Board of Ed wraps up year

SALISBURY — The driveway and oval at the upper building at Salisbury Central School (SCS) will be reconfigured over the summer.

SCS Principal Lisa Carter brought the Board of Education up to date at the regular monthly board meeting Monday, May 18.

The first phase of the driveway remodeling is to repave the circle, add concrete bollards for security, and add plants, flagpoles and a granite border to the oval.

Next year, the blacktop behind the kindergarten classrooms will be replaced.

Carter reported that the Smarter Balance Tests, for grades three through eight, were completed. The new tests replace the old Connecticut Mastery Tests.

Carter said parents should prepare for uneven results. “We’re probably not going to see 85 percent proficiency” rankings.

She said students found the tests “hard” and “challenging.”

Region One Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain said that it takes a few years for a new testing regimen to “normalize.”

“It was the same when the CMTs were introduced.”

Chamberlain said schools have to adjust to the tests, and the test preparers have to adjust to the schools, until a baseline is established.

Carter said SCS students did well at the Connecticut Invention Converntion — Caroline Fallon, Kristen Foster and Sarah Upson achieved “Recognized Inventor” status at the state convention held on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs on May 2.

In February, the board voted to hold summer school for grades kindergarten through five for a three-week period between June 29 and July 17. Carter said then that the Region One principals met and decided to abandon the practice of a regional summer school session, in which classes are held at one of the schools. Of the 28 students from Salisbury recommended for summer school last summer, only nine attended. Transportation and distance was a major factor last year — the 2014 summer school session was held at Kent Center School.

The board voted to extend the contract with Byrnes Family Catering for the cafeteria, with the additional stipulation that cafeteria workers receive professional training mandated by the federal government. 

The board also voted to raise the school lunch price a nickel, from $2.65 to $2.70.

The board voted to retain attorney Craig Meuser for the fall’s contract negotiations with certified staff, and named board chairman Claude Rolo, Keith Moon and Stephanie Thomas to the negotiating committee.