PLAINFIELD SCHOOL DISTRICT
Plainfield School Board Meeting
Monday, February 5, 2007
Plainfield Elementary School
MINUTES
The meeting was called to order at 6:34 pm. Present were Board members Reynolds, Ferguson, Bucklin, Cogan and Forman. Also present were Superintendent Collins, Financial Specialist Beth Bierwirth, Special Education Director Nancy Brogden and members of the public. From the town Finance Committee were Steve Beaupré, Thom Lappin, Rob Hewett, Claire McNamara and Ann Grobe.
Announcements, Communications
Superintendent Collins distributed articles to the Board sent to him by Allen Ferguson from the National Education Committee.
Collins presented the Board with a petitioned warrant article from town member Dennis Girouard.
At this time Collins requested that the Board reorder the agenda to allow Nancy Brogden to answer the Board’s questions concerning the special education increases in the budget.
Business for Discussion and/or Action
A. Finalize Budget
Nancy Brogden distributed two reports to the Board: one compared the percent of children in Plainfield served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act with other states and with the U.S. as a whole; the other detailed the requested increases in the special education budget. Most of the discussion that followed centered on the requested increase to the Social Worker’s hours. Brogden explained how a grant presently pays for the Social Worker and will probably continue to in the future but the funding only covers four hours a week for 30 weeks, which includes the Social Worker’s transportation time. The additional funds are requested so the Social Worker can provide essential, preventative services for five hours a week for all 38 weeks of the school year. The Board compared this request with the other two increases in the special education budget, which are for additional hours for the Occupational Therapist (OT) and the Physical Therapist (PT). The OT and PT do not currently have enough paid hours at the school to complete all necessary business and are putting in extra hours at home to keep up with the reports they don’t have time to complete at school.
At this time Nancy Brogden left the meeting and the Finance Committee adjourned for discussion of the issue.
Consent Agenda
Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the January 22, 2007 meeting with the following amendments: in the first paragraph under reports, add the following sentence after the second sentence, “The Meriden Fire Chief and the state Fire Marshal urged the Facilities Committee to place a high priority on the sprinkler installation.”; add to the end of the fourth sentence in the same paragraph, “without posting a bond.”; in the second sentence in the paragraph under Finalize Budget, omit “was”.
Business for Discussion and/or Action
B. Finalize Warrant
1. Bond Article - Superintendent Collins told the Board that he met with Ed Murdough from the Department of Education who told him that all projects in the Facility Committee’s Five-Year Plan will be considered one project and so will all qualify for the 30% refund. The Board discussed bond options. Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted unanimously to pursue a bond for $325,000 for a 5-year period with an interest rate of 4.25%. The Bond Hearing will be on Thursday, February 15 at 7:00 pm at the Plainfield School.
At this time Thom Lappin from the Finance Committee returned to inform the Board that the Finance Committee voted four-to-one to recommend that the Board remove the $10,000 increase for the Social Worker from the Special Education budget. Lappin explained that the Committee felt that the other increases were essential and cutting them would take away from the children but they didn’t feel that was the case with the Social Worker increase. The Board agreed to cut $10,000 from the special education budget, which is the amount requested to increase the Social Worker.
Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board approved unanimously to adopt the proposed 2007-2008 budget in the amount of $5,157,879.
2. Petitioned Article
Superintendent Collins explained that, per his conversation with the Department of Revenue Administration, the petitioned article presented by Girouard is considered advisory and non-binding because it would take authority away from the Board. Collins said that the school attorney, David Bradley, will be present at the District meeting to help answer questions concerning petitioned articles. The Board discussed how they might comply with the petitioned article if it was accepted by the voters.
Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted unanimously to approve the articles of the warrants for the annual meeting and for the election of District officers and to authorize signing and posting.
C. Preparation for District Meeting
Board members told Superintendent Collins which articles they would present at the annual meeting. Collins requested that the Board let him know of any information they need for handouts. Board member Forman requested time at the next meeting to “dry run” his argument for the Assistant Principal article.
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 8:31 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Annette Moore
Recording Clerk