Exeter Region Cooperative School Board Meeting Minutes
PRESENT: Robin Scott, Greg Kann, Ray Trueman, Kim Casey, Patty Lovejoy, Lucy Cushman, Ralph Adler, Roy Morrisette and Linda Henderson
ABSENT: none
ADMINISTRATION: Arthur Hanson, Walter Pierce, Nathan Lunney, Gary Heald, Tom O’Malley and Dick Wendell
1. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Chair Casey called the meeting to order at 6:59 PM followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Board members introduced themselves.
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS/PUBLIC INPUT: None at this time.
3. CHAIR’S REPORT:
3.1 Introduction of Student Representatives: On behalf of the board, Chair Casey thanked Corey Baldwin, who is stepping down as one of the student representatives to the board for her participation and input to the board for the last two years. Kim noted that sophomore John Atsalis will be taking Corey’s place. Kim presented Corey with a certificate and her name plate. Senior Anne Krane will continue to serve on the board.
3.2 Channel 22 Presentation of New High School: Noted that Channel 22 now has a presentation by Walter Pierce, Lucy Cushman and Kim Casey on the new high school and hope to periodically update it for the viewing public.
4. SUPERINTENDENT/ADMINISTRATION REPORT – 35 minutes
4.1 Principals’ Reports: CMS Principal O’Malley reported on the open houses; upcoming CMS Math Nights on MathScapes with parents of 6th and 7th graders; PTO will not meet in October due to MathScapes night, but next meeting will be in November on Student Health Issues; second 6th grade parent Advisory Committee meeting tomorrow morning; and on last Friday’s early release day the CMS staff worked on the School Improvement Plan. EHS Principal Heald noted that NWEA testing for freshman and sophomore was completed; October 6th Open House; Linda Henderson arrived; upcoming student assembly with Norman Kunc, a well know inclusion advocate; and Anne Krane reported on the student activities.
4.2 Nominations and Resignations: In your packet were nominations for the extra duty assignments and superintendent would recommend approval as listed. Motion by Roy Morrisette, seconded by Greg Kann and unanimously voted with no further discussion to accept the Extra Duty Assignments and Stipends as presented.
4.3 Enrollments for CMS and EHS: John Atsalis arrived and Kim introduced John to the board. Nathan Lunney reported on the enrollments as of October 1st.
4.4 Breakfast for Legislative Candidates: On October 27th at GBeCS we will sponsor a breakfast for the SAU 16 district legislative candidates to discuss the potential financial impact of the voucher bill, charter school funding and educational funding in general in New Hampshire. The Board is invited to attend and please RSVP to Sally.
5. COMMITTEE REPORTS
5.1 Personnel, Policy and Communication: Chair Adler passed out the October 5th minutes even though they say October 4th; reviewed the items: public relations with Jennifer Kinsey writing the NewsLetter articles; 2005 delegate assembly; review of PP&C goals; NWEA; and Model United Nations field trip to New York that the board needs to approve that leave early on a Friday morning and return late Friday night. Motion by Ralph Adler, seconded by Roy Morrisette and unanimously board voted with no further discussion to approve the field trip request by EHS Social Studies Class to take a one day field trip to New York City for Model United Nations. Last agenda item is a request from Gary Heald to have a policy that any staff member, teacher or school board member with 15 or more years of employment would receive lifetime passes to events in recognition of service. Committee endorsed the concept, but did not feel this requires board approval.
5.2
Facilities: Chair Cushman reported that Jeff Gallant, abutter of
Old Town Farm Road met with the committee at 5:30 PM this evening to share his
concerns with noise control at the new high school; Walter reported on lighting
that is of concern to another abutter and that he is working with lighting
designers on this; November 9th 6:00 PM Facility meeting will be with Harriman
Associates to go over inside color schemes of new high school; Walter reported
on some ball stadium options; last meeting it was requested to look into the
cost of air conditioning the whole building and have found that it will be
extremely expensive and would delay opening the high school for 6 months and,
therefore, not feasible; still looking at possibly of a/c in cafeteria and will
be back to board to report on this. Have some change orders for the board to
consider this evening:
#11 practice field irrigation (ratification) $19,616.42
#12 additional fencing
a) 1675’ of 4’ fencing – entrance fields 27,151.00
)
b) 340’ of 10’ fencing – Old Town Farm Road field 9,957.00 )
37,108.00
#14 addition cost – custom color (includes $16,000 for windows,
balance for trim @ roof edge and wall paneling)
36,000.00
TOTAL
#11-13 $92,724.42
With the change orders approved at the last meeting (#4-10) that totaled
$280,486.60, this brings the total of change orders to date to $373,211.02
leaving a contingency balance of $1,486,281.98. Motion by Lucy Cushman,
seconded by Patty Lovejoy and unanimously board voted with no further discussion
to approve change orders #11 ($19,616.42), #12 ($37,108.00) and #14
($36,000.00) for a total of $92,724.42 with a contingency balance of
$1,486,281.98. The Superintendent acknowledged what a great job Walter is
doing as project manager, missing no details and the GMP that he brought
forward is a real credit to his hard work.
5.3
Curriculum and Philosophy: Chair Henderson passed out the minutes from the
September 28, 2004 meeting even though the sheet says October. She reviewed
the agenda items. The Committee would like board approval to propose using
some of the extra money we have from the Curriculum Coordinator position to
bring someone onboard at CMS to help oversee some of the changes in the math
curriculum. Motion by Linda Henderson, seconded by Lucy Cushman and
unanimously board approved with no further discussion to approve the position
recommended by the Superintendent for a CMS curriculum support facilitator in
math. The second agenda items was the discussion by Peter Stackhouse of
the NHEIAP tests; third item, moving from NHEIAP testing to NECAP testing; fourth
item, NWEA testing at schools; and last item, action taken on five
recommendations at CMS from last May ( i.e. beginnings of adult advocacy
program; number of 6th grade extracurricular activities; academic
schedule rearranged to gain 25 minutes a day; exploratory language program from
8th graders; teachers continuing to take differentiated instruction
workshops; and SAU-wide survey that CMS will send end of October). Next
meeting to be announced as she has conflict with 10/26 date.
5.4 Finance: Chair Lovejoy reported the committee met on October 6th; discussed whether or not needed to look at preliminary costs for expanding CMS should it be needed; adequate education grant final figures for 2004-05; and most of meeting devoted to 2005-06 budget process (teachers contract; debt service, transportation). Will be sending an agenda of what each committee meeting going forward will be discussing and next meeting is November 3, 2004.
5.5 Technology: Board representative Kann explained the committee met on October 8th and discussed the recent issues over phones and computers; technology plan being worked on since needs to be updated by 2006 with 5-1 student to computer ratio which we are close to having; professional development for staff and the infusion of technology and communication; next meeting Friday, 11/19.
5.6 Transportation: Nathan - SAU Bus Safety is meeting on 10/26 at 4:00 PM at SAU Office; October 18-22nd is National School Bus Safety Week and on 10/20 our carrier, First Student is hosting an pen house from 10:00 – 12 noon at their location on Epping Road
5.7 SAU Chairs: next meeting 10/20/04 at 5:00 PM.
5.8 SST: Linda reported that the September 27th meeting was quite lengthy and dealt with goal setting and also reviewed concerns with setting the calendar.
5.9 Linden Street Reuse Committee: Steering committee has met once and will meet again on September 18th and we will also schedule a full meeting of committee.
5.10 NCLB Committee: Roy reported that they have not met.
5.11 SAU 16 Policy Committee: Patty explained there is one section of policies that were inadvertently left off this agenda so you will receive these policies at the next meeting for a first reading. At the Policy Committee meeting on October 25th there is one last group of policies that have been set aside and will hopefully also come to this board for first reading in November and final reading in December. We will then have gone through all the policies to date and will set up a time table to review policies on a rotating basis.
5.12 Great Bay eLearning Charter School: Roy reviewed the open house dates; the staff has done an excellent job putting together the application packet and fact sheets and everything is getting ready; working on curriculum and getting anxious for the opening.
6. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
6.1 September 14, 2004 - Board Meeting: Motion by Greg Kann, seconded by Linda Henderson and unanimously board voted with no discussion to approve the minutes as presented.
7. NON-PUBLIC SESSION: None at this time.
8. ADJOURNMENT: Motion by Patty Lovejoy, seconded by Roy Morrisette and unanimously board voted to adjourn 8:01 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Sally S. Boyd, Secretary