NASD Board Meeting 4/28 Notes

Meeting started on time at 7:30PM. Vice President Hensley was absent.

The 08-09 school calendar was handed out prior to the meeting which had some notable differences compared to what was relayed at the April 21, 2008 meeting. During the first Community Corner, Ms. Jen Allen asked about Spring Break, which now is not really a week long Spring Break at all. As it currently stands, Spring Break will be April 6-10 and Easter Monday, April 13. HOWEVER, the first two days of Spring Break are now the first and second SNOW MAKE-UP DAYS. Ms. Allen was asking about those parents who want to plan a week-long vacation for that time. Dr. Lesky had a couple things to say about that:

1) In the 31 years he’s been in the district, we’ve never had less than 2 snow days, so don’t plan on the full week.

2) He also stated that this “change” was the result of discussions with staff and community members who wanted it this way. What’s odd about this statement, is how there could have been discussions with community members between last Monday (4/21) and this Monday (4/28) when the preliminary schedule wasn’t even posted on the district website. In fact, it wasn’t even handed out during the last meeting. How would community members have “known” about this proposed schedule? Perhaps I’m missing something….

A budget discussion from Ms. Rischoff followed. It now appears that NASD is recommending a budget that will tax over the Act 1 index limit of 5.4%. Ms. Rischoff pointed out that NASD is allowed $3.7M in Exceptions by the state. This is the amount over the Index that can be taxed without going to a voter referendum.

I’ll have a separate post on the Act 1 Exceptions and where I think NASD is going.

Dr. Lesky mentioned that the extra 1.5% that NASD received from the state this year has “strings attached” and must be used to promote new programs (expansion of all-day KG for example). It can’t be used to pay the general bills. So they have to increase programs, of which they have around 4 options, or pay the extra $86K back to the state.

There was a somewhat lengthy discussion about the budget. Mr. Maher wanted everyone to be clear that this year’s budget was going to affect subsequent budgets down the road and that there will be trade offs between spending, the tax increase and debt restructuring.

The new Fee Schedule for NASD facility usage was presented and discussed. One item discussed was how the Nazareth Midget Wresting Club did not have to pay for mat/gym usage/practice but other clubs (for example soccer) would be expected to pay to use the grass field at BES. I think the point being made was that wrestling is indoors (using heat/lighting, etc) but the BES field is outside (essentially just grass that has to be mowed anyways). Mr. Butz wanted this to be reviewed for consistency.

NASD has hired a new Football Coach, Mr. Robert Melosky. Several questions were asked at the end of the meeting regarding this hire. One specific question was whether there was anything in Mr. Melosky’s past that would cause NASD concern. Dr. Lesky responded there was not.

The redistricting plan was again presented. Dr. Lesky has met with all the three elementary PTAs and the MS PTA to address parental/community concerns. Several concerns were brought up, but four were highlighted:

K-3 Gifted
Transportation issues IS
Longer School Day at IS
Full Day KG at ES

The K-3 gifted issue has been “somewhat” settled. No longer is the admin asking the reading specialists to take over. Now there will be one (1) gifted teacher who will split their time between all three (3) elementary schools. Personally, I don’t know how this is going to work, considering 5 days for 3 schools. Is one particular school going to get the short end of the stick? And if they instead do it as a rotation, that means the kids will never have a set schedule.

Transportation to IS has some parents concerned that kids will spend too much time on busses. Remember, the plan is to pick up the 4-6 kids at the same time as the ES kids, bus them to their ES and then transfer to another bus (or consolidate) for a trip to the IS.

Full Day KG is still being discussed. Some parents wanted the choice of FDK or traditional.

During Community Corner I had some questions/comments that came up as a result of the redistricting plan

1) Since it was stated that the “long day” at the IS was going to be broken up into manageable time periods with “plenty of outside activity”, was there any plan to provide a playground area at the IS? The 4th and 5th graders currently have a playground at their respective Elementary Schools. Admin said no. Ms. McDonald wondered “how much they would even use it”? Mr. Butz conceded that there is a lot of asphalt and that perhaps they could add some basketball courts. Again, I don’t think this was ever even considered.

2) According to the redistricting plan and costs, we are hiring two maintenance persons at a total cost of $134,244. This means that our starting maintenance person costs the district (with benefits): $67,122. A starting teacher costs the districts (with the same benefits): $62,250. I didn’t have any question, just the comment and whether the board was aware of this. I think they were not.

There was some additional questions regarding the Fee Usage Rates. A representative from the Upper Nazareth Clippers was there to ask about how much the field usage would cost. The deciding factor seems to be whether or not “non-district” kids are on the field. For example, it was asked whether the Band would be charged for BandFest because they invite other area bands to our field. Ms. Swigart said they would. The board can decide to waive the fees as they have for other organizations in the past, but it would seem that NASD is looking closer at facility usage in order to squeeze every last dollar.

Meeting adjourned around 9:15 PM.