Hebron Dollars & Sense

I apologize; due to work obligations I couldn't attend the BOE meeting tonight (4/8). I heard in advance that the Curriculum Director position was on the "Consent Agenda"... meaning: no point in voting, the decision has already been made and the Board member votes are already committed. Also heard that ADK is here to stay.

Can someone post a summary of the meeting so that everyone knows what happened?

I had child duty but Kevin arrived a 1/2 hour late and will post tonight.

They tried to push through the curriculum director, but we questioned the board on the legality of hiring for the position without ever posting the position to the public. According to procedures, the position must be posted so that others (who may be better qualified) can apply. Not sure if they will still go through, but the wrench was thrown. Also, C&E, the 4th grade teacher, a custodial position, a para position, supplies, and some $$ for prof. Dev. are on the list for cuts.

Our gratitude and full support for Shea who was the only one there tonight on the board with any sense of obligation to her constituents.

4/08/ BOE Meeting

Arrived ½ hr late, BOE was discussing the resignation of Michelle Puhlick . ALL BOE members present except Mark Allaban.

BOE discussed the appointment of curriculum director and the need for the position. A motion was made for consent on the appointment of Vonda Tenza to the position. All voted yes except for Kathy Shea.

Kathy Shea initiated further discussion on the need for the position and questioned if the position should be filled in light of current budget constraints. Kathy initiated a motion to add an additional agenda item to discuss elimination of the curriculum director position. NO board member 2nd the motion.

Kevin Hamlin reported that Cindy Daniels is retiring after 34 years. She will stay on until the end of the calendar year.

Budget: Shared the latest list for cuts to get to 1.5%

(1) C&E 61,500
4th Grade teacher 61,500
Custodian 27928
Paraprofessional (Retirement) 19,695
Supplies 5328
Prof Development 1698


Long discussion on the C&E. Kathy suggested removing ADK and replacing C&E… Kathy made a motion to again look at elimination of ADK. Again, No board member 2nd.

Kathy talked about making it clear to all the voters that these would be the proposed cuts if a 1.5% increase budget was adopted. She then made a motion to the effect that if the 1.5% budget was put forth these would be the cuts that would be made. Jane Dube 2nd the motion! Much discussion about the fact that the board members did not want to be locked into saying these were the cuts that would be made. Kathy Shea said right up front that she did not support these cuts. Despite the fact that these are the cuts that the rest of the board were recommending, the majority voted no and the motion did not carry. (Bizarre)

BOE discussed that they have a pamphlet on the budget that will be sent home with all the children ( I think) next week. Copies were at the meeting but not dist to public.

Discussion on charges for POI requests: They will charge somewhere between .10 and .50 a copy. BOE will investigate what RHAM charges first.

Public Comment at End:

Two individuals spoke in favor of ADK.

2-3 spoke against adding ADK based on the economy and good results to date.

(1) person applauded Kathy Shea for continuing to ask the tough questions.

(1) person asked how the BOE could appoint the curriculum director without posting the job to everyone in the school district and the town.


One Final editorial comment: If you take out the ADK at 123K (from Ms Cruz) you could replace the 4th grade teacher and the C&E teacher.....

correction - FOI (Freedom of information) will now cost .10 - .50 per page. Kevin

Thank you Kevin for clear and concise summary. Thanks too to Kathy Shea for trying to fulfill the role of education advocate at a cost the community can afford.

On the FOI costs, that range is set by the Secretary of State and Freedom of Information Commission -- isn't it wild that it is such a broad range instead of a flat fee that can be followed consistently by all of Connecticut's 169 municipalities? This range is often (and probably accurately) interpreted as: if you are a friend of a friend of ours, you get the 10 cent rate; if you are viewed as a member of the public trying to just get out information that may make the school system uncomfortable, you'll get hit with 50 cents a page.

Here's what the "old" members of D&S did to get past that. You can ask to view all documents within the office. Bill Silver had copies of all the documents we asked for ready to go, thinking he was going to get about $500 out of us with a bunch of redundant garbage. If you looked at the pile, most would think, I'm not spending hours here going through all that; Here's my check; have a great dinner.

A member and I sat there and went through close to 500 pages of printed documents, ripped out the relevant pages we had asked for from a multitude of stapled documents, paid them the $4.50 for the relevant pages (NINE pages), and walked out the door, leaving them with all that wasted paper and not enough cash to buy a pizza.

Second tip: according to Freedom of Information Commission -- you can ask for documents in electronic format for the cost of the media. If a diskette: 15 cents. If a CD: $1.00. Now, here's the gig: they'll try to tell you the info is not available electronically. If so, file a complaint immediately with FOI Commission. All materials should be available electronically as of last year (2009), so if they tell you it's not available in electronic format, file a complaint with FOI immediately. It's really interesting how quickly you get that 15 cent diskette once you do that....