The notes below are meant to update you on the items we need to deal with at our meeting next Tuesday...

1.0  Leanne still out. Mid way through week three with Leanne out and I’m still hanging in there. There are points at which I need help or time, but longer periods still where everything is going fine. I stopped to visit with Leanne after our coffee last Saturday and she still is not doing well at all. She can’t read, write or focus her eyes to even enjoy watching a TV movie. It’s all getting old fast, I’m sure. She is scheduled to see a specialist here on Wednesday and we may know more after that. I expect this will still be a long-term venture. Once we know more though about actual expectations, I may start subbing for her at least a few hours per day. Donna Newcomb may be interested in that option, or I might be able to pull Nancy Hubman in to help.

2.0  Kate Whitney. I spoke to several of you about this already, but Kate went home ill last Wednesday in time to get to a doctor, and she’s been out since. She spent two days in hospital and has been released. They thought she may have suffered a heart attack and were still running stress tests on her yesterday. She has had permission to come in for an hour at a time to watch her softball players try out under Chris Puylara’s JV supervision. I expect she will return to work next week, but there is a lesson in this for all of us. 48, well exercised and dieted, and still anything can happen! Kate actually just stopped in and she’s doing fine - very anxious to get back to work. Results of yesterday’s test seem to say she did not have a heart attack - the question now becomes what happened? That’s for better minds than mine to figure out.

3.0  Gloria is out again today ( has been ill lately at least a day or two a week) and will not be ready for warrant for this mailing. I expect you’ll have something to approve come Tuesday on the table.

4.0  Regional Staff Development Day is tomorrow ( Friday) and we will have guests in the building based on the technology we have available and the classroom space to use it. I do have Nancy Hubman coming in to help me with registration hassles, helping people find places, etc.. I expect everything will go well.

5.0  Romulus Bulletin went to press via email this time. I wanted to wait until we had the School Report Card data in hand to try to get that into the April edition and we weren’t supposed to get that until the 15th. It arrived late on the 16th and the best way to hasten the production of the Bulletin was for us to have done all the typing and them not to have to redo it. So we created a complete file here and just attached it to an email message to them, overnighted the photos and we expect it will look as nice as usual, take less turn around time and cost less because we don’t have to pay their typists to redo our work. We’ll see how it all looks when it comes in in time to mail for the 1st of the Month. I enclose for you a copy of the School Report Card summary which also went out to staff in their paychecks this week.

6.0  Capital Project plans are ready for Mike and I to sign Tuesday night ( we think). I have checked with Roy McMaster on exactly how he wants the financing reported to maximize our aid. Also have sent the architect’s contract to Marc Reitz for review.

7.0  Got a call from Albany already on our request for a project number for replacing the white building. Have to call them back next week when the gentleman returns.

8.0  At CSO meeting last week I got drafted to contact Senator Kuhl’s office about a visit of State from the WFL Superintendents to the new Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Steve Uebbing , George Batterson, Nancy Zimar and I will represent our counties in a conversation with Randy about the impact of the governor’s proposal on our region. We will be making a day trip to Albany on Tuesday the 30th.

9.0  I have a Rural Schools Board of Director’s meeting on Monday in Syracuse, so will be out all morning for that. I expect to hear from them how their trip to lobby in Albany went. I did not end up going as it was the same day Barb and Mike were passing on the Thruway coming from/going to the commissioner’s appointments. Thank heavens for cell phones and for voice mail. It makes me feel better to be out of building when I know people can reach me if they need to. ( When Rick Bley and Mike rode to Albany together last week, Rick was very jealous of Mike’s cell phone - and in fact had to use it at one point himself. I’ll bill Phelps the air time).

10.0  Labor Relations Committee met last Wednesday rather productively. We are exploring options for pre-negotiations as they relate to a salary scale and schedule for hourly employees. We discussed the advantages to both parties and agreed to look at models. Also discussed some title changes for clerical staff and some pay for snow day issues ( again). One nice thing about meeting with Keith Barnes and the union leadership on a semi-regular basis is that we do form a personal relationship away from the bargaining table - one that should help the next negotiations ( this time next year) go more smoothly.

11.0  CBO planning continues. I saw Larry at BOCES yesterday and he tells me the county and BOCES have agreed on a price per square foot and a location on the top floor of the County Office Building where JTPA is now. Donna House is here meeting with Bonnie as I type this, reviewing operations that can go to CBO and those that need to stay put and be reassigned. Leanne or somebody here will need to pick up some of the information gathering role that Bonnie currently provides in terms of illness, timesheets, etc. . I have sent away for a sample disk on a timesheet/timecard/magnetic swipe system which might be of help to us. We’ll see. Could improve our attendance at the ungodly hours we say we actually expect some people to be here. I still do not have a final cost estimate on the CBO to use in budget for draft three, but did ask for that for April 1.

12.0  I include for the insomniacs among you a copy of propaganda about the budget debate in Albany. I guess I’m getting jaded, but the gyrations don’t impress me as much anymore as they used to - I won’t get real excited until I see an actual bottom line.

AGENDA ITEMS:

1.0  Routine items should be, but with Gloria out, no warrant until Tuesday. And with me doing the minutes, you might feel the need to peruse those more closely than usual.

2.0  Official Notice of Budget Vote and Board Elections. We have to run an ad in the paper officially announcing that we are going to hold a vote on the same day as every other school in the State ( talk about stupid), and pay money to do this. Enclosed please find a copy of the text of that ad as officiously worded as I could come up with from last year’s sample. Please approve ...

3.0  Conferences are appropriate and within budget.

4.0  School Report Card Data is in. Officially embargoed from printing it until March 30th, statewide School Report Card Day, the papers will be more interested ( if they’re there) in your reactions than in the data themselves. As you will note from the Bulletin article/paycheck memo, I cannot compare how we did with Waterloo, Seneca Falls, or South Seneca yet, as their data is theirs alone until March 30th. Not even on the web yet. I guess too many people took a burn to the approach we use in comparing ourselves proudly. I will walk you through overheads of the actual pages from the District Report Card ( which differs from the school building one only in what group it uses for comparison, State average or similar schools). We look better compared to overall State averages, so that’s why I chose that one. A complete copy of both is enclosed for your perusal, along with the Q&A document to help in interpretation.

5.0  The school calendar for 1999-2000 survived the most recent CSO meeting and a conversation with the RFA about our start date. A copy of the official looking thing is enclosed for your review and approval Tuesday. This will allow some people time to make plans for February 2000 and the like.

6.0  Budget Draft Two Discussion. This is the BEST time to talk about what if anything you want to change about next year’s budget. I do have BOCES estimates in from Barb and Mike ( today) and will try to plug those in by Tuesday night. We also have verbal word (not yet in writing) that Ann Kaminsky will NOT be returning to us. That would allow us to save an additional $15,000 in salary. There is some tweaking that will occur with CBO costs. Other items on the table are those on the original list that we chose to leave in. We don’t officially adopt the budget until April 28th, but we need to have documents ready to print before that with actual dollars attached. This is the best time to do the thinking/talking/debating if we’re going to.

7.0  Barb and Mike will update you on their areas.

8.0  The Honor Society plans to take their annual excursion with some cost to you again. We did get some negative feedback on that fact two years ago when it appeared in the paper that we paid the bus costs including driver salary, for this particular trip. I mention that now, rather than have it be an issue later. If you don’t want to do what you’ve done every year for at least the last six years, don’t approve the proposal as written. If you are willing to go along as we have with a small sharing of the cost for this group of your best students, approve it as is. I recommend the latter. We certainly don’t break the bank and we help make the trip fully affordable to this small group. Nobody plans or executes a better educational excursion than Nancy Bauder, either.

9.0  Mike will also update you on Albany, remediation needs, and Spring sports (yeah!) SPRING sports.

10.0   We have a couple of personnel items to address and CSE minutes to receive.

I do expect that we will want a brief executive session to discuss some personnel items including upcoming tenure recommendations and possibly some time alone with me on central office stuff.

That should do it, though. Don’t forget the high school play is this weekend.....”Bye Bye Birdie”

CM/CM

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3/18/99   CONFIDENTIAL   1

3/18/99   CONFIDENTIAL   3