Memo

I begin this memo on Wednesday afternoon, as I will be out of the building on Thursday PM for class in Syracuse. Plans call for me to finish and have this in the mail to you on Friday - and of course posted to DocuShare that day.

AGENDA ITEMS

1.0	New Staff Introductions: We will start our meeting early at 7:00 PM with a reception in the home and Careers Room to allow you to meet the new folks we've brought on board this year. Bob Cline in math, Linda Brewer in Special Ed, Sue Schrader at 4^th grade, Kate Lewis at 3^rd grade, Katy Harris-Maxwell as School Social Worker part-time, Kate Essom as Teacher Assistant in Math in the Elementary and Ann Heizmann as our Teacher Assistant in the Elementary Computer Lab. Sharon and company will provide us with refreshments as last year, in order to try to make this a little less formal and more meaningful for the staff themselves.
2.0	Routine should be with the exception of changing the October 12 meeting to the 13^th for our friends at BOCES to fill an open seat. I would hope that we will have made our decision on our open seat before this, but if not, it would be the opportune time to do that as well. ( We've had three phone calls so far but no letters yet).
3.0	NYS School Boards Association stuff is included in your packets. I have made copies of the material on the conference which is scheduled for October 21-24 in Syracuse. We just re-joined, the conference is in commuting distance, and a number of the topics are certainly in line with our efforts/concerns. This would be an IDEAL time for a group of us to choose to go. Registration for member schools (that's us) is only $195 per person, and we could car pool Friday and Saturday (skipping Thursday night's opening dinner and Sunday's closing breakfast) and not plan to have any hotel or significant travel expenses. I'd like to STRONGLY encourage us to use some of the money we've budgeted for NYSSBA this year by actually becoming active in the organization. Staff conferences on the agenda are appropriate and within budget.
4.0	Finally have figured out where the Colonel's children are going and have a non-public school transportation request for same.
5.0	Director's reports will feature the opening of school and upcoming events.
6.0	Termination: an unusual event at our happy little place of employment, but time to cut bait (if you'll excuse the pun) on this particular employee before he gains permanent civil service status.
7.0	Resignation of Trinya Cichy leaves us looking for one of those hard-to-find school psychologists again - third time we've looked in the six years I've been here…
8.0	Personnel action finds us un-appointing one person and appointing several others.

Looks like a short agenda itself, but I do have one small item (Mike does) for executive session. Don't forget, we're going to start early with dessert in the Home and Careers Room at 7:00 PM with the new staff.

1.0	School Opened very smoothly yesterday. A quick draw off my computer screen says we are down somewhat in numbers with 603 students enrolled. Sandy was able to get into the attendance function on Mary's computer with help from Dave Hubman and we seem to be rolling right along. Copy of grade-level breakdown is enclosed.
2.0	Capital Project Plans were approved in Albany! For those of you who may not have received my email - we got the official word on Wednesday last week, right before the teachers came back. In speaking with Ed McGraw, we have established a bid opening date of October 7, with the hopes of catching some hungry contractors off season and getting some work done this school year with the bulk of the disruptive stuff for next summer.
3.0	RAITN Room is not yet operational, although the technician, Ron Baker, has been here daily. The real hold-up is with AT&T from whom we cannot expect to get a T-1 line installed until Friday the 17^th. In the meantime we are compensating with a speaker phone and with videotape going back and forth between RCS and Honeoye Falls Lima and East Rochester. Chris Puylara and the kids are being patient while we work through the glitches. Joe Siccardi of the Revielle was here bright and early this morning to capture the looks of the room on film for the back to school edition. I expect that by next meeting we should be able to show you how it works - maybe with Chris doing a little demo.
4.0	Distance Learning is not limited to RAITN. Dave Hubman came to me a few weeks back for approval to experiment with a new offering available through SUNY (article in last night's FLTImes) using the internet for course delivery. I gave the go ahead for five students ( two of them belong to you personally) to take several special offerings in this way. Currently we have Shannon Cali, Craig Riley and Brian Lafferty taking a Sports Medicine course from MCC, Sam Barber taking a C++ programming course from Erie and Sara Hollenbeck taking Bio II from FLCC. These students will be essentially doing independent studies with college professors over the net using our computers and their own from home to get classes we can't offer. I think this is an innovative way to capitalize on our investment in computer technology and an excellent opportunity for these kids. Similar to what we did for William Johnson and Eric Allen -offering college courses during our time and at our expense, but without the transportation costs. Who knows? The next step might be point to point video on the desktops! In fact, as we look at new computer installs, we may want to equip the RAITN Room with that capability as well, so that all of our distance learning is centered in one spot.
5.0	That center thesis may be fallacious though. Ron Baker tells me that we will be able to use the cabling we did this summer to make any of our classrooms extensions of the RAITN network - in essence allowing virtual fieldtrips to anywhere from anywhere within the building. That IS good news!
6.0	Auditors are continuing their work at the CBO. I spoke with them last week and things are going okay - not GREAT, but okay. Gloria lost a week with a car accident alluded to last time and we had some delays with the move of offices that chewed up precious time. Add to that some balancing problems with the bank and we were not quite where we wanted to be when they arrived. Gary has been very helpful though in honchoing the effort as has Donna House who is still in as a consultant to the CBO. Gary will follow-up with the ST3 and SA100 State Aid claims as soon as Jack Little's crew is done. In wrapping up the 98-99 books, Gary found that we made out better than expected on our underexpenditure and on our overreceipt of revenues, so we will be maintaining our fund balance yet another year at too high a level. Gary will bring us some suggestions on establishing some other reserves, though, that should help in next year's planning. Expect a report from the auditors at the 9/28 meeting.
7.0	Homework reading: I enclose a copy (illegally made on our new copiers) of an excellent resource about the quality of public education in America and the slanderous coverage of it in the media. Primarily for Norm's sake, but it strikes me this is precisely the sort of material ALL boards should get more of. I picked this up at AASA last February in New Orleans and just got around to making you copies.
8.0	RSP Newsletter features a synopsis of the conference from this summer and your superintendent making a presentation on your DocuShare use. Also on the back page you will find the prospective administrators class of '99 including our own sally Covert and Joy Terry. See enclosed.
9.0	Also enclosed FYI is a brochure on a School Based Wellness Conference I've been asked to attend as a guest of the Regional Health System. If they can find a way to convince their Board to take this on, I'm very sure we will be a target site ( no direct competition from any Doctor's office in Romo). I plan to make the overnight to keep us in line for prospective placement of such a program at our site down the road.
10.0	Speaking of down the road, Community Prison Task Force took a tour of the site last Thursday and it is BIG! Imagine five two-story Holiday Inns in a row connected by a single long corridor with it connected to an administration building, an infirmary and an education lab. (Of course all the rooms lock from the OUTside). Construction is ahead of schedule and opening is scheduled for one year from now. Tom Riley is the Community Committee's spokesperson/leader.
11.0	Music consultant has finally been firmed up. Just yesterday I was put in contact with an Ed Lisk, who comes very highly recommended. A glance at his vita off his website promoting his new textbook gives us some idea why ( see enclosed). As the attached copy of an internal email to the music staff and administrators shows, Ed will visit Romulus on Thursday September 23^rd to start his presumed two-day study of our district and its needs. He indicated he would be happy to present his final report directly to you at an open meeting before Thanksgiving ( my request). Estimated cost of this mini-study will be $600 total. I think it is very much worth it and an issue we must begin to address more stringently. Dave Hubman has only 12 high schoolers registered to take Band this term. If freshman Charlie Manaseri plays first trumpet its not gonna sound like we'd like it to!
12.0	Foundation Committee has been doing its work. Please plan to join them on Wednesday September 22, at 7:30 PM at Goose Watch Winery for a reception and presentation by our consultant, Ken Grounds, as the design team invites 18 local people to become Trustees of this fledgling foundation. I shared this list with you last time out, and response has been good. All BOE members (and their spouses), design team members, and selected potential trustees are invited to jump-start this exciting project which grows out of the RCS@60 campaign. Please make plans to attend and show the Board's support of the concept from the get-go.
13.0	Merger propaganda: I know this Board is not interested, but one of the sessions I attended in Cooperstown this summer was on the successful merger of Allegany and Limestone within recent years. I pass this copy of the powerpoint on to you for information only. As we approach the 21^st Century who knows where we will end up? It might be comforting for some of you to know that others have survived the experience and perceive themselves to be better off for it.
14.0	Class Enrollments are enclosed for your perusal. The secondary numbers seem very solid with some misbalancing that should settle itself out as kids change schedules. Average numbers show 16.4 students per class not counting gym or study halls. Elementary numbers exclusive of Pre-K show an average class size of 19.75. Overall your student to teacher ratio is 12.2:1 including all special area teachers but not admin or counseling staff, just direct student contact for instruction. No wonder you get such good results!