West Haven Board of Education Minutes

WEST HAVEN BOARD OF EDUCATION MINUTES October 21, 2013 Regular Board Meeting Board of Education Meeting Room

The Regularly Scheduled Meeting of the Board of Education was held in the Board of Education Meeting Room, City Hall, 355 Main Street, West Haven, Connecticut on October 21, 2013. The meeting was called to order by Mark Palmieri, Chairman of the Board of Education at 7:00 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 Patrick Egolum Robert Guthrie Eric Murillo Cebi Waterfield

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:

ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT: Neil Cavallaro, Superintendent of Schools Anne Druzolowski, Assistant Superintendent David Cappetta, Director of Finance

CITY OFFICIALS PRESENT:

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT: Catherine DePino Alice Obas Jesus Yanez

1 Chairman Palmieri welcomed everyone to the October 21, 2013 regular Meeting of the West Haven Board of Education and asked if anyone would like to address the board. Public Portion began at 7:00 PM

B. Public Portion of Meeting Roberta Price is a representative from AFSCME Council 4 in New Britain and she represents Local 2706 and 1303410 for the City of West Haven the Board of Ed. She addressed the board on the privatization of food service management. It is seven weeks into the school year and it has been quite an adjustment to all. The conditions and the equipment that our members are subjected to have not improved. This was brought to management’s attention on numerous occasions to no avail. We continue to strive, prepare, feed and provide for the students of this district but are continuously handicapped by the obstacles that are placed in our paths by management. There have been no substantial changes in the equipment or the food other than a change in the presentation. Prior to the year ending we ask the board to seriously look and review the contract that the board has signed with Sodexo and bring these services back in-house. We ask this not just on the members we have but also on the welfare of the student body and our members that nourish these students each and every day. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. The board gave thanks.

Cheryl Martone, stated she is a parent of a student in West Haven High School and said her rights are being seriously violated here. Chairman Palmieri asked Ms. Martone to state her address please. Ms. Martone said she lives in Westbrook and on Washington Avenue in West Haven. She didn’t wish to give her address because she doesn’t want to be harassed or bullied at her address because she is already being harassed so she gave her PO Box in Westbrook. Ms. Martone asked on September 16, 2013 for her child’s records and said she is the guardian and parent and no parent should be violated of their parental rights whether they are custodial or non-custodial. This is why she started U.S. Concerned Parents Support Group four years ago because her rights as a parent have been violated by school systems; by her son’s school system he was in before in Westbrook and now by this board. She wants her son’s records. She requested who sent her son to High Roads School in Wallingford, CT and why. She was told to call the board’s law firm to try and get her son’s records and this is not correct because they knew nothing about what was told to her. A month later she still has not received the records. A further lengthy discussion ensued about her son having to OK the release of records because he was now over 18. She disagreed because he was not 18 when she requested them originally. Another discussion took place about the placement of her son in High Roads School which she doesn’t feel is needed and she stated if she doesn’t receive the records she will have to seek legal help. The board gave thanks. There were no other speakers. Public Session ended at 7:20

2 C. REPORTS C.1.a. Administration/Status of Schools Superintendent Cavallaro said Attorney Dugas is here tonight and Neil thinks the board should be aware of what we can and cannot do about the situation that was just described to us. Neil doesn’t know Ms. Martone’s son and has never spoken to him. He had one conversation with Ms. Martone on October 11th where he advised her that they would turn over the records and didn’t want this to become a legal matter. However given that her son was 18 years old he would need to sign a release. He never spoke to her on the 17th and doesn’t believe they had any other communication other than when she came to the first board meeting and promised that someone would get back to her.

Attorney Dugas stated he wasn’t directly involved in this although in this particular issue what you are saying is consistent with my understanding of FERPA which is once a student becomes 18 years of age they have to authorize any release of any of their records. This is his understanding of the law. Neil believes they followed the law and have given her the right advice. He can’t stop her from taking action or pursuing this but he wants to board to know they have been responsive and have tried to offer the right advice.

In response to Ms. Price’s comments Superintendent Cavallaro talked about Sodexo and what was going on with the program. He heard that most parents were happy with the product. They are trying to address issues as they come up. They have a Food Advisory Committee in place made up of parents, teachers, administrators, and board members. He has a meeting with Sodexo based on the last advisory committee meeting we had to talk about the long lines and about possibly getting some new equipment. He feels we have a program that is better than it was and it is new and we will take the time and get it right. We want to work with our employees; the intention is to not hurt any employee. We want to bargain with them and we understand there is some concern about additional responsibilities and a meeting date of November 4th has been set. We will listen to the concerns and issues and we have some ideas that we think would solve those problems. Whenever we have asked Sodexo to address and issue they have done that and we will continue to do that. We want to work with the employees and come to resolutions on any of the concerns they have raised.

Superintendent Cavallaro said the presentation you are going to hear tonight is on the SEED Evaluation Model and it is about the process for evaluation which we are required to implement this year. This has been a yearlong process and we have done it with good cooperation from our teachers, administrators, central office staff, building administrators to develop this plan. It is one of support of how we can make things better and improve teaching and learning in our district. Anne has done a tremendous amount of work. He sees Lynn Bonaldo from the teacher’s union which has been great with the entire process. Many long hours have been spent at ACES to develop the plan and once we came up with the plan a lot of time during the summer was spent training department heads and administrators. This will be implemented shortly. We are prepared to work through anything that may arise and most importantly we are here to support all of our teachers.

3 Anne Druzolowski said you will see a replication of the State Educator Evaluation Model and administrators as well as teachers are included in this. This is one of the best forms of collaboration she has ever worked on. There are 21 different representatives from the teachers union, administrative union, teachers, and principals all sat together and learned together about the statute and then decided that this was the model we were going with. It was submitted to the state in June and we just received approval to present this to you. The staff was invited to come up and do a quick presentation. Pam Gardner, Principal of WHHS, Stefania Larry, Assistant Director of Special Ed and Nicole Danishevsky, Math Coordinator and Professional Development gave the presentation which has been put on the website. There was a question and answer period after the presentation.

Student Representative Alice Obas said in reference to the teacher administration evaluations which will be partially based on how well students are doing; how do you differentiate students who put in 100% of effort and those that don’t. Will you evaluate a sequel of the students or will you determine it based on majority or is there a different way? Alice was told that was a great question and Pam Gardner said the answer is yes to all of the above. We sit down and talk with teachers about the needs of kids in their classrooms and we look at where their strength and needs are. If you are talking about an AP teacher all of those AP students must be included whether they give 100% or not. We could tie it to students in good standing attendance wise and state they will receive proficient or better on the AP exam. What is nice about this evaluation plan is that you talk to teachers about the kids in their class and the knowledge they have of the students in class and what we are looking to do is to provide students with support and help teachers if they need assistance. So they are not just looking at the numbers they are looking at the actual outcomes and growth.

Pat Libero wanted to understand how coordinators would write a goal because they are in charge of the whole school system. Pat was told they pick certain cohorts they want to focus on. She is working very closely with kindergarten right now and working on raising the achievement of all kindergarten students. Their goals will be aligned with principals and assistant principals so they are all working towards the same outcome for students. A further discussion took place. Dr. Druzolowski said that practice is a really big piece of this and the more that teachers feel comfortable looking at their practice objective and being reflective about what they feel they need to better hone in on their craft is where we all help each other; everybody supports each other in this kind of a climate.

Mark Palmieri said we have a high transient population of students would that be rated along the same lines as AP. What if a student came from a different district; would the teacher be rated on that the same way as with AP. We meet midway through the year with teachers and we can look then at the group of students in your class. We do have classrooms with very transient students and we look at and adjust whatever we need to. It is specific to the students that sit in front of you. We want to make sure we set rigorous enough goals to have everyone be successful. Mark then asked how Special Needs teachers will be evaluated. We are looking at a growth model and look at where students start and where they end. They are being congratulated on growth and recognized finally. A further discussion took place. Mark asked about the training on teacher scape. If

4 someone needs help is this just menu driven on the computer or is there any other interaction. They had a full day of training from the company where administrators and department heads participated in learning the platform and the dashboard. There is another date scheduled in November for administrators and a webinar where we are able to identify teacher leaders to participate in and train them. Teachers can independently log on and select course offerings.

Bob Guthrie said how do you see the staffing model being able to do the evaluation and the clerical piece for all staff. Anne Druzolowski said it won’t be any different. Next year will be a benefit because we have already gone through the trials and tribulations of working through a new model. A lot of teachers will have been trained who will be able to give support. The openness of the whole process makes it easier to go through. Everything needed to support staff is on the dashboard. Neil said it is forcing our administrators especially our building principals and assistant principals to really look at their time and how they are using it. We have been talking about their role as instructional leader as opposed to the role of being a building manager. They will be budgeting their time better and become more of the instructional leader type model.

Alice Obas asked if the teachers are not passing the evaluation what would be the next step to help the students or the teachers. For staff members in need of additional support we do have a teacher improvement plan which was developed through the evaluation committee as a support model. Teachscape can be utilized as well to provide some resources.

Cebi Waterfield said there were some comments at the mayoral debate that she was a little confused about so she just wanted to clarify something. One of the comments brought up was about overcrowded classes with 30 kids in them. Cebi was wondering how many classes have 30 kids in them and at what grade level.

Superintendent Cavallaro said the day after the debate we had received some requests for information and we provided them to everyone who asked. Rather than just send it to you I thought I would wait until it came up and I’ll get it out to you tomorrow. It is a lot of information and it gives every class from grades 5 – 12. Neil then gave out some of the numbers. The average class size district wide is around 22 kids per class. The elementary is around 21 per class, Carrigan is 22 per class, West Haven High is about 22 per class and Bailey is 21 – 22 per class. Superintendent Cavallaro read the email from Dr. Anthony Cordone which stated that only one teacher has a single class of 30 all other classes are lower. All academic teams have an average class size of 21 or 22. As for the teachers that roam 8 inclusion teachers go into the academic class but don’t need a classroom and 13 other members are assigned regular classrooms in close proximity of each other. A further discussion continued.

Both Bailey and Carrigan have 869 students and this is a low point for both schools in the last several years. The district has a total enrollment of 5,976 students as of October 1st. In October of 2002 there were over 7,200 students in the school system. Cebi said she was asking about the enrollment numbers because there was such disparity between the

5 candidates and she was surprised because she thought the number was around 6,000 so she just wanted to clarify this for her own benefit. A further discussion continued and a downward trend is expected to continue.

Toni Paine noted that with the numbers on Carrigan and Bailey that those schools now include 5th graders which they didn’t before and Bailey was about 900 per Neil and Carrigan was over 1,000. In 2002 there were over 1900 students in both Bailey and Carrigan. Now if you take the two enrollments 869 x 2 that is 1,730 kids so that is 200 fewer kids but one more grade. Toni said so enrollment is down tremendously. A further discussion continued.

Dorinda thinks we have made a lot of progress with the class sizes compared to a couple of years ago when we had 26, 27 and 28. We have added classes but some schools like Washington and Forest continues to have higher numbers than the other schools. Neil said the one grade at Washington that looks concerning when you first see it is first grade but we have an additional teacher that works at that grade level who pulls kids as needed for math, reading instruction etc. so if you add that teacher into the mix the class size there is about 20 instead of 24 or 25. Dorinda said in all fairness to what was said at the debate although she wasn’t there enrollment is down compared to 2002 but up compared to last year by about 20 so she thinks maybe both parties were right.

Dorinda said it seems a number of students were promoted from 8th grade into 9th grade but a number of students were held back in 9th grade. Is there a big discrepancy between how many students are held back in 8th grade versus how many were held back in 9th grade. A further discussion continued. Neil said once you get to the high school you are dealing with credits and a student may have gotten five credits but didn’t get six and take an extra class this year and they don’t become sophomores they go right to their junior year. Because you are dealing with credits the numbers are always highest in 9th grade and they go down substantially until the kids are seniors. Pam Gardner said students in the high school also loose credits due to attendance.

Dorinda said we will have a common calendar in 2014/2015 in all districts across the state for a common start date, vacation schedule, and common professional development days. This might be an opportunity for us to work with other districts in the area with transportation. This is a good opportunity to try and get professional development days established on election days. There are typically three election days a year and we have that many professional development days so it would make sense. A further discussion took place.

Dorinda said that Yale West is willing to incorporate some of their garden activities into our curriculum. The way they bring students over for other programs they will be willing to do for this maybe during a health class or health, wellness and nutrition. Neil said he will be meeting with Tim Gunning and going over the paperwork for the Community Gardens in a couple of days and bring it to the board shortly.

6 Dorinda said before the next BOE Meeting she will have a Health and Wellness Meeting and that may be a good time for the advisory board committee to come and talk about the work they have done with Sodexo. Neil would like to bring Sodexo here and have them give a status report of where they think they are and have the board ask a bunch of questions. Their next meeting is November 12th and our meeting is scheduled for November 4th but I think it is time that they come and give you an update of where they are. Dorinda said particularly with the investment in our equipment because that was one of the selling points for a lot of people on the board. They were going to purchase, fix and improve our equipment so I would like to see what they have done to date.

C.1.b. Student Representatives Report Catherine DePino, Alice Obas and Jesus Yanez gave a report which is attached as Schedule A at the end of the minutes. The board congratulated Catherine DePino for receiving a CHET Scholarship in the amount of $2,500.00.

Dorinda said she had the opportunity to go to the Pathways Program with her son and Yale is doing a study to get energy out of algae. They are taking pond scum and turning it into energy and a fuel. Student Representative Jesus Yanez said he did an internship this summer where they worked with liquid crystals and they were using those to create membranes to filter water. Dorinda said this was great.

C.1.c. Board

C.1.d. Committee

Dorinda said she is the liaison to the ACES Committee and she wanted to acknowledge the work that they do. It has been a real pleasure sitting on their board and she said she is so impressed with the work that they do. The collaboration between the districts on the board is really great. It would be good if we had the ACES board meeting minutes sent to our board to review and see what the other districts are doing. Mark said we will do it electronically and save a tree.

D.1. Approval of Minutes D.1.a. West Haven Board of Education Regular Board Meeting held in the Board of Education Meeting Room, City Hall, 355 Main Street, West Haven, CT on October 7, 2013 at 7:00 PM. Mark Palmieri asked for a motion to approve the minutes D.1.a Toni Paine made the motion to approve the minutes D.1.a. Cebi Waterfield seconded the motion Discussion: Eric Murillo abstained because he was not present during this board meeting. All remaining board members present were in favor Minutes are approved

D.2. Resignations: (Certified) 13-119 Robert Forbes, Assistant Coach Girls’ Basketball - WHHS

7 Effective: October 13, 2013 Reason: Personal

13-120 Lyndsay Gurnee, Special Ed Inclusion Teacher - Washington Effective: November 9, 2013 Reason: Personal

Mark Palmieri asked for a motion to approve D.2. Resignation #13-119 and #13-120 Bob Guthrie made the motion Patrick Egolum seconded the motion Discussion: Correction was made to the agenda as the school in item 13-120 should have been Washington not Forest. All board members present were in favor Resignation items 313-119 and #13-120 are approved

D.3. Leave of Absence: (Certified)

D.4. New Hire: (Certified) (Addendum item) This was voted on at the end of the meeting before informational. 13-124 Jessica Moriarty, 7 Falcon Crest Drive, East Haven, CT 06512 Head Coach Girls Basketball - WHHS Effective: October 22, 2013 Salary: $4,500.00 Stipend

Mark Palmieri asked for a motion to approve D.4. New Hire: (Certified) 13-124 Pat Libero made the motion Dorinda Borer seconded the motion Discussion: Cebi sat in on the process and all of the candidates were fabulous; it was a very hard decision to make. This was a great choice and I think she is going to do a fabulous job. Mark said they did a nice write up in the Register on her and he was glad to see that. All board members present were in favor New Hire item 13-124 is approved

D.5. New Business 13-121 Acceptance of West Haven SEED Evaluation Plan Mark Palmieri asked for a motion to approve D.5 item #13-121 Toni Paine made the motion Dorinda Borer seconded the motion Discussion: Mark Palmieri thanked all the presenters and said they did a nice job. All board members present were in favor Item #13-121 is approved

13-122 Team Leader Recommendations 2013 – 2014 Mark Palmieri asked for a motion to approve D.5 item #13-122

8 Patrick Egolum made the motion Cebi Waterfield seconded the motion Discussion: None All board members present were in favor Item #13-122 is approved

13-123 AFSCME Local 2706 Grievance on behalf of Michele Sullivan regarding upgrade Superintendent Cavallaro stated that union representatives and Attorney Dugas have been going back and forth and there has been some discussion on this. We are asking with your permission to get a motion to table this and hopefully come to a resolution prior to the next board meeting.

Toni Paine made a motion to table item #13-123 Dorinda Borer seconded the motion Discussion: There was no further discussion. All board members present were in favor Item #13-123 is tabled.

F. Informational Nothing was added under informational.

Mark Palmieri asked for a motion to adjourn Dorinda Borer made the motion Patrick Egolum seconded the motion Discussion: None All board members were in agreement The meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Marylou C. Amendola Board Secretary

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