Here is the video of tonight’s Region One budget workshop.
It was decided to keep the iPad minis.
It was decided to keep the tech support proposals.
It was decided to take a total of $20,000.00 out of the administration budget for training, workshops, etc….
It was decided to put back in the hours for summer for the library (a tie vote but weighted vote won) ( North Canaan, Kent, Cornwall voted no while Salisbury, Sharon and Falls Village voted yes)
The board decided not to re-visit asking the administration to re-open their contract (no vote here, just a shut down from the board chair)
And a motion was made to add back a teacher by Gale Toensing, but no one seconded the motion so it died on the floor
The budget will go back before the voters again….
More on the possible illegal actions of the Region One Board, in a following post.
Watch the meeting on this video
From today’s Republican American
Hoping to have its proposed 2013-14 budget pass in a third referendum, the Region 1 Board of Education made some reductions Monday that will mean a 1.1 percent decrease from this year’s budget. Members cut the student success plan coordinator’s position and eliminated $10,000 from both curriculum development and in service, but agreed to restore the $4,265 for the librarian’s summer work. Sharon representative Marilyn Yerks noted at the end of the session that four of the key items discussed at a public workshop last week were not changed. Residents at the workshop wanted the librarian’s hours restored, but also spoke out about a plan to give iPad Minis to all students, planned raises for technology staff whose duties will be expanded to all schools, installation of PowerSchools recording-keeping systems in all schools, and new administrative contracts and that will award the superintendent, assistant superintendent and business manager 2 percent raises over each of three years. The All Boards Chairman Committee, an advisory panel made up of the leaders of the region’s seven school boards, has been tasked with making recommendations to the Board of Education on contract issues. After the first budget defeat, the Region 1 board asked the administrators to reopen their contracts, but the ABC Committee voted not to extend the request. Yerks said the board, not the ABC Committee, asked to reopen the contract. In response to Toensing’s question how the committee got involved, Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain said she asked it to meet.
“It’s the logical thing,” Chairman Jonathan Moore of Kent said. Under state statutes, that group is a shared service among the seven boards that negotiates the contracts.
During the budget discussion, Yerks suggested cutting back on the iPad mini purchases, perhaps giving them to just one grade or department. Moore and William Tedder of Salisbury disagreed, saying the school will get the most value if all students have them.”I don’t see any advantage to phasing them in,” Moore said. “That could cause more problems.” The project will cost $94,000.
Laura Freund of Canaan suggested cutting $10,000 each from the $40,000 for curriculum development and the $50,000 for in service. The vote to cut back was unanimous.
The group voted to eliminate the part-time student success plan coordinator, which was put in this year for a three-year term. That move resulted in a savings of $18,259, including benefits. Philip Hart of Cornwall was the only one voting no.
The appropriation of $4,265 for the librarian’s summer work was restored, but Freund said she still didn’t understand what work was done during that time. Yerks, Tedder and Toensing voted to restore the hours, while Moore, Freund and Hart voted against.
The board was split on phasing in the salary increases for the IT employees over a two-year period, with Freund, Moore and Hart voting in favor and Tedder, Yerks and Toensing voting no.
just watched the meeting video WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE SMOKING! They still do not get it. The super and her cohorts need to be gone gone gone JUST VOTE NO ON THE BUDGET