NHP-GCP Board of Ed Notebook: August 6

The  Board of Education held a meeting on Monday, August 6. Here are some of the things you may have missed.

Bill Payments Questioned

• PTA member Heather Zimmerman, who is also the chairperson of the sixth grade committee stated that the group has had a “major issue” with getting bills paid on time.
• She stated that many of the bills had been turned in in April but had to be signed by a secretary in order to be paid.
• “There’s no accountability,” she said, pointing at , the payment for which was due on May 31.
• According to Zimmerman, the payment for the trip was handed in on May 15 to the district, but the check reached the company on August 5.
• Zimmerman also spoke about conflicting messages she received that she was not to be involved in the process but also was requested to help the school district attorney make modifications to the contract with the company.
• She also said that the policy towards payment has been changed.
• “Two years prior, each check has been handed in at the end of May,” she said, adding that she was told payments would only be made after the trip was completed.
• “We’ll certainly look into it,” board president Ernest Gentile said, asking for copies of Zimmerman’s documents and indicating that the board would ask assistant superintendent of finance Michael Frank to clarify as well. “We’d like to clear it up so they don’t have these inconsistencies in the future as well.”
• Zimmerman said that she was posing the questions primarily due to the new members of the PTA which were present that night.

Personnel

• The following teachers had salary schedules reclassified as of Sept. 1, 2012:
  • Beth Bradley
  • Jana Fishkind
  • Carla Gilligan
  • Carolyn Goodman
  • Lisa Kay-Tzah
  • Sharon Layburn
  • Kathleen Montagano
  • Kelly Setiadi
  • Dawn Weihs
• The board approved the retirement of teacher Christina Rider effective August 6, 2012. Superintendent Robert Katulak thanked Mrs. Rider who was an “exceptional reading teacher at and she also ran our Read 180 and Systems 44 programs.” The district is in the process of finding a replacement and has held interviews for a part-time reading teacher that they will be hiring this year. The principals can decide to offer the full-time position to the teacher that was previously approved by the board for the part-time position at Manor Oaks, as she has been trained in the Read 180 program and did fill in for other teachers who were on maternity leave.
• The board approved a custodial stipulation. No further details were available.
• Another stipulation for a collective bargaining agreement with the cafeteria monitors’ unit was tabled because according to the superintendent the unit “wants an opportunity to ratify their contract.”

Contracts

• Special education contracts were approved with the following service providers for students with special needs: Home Care Therapies doing business as Horizon Healthcare Staffing, Developmental Disabilities Institute (DDI) and Gayle Kligman Therapeutic Resources.
• Extensions of emergency transportation contracts were approved with the following providers: We Transportation from August 1-21 in the amount of $48 per pupil per day and $58 per matron per day; Dell Transportation for August 13 at $295 per pupil per day (no bid - in-district bus run).

Other Board News

• Superintendent Katulak noted that there are are several costs associated with : one for the Star reading and math assessments and the second being for continuous training for the Danielson Teachscape software program (an annual cost at a rate of $29 per person being supervised).
• A district policy entitled “ Payroll Procedures” was adopted after a second readings, A first reading of a policy entitled “ Concussion Management” was held.
• The board approved a tax resolution for the following amounts: elementary school district: $28,150,071; high school district: $33,793,069; public library: $2,888,625; total: $64,831,765.
• The following PTA fundraisers were approved for the 2012-13 school year at Hillside Grade School: chocolate candy sale, raffles, baked goods sale, coupon book sale, Valentine’s Candy Gram sale; holiday safe shop sale.
• A $1,000 donation from the coin campaign was made to the district. The grant is through a partnership with Verizon and ESPN and will be used for instructional supplies.

The next meeting of the NHP-GCP Board of Education will be on Monday, September 10 at 8 p.m. at the .