The Daily Five: Test Scores, Town Meetings, and Nuclear Emergencies

1. It's going to be another drenching day, with an 80 percent chance of rain that could add up to an inch or more, so watch for possible flooding in lowlying areas. Weather.com is predicting a high of 78 degrees and an overnight low of 67 degrees, with increasing humidity. There's a possibility of scattered thunderstorms throughout the day and into the evening, although the rain is likely to ease off tonight with the chance of rain dropping to 30 percent.

2. The Lyme-Old Lyme Board of Education will hold a special meeting tonight at 5 p.m. at the Central Office Conference Room for a prenegotiatons discussion with legal counsel in executive session. The regular board meeting will follow at 6:30 p.m. at the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School Cafeteria.

A few of the big items on tonight's agenda include the introduction of the 2012-2013 Teacher of the Year and of the 2012-2013 Non-Certified Staff Member of the Year. There will also be an educational report on 2012 CMT and CAPT testing results.

Overall, Lyme-Old Lyme School District students performed very well on the tests but some of the results raised questions. During a presentation of the preliminary report of results at a previous Board of Education meeting, educators said they were puzzled by a drop in the 6th grade writing assessments because the same students had been strong performers in 5th grade.

Based on the inconsistency, the school district was considering asking the state to rescore the test or to retest the students in October.  

3. East Lyme will hold a Special Town Meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall Upper Meeting Room to consider and act upon a resolution appropriating $680,000 for the Logger Hill Road Sewer Main Rehabilitation, which would require approval of the issuance of $680,000 in bonds to cover that cost.

Copies of the bond resolution is on file at the Town Clerk's office if you want to check it out before you vote. . The pipes, which are used by Waterford and East Lyme, are showing signs of collapse. Both towns will share the cost of repairing the sewer main. 

4. The regular East Lyme Board of Selectmen meeting will follow the town meeting. Items on tonight's agenda include transfering money in the budget to cover a comprehensive DUI enforcement program, a resolution that would allow the First Selectman to apply for a $400,000 Small Town Economic Assistance Grant, a discussion of , and continued discussion over whether the town should buy the . Should be fun! 

5. Speaking of Millstone, Old Lyme First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder took the opportunity of yesterday's Board of Selectmen meeting to praise all the Old Lyme first responders who took part in the recent emergency drill at the nuclear power plant in Waterford.

She also wanted to clarify recent news reports that noted Old Lyme was one of only two of the nine towns participating in the drill that were cited by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for failing to adequately prepare. FEMA, which evaluated the drill, had cited the town for not having enough dosimeters. These are used to measure personal radiation exposure.  

Reemsnyder said that the town had 20, which was the number that the state of Connecticut said was required but FEMA said that 40 were needed. The fault, she said, rests with the state and not with the town. 

"Should there be a weather or a nuclear emergency, the town is very prepared and ready to handle it," she said.