Into month two and meeting #3 with your substitute clerk. So far I don’t THINK I’ve screwed up too much. We’ll see as things progress ( or don’t).

NON AGENDA ITEMS:

***0.0***  PETITIONS ARE DUE MONDAY BY 5:00 PM FROM THE FOUR OF YOU THAT HAVE THEM OUT. PLEASE GET THEM IN SO WE’RE LEGAL. (Need pics & bio, too)

FYI - As of Thursday Noon, only the four incumbents have petitions to turn in...

1.0  I met with Ernie Rookey last week to review our budget on both phases of the Energy Performance Contract. We do NOT have an extra and mistaken $37,000, and we are not likely to all go to jail, as Carol Rookey had surmised. The error was on their part- Ernie and Carol’s, and we do have $19,000 left which we can spend and get aid on. Terry has priced having single-pane windows in the elementary replaced with double pane glass, along Nancy Galusha to Marge Larrabee’s exterior walls. This will run $2800 per room installed, so we’ll do at least those five and see where we’re at. I filed some paperwork with Albany when Ernie left that should mean we get aided on the phase two work beginning this year instead of next. Latest GEN report shows us getting that - so that’s a good sign. This whole EPC thing was a good deal for us, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. $900,000 worth of work at zero tax impact and the completion of many items on our five-year plan from the facilities group.

2.0  I met with Randy Kuhl last week as well, the Senate Education Committee Chair, newly appointed. Steve Uebbing from Canandaigua, Nancy Zimar from Dundee and George Batterson from Clyde represented our four county area with me on a field trip to Albany. Please see paycheck memo for more detail, but I thought it was one of the best lobbying trips I’ve made. We met with aides only for the first half-hour and then with Randy as well for another. Consensus was that we could plan on at least the amount of money the governor offered in his proposal plus the restoration of BOCES aid. This confirms the estimates I had given you on our 11X14 inch summary sheet on budget, and which you’ll see again enclosed.

3.0  I met with people from Edutech on our computer campaign for this summer and we seem to be right on track. Wiring should begin about May 1, with actual computer installation in July. Marie has new tables and chairs in place in the library for the excess computers from the elementary lab. Mike is still duking it our with his staff over who gets the old Mac lab as their new classroom. Might end up the new math teacher. The Edutech folks were here as well to check out the computer moves to CBO. We save buying a laser printer in the deal, as we’ll share equipment with SF and Waterloo in the CBO.

4.0  I met yesterday with the implementation team on the CBO and things are moving along. In fact, Gloria is on a field trip to Verona today with Mike Renne, Kate Cooper and Donna House to iron out some of the details about how they handle things there. If the County Board of Supervisors approves on Tuesday night while we’re meeting, BOCES will sign a five-year lease at $7/sq.ft. for unfinished space on the second floor of the county office building (paid by all 25 schools in the BOCES, not just the three of us), and will start renovating it for use on Wednesday. Plan is for all three offices to move in there the final week of June. I have told our people that we’ll spring for new desks and chairs so the office looks sharp starting out. Seneca Falls is offering its people a two-year leave of absence in case things don’t work out and they can then safely return to their positions in house. I would like to discuss this with you and feel we should do the same. I did not put it on the agenda though, as I would like to discuss with you in executive session first. I have also agreed to move Bonnie to the equivalent of a 2080 hour employee here, and to front the initial $1800 cost in year one. The budget figures for the CBO in draft three (enclosed) reflect all of the changes to other aspects of our budget that we can muster out of this move. Remember- by moving all of these costs to BOCES, we draw aid on this in 2000-2001. That aid will help us absorb the loss we’ll see that year from our computer purchase that will show up in next year’s aid. ( Gotta think ahead in this business).

5.0  Not sure how widely known this is, but John Baker will not be the person we split for Business Management services with Waterloo. This actually helps ease my mind on the share. Randy Bos told me this week that John would be leaving them. He also faxed me a job description for a shared Business Official which looked fine to me ( Larry had helped draft it). I will look forward to us recruiting an experienced person that both Districts can be happy with. We get two days per week of service out of the deal and we will put it to good use. This is the same plan called for in Harvey Kaufman’s original study, but I never felt fully comfortable with John in the shared role. Apparently others agree now. Please keep this relatively quiet until the dust settles on the CBO or the ads hit the papers.

6.0  School Report Card results released early. In a March 3 memo from SED faxed to me by Dr. Marinelli, Jim Kadamus described sending us our report card results by March 15 in time for Report Card Day March 31. Somewhere between press day for the RCS Bulletin ( which I held for our results) and the day we mailed them, the official Statewide School Report Card Day got changed to April. No big deal ( I hope), but I did release our data too early according to the latest memo from Albany. I thought I was doing the right thing and trying to be very timely, but I guess I was guilty of a premature exclamation. (Couldn’t bring myself to write it, even though I led up to it just right).

7.0  Spoke with Leanne this morning and saw her last week. She goes back to ENT Dr. on Monday. Headaches are gone, dizziness isn’t. Still looks like a long haul to me. Have some correspondence from her to you to share Tuesday night.

8.0  Met with RAITN Grant group last week and sent a Purchase Order out to Monroe I BOCES for $90,000 from our capital account to order the equipment for Summer Install. Of the six schools in the group - Lyons, Clyde, Marcus Whitman, Sodus, Red Creek and us, only Lyons and Romo appear to be ready to move on this this year. Sodus already has a lab and they’re just looking for money after the fact to pay for it. Clyde is having a real hard time with their budget and their Board and they may have to pull out, and Red Creek and Marcus Whitman need to wait on Capital Project Approvals first. We SHOULD probably wait until Albany gives us the green light on our plans (sent last month), but you seem to want me to have that up and running come September, so I’m taking the chance that committing to the PO will not trip us up on Building Aid. If it does, we can still get BOCES aid - just not both.

9.0  Foundation Group Update: Jim Delia and Pete Gregoire have honchoed getting a small group together that may be interested in starting a “Romulus Foundation”. Mike Karlsen, Liz Larzelere, Mike and Mary Midey, Bruce Fullem, Carole Waite and I have met a couple of times on this, most recently this past Monday night, when we heard a presentation from Ken Grounds of the McCormack Group, a consulting firm specializing in non-profit foundations. The local group had asked me to find some information for them and so I had attended a workshop sponsored by ASBO on the topic in Syracuse two weeks ago, where I met Ken who was putting on that presentation. I asked if he would come make a pitch to us and he did. When the local group meets again April 26th at 7 in room 200, we’ll see what they want to do next. Thought you as a Board should know about this discussion-stage activity just in case anything comes of it. The Foundation would collect contributions, have its own Board of Directors and make donations to the school and/or kids. Canandaigua and Clifton have them currently and Bloomfield is developing one.

10.0  RCS@60 video is DONE! Copies have been sent directly from the distributor to the mailing list we provided of paid customers. I expect a bulk shipment here to the school sometime soon. If you didn’t order your own already, I’ll have one for you for posterity’s sake. This at long, long last, through no fault of the school.

Doesn’t seem like a lot of update to me - but I know I’ve been busy! Maybe its all that opening my own mail stuff ....Did take an early afternoon last Monday to get inducted into Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society at SU - top 10% of the graduate students. FYI - your tuition reimbursement money is being well spent.

AGENDA ITEMS:

1.0  We open our meeting at 7 in the auditorium just in case we get any repeat customers from last Wednesday’s Drug Survey Night - The Real Deal. I have our brainstorming notes, our school results and the notes from the other groups from last week. Let’s see if anybody out there does care about this issue. If not, you’ll at least be well informed. I don’t want you to become anything other than a school board, and I don’t think it would be wise of you to tackle the drug issue alone, if the community doesn’t seem to want to.

2.0  Once the crowd goes away we’ll retreat to the Board Room for routine items.

3.0  I have draft three of the budget ready for you using actual health insurance and CBO costs. It is down to 6.1 Million, an increase of 3.8% not counting the capital project, with an estimated 1.95% tax levy impact. That’s IF the governor’s numbers come through with the restoration of BOCES aid, as Senator Kuhl suggests it might.

I have also put this into the three part budget format, and that shows us up 4.5% in Administration ( mostly because of the CBO), up 53.9% in Capital ( mostly because of the capital project), and up only 1.8% in program. If the budget does not pass, we’ll have a problem with the administrative section, as we cannot allow it to go up at a greater percentage than program. I need to present the budget in this format, so need to know about any changes you want to make beyond what we’ve done so far.

I’d like to have whatever we’re going to do done tonight, so I can prepare material to go to press and know that you’re not going to change the numbers at final adoption April 28th.

4.0  Requests for Non-public school transportation that were turned in by the April 1 deadline should be honored without question. I’m sure we’ll get some more yet.

5.0  Barb and Mike will update you on items of interest from their areas.

6.0  Tenure appointments from Craig Waid and Chris Puylara are on the official docket and carry my recommendation.

7.0  CSE minutes from March are enclosed as well.

I would like to have a private executive session with the Board to discuss personnel. Please plan to stay a few extra minutes for that. Thanks.

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DON’T FORGET YOUR PETITIONS! DUE MONDAY BY 5 PM!  See you AT 7:00 !

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