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Wavell, For your review. RB ----- Original Message ----- From: Wavel Cowen <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 7:57 AM Subject: Info for Newspaper > Hereafter is proposed material to be submitted for publication in > Moretown Matters. Please make corrections, recommended changes, etc. in > CAPS, and return by end of week latest. ..... Wavell > > Special Education Update: > Well folks, it seems that our good news was premature. Representative > Alan Weiss was incorrect when he informed us that the senate had passed > a bill allocating $2.3 million to deal with exceptional special > education costs in districts such as Moretown. What happened was that > Senator Jeb Spaulding, who was planning to introduce just such a bill, > ran into a problem when consulting Department of Education analysts. > Special education costs at Moretown were not projected to rise into the > exceptional category until 2000-2001 fiscal year. On that basis Jeb > dropped the issue for this year, but failed to communicate with Alan > Weiss. Alan ,THEN,INADVERTENTLY MISINTERPRETED an unrelated $2.3 million > discretionary spending bill, AND IINCORRECTLY PASSED THAT INFORMATION ON TO US. Jeb has since organized a meeting with board member Wavell Cowan, and > including Bill Talbot from the Dept. of Education The result is that > the Deptartment will develop a "needs" criterion for exceptional special > education costs as a basis for Jeb Spaulding to seek appropriate > funding for next year. We'll keep you informed of progress. > Harwood Governance: > The superintendent, Bill Riegel, updated the Moretown board on the > status of the Harwood 7-8 committee. Bill stated that Keith Kennedy was > having preliminary discussions with Harwood on leasing space. There are > other committees doing preliminary work but nothing substantive to > report. The Moretown board have indicated that the proposed new Harwood > 7-8 board does not have their support. They believe the only viable > solution to the Harwood governance problems is to develop some kind of a > K-12 or 7-12 solution.. It has been suggested that the Harwood 7-8 > committee should check with the State Board of Education for a legal > opinion as to where the Valley towns stand if Moretown won't join the > proposed contracted district (or send it to a vote). The Moretown board > believes the Harwood board would then necessarily still govern the > Middle School, since they cannot abrogate their statutary > responsibilities and the articles of association require a unanimous > vote of all towns for any change. This would mean that the Valley towns > would have no governing authority but would simply tuition their > students into a Harwood district middle school composed of Moretown as > the sole remaining sending school, not having withdrawn its middle > school students. > Harwood Assessment: > The assessment issue has stalled at the Harwood board level. Motions are > expected at their next meeting but there are only rumors of content and > speculation of support for those motions. We await some proposal from > them before discussing a course of action. >