Board members also received the strategic school plan.

Superintendent Dr. Janet Robinson announced the meeting was Elaine McClure's last as board chair.

Dr. Robinson thanked Ms. McClure for 12 years of volunteering and indicated a group gathered in the room. They had attended the meeting to pay tribute to Ms. McClure.

"Newtown schools are far better for what she's done," Dr. Robinson said.

Former Superintendent Evan Pitkoff said, "[Ms. McClure] has always been there for everyone, completely devoted. Her agenda was to provide the best quality education to students."

Ms. McClure said she's glad to have been a part of a great school system. She accepted an inscribed bowl and flowers presented by Dr. Robinson.

Newtown High School Principal Charles Dumais updated the board on the school's expansion project. He said the public can see panoramic photos of the building by accessing the project blog from the school's web site at www.newtown.k12.ct.us/nhs.

The concrete has been poured for the wing closest to the fields. Electricity is going in and the project is on schedule.

Mr. Dumais said the tennis courts have the first layer of asphalt in a multi-layer process. The final layer would be applied in the spring because asphalt factories are now shutting down for the winter.

In the Superintendent's Report, Dr. Robinson said the board has settled in the new municipal center. Starting in January, board meetings will be held in the new conference room at the Fairfield Hills campus.

The new conference center will be equipped to videotape meetings and broadcast them on Channel 17, NTV.

She invited members of the board to attend a breakfast with the Southern Fairfield County Superintendents' Association. It is an opportunity to express concerns to legislators.

Dr. Robinson recently attended a National Superintendent's Round Table in Philadelphia. Approximately 80 superintendents attended and the agenda included a visit to the School of the Future.

This school was built in partnership with Microsoft. "To walk in there, we'd all drool," Dr. Robinson said.

The $67million building is equipped with smart boards, one-to-one laptops and other equipment. Dr. Robinson said that, for all its bells and whistles, the instruction was poor.

She found another school on the tour, the Science Leadership Academy, to be more impressive although the building was an old office.

She said a good school has relationships with the students and good instruction, adding that Newtown is a good school because it has these aspects.

Dr. Robinson is posting daily absentee information on the school website. She put "social distancing" in place three weeks ago, canceling dances and extended field trips, to reduce the spread of flu and other illnesses.

She said, while the idea was not popular with students, it seems to be working and the worst may be over. She is now allowing activities to resume.

She spoke to the controversy surrounding Veterans Day and the choice to keep schools open. She referred to several remembrance events held for the students, saying they were powerful, emotional and done with good taste.

Board member Linda Gejda gave an overview of the strategic school profiles. By law, every school district must report on each school and the district itself. Copies of each of these reports were available at the meeting.

The profiles focus on the factors that put students at risk such as economic status, whether or not a student is working, language background and more.

The profiles also evaluate staffing and staff experience, the average class size, the number of instructional hours, technology used in the classrooms and building maintenance. They also reflect school and student academic and physical performance.

The purpose of the profiles is accountability, so the public is aware of what is happening and can make informed decisions.

This type information was first reported in 1992 and the school website has the profiles available to the public from 2002.

The profiles compare schools to others and board member Lillian Bittman asked why Newtown has fewer hours of instruction in comparison. Dr. Robinson noted that Newtown has a shorter school day.

The board discussed the physical education scores. Some of the schools were below average. Dr. Robinson said she plans to talk with the physical education teachers to ask why this might be so.

Diane Raymo, interim director of business, presented the new monthly budget format. She thanked the people who had worked on the format and explained it in detail.

It contains a page of definitions so everyone who looks at the budget can understand its contents.

There is also something Ms. Raymo described as a "running narrative."

It is a description of why there is a balance or deficit.

Ms. Raymo feels this will help highlight problems. Board members don't need to remember verbal explanations in meetings but can refer to the narrative.

As she went over the actual numbers, she explained that most of the budget is obligated at the beginning of the year.

There is flexibility in supplies and maintenance and those are the areas where boards usually focus in bad economies.

Board member William Hart said the format was very good and said it would help him compare the budget month to month.

Ms. Raymo also shared a copy of the new budget process and told board members they could have copies. She wants to frame the budget around the board's goals and realign resources through budget studies.

Ms. McClure said that Ms. Raymo has done a lot of work and that she has trained the central office on a new accounting system. The next step for the system is to use it for budgeting and requisitioning.

Ms. Raymo said the system would make purchasing easier and more accurate. She said the school has cooperative purchasing power that it should be using, where individual items are set at a specific cost and the school gets a percentage discount on catalogue items.

Dr. Robinson reported that the Legislative Council supports the new teachers contract. The council met on November 4 but could not vote on the contract because it was not on the agenda.

The council was able to discuss it and send verbal support to the Board of Education.