Milford Voting Results 3/8/2011

These are the results from the 3/8/2011 vote: There were 2001 voters. School Ballot School Board 1224 Paul Dargie - elected 855 Kevin Drew - elected 798 Carolyn Magri Halstead 340 Jim Rumson Question 1 Operating Budget yes 984 no 988 failed Question 2 Collective Bargaining Agreement - MEPA yes 1318 no 641 passed Question 3 Special meeting if question 2 is defeated yes 1364 no 559 passed Question 4 Property Acquisition yes 616 no 1330 failed Question 5 Creation of a joint services study committee yes 1531 no 416 passed Town Ballot Election of Officers Selectmen 1245 Mike Putnam - elected 1224 Kathy Bauer - elected 673 Kevin Taylor Cemetery Trustee 1576 Len Harten - elected Trustee of the Trust Funds 1507 Ed Killam - elected Library Trustee 1464 Sarah Philbrick-Sandhage - elected 1241 Michael Tule - elected Water/Wastewater Commissioner 1618 Bob courage - elected Article 2 - Zoning Questions (all questions passed) 1 Residential small structure setbacks yes 1248 no 624 2 Zoning Ordinance definitions yes 1464 no 370 3 Definitions: liquid petroleum products in groundwater protection district yes 1537 no 302 4 Residence A district special exception uses yes 1298 no 514 5 Residence B district special exception uses yes 1341 no 463 6 Residence R district acceptable uses and special exception yes 1292 no 508 7 Commerical district acceptable uses and special exceptions yes 1325 no 460 8 Industrial district uses and special exceptions yes 1391 no 428 9 LCB district acceptable uses and special exceptions yes 1364 no 443 10 ICI district acceptable uses and special exceptions yes 1367 no 436 11 ICI-2 district acceptable uses and special exceptions yes 1310 no 441 12 Special exception criteria for offices in residence A and B yes 1247 no 503 13 Sign ordinance definiitons yes 1283 no 478 14 Wall signs and price numbering signs yes 1170 no 591 15 Monument signs and price numbering signs yes 1215 no 538 16 Price numbering signs yes 1238 no 550 17 Off premise signs yes 1310 no 480 18 Event signage yes 1317 no 491 19 Electronic message centers yes 1038 no 782 20 Senior housing development definitions yes 1497 no 321 21 Wetlands conservation district yes 1285 no 486 22 Open space and conservation zoing district yes 1323 no 428 Article 3 Fire/Ambulance facility lands acquisition & vacant building demolition $530,000 (60% majority needed) yes 963 no 964 failed Article 4 Fire/ambulance facility architectural & engineering plans $250,000 (60% majority needed)yes 810 no 1109 failed Article 5 Water utilities department - sanitary sewer system rehabilitation $270,000 (60% majority needed) yes 1401 no 499 passed Article 6 Union street water main replacement project $246,000 (60% majority needed) yes 1379 no 528 passed Article 7 Operating budget $11,708,252 yes 868 no 1043 failed Article 8 Wastewater treatment operating budget $1,735,642 yes 1406 no 501 passed Article 9 Water department operating budget $1,381,757 yes 1393 no 486 passed Article 10 Route 101A / Route 13 / Oval improvements grant $155,000 yes 1372 no 576 passed Article 11 Public works tractor / loader / backhoe $135,000 yes 778 no 1147 failed Article 12 Route 13 South / Emerson road / Armory road intersection improvement $90,000 yes 1136 no 771 passed Article 13 Social Services $35,000 yes 1396 no 513 passed Article 14 Non-emergency community transportation bus service $35,000 yes 1473 no 459 passed Article 15 Pumpkin festival, holiday decoration and plantings $20,000 yes 1265 no 660 passed Article 16 DO-IT operating budget support $20,000 yes 1212 no 691 passed Article 17 Conservation lands fund $10,000 yes 1253 no 657 passed Article 18 Summer band concerts $9,000 yes 1193 no 726 passed Article 19 Memorial, Veterans & labor day parade town support $6,000 yes 1460 no 470 passed Article 20 Establishment of the Brox properties public infrastructure improvement fund $0 yes 819 no 1048 failed Article 21 Diversion of proceeds of sale of former police station property $0 yes 928 no 966 failed Article 22 Modification of authorization for Selectmen sale of the Brox properties $0 yes 1390 no 476 passed Article 23 Elderly exemption equalization to synchronize with town property assement revaluation $0 yes 1602 no 302 passed Article 24 Joining Concord regional solid wate / resource recovery cooperative $0 yes 1284 no 599 passed Article 25 Joining single stream recycling Co-op $0 yes 1237 no 648 passed Article 26 Town forest lands - Tucker Brook town forest $0 yes 1617 no 275 passed Article 27 Town forest lands - Mayflower Hill town forest $0 yes 1617 no 275 passed Article 28 Joint services study committee - by petition yes 1362 no 486 passed

Milford Cost Per Student Trends

The state recently published the cost per student data for the 07-08 school year. The data is published on the New Hampshire Department of Education - Financial Reports web page.

Milford reached a milestone with this latest report. Our cost per student for the entire District was below the state average for the first time in at least 11 years!!!

Shown below is a graphic that shows the data from the state site summarized for Milford. The first block shows the total spending per student for the past 11 years. We have been showing continuous improvement in our cost per student spending during the past 11 years. Our per student spending was 110% of the state average 11 years ago. The percentage has steadily dropped over the years, and we are now at only 98% of the state average.

This came about because our percentage growth in spending has been less than the state percentage growth over this time period. Our total spending per student has gone up 71% over the 11 years (from $6394 to $10,933), while the state average 's cost per student has gone up 93% (from $5780 to $11,135).

There are a lot of factors that go into spending for a school district that feed into the overall results. In my opinion, we have provided the right focus on our spending to provide good outcomes. The District is in much better shape than it was 11 years ago. We have gotten where we are by being consistent in our spending practices. We have been following the practice of trying to make continuous improvement each year, but in a modest way. We have avoided years of no progress due to severe cutbacks, and we have also not tried to do too much in any given year.

We have followed the teachings of the Tortoise and the Hare fable, where slow but steady wins the race. We have become a good Tortoise, where we move along at a steady pace each year, taking consistent steps towards an improved District. The only difference is that we do not have a finish line - we are just trying to do better all the time.

The spending area that contributed the most to our overall improvement was the elementary schools calculations. Eleven years ago we were at 111% of the state average, and now we are now at 91%. This is likely the result of going from operating out of three aging schools (Garden Street, Bales, and Jacques), and transitioning to newer schools (Heron Pond and renovated Jacques). We get economies of scale by operating out of a relatively large Heron Pond school. Most elementary schools in the state are much smaller, and they cost more to operate per student. We get by with fewer support staff members than a typical District due to the larger school size. There was additional savings when the Fifth grade was added onto Heron Pond, where we added about 200 more students with minimal additional overhead cost.

3/10/09 Voting Results

There were 1683 ballots cast today in the Milford local elections.

School Votes

1302 Peter Bragdon, School Board

Question 1 Jacques School Addition to Implement Public Kindergarten
yes 943 (57%), no 713 (43%) - question failed as it needed a 60% supermajority to pass

Question 2 Operating Budget
yes 856 no 802

Question 3 Teachers Association contract
yes 932 no 721

Question 4 Special meeting allowed if question 3 fails
yes 1060 no 565

Question 5 Milford Educational Support Staff contract
yes 931 no 718

Question 6 Special meeting allowed if question 5 fails
yes 1055 no 583

Question 7 Deputy Treasurer
yes 1072 no 562

Town Votes

Article 1 Elections of Officers

Selectman ( two 3-year terms)

1128 Gary Daniels
637 Nathaniel Carmen
519 Frank Corey
387 John Cass, Sr.

Cemetery Trustee - 3 year term

1360 Mary Dickson

Checklist Supervisor - 1 year term

1362 Polly Cote

Trustee of the Trust Funds - one 3 year term

1039 Brad Chappell
356 Kevin Taylor

Library Trustee - three 3-year terms

1142 Tim Barr
1105 Edith March
1070 Kristie Popp

Water/Wastewater Commissioner - 3 year term

1342 Mike Putnam

Water/Wastewater Commissioner - 2 year term

1389 Robert Courage

Article 2 Zoning Questions

Vote 1 Definitions
yes 1218 no 267
Vote 2 Replace principal route of access with Class V or better
yes 1194 no 301
Vote 3 Yard requirements
yes 1048 no 450
Vote 4 Administrative wording
yes 1247 no 263
Vote 5 Expiration of variances
yes 1229 no 269
Vote 6 Growth management sunset date
yes 1095 no 396
Vote 7 Small wind energy system restrictions
yes 1139 no 373

Article 3 Curtis well facility improvements
yes 1121 no 495

Article 4 Operating budget
yes 879 no 755

Article 5 Wastewater treatment budget
yes 1213 no 412

Article 6 Water treatment operating budget
yes 1194 no 415

Article 7 Route 101a / route 13 / oval improvements grant
yes 1142 no 510

Article 8 Teamsters union collective bargaining agreement
yes 504 no 1114

Article 9 Social services
yes 1054 no 547

Article 10 Wastewater treatment facility wheel loader replacement
yes 989 no 598

Article 11 Pumpkin festival, holiday decorations and plantings
yes 956 no 667

Article 12 Reinstating library hours
yes 854 no 765

Article 13 DO-IT operating budget support
yes 925 no 676

Article 14 Fireworks
yes 692 no 920

Article 15 Summer band concerts
yes 889 no 732

Article 16 Memorial, Veterans, and Labor Day parade town support
yes 1195 no 430

Article 17 South street railroad crossing
yes 1155 no 442

Article 18 Distontinuance of a portion of Hartshorn Mill Road
yes 1261 no 305

Article 19 Authorization to expend funds to purchase interest in lands outside town boundaries
yes 897 no 687

Article 20 Adjustment to income and asset levels for elderly exemptions
yes 1383 no 226

Article 21 Authorize special meeting if collective bargaining agreement warrant article is defeated
yes 1008 no 539

Article 22 Authorization to selectmen to establish and amend town ordinances
yes 1008 no 539

Article 23 Grant of access easement to Saint Joseph Hospital
yes 1406 no 207

Article 25 Cable access revolving fund
yes 865 no 702

Article 26 Non-emergency medical transportation bus service budgetary funding request
yes 1122 no 490

Article 27 Railroad pond fishing age limits - McBriarty Memorial Fishing Derby
yes 1041 no 541

Article 28 Request for adoption of New Hampshire RSA 79-F Taxation of farm structures and land under farm structures
yes 952 no 548

High School Renovation Project 4/10/08

General Comments

The MHS Project Management Advisory Committee met on Thursday 4/10/08 to review the status of the High School Renovation Project.

There continues to be good progress made on the project, and it is basically on schedule, will completion expected by the end of the summer.

Work on the track portion should resume in the next few weeks, when the loam piles have warmed completely, and have dried out a bit. They will then spread the loam, and install the sprinkler system. The sod will be put down after that, and allowed to sit for a while before it is used. Conduit to feed electrical and data feeds to the press box will be fed under the parking lot during the April vacation.

The actual track surface will not be installed until sometime in the summer. The top layer of track surface will bond better to the lower surface when the ground is good an warm. The warmer the better, so they will not do it until June or July. It will all be complete in time for start up of school in the fall.

The interior work is progressing, The music room is almost complete, and the students will move into it in a week or so.

Some of the interior rooms are nearing completion, and classes are moving into them, freeing up more rooms to be worked on.

Minor Problems

The committee reviewed and approved seven different change orders totaling $13,343. These are the typical types of change orders that arise during a renovation project. They included items such as the need for additional sprinkler heads in some new closets, adding sprinkler heads above the ceilings since the ceilings had to be lowered to accommodate piping changes, increasing the snow loading specification for the pressbox, etc.

Major Problems

Three issues have come up that are more serious due to the cost factors involved.

* We are adding new fire detection points to the fire alarm system. These points are being added to provide detection in various sections of the renovation project, including in the mechanicals in the music room and in various areas of room 4. It was not anticipated, but it was discovered that the fire annunciator panel at the front of the building has been maxed-out, and will need to be expanded to add new detection points to the system. It is important that the points be properly identified on the panel, to allow the fire department to quickly develop a plan of action when they respond to a call at the building.

The various people involved are looking at our alternatives at this point in time. One course of action would be to do the minimum amount necessary to get the planned changes identified on the panel. This would leave the panel in a maxed-out state, and require major changes if additional points were needed in the future.

Another alternative would be to expand the panel significantly to allow for future point expansion. This would require that the existing system be taken out and replaced by a completely new system. This will cost a lot more, but has the advantage of allowing us to change the technology that is used to allow for more open source technology, and multiple source sourcing.

The cost penalty for this issue is not known for sure, but it is being investigated. A rough guesstimate is that it is somewhere between $17K and $40K depending on which approach is chosen.

* The budget included $30K for the foundation work for the bleachers. This figure was based on typical foundations for similar bleachers.

It turned out that there are special problems with our particular installation, and a more costly foundation is needed. The basic problem is that there is very little room between the rear of the bleachers and the fence, and the elevation change is steep in that area. Because of this, the design engineer has specified that we install a retaining wall at the rear of the foundation concrete pad to insure that there is the proper support.

The first estimate for the more elaborate foundation was $75K, or $45K over the budgeted amount. We reviewed this issue in detail at the meeting. The final decision was that we asked the people involved to go back and see if they can come up with a design that uses a full size retaining wall at the rear of the press box, but uses a smaller or no retaining wall at all in the other areas of the bleachers where the distance from the structure to the fencing will be greater.

* We received a bill from the water utilities group for a new service entrance fee. This fee is based on anticipated annual usage, and was $22,691 for our filed irrigation system.

We spent a lot of time discussing this fee, and trying to find alternatives. We are going to look into the feasibility of installing a well to replace or supplement the town water service, with the expectation that this would reduce the entrance fee and/or reduce our annual water charges.

Mike Trojano had received a rough guesstimate of a typical well installation for a service of this type. The cost was $15K for the well or wells plus $5K for design/consultation services, for a total of $20K. In some cases, the cost could be higher if the well(s) need to be a lot deeper, if water treatment is needed, or if storage system(s) are needed to provide that the flow rates.

Several committee members questioned the feasibility of being able to get a well in this area that will have the needed gallons per minute flow capacity to meet the needs of the system. They are going to review the geologic maps of the area to get a rough estimate of the difficulties that can be expected to be encountered.

We are going to have another meeting in two weeks to review each of these issues.

Budget Summary

We were doing relatively well with the budget, until we hit these various cost adders. Business Administrator Mike Trojano will be putting together another cost roll-up for our next meeting, but this is where I think that we are based on a rough update of the previous roll-ups.

We had been at around $250K of unallocated contingency funds at the last roll-up. Subtracting out $13K for the approved changes, $35K for the annunciator panel, $30K for extra bleacher foundations, $5K for a negotiated water entrance fee, and $20K for a well for irrigation, leaves about $145K of unallocated contingency funds.

There is another large issue that is pending, and this is that many of the doors that we had thought had been included in the bid process were actually not part of the bid. The only doors that were included were ones that were attached or next to areas that were being worked on separately. Doors for rooms that were not otherwise being renovated were not included.

The cost for renovating these extra doors is still being scoped out. Many of them are very expensive to renovate since they are non-standard sized and new door frames are needed to get new doors installed.

It is my opinion that renovating the doors is one of the higher priorities of the overall project. The current doors cannot be locked from the inside, and in a school lock-down mode, the occupants of the room would have to go into the corridors to lock the doors, thus exposing them to any potential threats. Adding more doors for the project could be as much as $50K-100K.

This lack of unallocated contingency is getting very tight for this portion of the project, as there are still a few areas that have not even been touched as of yet. There may be more unanticipated problems to be found.

We are carrying $82K for parking improvements in the budget, and we have not tapped in to this at all yet. We have done no work so far in designing what will be done for parking improvements. This is an area that could be a safety valve if needed to accommodate unanticipated expenditures. If we have to cut something from the project, then this might be an area that could be attacked.

We should have a better idea on the overall project costs when we meet again in two weeks.

Milford School Board 4/7/08

MESSA

The meeting started with Deb Hayes from the High School talking in public comment as a representative from MESSA (Milford Educational Support Staff Association). This is the bargaining unit that has been in negotiations with the School Board for a year and a half. The group had previously requested that the entire school board meet with them directly to negotiate the contract, and the board had subsequently turned down their request. Ms. Hayes reiterated their request and asked the board to reconsider the decision. Chairman Bragdon indicated that the board would probably bring this up at the previously scheduled non-public session that would be held at the end of the meeting.

Bob Willette Presentation

Peter Bragdon presented Bob Willette with a granite plaque as a memento of his five years of service on the board. Lorna Willette was also there to help with the ceremony.

Superintendent's Report

Bob Suprenant had these comments:

* The Middle School Math Counts team entered the Ultimate Math Competition, and the team achieved Gold Level status. This means that at least 12 members of the team scored 80% or higher on the test. There will be a banner posted in the school to commemorate the achievement.

* 16 High school students were named Granite State Scholars. They will be eligible to apply for scholarships if they meet certain criteria, such as attending particular state schools.

* There were 9 winners at the State History Day competition.

* 10 Students were in the New Hampshire Science day competition
Liam Hurley won first in the state Skills competition in the carpentry section, and he will be going to the national competition (which is usually in Kansas City, but I'm not sure about this year).

* 9 High School Students did well at the state FBLA Future Business Leaders of America competition, including Joe Stagnone who won 1st place in the accounting 2 competition.

* Libby Wehrle-Anderson is sponsoring a Teen Alcohol Use Forum on 6/9/08 at the Middle School.

* The Bales Study Committee is having a forum to receive public input regarding anyone's thought about potential futures uses for the Bales facility, to be held at the Selectman's room in Town Hall.

* Teachers and Administrators have been doing a lot of work at reviewing the NECAP test results. They are completing their findings, and Laurie Johnson will be presenting them at an upcoming meeting.

* The District job fair was held on 3/20/08. There were 101 initial interviews conducted at the fair, with follow-on interviews scheduled for some candidates. There are only 13 openings right now, which is a bit lower than what we have seen in the past few years. A few of the openings might be difficult to fill, with 3 in math and 2 in science at the high school.

* Bob Suprenant and Burt Becker went to Concord to testify on the subject of Senate bill 530 regarding education funding. They recommended that the funding for temporary classrooms be put back in the bill, and that new kindergarten construction aid be done at the 100% level instead of the planned 75% level.
The High School graduation will be held on 6/14/08 at 10:00 am in the Hampshire Dome since the football field will not be available this year. Thanks to Rick Holder of Hampshire Hills for making this happen - the Hampshire Dome will be a much better venue than the High School Gym which was the alternate choice.

Writing Across the Curriculum

Ms. Jackie Theriaque gave a presentation regarding the John Collins "Writing Across the Curriculum" program. This is a structured approach to try to incorporate writing skill improvement as part of all curriculum activities. For example, if a teacher is working with the class on a math unit, then she might include a writing assignment at the same time.

One aspect of this process is to include the concept of "Focused Correction Areas" FCAs for assignments. In this approach, the students are told in advance which particular portions of the writing assignment will be graded, and what the weightings will be. For example, one FCA might be proper capitalization with a weighting of 20%. The students will then know to focus on making sure that their capitalization is correct, and not worry about a non-graded area such as word choice. The FCAs are rotated during the year to insure that all grade level expectations are covered during the school year.

There are also permanent FCAs which apply for all writing assignments. These vary by grade level and for individual capability. They are set at a level where the student can be reasonably expected to be able to meet them at all times.

Committee Reports

There were few reports from the standard committees, except that Lori Pitsas made a summary presentation regarding the status of the MAFC Milford Athletics Fundraising Committee.

* April 17th, 7PM, at the High School cafeteria. This is being put on and being promoted by the High School Football Boosters group. Tickets are $8 in advance, or $10 at the door.

* Golf Tournament, Friday August 22nd, at Amherst Country Club.

* Road race in the fall, perhaps in early October near the date of the pumpkin festival

The fundraising group is continuing to look for donations of cash or in-kind items.

Lori mentioned that there are about 100 students on the track team at the Middle school, and about 70 on the track team at the High school.

Bob Suprenant mentioned that he had submitted Lori's name to the New Hampshire School Administrators Association NHSAA in nomination for the "Champions for Children" award for the Southwest district. Someone from Peterborough won the district nomination, but Lori was a well-deserved candidate.

CIP Capital Improvement Plan Committee

I was appointed as the School Board rep to the CIP. Peter Bragdon had been the rep on this committee for the past few years, but he felt that he could not fit it into his schedule this year. The purpose of the committee is to try to set up a unified capital improvement plan for the next few years (5?) to help in establishing priorities on capital spending.

After the meeting, I learned that there will be a more inclusive meeting set up this year to try to include most of the stakeholders in the discussion of capital planning. All 5 School Board members will be invited to the expanded meeting.

Water Utilities Entrance Fee Charge

We received a bill from the Milford Water Utilities for an Entrance Fee charge for the new irrigation system for the fields under construction. This is a fee that none of us had ever heard of before now, and it was not in the budget. The fee was assessed at $22,691, so it is not an insignificant issue.

We discussed this at some length, with the outcome that we directed the Superintendent to meet with the water utilities folks to see what our options might be.

Len Mannino suggested that we look into drilling a well to replace or supplement the water to be obtained from the town system. This might help with lowering the Entrance fee, and it should help with lowering the amount that we pay for water on an ongoing basis. This will be researched by the High School Renovations committee, along with the district administration.

Policy Review

Our ongoing review of policies continued, with policies relating to Instruction, School Calendar, and Length of School Day going to first reading, and Controvertial Issues not going to first reading. Some members wanted some more time to reflect on the Controversial Issues policy before moving it to first reading.

PEG Committee

John Parker was appointed to be the School Board rep to the PEG (Public/Education/Government) cable access committee.

School Board Goals

We reviewed the goals that were suggested at the previous meeting, and decided to create goals for these topics for the 08/09 School Board term.

* Develop a plan for a temporary solution for providing public kindergarten starting in the 09/10 school year. This should be completed in time to have it as part of the warrant for next year.

* Develop a plan for a permanent solution for providing public kindergarten, probably starting in the 10/11 school year. This should be completed in time to have it as part of the warrant for next year.

* Complete contract negotiations with the Teachers bargaining unit in time for a warrant article for next year.

* Complete contract negotiations with MESSA Milford Educational Support Staff Association in time for a warrant article for next year.

* Negotiate with Mason to provide educational support for their students on a tuition basis, probably starting in the 09/10 school year.

* Learn more about the standardized testing process, assess what we are doing, and decide if we need to do something different.

These items were also discussed, but were not set up as items to be tracked on a goal basis:

* Provide oversight on the high school renovation project.

* Develop action plans based on the results obtained from the Bales study committee which is expected to provide their final report at the second meeting in June.

* Provide oversight on the subdivision of the Heron Pond property.

* Modify the district policy manual to match the structure of the New Hampshire School Boards Association model policy manual.

* Investigate the impact of the increase of retirement account spending at the state level.

* Work to minimize the impact of gang development in Milford.

Milford School Board 3/17/08

We held our first meeting of the new school board on Monday 3/17/08. Newly-elected member John Parker and I were sworn in prior to the start of the meeting.

I usually enjoy the first meeting of the year. Everything seems fresh and new, and we get to look forward to trying to make improvements. Much of the activity during the year is geared towards providing good choices for voters on the March ballot, and it is somewhat satisfying to finally finish the process. The final outcome is not always what I had hoped for, but it is good to have a completion of some type. The March elections are a bit like taking finals at the end of the year; you study and do the best you can during the year with the hope that there is confirmation of your work by doing well on the final test.

We held a "non-meeting" before the regular meeting to discuss contract negotiations. This type of meeting is specifically excluded from the right to know law, and the discussion is confidential.

Elections and Appointments

The first meeting of the year is an organizational meeting. We made the following elections and appointments:

Peter Bragdon - Chairperson
Paul Dargie - Vice Chairperson
No Secretary was elected; there is not much of a need for this position

No Truant Officer was appointed; we will search for a candidate

Paul - Professional Development Committee
Bert Becker - ATC Regional Center Advisory Committee
Paul - Technology Committee
John Parker - Wellness Committee
No appointment - PEG Committee
Paul - High School Renovations Committee
Paul - Athletics Fund-Raising Committee
Paul - Finance Committee
Bert - Finance Committee
Bert - Policy Review

Bob Willette, while no longer on the board, was kept as the board representative on the Bales Study Committee

Public Comment

Bob Willette spoke at some length discussing Milford's test scores.

MathCounts Presentation

Mrs. Page made a short presentation to the board regarding the MathCounts team at the Middle School. She has been the coach for the team for a long time, and has done a great job with it. She had three current members of the team with her, and they each discussed an aspect of the team. The team recently competed at the Keene regional competition, and will be going to the Plymouth State College state meet soon.

My daughter was on the MathCounts team about five years ago, and I was able attend the Plymouth state meet. It was a great event - the kids were all excited about Math, which can be a difficult thing to get them excited about.

Superintendent's Report

* The district has started an internal newsletter called Milford Minutes. The first issue was distributed to board members.

* The annual job fair is this Thursday. This has been a great way to get quality candidates for anticipated openings.

* The workshop day on voting day went well. There were a variety of programs available including responsive classroom, personalized profiles, and CPR training.

* The recent 11th grade NECAP scores were reviewed, with a comparison to state scores. In summary, Milford's results were very close to the state average, but the scores for both seemed low, especially for math. It is not clear if the problem was that students in general are not able to complete work at grade level expectations, or if there was some sort of a problem with the test. I'm guessing that at least some of the blame is due to the test. For example, I find it very hard to believe that 17% of 11th grade students are proficient with distinction on Reading, but only 1% or 2% are proficient with distinction in Math. There is usually a much higher correlation between the two categories than that.

* Laurie Johnson announced some grants that had been won: $10K for e-portfolio development, $10k for various items such as professional development reading improvement, etc.

Calendars

We set up the school board calendar for the year, with all the standard events scheduled.

We approved the school district calendar for the 08-09 year. School starts on 8/27/08 and Christmas break is 8 weekdays: 12/24/08 to 1/2/09. The last day of school without snow days is Monday 6/15/09, which means that the real last day will be around 6/18/09 or 6/19/09.

School Board Goals

Each year the school board sets their goals for the year. Each member can bring up options at the first meeting of the year, and we set the goals at the second meeting. The final list is usually a subset of the ones that are first presented. These are the potential goals for the year:

* Develop plans for a 09-10 start-up for a public kindergarten program in Milford. This is likely to take the form of adding portables to Jacques to create the space needed for the program.

* Develop plans for the presentation of a warrant article on the 2009 ballot for the construction of permanent space for public kindergarten. This is likely to be a proposal that is similar to the one that was article one on this year's ballot.

* Negotiate with the Teachers bargaining unit and the Support Staff bargaining unit with the objective of agreeing to contracts that will be presented to the voters on the 2009 ballot.

* Develop action plans based on the final Bales Study report due in June.

* Do some sort of activity regarding the potential severe Retirement System cost problems.

* Do some sort of activity regarding the development of gangs in Milford. This might involve working with law enforcement professionals in some manner.

* Manage the High School, Track, and Bales Roof renovation projects.

* Subdivide the Heron Pond lots.

* Negotiate with Mason regarding having their Middle and High school students attend Milford schools on a tuition basis, perhaps starting in the 09-10 school year.

* Do some sort of activity regarding the poor test scores, especially the 11th grade math scores.

* Start a conversion of our district policies to match the model policy format used by the New Hampshire School Board Association.

High School Renovation Project

The MHS Project Management Advisory Committee held their monthly meeting yesterday to review the status of the ongoing renovations at the High School. Everything seems to be moving along well, with the overall project appearing to be on budget and on schedule.

Track and Field Update

Good progress was made on the track and field portion of the project during the fall months. Most of the major field work was completed, the drainage was installed, some fencing was put up, old bleachers were torn down, excess loam was removed from the site, lights were moved, subsurface and base coat for the track were installed, and the foundation for the storage building was installed.

Work has stopped on the site for the winter, except that the ATC construction program will be starting to construct the storage building soon. When the weather improves, they will start up again. Some of the major activities to be done include finishing off the track surface, building an appropriate foundation and installing bleachers, installing the press box, electrical and data feeds to the press box and scoreboard, and installing sod.

Most of the work should be completed by late spring or early summer. The football field will be rested for a while to allow the sod to take. It is expected that the field will be in great shape in time for the next football season.

High School Renovations Update

There are a number of renovation activities that will occur in the High School. Some activities have occurred over the past couple of months and will continue through the school year, but most of the activity will occur during the next summer.

The band room renovation is coming along well. It was gutted, new walls put up, stage storage area was constructed, stage handicapped lift area constructed, drainage put in, and practice rooms were created. The instrument storage system will be installed soon.

There are several interior rooms that are in progress. We ran into a minor snag in a couple of the rooms in that the roof supports turned out to be inverted wooden trusses instead of steel as had be expected. Some rooftop units were being installed, so they had to figure out a way to beef up the support structure to handle all the loads. They did come up with an approach that is safe and relatively inexpensive.

Bales Roof

The contract for the replacement of the Bales roof was given to Turnstone Corp, the construction manager for the high school project. The work will be done next summer.

Financial Update

The high school project is largely a renovation project, and it is always difficult to be exact on the costs up front since you never know what you are going to run into. There have been some items that were more expensive than expected and others that were lower, but in total, our best estimate at this time is that we have roughly $200k that is not spoken for as of yet, out of the $4,900k total project budget. There are quite a few items that still have place holder values in the cost roll-up, so this is subject to considerable change as we go through the project. In very rough numbers, we have committed spending of about $4,400k so far, with another $500k remaining to be committed.

The project management committee has worked well at making decisions to keep the project on budget. Priority decisions have been made, and in my opinion, good choices have been made.

The project seems to be in good financial shape at this point, with the majority of the big cost items mostly set, with only minor activities still up in the air.