Special Meeting
January 28, 2008
7:00 P.M.
Board Members Present: Paula Belekewicz entered the meeting at 7:04
p.m., Carol Coley-Vice Chairperson, Linda Green, William Mulcahy, Michael
Neckermann, and Nelson Petrone-Chairman
Board Members Absent: Lisa Jurovaty
Administration Present: Richard
Saddlemire, Francine Coss, and Jean Trask
Staff
Present: Heather Montanile and Marian Lowry
Citizens
Present: Amy
Poverman, Maria Gratton, Connie Medeiros, Maryann
Potter, Selectman Rebecca Stearns, Tim and Wendy Pallas, Eva Bulley, and Stacy
Parla
Others Present: Suzanne
Hendy Newman of Alert Now
I.
Call to Order
Chairman
Nelson Petrone called the January 28, 2008 special meeting to order at 7:02
p.m.
II.
Appointment of Ms. Jane Wall, Town Fiscal Manager
C. Coley MOVED and L. Green SECONDED
to appoint Ms. Jane Wall as Town Fiscal Manager with the salary approved and
paid by the Town of
MOTION CARRIES: 5-0
III.
Alert Now Presentation – Ms. Suzanne Hendy Newman
ALERTNOW Rapid Communication Service
keeps parents and staff informed about important announcements, events, and
emergencies. The service creates voice
or e-mail messages for immediate or future use.
Messages are simultaneously delivered at a rate of 4,000+ per minute. Application and features specifically
designed for the K-12 user initiate message delivery from any computer or phone
to parent email addresses (5 addresses per family), work phone, home phone or
cell phones (15 phone numbers and 3
text-to-phone numbers per family). Messages
can be organized by school-wide population, grade level, bus route, sports
team, club, or staff members. A 411
caller ID identifies emergency messages.
ALERTNOW is entirely web-based and needs no hardware or software. Language translations from text to voice are in
11 languages. Automated data uploads are
from the school student information system (SASSI). 24 x 7 x 365 emergency support and technical
assistance is provided. Other features
and benefits include redundant and secure facilities, text-to-speech attendance
notifications, polling and survey capabilities, data encryption and top level
online security, message interrupt and playback features, and online message
retrieval. If a phone line is busy,
ALERTNOW re-attempts the call 5 times every 3 minutes. The cost for this service is $3 per student,
or an annual fee of $1,800, or $1,500 for a 3 year term contract. The
Board members and citizens had
numerous questions concerning security, database information, firewalls,
antivirus, and updates. Mr. Petrone
thanked Ms. Newman for her presentation to the Board of Education.
IV.
2008/2009 Budget Discussion
Dr. Saddlemire
handed out budget material explaining revised employee insurance, special education
transportation, and special education tuition budget increases. Members discussed the possibility of re-negotiating
benefits and special education tuition costs with the designated high
schools. Board members requested more
information from Ovation Benefits, the Columbia Board of Education’s medical
insurance agent. Dr. Saddlemire will
arrange to have a representative from Ovation Benefits speak to the Board on
February 4th.
V. Executive Session for the Purpose of
Personnel Discussion
P. Belekewicz MOVED and L. Green SECONDED
to enter into executive session for the purpose of personnel discussion at 8:02
p.m.
MOTION CARRIES 6-0
C. Coley MOVED and L. Green SECONDED
to adjourn executive session at 8:22 p.m.
MOTION CARRIES 6-0
VI. Adjournment
M. Neckermann MOVED and W. Mulcahy SECONDED
to adjourn the meeting at 8:23 p.m.
MOTION CARRIES 6-0
Respectfully submitted,
Nelson Petrone, Chairman