Tuesday, March 20, 2007 – 7:00 PM
Roy Morrisette Alumni Room – Exeter High School
PRESENT: Ray Trueman, Lucy Cushman, Kim Casey, Patty Lovejoy,
Kris Magnusson
Sally Oxnard, Townley Chisholm, Tomasen Carey, Barbara
RigordaEva
ABSENT: All present
ADMINISTRATION: Arthur Hanson, Nathan Lunney, Victor Sokul and Tom O’Malley
1. CALL TO ORDER: Superintendent Hanson called the meeting to order at 7:04 PM followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. He explained that this is the organizational meeting and he will defer public input until the board elects a chair and a vice chair.
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS/PUBLIC INPUT: Agenda item 3 preceded agenda item 2. Chair Oxnard asked public to limit their comments to five minutes each with a total of 15 minutes for announcements/public input. Carol Hazekamp (Stratham) asked why A/P calculus is being offered by GBeCS and would like to know why it is not offered at EHS. Chair Oxnard noted that Principal Sokul said he would look into this and address it at the March 27th meeting. Marilyn Decker (Stratham) works in Boston School and emphasized the importance of having A/P courses, especially A/P calculus. EHS does have A/P biology as a class for next year.
3. OATHS OF OFFICE, ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR:
Superintendent asked ERCSD Moderator
Charlie Tucker to swear in the new board members Tomasen Carey and Barbara
RigordaEva and incumbent Kris Magnusson. Superintendent asked board members to
introduce themselves and then opened the floor for nominations of chair.
Ms. Magnusson nominated Dr. Oxnard as Chair with a second by Ms. Casey. Since
there were no further nominations, Superintendent called to close the
nominations. Motion by
Mr. Chisholm, seconded by Ms. Magnusson to close the nominations.
Superintendent called for a vote: unanimous. Superintendent turned the meeting
over to Chair Oxnard who called for nominations for Vice Chair. Motion by
Townley Chisholm, second by Ms. RigordaEva to nominate Ms. Magnusson as Vice
Chair. Motion by Ms. Carey, second by Mr. Chisholm to close the nominations.
Chair Oxnard called for a vote: unanimous.
4. CHAIR’S REPORT
4.1 Recognition of Dan D’Amato – Exeter Police Department Officer of the Year: Chair Oxnard called on Principal Sokul to recognize Officer D’Amato who is the EHS Resource Officer and has been selected as the Exeter Police Officer of the Year. Principal Sokul noted all Office D’Amato does at EHS and what a tremendous help he is to both the staff and students at the school. Exeter Police Chief Rich Kane then spoke to how the Officer of the Year is selected noting that Officer D’Amato was chosen by his peers and that speaks to how his fellow officers view the outstanding job he does at both EHS and for the Town of Exeter. On behalf of the ERCSD Board, Chair Oxnard presented a Certificate of Recognition to Officer D’Amato.
4.2 March 13, 2007 Voting Results: Chair Oxnard reviewed the results of the March 13th noting all articles passed. Mr. Lunney further noted that members to the Budget Advisory Committee need to be appointed by Moderator Tucker and interested individuals should send a letter of interest or contact Attorney Tucker as he has fifteen (15) days from March 13th election to make the appointments. The fifteen days will end the first of next week.
4.3 Appointments to SAU 16/ERCSD Committees
4.3.1 SAU Superintendent Search Committee: Motion by Ms. Magnusson to nominate Mr. Chisholm as the board representative to the committee since he has been our board representative with the Superintendent Evaluation Committee. Chair Oxnard noted since she could appoint, she would go ahead and appoint Mr. Chisholm.
4.3.2 SAU Technology Committee: No one available to fill at this time.
4.4 Board Meeting March 27, 2007: Chair noted this will be decided as we go through the agenda items.
4.5 School Board Retreat Date (June 16th or June 23rd ): Superintendent noted these are comparable dates from last couple of years. Board was in consensus to hold the retreat on Tuesday June 12th starting at 3:30 PM at Roy Morrisette Alumni Room.
4.6 Student Board Representatives’ Report: John Atsalis reported on student activities at EHS.
5. SUPERINTENDENT/ADMINISTRATION REPORT
5.1 Principals’ Reports:
5.1.1 Principal O’Malley shared a copy of the CMS Paycheck Newsletter (see Attachment #1 pdf) and reported on events at CMS. He also shared Title I Onsite Review Final Report Highlights explaining that CMS passed with flying marks and had no compliance issues and commended Melanie Faulkner, Karen Mullen and Barbara Loh for all their hard work on this review. Discussion on status of using PowerSchool at both CMS and EHS for accessing of grades by parents followed. EHS will probably not be ready for that aspect of PowerSchool to be up and available until sometime in the first quarter of 2007-08 since there is a lot of training and integration that has to occur. CMS has been using PowerSchool which is generating their report cards, but feel it will be a while before parental access will be in place.
5.1.2 Superintendent noted that the SAU was able to purchase AlertNow calling system that will allow us to make 6000 phone calls in two minutes and has the ability to contact up to three phone numbers, including email addresses, for parents. Next Monday, March 26th the SAU Administrative Team will be meeting to define the protocol for using this system to ensure we do not overuse. AlertNow allows you to call students based on groups such as drama, basketball, etc. and will be a great way to communicate throughout the district, particularly for school cancellations, etc.. We are able to take info from PowerSchool and transfer it into AlertNow.
5.1.3 Ms. Magnusson asked both Principals Sokul and O’Malley if there are set days where faculty members of area elementary schools meet with CMS faculty and CMS faculty meet with EHS faculty. Mr. Sokul noted that EHS has already gone to CMS and Mr. O’Malley shared that the dates when the CMS Guidance Counselors will be going to each elementary school for their presentations will be put on their PowerSchool Parent Portal. He also believes a 5th grade orientation night has also been established in May for parents to come to CMS.
5.1.4 Mr. Sokul gave his EHS activities reports and shared an update on the following committees: Mission Statement Committee had first organizational meeting last week; Parent Advisory Group has begun; and Attendance Committee is getting off the ground with first meeting this Monday night at 6:00 PM in Principal’s Conference Room. All committees have student, parent and staff representation and he would welcome more members. He also discussed his thoughts on the current attendance policy. Question was asked if EHS has any concerns /comments with students coming from mixed ability grouping to leveling. Mr. Sokul noted the high school relies heavily on CMS recommendations for placing of student, but do allow parents to override those recommendation. When asked how often students can move within levels during the school year, Mr. Sokul explained that the school does discourage the movement of levels unless there are extenuating circumstances and more often than not, if students move between levels, they tend to move down a level versus up.
5.2 SAU Office Renovations: Superintendent reported on move of SAU Office to Tuck Learning Campus, noting the move will occur sooner than initially expected.
5.3 New School Board Orientation – April 5, 2007 – 6:30 PM: Superintendent explained that this date is not going to work and are now looking at April 12th. He will send information out this week to new board members to see if they are available. The meeting will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at SAU Office. The New Hampshire School Boards Association Orientation is on May 3rd in Concord.
5.4 Nominations and Resignations: None at this time.
6. SAU 16/ERCSD COMMITTEE REPORTS
6.1 SAU 16 Technology Committee – Next meeting March 30th: Superintendent will report on these meetings for remainder of year.
6.2 SAU 16 Policy Committee Meeting – Next meeting March 19th – 7:00 PM: Superintendent noted had a meeting last evening and discussed Extended Learning Opportunities which will come back to the SAU Policy Committee and then to boards for a first reading. Committee spent time on pandemic plan and discussed in case of a pandemic, our capacity as a school district to educate students at their home. Will be discussing the pandemic plan with SAU administrators and nurses next Monday. Next SAU Policy Committee meeting is April 16th at 7:00 PM at the SAU Office.
6.3 SAU 16 Chairs Meeting – Next meeting April 18, 2007 – 5:00 PM: Superintendent spoke with SAU Joint Chair Anne Marie Chesno and she would like to have the next meeting on April 4th. The next SAU Joint Board meeting is Monday, May 21st at 7:00 PM at the new Exeter High School, Roy Morrisette Alumni Room.
6.4 SST Governing Board – Next meeting March 26, 2007: No report at this time.
6.5 Great Bay eLearning Charter School – met on February 22, 2007: Ms. Lovejoy reported that the trustees discussed the expected enrollment for next year; opening the enrollment to other districts since their will be space; and reviewed course selections for next year.
7. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
7.1 February 13, 2007 – Board Meeting: Motion by
Ms. Lovejoy, seconded by Mr. Chisholm and unanimously approved with no
discussion to accept the
February 13, 2007 minutes as presented.
8. NON-PUBLIC SESSION: None at this time.
9. ADJOURNMENT: Motion by Ms. Magnusson, second by Mr. Chisholm and unanimously voted with no discussion to adjourn at 8:27 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Sally Boyd, Secretary