Costs of school lunches, snow plowing increase

SHARON — The Sharon Board of Education held its last meeting of the school year on Monday, June 9. The meeting re-capped several issues that were addressed at the previous meeting and also addressed possible school schedules for the coming year.

Region One School District Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain gave her report first, which included a legislative update. Much of it focused on bullying in schools.

She also mentioned a change in suspension policies. Any suspension on or after July 2009 will be an in-school suspension unless the administration determines that the student is a danger to persons or property or a disruption to the educational process.

The legislation also clarified that a student who is serving in-school suspension can serve it in the school that they attend or any other school building that is under the jurisdiction of the local or regional board of education.

The school bullying legislation was also addressed and the definition was expanded and broadened. The act made clear that bullying is classified as an act that happens to a student more than once during the school year.

The policy that the Legislature will implement enables students to report acts anonymously, and requires students be notified annually of the process by which they make reports.

Sharon Principal Karen Manning made her report next and focused on the field trips and events that the students had been attending [see related story this page].

Manning spoke of the snowplowing company that the school had used during the past winter, and how she felt that the cost seemed too high.

“I was able to contact the company and they cut out some of the salt from the budget to make our costs lower,� said Manning. “It still came out to be double what we budgeted.�

Although $3,500 was allocated for the year for plowing, $7,500 was was actually spent. The board made comparisons to other schools in the district, whose costs seemed to come out lower. The board decided to stick with the same plowing company for another year and see what happens.

In other business, Chamberlain asked for volunteers to take part in a teacher negotiations committee in the upcoming year. There are only four to six meetings — but the last two could very well go on to 2 a.m., she warned.

Board Chairman Electra Tortorella and board members Michele Pastre and Marilyn Yerks volunteered.

The meeting ended with a discussion about the cost of school lunches. A cafeteria survey that was circulated reported that a handful of people were comfortable with paying $3 for school lunch and a handful of others were comfortable paying $2.50, which is 50 cents more than what is now being charged. Manning estimated that even if nothing is decided at the meeting, there will be a definite 10-percent raise in the cost of lunches. The board decided that they would raise the cost of lunch to $2.50 per student for a trial period of one year.