Shortly after Apple released its new iPad, Woodbridge Board of Education member Steven Fleischman attended the National School Boards Association annual conference in Chicago. The new iPad that he carried with him attracted attention from many other school board members in attendance.

At the April meeting of the Woodbridge Board of Education he hooked up his iPad to a projector to give a report about the annual conference, perhaps making the Woodbridge Board of Education the first board of education to use an iPad for a presentation to the board.

Dr. Fleischman’s presentation covered many important topics, including how technology can be better integrated into the curriculum, and the importance of school boards, administrations and teachers working together on a shared vision. He spoke about how all of this needed to focus on twenty-first century skills.

Yet many of these ideas are not new to members of the Woodbridge Board of Education. Before Dr. Fleischman spoke, two Woodbridge students used some of the schools technology, including a smartboard and iPhoto to present to the board information about what they were learning from the school’s world languages program. The board also approved Woodbridge’s participation in the Cooperative Educational Services’ Title II grant ‘to create a 21st century learning environment for World Language students’.

This grant will use technology including ‘interactive whiteboards, Flip video cameras, iPods, multi-user virtual learning environments, Google Earth, Skype, and others’ to provide a rich opportunity for students to learn Spanish and Chinese. The program will include Beecher Road School, the Six to Six Interdistrict Magnet School and Southern Connecticut State University. Besides the technology, an important focus will be placed on professional development.

The Woodbridge Board of Education, together with the teachers and administration of Beecher Road School continue to work together to find ways to use technology to make learning world languages and other twenty first century skills more exciting.

Tuesday evening, Dr. Guy Stella, Superintendent of Beecher Road School presented the proposed Beecher Road School 2010-2011 budget at the third and final operating budget presentations before the Boards of Selectmen and Finance at Town Hall in Woodbridge.

Prior to his presentation was a brief presentation about the pool and the gym. The boards were informed that a capital expense should be expected in a few years to replace the hot water boiler for the pool and showers, and to re-grout the pool. For the coming year, a status quo budget is proposed. There were a few comments about the replacement of the drain and about people now using the pool. It was a very quick presentation.

The Woodbridge Board of Education presentation was the big presentation for the evening. Chair of the Woodbridge Board of Education, Sheila McCreven thanked the public for its support of public education, and noted the great turnout of supporters of the school at the presentation. She spoke about how the board is always looking for ways to save additional money, including looking at the strategic school profiles of various towns to see if new ideas can be gleaned.

With this, she turned the presentation over to Dr. Stella. Dr. Stella presented the budget in the context of the history of free compulsory education in Woodbridge. He started with a picture of the Old South School from 1866. He noted that it had burned down and there was a new South School built in 1877.

Skipping forward, he talked about the building of the Center School in 1929 and the end of the era of one room schoolhouses in Woodbridge. He traced the history of our school system through the life of Alice Farr and her brother George who attended the Center School. He highlighted the assessment categories on report cards back then; Obedient, Ambitious, Clean, and so on. He then noted Ray Cowles. Ray and Alice were high school sweethearts and went to Hill House High School in New Haven, before the days of Amity High School. The jobs they started their careers with were the jobs they ended their careers with and they lived their whole life in Woodbridge.

With this as a backdrop, Dr. Stella talked about how times have changed and how different the needs are in education for the twenty-first century. We are now part of a global community, connected via the Internet. Dr. Stella stated that we must “prepare children for their future, not for our past.”

With that, he addressed some of the issues of why looking at per pupil expenditures does not make a lot of sense. He looked at the per pupil expenditures for school districts that the State considers similar to our own and noted that while we are higher than some, we are not the highest. Yet here in Woodbridge, we have many residents with years of experience and advanced degrees and the town wants our teachers to also have years of experience and advanced degrees. Likewise, our town wants smaller class sizes so that each student can get the attention they need and deserve.

A key aspect of this includes literacy and helping students become lifelong readers and lifelong writers. This literacy needs to go beyond the traditional understandings of literacy and now include information literacy. He spoke about the importance of the science program and laboratory, something that not all schools have. He spoke about the importance of the math teachers. Currently, we have one math teacher per over three hundred students. Some of this is driven by new regulations, such as No Child Left Behind, and some of this is funded by Federal grants.

Dr. Stella spoke about the global aspects of twenty first century education. The school district seeks to promote not just an exploratory understanding of other languages, but proficiency. As a result, we have more language teachers than some other districts. We also have a sister school program and monthly Skype conference calls with schools half way around the world. This also comes in to play with character development, such as the current Hands Out To Haiti program where students at Beecher Road are helping raise funds and supplies for relief efforts. Another aspect of the educational experience at Beecher Road includes a focus on wellness and socio-emotional development.

Dr. Stella’s budget presentation and the context he presented it in answered many of the questions that members of the Boards of Selectmen and Finance had coming into the meeting. Over the coming months there will be continued efforts to refine the budget to make sure that the taxpayers of Woodbridge get the highest possible value for their tax dollars spent on the Beecher Road School.

Personal Postscript: As I write this, CT-N is broadcasting a tribute to the late Connecticut State Capitol Police Chief Michael Fallon. One speaker praised Chief Fallon saying, “He never stopped learning.” I imagine some teacher, principal, or superintendant in heaven is smiling at that tribute to Chief Fallon and the indirect tribute to the educator’s hard work. I hope that the administration, board, and teachers of Beecher Road, as well as the residents of Woodbridge will receive similar praise in years hence as graduates of Beecher Road School get praised for great community service fueled by a similar love of learning gained in our school district.

Monday evening at the Woodbridge District office conference room, the Woodbridge Board of Education Committee met to review the monthly financial reports and discuss what metrics are most useful in understanding the proposed 2010/2011 budget. For the month ending December 31st, 2009, the school is running approximately ten thousand dollars over on its $11.9 million dollar 2009/2010 budget. The largest over budget items included $66 thousand due to additional transportation needs and $63 thousand due to additional tuition costs for unanticipated special needs students. This was offset in part by changes in teaching and custodial staff which occurred after the budget had been finalized.

Committee member Steve Fleischman inquired about the status of the funds set aside for GASB, asking about how that money was being invested and what sort of returns have been received. These funds are being handled by the Woodbridge Investment Committee which meets on an as needed basis. The most recent meeting of the Investment Committee, as listed on the Town Website was March 31, 2009. Those minutes report the recommendations of the committee to the Board of Selectmen to adopt an ordinance to establish a Town of Woodbridge Other Post-Employment Benefits Trust Agreement as well as the Trust Agreement itself. There is no information in the minutes about any investment decisions.

It is believed that the Investment Committee will be meeting soon and it is hoped that more information will be available from the committee at that time.

The administration reported that the proposed 2010/2011 budget as approved by the Woodbridge Board of Education calls for a 2.47% increase. A discussion followed about the importance of the administration communicating to the town what the value proposition of the school budget is to help people understand some of the different cost structures in the Woodbridge Board of Education budget when it is compared to other school districts.

It is also worth noting that the Superintendent is giving back his 2% salary increase for the year with the money being made available to support professional development for teachers as well as to provide instructional resources for the children of Beecher Road School.

The results of the Finance Committee meeting will be discussed at the next Woodbridge Board of Education meeting.