Rye City School District Board of Education Meeting Notes – 04/13/2010
Board of Education meetings can now be viewed via streaming video 2-3 days after each board meeting. Board of Education meetings are also on Cablevision channel 77 and Verizon Fios channel 40. See the meeting programming schedule.
A Summary of the 4/13/10 Rye City School District Board of Education Meeting
Board of Education Adopts Budget
The Board voted to approve a budget for the 2010-2011 school year of $69,719,000. The budget, which is a 1.30% increase from the 2009-2010 school budget, will be put to a public vote on May 18. This budget represents an estimated tax rate increase of 1.66%.*
*This percentage will be finalized on 7/1/10 when the taxable assessments are established by the Rye City Assessor.
Extra Mile Award
Sheri DeGraw, parent volunteer, and Tracey Orzo, Midland staff developer, were given an Extra Mile Award for their work on the Midland Courtyard Garden. Together they have developed a living environment curriculum that has made the courtyard an extension of Midland's bricks and mortar classrooms. Board Vice-President Laura Slack presented the award on behalf of the entire Board of Education. This award is periodically given to those people who go the extra mile in support of the schools and students of RCSD.
Gifts to the District
The Board approved and gratefully accepted gifts from and expressed thanks to the following organizations:
- The Rye High School Football Association for various equipment and uniforms in the amount of $15,969.16
- The Rye Youth Soccer Club, Inc. for the Artificial Turf Maintenance Fund in the amount of $4,000
2010-2011 Adopted Budget Details
The adopted budget includes the following elements:
- Additional staff at the high school and middle school based on increasing enrollment
- Support for additional foreign language instruction
- Maintenance of average elementary class size of 20 students
- Increased spending on technology
- Funding for the high school crew club (boys and girls) and for the boys and girls squash clubs. These teams have been operating as all-volunteer clubs for the past several years.
- All presentations and data are posted on the District web site in the Budget and Board Elections section.
The next meeting is April 27, 2010 at 8:00 pm in the Rye Middle School Multipurpose Room. There is a May 4, 2010 budget hearing.
May 18, 2010 is the school budget vote.
Sure would be nice to see the Board of Ed update its web site. With the spring elections and the new school year, you’d think the committees and their membership might have changed. But not if you read the Board of Ed’s site:
– Good old [not really old] Ray Schmitt still chairs the audit committee despite having stepped down from the Board.
– Board of Ed budget vote [upcoming] still refers to last Spring for the new school year
And two very loudly trumpeted points from the 11 September meeting still haven’t made any appearance on the web site:
1.The new Superintendent’s objectives and supporting plan for achieving them still haven’t made it to the site – will be tough for the Trustees to oversee / monitor fulfillment of the objectives without a plan that shows intended actions, expected outcomes and the milestones along the way.
2.New Teacher / Administrator performance assessment agreement which is mandated by state law and which the Board itself agreed could be posted now, before submission to the state.