West Haven Board of Education Minutes

WEST HAVEN BOARD OF EDUCATION MINUTES

May 6, 2013

Regular Board Meeting

Washington School

The Regularly Scheduled Meeting of the Board of Education was held in the gymnasium of Washington Elementary School, 369 Washington Avenue, West Haven, Connecticut on May 6, 2013. The meeting was called to order by Mark Palmieri, Chairman of the Board of Education at 7:10 p.m. The meeting opened with a pledge to the flag.

BOARD MEMBERS

IN ATTENDANCE: Mark Palmieri, Chairman

M. Toni Paine, Vice Chair

Patricia Libero, Secretary/Treasurer

Dorinda Borer

Betsy Davis

Cebi Waterfield

Robert Guthrie

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Patrick Egolum

Eric Murillo

ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT: Neil Cavallaro, Superintendent of Schools

Anne Druzolowski, Assistant Superintendent

David Cappetta, Director of Finance

Matt Cavallaro, Grant Internal Auditor

CITY OFFICIALS PRESENT:

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES

PRESENT: Catherine DePino

Stacie Hurley

Abdul-Rasak Zachariah

Chairman Palmieri welcomed everyone to the May 6, 2013 regular Meeting of the West Haven Board of Education. He stated that there were two presentations to make before the public session would take place. He turned the meeting over to Superintendent Cavallaro.

Neil stated he wanted to acknowledge Washington School. Steve Lopes, Principal of Washington School and Dr. Druzolowski will talk about being honored and recognized by the State Department of Education for some of the work that they have been doing at Washington School. They have improved scores in the area of Math which our district has been working diligently on to improve.

Neil first called upon Chace Brennan and his family to come forward. Chase is a student here at Washington School and he entered the 4th Grade Citizenship Poster Contest which is sponsored by the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s Office. We want to recognize Chace and give him a small token of appreciation for the work he did. The Citizenship Poster Contest is designed to heighten awareness of good citizenship and its significance in a healthy democracy. Its objectives are to stimulate knowledge of the importance of voting, of participation and of leadership among all people in a democratic community. The contest provides an opportunity for students to reinforce their creative artistic skills and to demonstrate their knowledge of good citizenship. Chace is the winner in the 3rd Congressional District. On behalf of the board Superintendent Cavallaro presented Chace with a framed picture of his entry. Neil and the board congratulated Chace. Pictures were taken of Chace and his family with Superintendent Cavallaro and Principal Steven Lopes.

Applause followed throughout the gymnasium.

Neil wanted to thank everyone from Washington School for coming here tonight. Neil said he would read the following from Stefan Pryor the Commissioner of Education and then have Dr. Druzolowski continue with the presentation. Congratulations on your school’s recognition as a 2013 Connecticut School of Distinction! As part of Connecticut’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Request/Waiver, schools have been identified as Schools of Distinction. Schools of Distinction are identified annually in three different areas: 1) Highest Performing Subgroup; 2) Highest Progress; and 3) Highest Overall Performance. Schools of Distinction were identified using 2011-12 Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and Conecuh Academic Performance Test (CAPT) data. Neil congratulated the staff at Washington School and Mr. Lopes the principal of Washington School.

Dr. Druzolowski had all of the teachers and staff from Washington School come forward to receive their rewards. When you hear what they have done you will realize this is a task that would normally take five to ten years and they managed with perseverance to move this to the next level. They are one school where only 10% of schools across the state have achieved this progress and that is quite an undertaking. This school figures out solutions and for a school district that started with 30 to 40 minute4s of mathematics four years ago to now have 60 minutes plus an additional 30 that Mr. Lopes will tell you about to help improve their math scores.

Mr. Lopes said as the old saying goes you can’t do anything unless you have the village working and our village is not only our teachers but also our parents are with us daily. We looked at the information of the data from the test scores and we put students into tiers or groups and teachers worked with those individual groups; students that were not only having difficulty but also students that were doing well so they would become better. It is the issue of the individual care that made it happen and our people are the best in town; they are Washington Schoolers and we thank you. Applause.

B. Public Portion of Meeting

Chairman Palmieri said this is Teacher and Nurse Appreciation Week and last week was Administrative Assistant Appreciation so let’s please give them a round of applause. He asked if anyone would like to approach the board during the public session. The Public Session began at 7:30 PM. Chairman Palmieri wanted the first time speaker that the board does not respond back during the public portion of the meeting they can only listen. He asked the speakers to please give their name and address. There was a sign up sheet and Chairman Palmieri called the first person on the sign up sheet.

Richie Clarke, 39 Jesse Drive, WH. Addressed the Superintendent of Schools, Assistant Superintendent and Board of Education members on behalf of Louise Martone, President of Local 4706 who due to a prior commitment could not be here. Today we are coming together in order to keep food service running. You will be hearing facts that are being presented by trusted figures, community people, business people, council people and others. Please listen to the people who have come together to show you how important it is to keep Food Service run by the people who live in the town. They are people you see in your neighborhood; people who now only serve your children but know their likes and dislikes and know if students have food allergies etc. We thank them for all their service for our children. Applause.

Teresa Heaney, 98 Cynthia Dr. WH. Ms. Heaney is nearly a 20 year employee of the WH BOE. She is also Vice President of AFSCME Local 2706 representing non-certified school employees including food service workers. She is currently the secretary for school counseling and have had the pleasure of working with many of your sons and daughters. I pay taxes in West Haven and you can only imagine my disappointment to privatize food service operations in our school system. Her union negotiated in good faith to reach an agreement that provided savings to the taxpayers and to tech services. As taxpayer we entrusted you with educating our children and managing the budgets. As front line workers we can help identify savings and I invite you to see our food service people serving the students and making sure their needs are met. You will see that we give you an honest day’s work. At the end of the day she prays that the decisions she has made have made her the type of woman her three daughters would want to emulate and she can only hope that you as democratically elected board members will do the same. Thank you. Applause.

David Orio, 375 Captain Thomas Blvd. WH is here to address the board about the outsourcing of food services something that can have implications for all the residents of this city and our community and the betterment of our world. The BOE has a budget of approximately eighty five million dollars and the net budget cost for the food service department is one hundred thousand dollars page 41 of your budget request. This is slightly more than 1/10th of 1% of your budget. For every $1,000 that this board spends they have to kick back only $1.00 for food service. $147,630 is the total cost to employee 60 + people and serve 4,000 lunches a day. These people work during the hurricane and snow days. A further discussion ensued about contracts, renegotiations etc. Applause

Robert Montuori, 48 Brown Street lived here as a child and attended his first day of school at Washington and graduated from West Haven High School 8n 1981 and have been paying taxes in this town. It appalls him to hear that anyone is privatizing the jobs of these people. He works where they were privatized and I won’t do what the other lady said to open your heart because if we are at this point the hearts have been closed already. If there is any person in this room that believes this will lower taxes it won’t if you are going to raise my taxes again it should go towards these people and their jobs it is not going to go to some guy who doesn’t live in this town.

Do you think all these kids coming out of high school will be doctors and lawyers; that is not going to happen. He has to look and see Mr. Grant trying to save his shops; these kids need these shops. Applause

Joe Bepko, 111 Beatrice Drive, WH is currently a 10th grade honor student. He went to the Sound School in New Haven his first year in high school and then joined West Haven High School because he didn’t have enough exposure to pursue the technical side of education and was not being challenged enough. His Step Dad is a graduate of West Haven High and bragged about the shop classes at the school. Many times he would say I learned how to do this in Mr. Grant’s class or Mr. Pozzuoli taught me how to do this. My answer to that is usually wow you can remember that far back. Seriously many of you think that for 45 minutes during these classes you can relax but nothing could be further from the truth about the shop classes. They teach you the skills of the trade, the safety when working with tools and they take the time to teach you how to make it in the real world. They teach us how to solve problems. He has some close friends who are college graduates that are still looking for jobs and on the other hand I have a number of friends that graduated from WHHS and landed great jobs. I do not take for granted the services of blue collar workers nor should you. Please save our shops and save the future of West Haven students. Thank you. Applause

Jackie Tweedie, 18 Cynthia Circle, WH said the shops give us the opportunity to work for our country. Instead of demolishing the shops we should be repairing them. We use these shops everyday. We learn how to build houses, we put power in the houses, and we use cars and repair them to learn how to work and to make money. A lot of kids go to school to get their world started. In order to do that kids need to have these shops to learn these things. If you take them away we won’t be able to learn how to make sheds, picnic tables etc. In metal we make hand tools for working on the job. We learn how to work with the inside of cars and to fix things inside a car. In electronics we learn about different sets of wires and how to do things inside the house with lights etc. Many students from Bailey want to take these courses and they won’t be available if you take them away. We need to experience these things to achieve our goals in life and we also need this experience to prepare us to attend college. Please put it into your hearts to keep these shops. Jackie said the shop students are passing out shirts to the board that say save our shops so please think about it. Applause

Bart Chadderton, 270 Richmond Avenue, WH said he is the Republican candidate for Mayor and a concerned citizen. Superintendent Cavallaro said nothing has been written in stone. The Mayor says something three times when he makes a point. I say three times “These jobs need to be saved.” These are the people that live here and work here, pay taxes here and their kids go to school here. There jobs must be saved. Just ask the students and teachers these jobs must be saved. Applause

Dennis Gamester, 135 Main Street, WH his direction is toward the BOE and the school services. He read that they are at a loss of $200 – $500,000 but everyone on the board voted themselves a raise. It says this has been going on for years. I can’t figure out why you people sitting on the BOE can’t figure out a way to save $500,000. You have a finance director, you have people taking care of the quotes yet no one is held accountable. He is a 25 year plus teamster and he supports the workers all the way. It is always the people at the bottom who work the hardest that are the first to go. What will you do with the money you save? On recycling he stated that 5 cent bottles returns have been thrown in the land fill; this money could have been saved but nobody took the time or cared. What a way to teach a student. The food service people live in West Haven and pay taxes in West Haven now we want to eliminate their jobs. What happens to these people whose jobs are eliminated? Applause

Ed O’Brien, 36 Platt Avenue, WH Before starting he wanted to thank the board members for their involvement and hopes the people in the audience know that they all volunteer their time. He is here to talk about the food service management company. He asked that you explore every available option before making your decision about contracting with a management company. As you know this has been a problem for many years and food service has been loosing money for a long time and what have we done to solve the problem other than plan to privatize food service. It doesn’t seem fair that the people who had the least to do with creating the problem are in danger of loosing their jobs.

In these times of tough economics I would ask that you look outside the box to try to find a solution that doesn’t involve laying off any of these workers. I understand there is a significant shortfall and finding a way to close that gap should be our first priority. You can shop around and all you will do is change the management. They say the price of lunches will not increase yet you have to remember this company has to make a profit. If they make a profit by just managing the program better; why do we need a management company? We can achieve the same goals by simply managing the program better ourselves. We do not have to make a profit and the profit that the management company will make comes at the expense of all the people you will be putting out of work.