January 11, 2007 – immediately following the Public Hearing on the Budget
Roy Morrisette Alumni Room – Exeter High School
PRESENT: Greg Kann, Lucy Cushman, Patty Lovejoy, Robin Scott, Kris Magnusson and Townley Chisholm
ABSENT: Ray Trueman, Kim Casey and Sally Oxnard
ADMINISTRATION: Arthur Hanson, Richard Wendell and Tom O’Malley
1. CALL TO ORDER: Chair Kann called the meeting to order at 8:11 PM.
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS/PUBLIC INPUT: None
3. CHAIR’S REPORT
3.1 ERCSD Deliberative Session – Thursday, February 8, 2007 - 6:00 PM Board Meeting Room 116 followed by Deliberative Session at 7:00 PM – Talbot Gym: Chair reviewed that the Deliberative Session will, as in years past, be held at the Talbot Gymnasium at the Tuck Learning Campus since that location is the only place we currently have a “live” feed for Channel 22.
3.2
Approval of FY 2008
Proposed ERCSD Budget: Motion by Ms. Lovejoy, seconded by
Ms. Scott and unanimously board voted with no further discussion to accept the
FY 2008 Proposed ERCSD Budget of $46,435,840 as presented. With the board approving the budget, “(The School
Board recommends $46,435,840 as set forth on said budget)” will be noted at
the end of Warrant Article #1.
3.3 Approval of FY 2008 Proposed ERCSD Warrant Articles: Motion by Ms. Magnusson, seconded by Ms. Cushman and unanimously board voted with no further discussion to note at the end of Warrant Article #2: “(The School board recommends this appropriation)”. Motion by Ms. Scott, seconded by Ms. Lovejoy and unanimously board voted with no further discussion to note at the end of Warrant Article #3: “(The School Board recommends this appropriation)”.
.
Chair Kann called on Mr. Wendell to speak to a request the board has received from Squamscott Community Commons (SCC) to place a construction trailer on the Annex site. Mr. Wendell discussed conversations he has had with Carol Aten of SCC regarding conversations she has had with the Town of Exeter on permits necessary to place the trailer in the Annex parking lot. If given the board’s approval, Ms. Aten has assured Mr. Wendell that she will have all necessary permitting in place prior to placing the trailer on the site. Mr. Wendell reviewed where the trailer will be placed and that it will not place a burden on the current parking for the Annex. Motion by Ms. Lovejoy, seconded by Mr. Chisholm and unanimously board voted with no further discussion to allow Squamscott Community Commons, once all permitting is in place, to place a construction trailer in the designated space of the Annex parking lot.
4. SUPERINTENDENT/ADMINISTRATION REPORT:
4.1 Report of CMS Math Focus Group: Mr. O’Malley spoke to the charge from the board to come up with three possible recommendations from the CMS Math Focus Group and passed out a statement from this group (see Attachment #1 pdf). He emphasized that some of the important points being made by this group are to continue to investigate instruction; time allotted for testing; programming; placement of students in math classes and to address class size. This Math Focus Group is very committed to this focus and would estimate an additional timeline of three or four more meetings. Discussion followed from the board, CMS teachers and CMS administration.
Superintendent noted that Mr. Wendell also needs to speak to the board on one more issue and that had to do with the final design of the building plaque to go on the outside entrance of the high school (see Attachment #2 pdf). Superintendent asked board members to get back to him by January 19th if they had any further comments or thoughts on the plaque so we can go forward with having the plaque engraved and mounted.
4.2 Approval of SAU 16 2007-2008 Calendar: Superintendent explained the calendar was not approved at the SAU Joint Board meeting in December and SAU Joint Board Chair Anne Marie Chesno has asked each of the SAU Joint Boards to individually approve the calendar so we may go forward with it. Motion by Ms. Lovejoy and seconded by Ms. Magnusson to approve the proposed SAU 16 Calendar for 2007-2008. Discussion followed. With no further discussion, Chair Kann called for a vote: unanimous
4.3 Approval of RUS Grant: Superintendent noted that our legal counsel has informed us that the board needs to vote to give him approval to sign the RUS Grant on behalf of the ERCSD Board. Motion by Ms. Lovejoy, seconded by Ms. Scott and unanimously voted with no further discussion to give the Superintendent the authority to sign the RUS Grant on behalf of the ERCSD Board.
4.4 Nominations and Resignations: None at this time
5. COMMITTEE REPORTS
5.1 Special Survey Committee - Next meeting January 17th – no report given.
5.2 Special Finance Committee – December 29, 2006 & January 4, 2007 meetings: Ms. Lovejoy reported the committee has finished their work.
5.3 Technology – Next meeting January 26th – no report given.
5.4 SAU Chairs – Next meeting January 17th – no report given.
5.5 SST – Next meeting January 29th – no report given.
5.6 Superintendent’s Evaluation Committee – December 27, 2006 meeting: Mr. Townley noted they finalized the evaluation form at this meeting.
5.9 SAU Policy Committee – Next meeting January 22nd – no report given.
5A. NEW BUSINESS – new agenda item that was overlooked: Chair Kann passed out a letter he received from the Town of Exeter (see Attachment #3 pdf). The letter has two requests. One request is to use the Talbot Gym for voting purposes (March 11, 12, 13 and 14, 2007). Discussion followed. Motion by Ms. Cushman, seconded by Ms. Lovejoy and unanimously board voted to honor the Town of Exeter’s request to use the Talbot Gymnasium for the March 13th election. Chair Kann explained that the second request is that the Town of Exeter if agreeable to entering into a cost-sharing agreement with the Board to facilitate the purchase of a third voting machine that would eliminate the need for hand counting of ballots from Kensington and East Kingston. After discussion, the board was in consensus to wait until we know what the shared purchase cost of a third voting machine would be before making a decision. Chair Kann shared that a Citizens Petition Warrant Article had been received stating: To see if the Towns comprising the Exeter Regional Cooperative School District will Vote to establish a Budget Committee according to the provisions of RSA: Chapter 32 providing for a Cooperative School District Budget Committee. Membership shall be composed of seven committee members; one member elected by each sending town and one representative appointed by the Exeter Regional Cooperative School Board. Only Mr. Chisholm had any other new business and he asked what the process was that math teachers were told they had to switch their math curriculum. Superintendent explained he could have a representative from the K-12 Math Committee come to the board and speak to that if he would like and Mr. Chisholm responded he would like that to occur.
6. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
6.1 December 12, 2006 – Regular Board Meeting: Motion by Ms. Lovejoy to approve the minutes of December 12, 2006 with one amendment: change agenda 4.3 Nominations and Resignations to reflect that all the resignations were due to retirements. Seconded by Ms. Scott. Since there was no discussion, Chair Kann called for a vote: unanimous.
7. NON-PUBLIC SESSION – Motion by Ms. Lovejoy, seconded by Ms. Cushman to go into non-public session under RSA 91-A:3II, a and c. Roll call vote taken with all board members answering in the affirmative at 9:18 PM.
8. ADJOURNMENT: Motion by Mr. Chisholm, seconded by Ms. Lovejoy and unanimously voted with no discussion to adjourn at 9:29 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Sally Boyd, Secretary