January 27th Meeting Recap - Corrected State Testing Results (672 Errors), New Curriculum Director, Absenteeism Concerns, Unanswered OPRA Questions, No Holocaust Remembrance

Recap of the Jan 27th RIH BOE meeting:

Superintendent Report:

Ms. DeMarco gave an update which included items she is working on with the BOE:

- Fiscally responsible plan for projects

- ‘Unit Broadcasts’ to parents and students to highlight curriculum focus

- Online ‘House’ for curriculum

She discussed two areas of concern being addressed:

- Corrected State Testing results: as a result of an administrative error last spring, the state math tests were incorrectly administered to too many students. As a result, the district has been working with the state to correct the data. The resulting correction required 672 records to be removed from the state data (that seems to indicate that 672 tests were administered to students that should not have been). Because the district self identified the error, other than correcting the data, there were no further penalties to the district from the state.

- Chronic Absenteeism: Schools with greater than 10% chronic absenteeism need to file corrective action plans with the state. Unfortunately this is us. Last year: IHHS absentee rate 10.1%, RHS 11%. The district is working on a plan to identify high risk groups of students and to bring down this number.

- Ms. DeMarco thanked Dr. Quackenbush for her contributions to the district, as the BOE accepted her resignation. Ms. DeMarco was pleased to announce Darren Groh as Interim Curriculum Director to replace Dr. Quackenbush.

- Mary Moscatello was announced as the new part time content coordinator from Feb - Jun 2025 for $38,000, to replace the PR firm hired last year. It was unclear on the agenda whether the $38,000 was a pro-rated annual salary or a lump sum payment.

Interim Business Administrator Report:

The Interim BA spoke of the many projects on the agenda, yet did not address the agenda item of “OPRA Logs”. She did not address why OPRA logs were on the agenda under her report, what was the intent, what conclusions might be drawn. The silence was deafening. Several members of the public seized the chance to discuss the OPRA log, but the Board made no comment. The Interim Business Administrator and Board’s lack of comment left us all wondering what was the point and intent of publishing the log.

As I pointed out in my previous post, publishing a list of people who request information does not provide transparency, it only serves to villainize the people who request information. The district should instead: 1) bring OPRA redactions back in house and reduce legal fees, 2) publish the RESPONSE to the OPRA requests instead of a list of who asked for what, and 3) take note of the duplicative requests (everyone wants to see the legal bills) and post those items (legal bills) proactively.

Public Comment:

Former Board member Vivian King pointed out that today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. There were reportedly no programs in our schools to commemorate this day. There was no statement of recognition at the Board meeting to commemorate this day. “The best deterrent to hate is education”. It was very disappointing to me to hear that our district did not recognize Holocaust Remembrance Day and take the opportunity to educate our students about the horrors of the Holocaust and the significance of history.

Board Discussion/Board Goals:

Finance Chair Joe Valenti made a statement about the need for a long term Capital Spending Plan. I have been saying the same for the past two years, as former Finance chair Marianna Emmolo and Interim BA Dora Zeno seemed to be spending down our reserves in rapid fashion. Yet I do seem to recall our former BA Tom Lambe having a 5-year plan, and I even recall Marianna Emmolo ‘saying' we had a long term plan (although she never made it public). I agree with Mr. Valenti’s statement, having a long-term spending plan is critical. And it is Ms. DeMarco’s job, as the CEO of our district, to recommend that long term spending plan.

On another note, Mr. Valenti, as the new chair of the Finance committee, abstained on most of the Finance motions on the agenda. Why would the committee chair abstain on his own motions? The motions should not have even been on the agenda if his committee didn’t have enough information to recommend them. Also puzzling, and concerning, to me was that no other Board members asked him why he was abstaining on the motions his committee put forward.

2025 Board Goals - rather than a discussion, Ms. Souders announced that board members should email their suggestions for Board Goals to her. She stated that she would then compile the suggestions, for the Board to discuss ‘on stage’. It has been several years since the Board has had Board Goals, so this is at least a step in the right direction.