President Gary McCauley: Pledge, Prayer, 4-way Test
Happy Bucks: JA: Happy for the nice day, great Shredding Event planning meeting yesterday; PZ: scheduled for his first vaccine shot; guest Joan Winters: biking on the boardwalk in E. Lyme; PD: got a vaccine shot last Friday, sunny 40+ degrees, got his bike ready; AS: beautiful day, went out for a run, Mike joining the club; BM: scheduled for 1st vaccine shot; BO: the day, received his 2nd vaccine shot with no ill effects; CR: the day, getting the vaccine shot at the OS Middle School which ran like clockwork - very pleased; CN: has an appt for the 2nd shot Friday; MD: UCONN mens basketball team beating Georgetown decisively, wife Betty-Ann birthday today; Guest Mike: happy to be a Yankee fan, and a St. Johns alum; GM: pleased to hear so many people are getting covid-19 vaccine shots!
President Gary's report:
Last week the club distributed 3500 masks to the schools of Westbrook, Old Saybrook and Lyme-Old Lyme. The masks were provided by the district who, working with the clubs, distributed thousands of masks.
Website: The signed contract will be sent in and work on the new website will begin soon
Alan Schwarz has ordered Rotary shirts and hats for those who signed up. Shirts are $33.70, hats are $11.95 from Russell Hampton.
Memorial Day Parade is on hold for now, a decision by the town hasn't been finalized yet. A small ceremony will probably still take place.
Golf Tournament: Nothing new to report
Wine Tasting: Nothing new to report
Shredding Event, John Aforismo
As you can see, John has already put in a lot of work on this new community service project
- Accomplished to date:
- Venue – High School, Date – Saturday April 17th, 9 AM to noon
- Donation - $5.00 per box (details on the box size to follow)
- Shredding company has been contracted – ProShred from Wallingford. $650.00 for the 3 hours.
- Police – I have sent a note to Chief Spera, he is on board with everything. He stated he will have a “procedure” for us to follow; i.e., gloves, masks, nothing I believe will be out of line.
- He may send over an officer to direct traffic
- Sent an e-mail to Amber at the interact club for assistance with Social Media – Facebook
- Advertising: Sent information to the following journals and received a thumbs up from each:
- Harbour News – Revised information that Pat and Pete put together (attached)
- Old Saybrook Events – Revised information that Pat and Pete put together.
- Old Saybrook Neighbors – A note for their calendar with website address.
- OS Rotary Website: Event to appear on Home page and Activities page
- Tent – Need to get the repaired canopy back
- Tables – a couple of 6-foot tables for under the tent – I have 2 I can bring that day.
- Sample Box with a BIG sign stating sample box and donation: $5.00
- Advertising
- Digital signs - Old Saybrook, Westbrook
- Chamber of Commerce newsletter
- Cones for the parking lot to direct traffic.
- Clean up
- Gary had a good idea about signs for our sponsors
- Contact other clubs – i.e., Lions Club, etc
- Should we purchase posters for business windows?
- Ask banks to have at the drive-in windows
- Accountants – this is tax time. Make a one pager – Pete will help and mail to each accounting firm, lawyers, etc.
Other ideas: What about having a raffle that day – Buy 4 $25.00 gift cards at restaurants and maybe charge 1 or 2 dollars and the winner will receive one?
What about providing each customer with an info packet – about the Rotary Club of Old Saybrook, website info, get some business to provide coupons; i.e., McDonalds, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, etc.
Pete did a nice flyer with a QR scan that links to the website page with the information.
Macaroni Dinner - nothing new, John will work on it after the Shredding Day event
Grant application: Pat Devito has signed and submitted the application. The grant money will go to Sarah, Inc.
Craft Fair: Chamber of Commerce has not issued a statement whether or not it will be taking place
Memorial Day Parade: Marty contacted the town and no decision has been made if the parade will happen. There will be a small ceremony for sure.
Zoom will be renewed at a cost of $160 -year.
Committees:
Foundation: Charlie Norz, nothing new to report
Membership: Pete will have a virtual meeting with our newest member Marc McDonough and several club members to learn more about Marc and to discuss our club and expectations.
Speakers: Bill McLaughlin has openings, since our planned speaker Carl Fortuna couldn't make today's meeting, perhaps he will speak at our next meeting
Jan Perruccio stepped up in Carl's absense to discuss the school portion of the town budget. Jan gave an amazing presentation complete with screen shares that were very informative. Despite the impact of the pandemic, Jan has made it a priority to keep the schools open for live, in-person classes. Creating a budget that meets state and federal requirements while keeping spending down is hard work. Thanks to this budget, the mill rate will either stay the same or decline slightly so taxes will not increase. Academic standards and student accomplishments are very high with lots of offerings for students which enables many options when deciding where they want to go and what they want to do. Two students have been accepted to the Coast Guard Academy something Jan has never seen in her carreer. Old Saybrook students rank 9th in the state, something we can all take pride in. English language enrollment has increased 6.39% since 2015 with Spanish speaking students the biggest demographic. There are 4 main categories in the school budget: Salaries, Benefits, Utilities, and Transportation. Teachers contracts are subject to binding arbitration. We are below the state average for the next 2 years. Salaries actually decreased relative to enrollment. Its the largest budget item by far - $17,443,458. Our average per pupil spend is $21,082 which is average in the state. Health insurance cost has not increased. The overall budget has increased to a negligible 0.24% over last year.
Jan ended by saying that the budget was created with the knowledge that many residents are on fixed incomes or are struggling to make ends meet so it was crucial to hold the line on costs. As Charlie Renshaw, a former teacher remarked, Jan and the entire staff and system should be applauded for their efforts - budgets are complicated. Keeping the schools open are an important aspect of education and benefits the kids, parents and everyone in so many ways that can't be calculated.
md
