Minutes February 28, 2012

Date:

February 28, 2012

Time:

8:15 p.m.

Place:

Horace Greeley High School

Present:

Board of Education
Alyson Kiesel, President
Jeffrey Mester, Vice President
Randall Katchis
Vicky Tipp
Karen Visser

Staff Members
Present:

Dr. Lyn McKay, Superintendent

Mr. Eric Byrne, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction

Mr. John Chow, Assistant Superintendent for Business

Theresa Markley, District Clerk / Adm. Asst. to Superintendent

Visitors Present:

Representatives of the Chappaqua PTA, school PTAs, building administrators, faculty, and other interested citizens.

President Alyson Kiesel convened the public session at 6:30p.m. moved to enter into Executive Session for the purpose of the discussion of the employment history of a particular person or persons. Randall Katchis seconded. The motion passed unanimously. At 8:26 p.m. Jeffrey Mester moved to adjourn the Executive Session. Randall Katchis seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

At 8:29 p.m. Jeffrey Mester moved to reconvene the public session. Karen Visser seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

President Kiesel welcomed the community and asked Superintendent Dr. Lyn McKay to report on the Search Process.

Presentation:

Search Update Process

Dr McKay announced that it was with great pleasure and excitement that she recommended the appointment of Mr. Robert Rhodes as the Principal of Horace Greeley High School.

She reported that in December we began a national search and formed an interview committee composed of students, staff, administrators, and parents with many follow up interviews with constituent groups. Dr. McKay thanked all those who participated in this rigorous search process.

Dr. McKay gave a brief background sketch. Mr. Rhodes began his career in education in 1990 as a math teacher at a small alternative high school in Queens. In 1993, he joined School of the Future's humanities department and five years later served as assistant principal. In 2002 Mr. Rhodes founded Millennium High School in lower Manhattan, an inclusive college preparatory high school that offers a responsive and flexible learning environment that is project based and centered on empirical learning. He has a deep knowledge of instructional and systems approaches, strong understanding of academics and reaches out to staff, students and community. Dr McKay expressed her excitement about what he wil bring to the district and confident that he will be an outstanding leader.

President Kiesel added that it is both an honor and a privilege to welcome Robert to the Chappaqua School District. On behalf of the board, she explained the board met with Robert both formally and informally to discuss expectations, and interactions. The board, administrators, and parents made a site visit to Milennium. The overall visit was very positive with affirming comments from colleagues, parents, and students on his communication and leadership style, his team building skills, and excellent rapport with students.

Jeffrey Mester moved to accept the recommendation to appoint Robert Rhodes as Principal of Horace Greeley. Vicky Tipp seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Mr. Rhodes thanked everyone for their warm welcome and looks forward to working with everyone.

Leslie Kuhn, former PTA president, thanked Andrew Selesnick for leaving Greeley in such good shape during his years of service and wished him well in his next leadership role as Assistant Superintendent of Leadership Development and Human Resources. She welcomed Robert Rhodes as the new principal and looks forward to working with him.

Superintendent's Budget Proposal

Dr. Mckay noted that she and John Chow would present what they considered, an excellent budget that is fiscally responsible, responds to the wishes of the community, and sustains the educational excellence of the district. She repeated the guidelines for the budget. They are the two Strategic Questions, the four pillars of the budget; and the modified operating standards for this year.

John Chow expanded on the January budget presentation and explained what we know that will impact the budget and the possible implications of what we don't know . We know that we have a new middle school structure, reduction in state aid, slight enrollment decline, and the tax cap number. We do not have contracts for support staff, custodians, transportation costs, special education placements, assessed tax value, and tax certiorari settlements all remain unknown. He explained budget versus tax levy versus tax rates.

The adopted budget for 2011-12 was $111,488,488. John acknowledged the Knowledge Cafe participants offered suggestions for expenditures, revenue, and long term ideas. He pointed out the different increases in the past several years and that this is the lowest increase. Chappaqua is 14 out of 46 school districts in per pupil costs. He reviewed the categories of expenditures and general revenues, and remarked that the largest piece is property taxes. He reviewed the enrollment numbers and an estimated increase of 17 students overall, but kindergarten enrollments are not complete. Both middle schools will have a slight increase and the high school has increase of one student. Sections and average classes remain about the same. The preview budget rollover was 3.32%. The proposed 2012-13 budget is $112,202,888; with an increase of $754,400 or 0.68%. The non-personnel reduction is $.99MM and Personnel Reduction (net) is $1.02MM total of 2.2MM.

Mr. Chow explained the tax levy limit calculation, the basic formula, and tax levy limit before exclusions. The tax cap limit is $2,160,479 which represents 2.11 % tax cap. This is our final number.

Mr. Chow announced the upcoming budget dates and topics for March and April and the PTA-sponsored budget forums on March 7 and 8 at Bell and Wednesday, May 2,.at Seven Bridges.

Warren Hart, a representative of the Finance Advisory Committee for 2012-13, made a brief presentation and offered recommendations on behalf of the committee. He presented the increasing costs and the impact of cutting staff with reduced classes and larger class sizes which will eventually affect the quality of education. They suggest steps to aggressively manage expenses, continue work to address unfunded mandates, and find new revenue sources, and increase assessments. Westchester County Tax Assessment Data shows that most of New Castle revenue comes from residents instead of industrial. The district has some unused acreage and that could be utilized or disposed of. He noted that the Town of New Castle is planning changes to the town and suggested that the district should be part of the planning.

Recommendations: Engage with town board and work with New Castle planning board and bring school and town assets to the table. Seek out local residents with expertise to form task force. Report back to joint board by June 2012.

President Kiesel thanked the committee for the suggestions, especially about brainstorming with the Town. She noted that it should be part of facilities committee agenda. Randall Katchis reported that the facilities committee has been working on pulling all the old maps to find the pieces of properties, studying zoning requirements, and working to determine the best use or make it sellable to generate revenue.

1.

Information Business Affairs

Questions and Comments

2.

Organization

President Kiesel gave a first reading of all three policies. Policies will be on the next agenda. Comments are welcome and board members should send them to the policy committee.

3.

Approvals

Karen Visser moved to accept the following minutes. Randall Katchis seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

4.

Recommended Action: Personnel

Superintendent McKay made the following recommendations:

5.

Recommended Action: Other

6.

Facilities

7.

Financials

8.

President Kiesel gave Notice of Future Meetings -

Monday, March 5, 2012, Board meeting, Education Center, 7:10 a.m. which we anticipate will go into Executive Session for the discussion of particular employees employment history.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012, Board meeting / Work session at Horace Greeley High School, 8:15 p.m.

9.

Adjournment

At 10:40 p.m. Jeffrey Mester moved to adjourn the meeting. Randall Katchis seconded. The motion passed unanimously.