoping to tape the game and broadcast it on channel 21. One issue is that while it is usually fairly easy to get someone to operate the camera, it is usually very difficult to get a commentator/announcer for the game. Dave is hoping to get someone from the Radio club to act as a commentator during the game.
* Dave talked about some of his previous experiences with other schools, such as in Concord. He said that one of the keys to gaining content is to provide a camera/computer/editing software setup to each school to enable them to create presentations on a regular basis.
* He thought that it might be good to create an overview film for each of the ATC programs. These videos could be shown on CATV, and they could also be shown to prospective students from other districts.
* We discussed how we can try to improve the audio quality of the School Board tapings. There are a few choices: do nothing, get a new microphone/mixer setup (about $5K), move to the Selectmen's Meeting Room where they have set up a decent system, or fix up a place in the school that has an improved setup. I am in favor of fixing up Room 4 in the High School as the designated meeting room, instead of just using the Selectman's Room. The main advantage is that Room 4 seats about 100 people, and the Selectmen's Room only seats about 20. Having seating for 20 people is fine for most meetings, but there are usually several meetings a year where 20 is just not enough.
* Dave mentioned that there are satellite feeds of educational programs that are popular in other Districts. He mentioned Annenberg and NASA as being two that were very good. He is going to look to see if we can add them to Milford.
* The Selectmen's meetings are going to be broadcast live in a month or two. We may be able to do the School Board meetings live also, but that would be for a later date and would require some sort of infrastructure to make it happen.
Policy Review
The Staff Protection policy was postponed pending further review of the implications of paying additional compensation on top of Workers' Compensation payments.
The Daily Physical Activity policy was approved. This policy was required by the state standards that were updated last fall. The basic premise of the policy is that the District will encourage all members of the District community to engage in some sort of daily exercise.
I brought up an issue that had come to light during our discussions last meeting on the Daily Physical Activity Policy. The State mandates minimum expectations for this policy, and we used the State guidelines for our policy. The New Hampshire School Boards Association has a sample policy that is more emphatic on a couple of points. For example, in one spot they use the phrase "Commit adequate resources..." and our policy uses the phrase "Support adequate resources..." for the same section. The policy review committee had mentioned this discrepancy at the last meeting when they were discussing the proposed policy.
I thought that it was a good practice for the policy review committee to bring to light any discrepancies like that, and I thank them for doing so on this policy. I asked that in the future, they continue to bring up any discrepancies that are identified between the proposed policy and the NHSBA sample policy. Also, I asked them to identify any NHSBA sample policies that were reviewed, but the committee decided to not implement. My concern on this is that there are some sample policies that have a political philosophy associated with them that might have varying support by the board as a whole. I would prefer that anything that is controversial be dealt with at the board level, and not be decided by a sub-committee without having an open discussion.
The policy committee is systematically going through our existing policies and updating them as required. I would encourage them to change their process to instead of starting with our policy book, that they use the sample policies from the NHSBA as the starting point to try to find the areas where we are deficient.
The policy review committee has been doing a good job, and they have updated quite a few policies. Sometimes just changing the wording in a very slight manner can have a big effect on on the outcome, so they have had to be very careful as they go through the policies.
Bales School
We decided to remove the "Bales Elementary School" sign from the front of the building. This will eliminate the word Elementary from a sign on a school that is no longer an elementary school. It will also allow us to see what is under the sign, since we don't know for sure what the exact wording is that is there. The best guess is that there is a sign under there that says "Centennial School", but there is a chance that it says "Centennial High School".
We did not rename the building at this time, but we may do that at a future meeting.
High School Renovations
Phase one of the bid items have come back in, and they will be presented to the building committee on Thursday 8/23. According to Mike Trojano, the bids on several of the items came in much higher than originally estimated. We are going to have to deal with this in some manner.
The School Board will have a quick meeting on Monday August 27th to review the Building Committee's recommendation about the bids. The objective is to award the grounds work as soon as possible so construction on the field can be started quickly. We'll have to see where the bids are before we do this, since we need to make sure that the overall renovation project stays on track.
World Language Curriculum
The new curriculum was approved.
Superintendent/District Goals
These were approved. Bob Willette asked (and we approved) that a goal to investigate lengthening the school day be added to the list.
Superintendent Suprenant reviewed some of the activities that occurred during the summer including:
* 339 students attending some sort of summer school program,
* Lots of training was held for various staff members,
* The schools were all cleaned and prepped for the new year,
* Some asbestos at the high school was abated in preparation for the upcoming renovations.
He announced that the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) scores would be released by the State Dept of Education on Tuesday August 28th.
He issued some press releases to highlight various items. One item in particular that he is trying to promote are the new Evening Community Education programs that will be offered this fall. In summary, there are several courses that will be offered on a tuition basis this fall in the evening at the High School. The courses are:
* Conversational Spanish
* We the People...the Citizen and the Constitution
* Digital Scrap Booking with Photoshop
* Microsoft Word 2003
* Microsoft Excel
More information on these offerings can be found on the school web site.There is a link on that page to a description of the courses, and another link to the registration forms. Most of the courses start on Tuesday October 2nd.
Superintendent Suprenant invited the School Board members to attend the opening session for the staff on Tuesday the 28th. I was able to attend the session last year, and I thought that it was very helpful to hear the messages that were given to everyone. The session is used to try to get everyone on the same page for the year, working towards common goals.
PEG Access
David Kirsch is the new PEG Access Director. PEG is Public, Educational, and Government Cable TV Access. Milford has improved the channel 21 access over the past couple of years, and we are making more progress all the time. Dave has some good ideas on how to improve things, and he will be working to add to the program over time.
Some of the things that we discussed were:
* He is hoping to add sports coverage, but there are a bunch of details that need to be worked out. There is just one true home football game this year, and he is hoping to tape the game and broadcast it on channel 21. One issue is that while it is usually fairly easy to get someone to operate the camera, it is usually very difficult to get a commentator/announcer for the game. Dave is hoping to get someone from the Radio club to act as a commentator during the game.
* Dave talked about some of his previous experiences with other schools, such as in Concord. He said that one of the keys to gaining content is to provide a camera/computer/editing software setup to each school to enable them to create presentations on a regular basis.
* He thought that it might be good to create an overview film for each of the ATC programs. These videos could be shown on CATV, and they could also be shown to prospective students from other districts.
* We discussed how we can try to improve the audio quality of the School Board tapings. There are a few choices: do nothing, get a new microphone/mixer setup (about $5K), move to the Selectmen's Meeting Room where they have set up a decent system, or fix up a place in the school that has an improved setup. I am in favor of fixing up Room 4 in the High School as the designated meeting room, instead of just using the Selectman's Room. The main advantage is that Room 4 seats about 100 people, and the Selectmen's Room only seats about 20. Having seating for 20 people is fine for most meetings, but there are usually several meetings a year where 20 is just not enough.
* Dave mentioned that there are satellite feeds of educational programs that are popular in other Districts. He mentioned Annenberg and NASA as being two that were very good. He is going to look to see if we can add them to Milford.
* The Selectmen's meetings are going to be broadcast live in a month or two. We may be able to do the School Board meetings live also, but that would be for a later date and would require some sort of infrastructure to make it happen.
Policy Review
The Staff Protection policy was postponed pending further review of the implications of paying additional compensation on top of Workers' Compensation payments.
The Daily Physical Activity policy was approved. This policy was required by the state standards that were updated last fall. The basic premise of the policy is that the District will encourage all members of the District community to engage in some sort of daily exercise.
I brought up an issue that had come to light during our discussions last meeting on the Daily Physical Activity Policy. The State mandates minimum expectations for this policy, and we used the State guidelines for our policy. The New Hampshire School Boards Association has a sample policy that is more emphatic on a couple of points. For example, in one spot they use the phrase "Commit adequate resources..." and our policy uses the phrase "Support adequate resources..." for the same section. The policy review committee had mentioned this discrepancy at the last meeting when they were discussing the proposed policy.
I thought that it was a good practice for the policy review committee to bring to light any discrepancies like that, and I thank them for doing so on this policy. I asked that in the future, they continue to bring up any discrepancies that are identified between the proposed policy and the NHSBA sample policy. Also, I asked them to identify any NHSBA sample policies that were reviewed, but the committee decided to not implement. My concern on this is that there are some sample policies that have a political philosophy associated with them that might have varying support by the board as a whole. I would prefer that anything that is controversial be dealt with at the board level, and not be decided by a sub-committee without having an open discussion.
The policy committee is systematically going through our existing policies and updating them as required. I would encourage them to change their process to instead of starting with our policy book, that they use the sample policies from the NHSBA as the starting point to try to find the areas where we are deficient.
The policy review committee has been doing a good job, and they have updated quite a few policies. Sometimes just changing the wording in a very slight manner can have a big effect on on the outcome, so they have had to be very careful as they go through the policies.
Bales School
We decided to remove the "Bales Elementary School" sign from the front of the building. This will eliminate the word Elementary from a sign on a school that is no longer an elementary school. It will also allow us to see what is under the sign, since we don't know for sure what the exact wording is that is there. The best guess is that there is a sign under there that says "Centennial School", but there is a chance that it says "Centennial High School".
We did not rename the building at this time, but we may do that at a future meeting.
High School Renovations
Phase one of the bid items have come back in, and they will be presented to the building committee on Thursday 8/23. According to Mike Trojano, the bids on several of the items came in much higher than originally estimated. We are going to have to deal with this in some manner.
The School Board will have a quick meeting on Monday August 27th to review the Building Committee's recommendation about the bids. The objective is to award the grounds work as soon as possible so construction on the field can be started quickly. We'll have to see where the bids are before we do this, since we need to make sure that the overall renovation project stays on track.
World Language Curriculum
The new curriculum was approved.
Superintendent/District Goals
These were approved. Bob Willette asked (and we approved) that a goal to investigate lengthening the school day be added to the list.
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