Report to the Kent Board of Education
On the March 1st Meeting of the
Reg. 1 Board of Education

3/2/2010
To: Chairperson Tracy Horosky
From: Jonathan Moore
This meeting intended to cover a lot of ground as a result the "ordinary" business was gone through quite quickly in order to save time.
The following are highlights of that business:

• The Superintendent's report focused on the new seat belt law. January 1, 2011, all buses will be required to have these. The issue this board needs to keep in mind is the change to a 3-pt belt. This new requirement may limit seating to two per seat. The impact for Kent would be the possible need for more buses to accommodate the same number of students. Also, the bus companies will probably look to pass on this cost. We need to keep in mind this is a one time significant cost to them and should not be used to justify increased rates for the continuous future.
• Special Ed and Pupil Services gave an extensive presentation on the wide range of responsibilities they have and how their roles have evolved. Planning has begun for Grade 8 – Grade 9 Special Ed. Student Transition at two levels. One level of meetings will be at a team level as 8th graders in groups meet with HVRHS teams. The second level is at the individual level.
• The highlight of the Principal's report was, " We have received feedback from our NEAS&C Two-Year Progress Report citing significant progress in addressing identified concerns and the Commission has removed the school from warning for the Standards of Accreditation on Curriculum and Instruction." These are two of seven standards used to evaluate a school. The school still has an overall warning and has to complete a Special Progress Report that is due August 1, 2010. This report represents an extension of the work done in Curriculum and Instruction. The original complaints were that Housatonic's curriculum lacked direction and purpose and this state led to somewhat fragmented instruction. These observations were made in a report dated March 11–14, 2007.  If the school shows significant progress in addressing the four additional items, then they will be taken completely off warning. Then HVRHS will need to submit a Five-Year Progress Report that is due March 1, 2012.

The rest of the meeting was dedicated to budget concerns. On 2/11 the budget stood at $15,031,540, which represents a 2.37% increase. As of this meeting the budget had been reduced to $14,978,680 which is a 1.99% increase ( This represents a $26,309 reduction in the high school budget and a $26,541 reduction in the Pupil services Budget.). The budget was gone through page by page to review as to whether there were any questionable areas. The board could not find any but acknowledged that health insurance is the main driver of the increase and that issue has not been fully resolved. There will be another budget workshop on March 11th at 4:30pm in the Housatonic Library. At present, Kent's total assessment is $2,482,420 with a savings of $69,456 from the 2009/2010 Budget.
The final two issues on the budget are health insurance and teacher assignments. They are interconnected issues. Currently, Anthem is proposing a 14.91% overall increase; 11.5% for PPOs and 35.2% for HSAs. March 3rd, Anthem will submit their final number. To date the Region has received bids from other carriers of 7% or less. It would seem clear that a change is in order because there would appear to be no way Anthem could match these bids. Unfortunately, there are other issues. The Unions prefer Anthem because they have a strong network in the region. The Region would have to show that, beyond a savings to the union members, the policy and doctor coverage are equal in order to gain acceptance and permission to change. That does not seem to be a large hurdle because a new carrier has an incentive to do everything it can to improve coverage if it does not already have it and most doctors would switch to keep their patients. The main danger might be in regional fragmentation. Right now Region One is considered a mid-size customer. If some towns were to opt out of a new plan and stay with Anthem it would lessen our purchasing power and probably wipe out any savings. So, the debate may revolve around the final bid from Anthem. If it is large enough do we go through the laborious process of changing carriers and the problems that may come with that or do we continue with Anthem? I would need direction from the Board if there is a need for me to vote.

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