I start this memo early, on a Wednesday afternoon, because we are short handed in the office and I want to make sure you have what you need for our meeting and I still get to go the meetings I have scheduled. See below...

NON AGENDA ITEMS:

1.0  Leanne Keel is in hospital in Potsdam. She went to visit Kevin for the weekend and became dizzy and nauseated to the point that she could not get out of bed. She was taken to the emergency room Sunday and admitted to the hospital. Her sister has gone up to stay with her. I spoke with her earlier today and they’ve ordered an MRI which they can’t get done until Saturday. I do not expect to see her this week or next. You sent flowers and they were beautiful. Address is Canton-Potsdam Hospital, 15 Leroy Street, Potsdam, NY 13676, phone 3105-265-3300, room 105. I know you all hope as I do that things get better and that she returns in good health soon.

2.0  EPC work is all but done. Some rewiring of the hallway sensors so that we can troubleshoot them when things go wrong is all that remains, I’m told. We will be rehiring these BOCES boys to wire for our computer upgrade, and I’ll be asking you to endorse my signing a contract with them once I have one in hand from Paul Yeager.

3.0  Capital Project plans are slightly behind. We had hoped to mail them to Albany March 1. I called Ed McGraw today and he still doesn’t have everything in from his consultants. He didn’t say who, but I suspect the engineers who were only here a few days ago, still don’t have their drawings to him. I did receive a contract from Ed, and am forwarding it to Marc Reitz for review before I sign the dotted line. Should have authorization from you on that next time around, most likely. Ed says Albany gets about 30 projects a day now, and has a nominal three month turn-around time on them. We may still get to break ground by Fall.

4.0  OSHA Report is here and we have to replace the White Building or spend several thousand dollars bringing it ups to safety code anyway. Terry and I opt for replacement. The plans that were in your last packet include an engineers’ drawing for the new work which should be acceptible to the State, and come in at under $20,000 so we don’t have to bid the work (limit on purchases is $10,000; on capital work it is $20,000). I have called the OSHA folks for an application for their capital reimbursement fund, through which we should be able to recover up to 75% of the cost of remediating the citations on this building. Net cost of $5,000 for a large, 30X50’ pole barn ( current is 20X24) with steel sides and roof with five overhead doors and a partition for athletic storage seems well worth it, especially in contrast to what we have now. (Just thought of something - we COULD show the anticipated $15,000 reimbursement as a revenue for next year if we want to bank on getting it before June). I expect we’ll receive their paperwork next week and we’ll see how detailed it all is.

I have also written to SED to request a project number and manager so that we can get a legal building permit to construct this pole barn. Problem is likely to be one of timing, as was the case with the schoolhouse move. We need to remediate the OSHA citations by May and we won’t have a building permit until at least July (given three months and everything going right). Current plan? Park buses outside in May, move stuff from white building into garage, tear down the white building before school is out, wait for building permit and put new pole barn up when that arrives ( or when we get tired of waiting). Don’t really NEED it in place until October when it’s windshield scraping weather again. All this FYI and to let you know we are on top of the OSHA situation and trying to work properly with SED Facilities Planning

5.0  Insurance Recovery in process for 1/14/99 water line break. Bottom line looks like $11,475 worth of damage and repair costs, all bu $1,000 of which we should recover through NYSIR. I filed all paperwork this week and we’ll see what we get for a check. Close to $4,000 was books and supplies in Darlene’s room itself. We replaced carpeting in four classrooms, and will recover our overtime costs for that dreadful day. Still working on sticking Honeywell with the deductible.

6.0  CBO Planning is still moving along. Gloria and Bonnie met at 3 o’clock with Larry Driscoll for two hours to review contracts and questions these two may have about becoming BOCES employees. First real followup meeting with the implementation team is scheduled after our Board meeting on Wednesday the 10th. Larry says things look good for County Office Building, though. Preferred spot seems to be on second ( main) level near probation.

7.0  Principal Meetings with the Commissioner. Both Barb and Mike head to Albany next week for a principal’s chat with the big guy. This should be better for him than it is for them, and if so, it’ll be better for all of us in the long run. I will stay at home and not go lobbying that day as invited by Rural Schools. With Leanne out now, that’s just as well.

8.0  Legislative Breakfast: Thanks to Tom, Anne, Norm, and Cornelia for making the show. Little ole RCS was very well represented. Thanks also for not being the jerks some other people’s Board Members were about items beyond everyone’s control. If we could just get the legislators to focus on providing the money it will take to get the job done, instead of constantly changing the rules about what that job is, we’d have it made.

I am hearing other superintendent’s talk of close to double digit tax increases. George Batterson is very worried in Clyde and has asked for some of the charts and graphs we’ve used to explain items in the past. Randy Bos’s most recent newsletter projects 7-10% tax increase in Waterloo and blames it on standards and lost incentive aid to the tune of $200,000 per year now for the next decade. I know Seneca Falls is nervous as their revenues are flat. It will be interesting to see how things play out as the budget develops.

9.0  Next Four County activity is dinner on the 18th with a talk about contracts, grievances and personnel relations. Any body interested? Deadline is 3/11 to know.

Mike - speaking of Personnel Relations we have a CSEA labor relations committee on Wednesday the 10th at 3:30 - This is your reminder! 

Also enclosed with this mailing is some 4-county data from the table last Saturday.

10.0  Regional Superintendent’s Conference Day is Friday March 19. Romulus is one of five schools other than the BOCES campus at which sessions are being held. Why? Because you have the technology in lab settings that people can use for group instruction. We expect to play host to at least 100 non-Romuloids next Friday. See payday update for more pontification on that topic.

11.0  Correspondence from Mike Nozzolio and Clay Bishop are enclosed FYI.

12.0  Correspondence to Glenn Coke about a standard exemption policy the IDA is considering is enclosed FYI. I don’t want them to forget who we are down here. And I don’t ever want to condone somebody else making decisions for me that I have to live with. Could we switch from the small school thing to “Don’t tred on me?”

13.0   Don’t FORGET - SATURDAY Budget Workshop for our community ( read Harold) is scheduled for this coming Saturday the 13th. We did not put this in the March Bulletin ( by accident), so I expect nobody will show.... I’ll put this under agenda section as well, so Lori Thillman can pick up on it and get it in the paper for free.

14.0  Red Hen. Our local history buffs are still at it. Richard Kidd brought in the enclosed from 1930 and the Varick #7 school that Mike’s grandad was a trustee of. Cute...

AGENDA ITEMS:

1.0  Routine almost always is anymore.

2.0  Conference Approvals should be routine as well.

3.0  The Clerk, if she could sit up, would remind us that we need to change a BOE meeting date in April to a Wednesday ( the 28th) to vote on the BOCES admin budget and BOCES board seats. See attached. She’s not, so I will.

4.0  Business business includes a look at the second draft of you proposed budget for 1999-2000. I made the $80,000 worth of expenditure changes you recommended last time, and that takes us to a 4.26% expenditure increase with a corresponding tax levy increase anticipated from the Governor’s numbers plus our BOCES and building aid, and some creative revenue enhancement, of only 1.12%. Mike and Barb are giving me BOCES projections on the 15th which will tell us more about expected increases/decreases there - in time for draft two modifications.

4.0  A second item of business business leads us to look at the reuse of the space currently next to the superintendent’s office. I have asked Mike and Terry to do some playing with moving the secondary and guidance offices down here. That would create more classroom space upstairs and reuse the office space downstairs well. Terry has drafted some sketches of what that would look like and they are enclosed FYI. Transportation would move to wellness, we would add classrooms upstairs, and we could cut down on one copier. All ideas worth exploring.

5.0  A third item of Business business would be the roll-call for Saturday the 13th. If we make a big deal about who’s signing up for weekend duty it could make the paper.

6.0  Mike will update you on the close of winter sports without any trips to the War Memorial for us, sign ups for Spring ( seems odd to talk of Spring on our snow day - I can’t even see across the street here right now), and the Romulus results of the American Drug and Alcohol Survey. This will take a little time. Don’t forget to plan on March 31st at the Holiday Inn as well, to see and discuss the county-wide results. I’ve invited the Town Boards, the Clergy, the Supervisors, SDM and you to represent us. It will be video taped and shown, we hope, on local cable.

7.0  Barb will bring us up to speed on Elementary and Special Ed issues as well.

8.0  No personnel actions anticipated at this time, nor any need for executive session. Not much happening on these fronts ( nicely).

We MIGHT have a preview opportunity of Pete McDonald’s long-lost RCS@60 tape. If so, I’ll let anybody who wants to saty late to watch, do so....

CM/CM

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3/4/99   CONFIDENTIAL   1

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