Let’s get together one more time before the Holidays and do a little business.

NON-AGENDA ITEMS:

1.0  OSHA has finished their inspection and we had a final closing conference this past Monday. We are likely to receive a final report with 6 - 8 citations come January. Only one of these affects an instructional area and that is perhaps not too surprisingly Carol Effraimson’s closet in the Home Ec room. Several little things like head-bumpers in the basement ( where nobody goes much), and only ONE BIG item - the white storage building inside the fence near the bus garage. That was sort of a sacrificial lamb on our part, and Mr. Sharp jumped all over it. Basically it’s an eyesore and unsafe and should be torn down. The deal is that OSHA has a fund for capital remediation which provides reimbursement for up to 75% of the costs of fixing major things they find wrong. The upside of this little dilemma is that we COULD tear that sucker down and replace it with a Morton building or a pole barn and get OSHA reimbursement on a small project that we COULD NOT get State Aid on. SED will not provide building aid for non-instructional space ( although we will need to jump through their hoops to get a building permit [remember the schoolhouse? ] ). This is something we should look at seriously when the report comes in. A seed now planted in your fertile imaginations will be left to grow....

2.0  EPC Phase Two is underway. On schedule on Monday the 14th the wiring crew from BOCES showed up after school hours and began installing motion sensors in upstairs classrooms. No complaints so far. Work is expected to be complete by the second week in January.

3.0  Charter Schools update is that the Assembly is in session today doing something parallel to what the Senate did before they left town two weeks ago. Steve Uebbing put something out on Docushare and I followed up with a phone call to Bob Oaks. I caught him yesterday on his way out the door to Albany where they were being summoned to deal with this issue. We spoke about our issues with funding and I reminded him that requiring BOE approval in schools under 1500 population doesn’t help if the school starts up in Geneva ( where at least one Board member thinks they’re good ideas). My sense with Bob is ,as always, he understands the problem and the concern but is essentially powerless to do anything about it. Watch the papers - they’re coming!

4.0  Kidspeace is coming too! At a BOCES special ed space committee meeting yesterday Jack McCabe asked me what more I’d heard about that Article 81 school at the Depot. I hadn’t heard from Roland Smiley for a while, so I called him this morning. Sure enough, he tells me it’s a done deal. 325 beds opening this summer, pending his approval of their educational program ( and he’s basically been told to approve it). He strongly suggested that I write to him and ask to be included in the discussion of the educational implications for RCS. The kids that will be placed at the Romulus facility will be placed there by DSS -Department of Social Services. These will be “adjudicated youth” sent to such a facility by a judge. PINS cases, Juvenile Delinquents, mostly special ed populations. An article 81 school is one attached to a Child Care Institution, but the potential problem comes from the phasing out of these kids into a mainstream environment when they are deemed ready. We could end up with a highly transient population of kids ready to be released from the facility and sent out into the community to be sure they ARE ready to go home. Many of these kids will NOT be from the Finger Lakes region, and it will make for a very interesting transition for everyone involved. That everyone COULD include RCS staff, athletic teams, etc.. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but I do think we should get in on the discussion of what happens to these kids and how are we involved. I will write the letter requesting participation today.

5.0  Newark’s Assistant Supe for Instruction visits us on Monday to see what we’re doing with Docushare.

6.0  Cell Phones are now accompanying the administrative staff when they leave the building. Terry was Christmas shopping and came across such a deal... We checked it out and can have cell phones with 20 minutes of air time for less than what we were paying for our pagers per month. The switch has been made and now Barb and Mike and Terry and I have to figure out how to use them! We had been doing pagers for about three years now.

7.0  RCS@60 Video- Pete McDonald just called to say that we can expect to see something Monday and that he is working with a “dubber” in Rochester who can turn something an hour long around overnight for 150 copies. Maybe Santa will bring videos afterall....

8.0  Speaking of Santa and delays, the Romulus Community Church will not be completed in time for their annual Christmas eve musical extravaganza. Pastor Len called to ask if they might hold that instead in our Auditorium. Remember we said no to him on the actual church services already and yes to him on Thursday evening youth program until the church is complete. This time around I said yes to him for Christmas Eve ( in part because I wanted more for Christmas than lumps of coal myself). They will be rehearsing on Tuesday night while we meet. Sue Schaeder, former RCS faculty member and our standard accompanist at concerts is directing the program, and Mike Barry from our maintenance crew will be involved and volunteering his time on Christmas Eve so there’s no personnel costs, and so I feel we’re leaving the building and our equipment in good hands. Wanted to let you know in case you want to play Grinch at the last minute. I didn’t. Len has always been a good neighbor to the school, their building didn’t get done, and they are asking a favor. I’d hope they’d respond this way if we were in the position of asking.

9.0  Correspondence enclosed FYI:

 9.1  Rural Schools acceptance letter for a presentation at their conference on      Docushare. This will be July 12, 1999 in Cooperstown.

 9.2  Letter of Commendation regarding our transportation staff from Tom Fox,    Seneca County Sheriff.

 9.3  Letter of Commendation to Dave Hubman from former Board member      and frequent letter writer, Ralph Barber.

10.0  4Towns Youth Center Program comes to RCS. Last year a very dedicated woman from Lodi, Sherry Burrows, braved the narrows of grantsmanship and working closely with Mike Nozzolio and was successful in securing funds to start a mobile youth program for the four towns in the south end of the county. I assured Sherry we would cooperate fully if she succeeded. She has and plans to begin to offer programs on a weekly basis beginning in January - on Thursdays after school in Romulus. The type of effort she has put together fits nicely with the Teen Leadership piece Dave Hubman and Ave Bauder are doing with 8 of our potential leaders from grades 8-11. Enclosed is a brief write up that will go home with secondary students before Christmas.

AGENDA ITEMS:

1.0  Yearbook presentation: Mr. Ike and Tammy Larzelere asked to make a brief presentation to the Board on the Yearbook and its production methods - all computerized nowadays. We have a small core of kids who gain invaluable organizational, editorial, and leadership skills through their involvement with the production of the annual publication. You have helped them get in the black and stay there ( we hope), and we may be coming to you sometime down the road for recognition of the learning that occurs in this process with the awarding of academic credit. Other schools do offer this as a way of rewarding the work that goes into the book for kids.

2.0  Routine should be.

3.0  Conference requests are grant funded.

4.0  Creation of a teacher aid position for Kindergarten. You may recall that last year we asked to create a teacher aid position part way through the year to provide sufficient adult support for a class with an excellent teacher, but with very needy children. Barb has asked that we consider doing the same again this year - this time with a Kindergarten class. She will provide details as needed. We have excess salary moneys budgeted in instruction, so we can afford to do this, and I recommend we do. We would hope to appoint someone in January and get them in the room ASAP.

5.0  Test borings have nothing to do with instruction or board presentations - these are for our new construction near the gym.

6.0   Agreement with DSS allows us to participate, but does not mandate that we do, in job -training and workfare opportunities for people who qualify for those programs. We have had some success in using these services in the past, and the county is changing its paperwork to require a contract to participate.

7.0  Similarly, Head Start, still going strong in the Presbyterian Church downtown, is required to have cooperative service agreements with the schools they share students with in transition to pre-K or Kindergarten.

8.0  SDM is canceling its January meeting so the individual members can attend other school’s sessions to see what they are like. We will process reconnaissance reports in February.

9.0  Barb and Mike will fill you in on what their staffs are up to at this busy time of year, and Mike will answer any questions about adult ed that you may have after reviewing the attached documents. Mike has done an excellent job of bringing some variety to our offerings. We did check with the school attorney to make sure it was okay to do wine tasting on the premises as part of the spring offering listed. I think it’s great to see some of our local businesses support the adult ed program - remember that Dick Petersen had suggested we close down our 7-12 operation in 1993 and tuition our kids out to our neighbors....Details of the academic evening program are include FYI as well.

10.0  We have a couple of our own that we’d like to pay to sub when they’re in town, and a couple of known quantities that we want to have coach for us this winter.

That’s all, folks! See you Tuesday night?

CM/CM

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12/18/98   CONFIDENTIAL   1

12/18/98   CONFIDENTIAL   3