At the March 27th meeting of the Mountain View school board, the board and administration discussed accolades, budgets, and food, along with a variety of other topics. Mr. Presley also brought attention to a dangerous new app.
Mrs. Voigt recognized Hayley Maloney, who was selected as a first soprano at the state level. She was also named to the All Eastern Mixed Choir, in Providence, Rhode Island. Mrs. Voigt said that they wished her the best of luck.
Christine Kelly, the elementary principal, presented her budget. She quipped that it was always nice to go after Mr. Taylor (who had apparently presented at a previous meeting), because everything seemed more reasonable. She then reviewed the budget, noting some of the increases. Professional contracted services had a proposed $1,000 increase as she and Ms. Wnorowski were looking together at Read 120, which she said would help increase options for intervention time. This would be a shared cost with special education.
There was some question among board members and Mr. Patchcoski, as to whether or not the board was looking at current numbers when discussing budgets. Mr. Stoddard, Mr Twining, and Mrs. Stine expressed the thought that it would be nice to have actual expenses for the current year when they were giving a budget presentation. Mr. Patchcoski stated that some of the bills came out closer to the end of the year. Ms. Kelly said that when those amounts were updated, she wouldn't have a problem coming back and adjusting her budgetary proposal.
Ms. Kelly continued her review. There was an increased cost for student trips, including a band trip which had previously not been budgeted at the elementary level. The addition of new instructors, she related, included the cost for new professional development, and instructor travel. The school was also looking at purchasing books, some of which she said hadn't been replaced since 1987. She was also requesting the purchase of a tuba and a bell kit, for the music department. Dr. Plonski-Sezer asked where the band instructor was getting the instruments from, because she knew people in the area.
Mr. Presley then gave his presentation, for the secondary school budget. He said the main thing on that side of the street was textbooks, including Business Ed textbooks which would be required if the district went through with the Microsoft Office Suite upgrade proposed by the Technology Department. He said if they weren't updating the office suite he didn't need those textbooks. He mentioned some of the other planned textbook updates, including social studies. (That department had requested about $67,000 and he and Mrs. Voigt sat down to see if they could break the cost up over a couple of years). They were also requesting funds to purchase the final piano for the piano lab. They also wished to continue the trend of replacing one piece of equipment in the exercise and weight room a year, for the P.E. Department. There were chairs requested for the conference room and some classrooms, as well as a little bit included in the budget for the unseen. He said that the total high school budget included expenses for NOVA, the CTC costs, and cyber charter school expenses, but if his actual code was separated from these, the secondary school budget had only increased by about $4500.
Dr. Plonski-Sezer asked how much the control piano for the lab was. Mr. Presley replied it had been purchased the previous year, and explained briefly what it was. Mrs. Voigt related that the Community Foundation money had helped them procure the piano the previous year.
As the meeting progressed, the board approved the NEIU 15-16 operating budget as presented. They also approved the 2015-16 NEIU special education budget.
A motion was made and approved to increase cafeteria breakfast and lunch prices across the board. Mr. Stoddard said that the prices were as approved because the district was being chased by the feds. The government was saying the district wasn't contributing their fair share. He said Mountain View was still the lowest, and that their prices hadn't been changed in a few years.
The proposed cafeteria budget was a negative $108,000 it was stated. A visitor asked if Nutrition, Inc. was going to do the food service again, and they are. Mr. Stoddard said that from what he could find out, to change might be more trouble than what it was worth, because of government regulations, what they were required to do, calorie counts, etc. Plus, the contract was a five year contract, up for renewal each year.
It was asked if the district could make their own food. It was responded that there was one district in the area which made their own food, and they were looking at food services.
Mr. Stoddard related that they were looking at applying for a waiver so they could go back to 50% whole grains instead of 100% whole grains, the latter of which had been the norm the previous year.
It was related that the school had an operated labor cost of 78%. They had looked at taking a small portion of the gas royalties to fund the food, but the government didn't like this. Mr. Stoddard didn't think that made a lot of sense. The federal government said that they wanted to cut back on having things like the general fund or royalties contributing to cafeteria funds.
Mrs. Stine said she thought they needed to have better food. She stated that she didn't know about the high school, but she felt that at the elementary level they needed to give the kids better food. A visitor agreed, saying the students were hungry, and weren't getting a lot of food. Mrs. Voigt responded that they were following the government guidelines for portion size and calorie count. Mrs. Stine said that the students got a lot of breaded chicken, in different forms. Mr. Stoddard asked if there was an increase in food waste. Mr. Patchocski replied that not everybody threw it away. Mr. Taylor, however, said that they did throw out a lot of food. He said that was because they were mandated regarding what they had to give. Mrs. Stine asked how many times a week the students got fresh fruit, like a sliced apple. Mr. Patchcoski said didn't know. A maintenance man said that they brought apples and fruits in, and that the students got a lot of fresh vegetables. Mr. Stoddard asked the adults about the food. An educator said they got a lot of salads, and another person said that the adult menu was wonderful. But they got something different than the kids. Mr. Patchocski said every school district was complaining about it, but the government stuck their nose up and said they didn't care. He said they could do whatever they wanted to a point, but then they would lose the subsidy.
Mr. Taylor, in his report, related that the wood boiler had gone down twice the previous week. He had gotten a phone call that they had smoke coming out of the feed hopper. A bearing had seized in a hydraulic motor. He had taken it down to a hydraulic repair shop. It was basically a throwaway motor. They ordered another one and temporarily fixed the existing one, but it wasn't coming up to full speed and he could hear a vibration. The new motor was to be there the next morning, so they planned to get it going again then.
They had also run out of water the previous week at the high school. They talked to the well people and thought maybe the ground was still frozen and the water wasn't getting down to replenish the well. So they had run from the elementary school, and ran that one dry. He spoke about a pipe between the two schools. They had been going through water like crazy at the high school, and it was realized that somewhere between the two schools that pipe had broken. They valved it at the high school end and stopped going through water so much. When it was bad, they had gone through about 20,000 gallons of water in one day. They normally went through about 9,000 gallons between the two schools. He said that when it started thawing out they might see a sink hole, but if they didn't then someone would have to come up with a listening device to find the break in the plastic pipe. It was said that they hoped really strongly that the break wouldn't be found under the parking lot or the road.
Ms. Kelly shared the dates of pre-K and Kindergarten registration. They were supposed to have PTO movie night, but it was snowed out. Mr. Presley was letting them use his facilities, and it was rescheduled to that Friday. She gave a big shout out to some of the staff who had coordinated a really nice Relay for Life kickoff. She said that the video that the high school put together was really well done. The students liked to see faces that they knew. It was a really nice coordination between the two buildings.
She also thanked members of the RTII Tier 3 program. She had asked the board's permission to allow staff to participate in a program the IU requested they participate in. She said it involved a few additional travel dates, but it also required a lot of extra work. She said the feedback they had received was beyond complimentary. She commended the staff involved and thanked them.
Mr. Presley spoke about the PASC district nine conference that Thursday, where they expected to host representatives from 37 schools. The population in the school that day was expected to more than double. The schedule was set so that the conference delegates and the Mountain View students wouldn't mix. He wanted to thank the faculty members for their assistance with this, especially Miss Marmo and Mrs. Aten, as well as the students, the custodial staff, the secretaries, and everyone else who had helped to prepare for the huge conference. He said they would love to see some board members attend.
He expressed a desire to congratulate Jessie Chidester, who qualified to compete at the state level of the Skills USA competition. He also spoke about the relay for life kickoffs, noting both schools and saying that if anyone wanted to register a team they could go on the website.
Mr. Presley then spoke about a new app, called Burn Book. It was based on the movie Mean Girls, where they made comments about students in a book. The app was anonymous, groups were named after a school and then students could post anything they wanted. He said he had students in his office that day, and he had been contacted by parents. He had no way to track who was saying what. He had signed in to the site to investigate it. When you signed up it asked for your phone number, but the site didn't post it. There was not even a user name connected with the posts. He had contacted the state police, because people were being harassed. They said that if the harassment continued, he should tell the parents to contact the police because it was illegal. Also, discipline could be carried out in school if it disrupted the school environment. The problem was that they didn't know who was doing it.
Mr. Presley was telling the students that if they didn't want to be known as a school that did this, then they needed to start flooding the app with positive comments and messages. He noted another district which had student leaders do this, and a lot of things on the site had become positive. He also planned to send out a call to parents asking for their help in controlling it.
When you went on the app it said it was not to be used for harassment or illegal activities. It was being used for negative purposes, however. He said even his name was on it, but it didn't bother him much. To a fourteen year old, however, it would be devastating.
He was letting the board know about the app. If parents contacted him, he told them to contact the police. If he could prove who it was he would take care of it, because it was causing a disruption. However with the anonymity there was little they could do until the students got tired of the site and decided to take control of it. He said it was easy to tear students down behind the screen, but it was harder to pick them up.
Mr. Twining thought Mr. Presley had the right idea in being proactive. Mr. Presley had sent an e-mail out to students and coaches, since they knew who the student leaders were, asking them to reach out to them and encourage them to change the trend. Mr. Twining said he had heard there was some pretty brutal stuff on the site. Another way to control the comments, Mr. Presley suggested, would be to encourage the kids to click the down arrows next to the comments. He believed if there were enough down arrows, the comment would be erased.
Ms. Wnorowski had given the board the first draft of the special education plan. This needed to be sent out every three years. It had to be available to the public, so she requested that it be put on the website. It would then need to be submitted to PDE.
Mrs. Voigt, in her report, announced that a team of students under the tutelage of the gifted instructor competed in the STEM Academy. They went a few times a year to compete, and accrued points. Mountain View's team had come in first place in the intermediate unit, out of about 15 schools.
The same week the Scranton Times had listed Mountain View within the top five in the stock market activity, in second place. The next week they had been in fourth. She said the students were enjoying participating in it. They had to want to do so.
On April 8th, she said, they had a Health Fair scheduled. They were having a state trooper from the Dunmore Barracks come in and do two sessions at the high school on internet safety. The students would have a booklet to take home. They were also hoping to organize a parent workshop. She encouraged parents to come, as it was a whole different world from when they had grown up.
The district's 21st Century after school group had a treat on Thursday, Mrs. Voigt explained. They had been promised cross country skiing. Chet's had donated cross country skis for the day, about eight pair. However, fourteen or fifteen students had shown up. A student had spoken to Mr. Thomas then, and he showed up with enough additional skis so all of the students had a pair and could either stay at the playground or go up on the nature trail with him. She thanked Chet's for their donation of the skis.