Schools: Hurricane Makeup Days, A New Technology Committee, Oil Tanks Ready to Run and a Little Extra Appreciation for Teachers

A brief synopsis of what happened at last night's board of education meeting:

• Assistant Principal Diane Krivda gave a presentation about Common Core Standards, what they are, and how and when the school would implement them.
• The board voted to use a professional development day in March as a makeup day to help compensate for the four days lost at the beginning of the school year following Tropical Storm Irene. The day will become a half-day of school, followed by teacher professional development. The board also opted to take a wait-and-see approach before voting to do the same thing with a day in June. If there are no snow days, school will end June 19. With three snow days, it will end June 22. If there are more than three snow days, they will be taken from April vacation, so staff and families are reminded to keep this in mind when planning family vacations.
• The BOE voted to create a technology committee that will look at how the school utilizes technology and how it can improve and maintain it.
• According to Superintendent Tim Connellan, the new oil tanks are in and ready to go. The old tanks will be removed on a day when there is no school, possibly Election Day. The plans for the new roof needed revisions, but will soon be ready to go out to bid.
• Connellan said following a complaint at the last BOE meeting about a musty odor in an annex building the air quality was professionally tested. The results showed low mold readings, and that the air outside the building actually had higher levels of mold than inside. Connellan said the ventilation was noted to be poor, which school officials already understood. While mold was found not to be an issue, the musty smell remains, so the superintendent said there would be a deep cleaning of the annex with a Clorox solution on a day when the children are off from school.
• The PTO has started a program called Teacher Appreciation; they provide snacks for the BCS teachers once a month. Parent conferences are being held on Oct. 19 and 20, and to be supportive of the teachers who can’t make it home in between, the PTO is providing a full meal for them. The school administrators noted how much the teachers appreciated the PTO’s efforts.