Reed Schedule And More Discussed

By Eliza Hallabeck

From news regarding Reed Intermediate School’s schedule to lighting possibilities for a Newtown High School back field, the Board of Education discussed a range of topics during its special Monday, August 20, meeting.

Debbie Leidlein shared news regarding Reed Intermediate School’s schedule during her chair report. Earlier on Monday, Ms Leidlein said she attended a meeting with Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, Assistant Superintendent Linda Gejda, Reed Assistant Principal Jennifer Sinal, and school board Co-Chair Laura Roche, who also served on a board subcommittee that looked into Reed’s schedule.

“That schedule was presented to Dr Robinson and Dr Gejda today,” said Ms Leidlein. “We’re very interested for the whole school, moving forward, that this schedule will alleviate a lot of the issues that arose in the past with regard to the schedule at Reed.”

FOI Issue

Ms Leidlein also read her personal response to a Letter to the Editor, without naming the writer, submitted by school board member William Hart to The Newtown Bee last week.

Mr Hart’s letter, as Ms Leidlein said during the meeting, “[suggested] that I led the board into an illegal meeting which violated FOI regulations. I want to make it clear that this was not the case.”

Explaining the Thursday, August 9, special meeting of the school board was scheduled to set personal goals for the superintendent based on her evaluation, completed in June, Ms Leidlein said doing so followed the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) and Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) model agreed upon for Dr Robinson’s evaluation.

“Prior to scheduling the meeting,” Ms Leidlein continued, “I sought the advice of attorney Fred Dorsey, who the board publicly voted to hire to take us through this process, and was advised the evaluation tool agreed upon called for the meeting to set goals for the superintendent based on her evaluation to take place in executive session.”

Ms Leidlein said she was surprised when an objection was raised on August 9 to having the executive session. As the letter to the editor cited FOI public education officer Thomas Hennick, Ms Leidlein said she also contacted him following reading the letter.

“Mr Hennick’s response was that setting district goals should happen in a public session,” said Ms Leidlein, “and that the superintendent’s goals would be an appropriate topic for executive session if they were tied directly to the individual superintendent’s performance.”

Mr Hart, BOE Secretary Cody McCubbin, and board member John Vouros were not present for Monday’s special meeting.

Following the meeting, Ms Leidlein said the school board will discuss district goals in public, and she hopes that will happen soon.

“The beginning of the school year seems to be an appropriate time to discuss that,” she said.

Lighting Options For   Newtown Youth Football

Parks & Recreation Director Amy Mangold and Parks & Recreation Commission Chair Edward Marks also spoke during the school board’s meeting, asking the board to consider permanent lighting for a NHS back field.

According to Mr Marks, Newtown Youth Football has been using Taylor Field, located at Hawley Elementary School, for practice sessions. A certain number of practice hours have to be completed, and, Mr Marks said, as the autumn wears on, the time needed at Taylor Field goes later into the night, requiring lighting solutions. With each practice session at the field, Mr Marks said Taylor Field also becomes more in need of repair as the spring approaches. Moving the practice sessions to the middle school and other locations has been tried in the past, but problems with each place arise.

“This spring they came to us and said they really need a permanent solution, otherwise we are going to be looking at a temporary lighting solution again,” Mr Marks said. 

Installing lighting at Taylor Field was explored, but Mr Marks said his commission decided placing permanent lighting in another location, where parking would be easier, would be a better long-term solution.

“The high school team already utilizes one field,” said Mr Marks, talking about a back field at NHS. “Right now they tear it up pretty badly each season that they use it. So, if we were to install lighting, even if Newtown Youth Football were to piggyback on what Newtown High School is doing, it wouldn’t cause any additional damage to that field.”

Mr Marks said the project to install lighting in the back field would be sponsored by Newtown Parks & Recreation, and surcharge funds would be used to pay for the project.

“So it really would be free for the Board of Ed,” he said.

Sports organizations would be charged $75 a night for use of the field to offset the cost of electricity, according to Mr Marks.

With the school board’s endorsement of the project, Mr Marks said the project could be completed within three years, “hopefully 2016.”

The four members of the school board present for the meeting unanimously voted to support the project.