Unapproved
Great Bay eLearning Charter School Trustee Meeting Minutes
October 7, 2004 – 4:00 PM
Great Bay eLearning Charter School
56 Linden Street (EHS Annex) - Exeter
TRUSTEES: Roy Morrisette, Lucy Cushman, Peter Stackhouse, Tom Wisbey, Kent Chamberlin and Linda Henderson
ADMINISTRATION/STAFF: Arthur Hanson, Steve Kossakoski and Tony Baldasaro
VISITORS: Kathy Bailey and Peg Warner
1. CALL TO ORDER: Chair Morrisette called the meeting to order at 4:10 PM.
1.1 Introductions: Trustees and staff present introduced themselves along with visitors.
1.2 Nomination of Trustee: Superintendent discussed his interest in putting Ben Hillyard’s name into nomination as a trustee and reviewed background information on him. Motion by Lucy Cushman, seconded by Tom Wisbey to place in nomination Ben Hillyard as a Trustee of GBeCS. Discussion followed that the final total number of trustees for the school will be eleven (11) and Ben would bring current number to seven (7). Also reviewed how Ben would fit into the educational/community/parental breakdown of trustees that had been submitted in the charter application. The Trustees voted unanimously in favor of the motion.
2. NON-PUBLIC SESSION: None at this time.
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
3.1 August 26, 2004: It was noted that the minutes were accidentally omitted from the trustee’s packets and will be brought forward at the next meeting.
4. VISITORS: No discussion.
5. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE: None at this time.
6. SUPERINTENDENT'S/ADMINISTRATION’S REPORT
6.1 Open Houses – Skip: Explained the timeline for the furniture and reviewed the open house dates. Linda Henderson arrived. Tony explained advertising being done on the open houses and handed out a sample of the brochure that was mailed out to all 9th grade parents and will also go to 9th grade students. The Trustees decided who among them would be present at each of the open houses.
6.2 Use of Facility – Skip: Explained how would like groups to use the facility and have already scheduled a couple of organizations to meet here.
6.3 Staff Preparation – Steve: Tony reviewed that staff has been meeting to work on curriculum units to prepare for open house; training on is being done technology; and that their biggest push will be finalizing the humanities unit.
6.4 Revised GBeCS Application – Steve: Passed out packets they will give out at open house. Noted the applications had been revised and it was decided that applications will be taken before 1st quarter grades are received since we can always get those records if needed...
6.5 Publicity – Steve: Working with public relations firm – Highpoint Communications; passed out GBeCS Core Messages and What is a Charter School. Decided that it is important to considering emphasizing in the information you give out the relationship and support between the Charter school and EHS and the ERCSD Board and community.
6.6 Asbestos Inspection – Steve: Explained how much easier it was for the Charter school to meet the asbestos inspection requirement because our school is affiliated and located within a school building that has already gone through this process.
6.7 Post Secondary Admissions – Steve: Reviewed what he has researched to date with regard to how post secondary schools view charter schools; requirements needed by charter schools for post secondary admissions; that most colleges still use GPA’s (another reason to maintain grades); have found that oftentimes a college might look twice at a student who went to a charter school or was home schooled since they often are very good students.
7. EMPLOYEES
7.1 Nomination of professional staff: None at this time.
7.2 Support position hiring: Discussed their
hiring of Rick Chretien’s in technical support and his educational background
in English and presently working on his CAGS.
8. BOARD REPORTS/ POLICY
8.1 Review of policies, first reading: Steve noted that were nine policies in your packet that are being presented for a first reading. All of these policies came from policies that the SAU has reviewed and most of these are mandated by law. No substance changes at this point except to change board member to trustee and wording so they make sense for a charter school. Any policies coming forward with major changes will show those changes underlined. Motion by Tom Wisbey, seconded by Linda Henderson and unanimously voted with no further discussion to approve the following policies for a first reading: AC - Nondiscrimination/Equal Opportunity; ACE: Nondiscrimination on Basis of Handicap/Disability; ADC - Tobacco Products Ban; AFA - Evaluation of Board Operational Procedures; BGA - Policy Development System; BGC - Policy Review and Evaluation/Manual Accuracy Check; G. BGE - Policy Dissemination; BHDA - Written Communication; BHDB - Electronics Communication.
9. CURRICULUM
9.1 Curriculum plan
A. Humanities and Wellness: Tony reviewed the curriculum plans to date noting that Jennifer Kinsey is going to work on developing a mind body balance curriculum.
10. BUILDING AND GROUNDS
10.1 Facility progress to date: Steve gave an overview of where the facility plans are and passed out three handouts on Linux operating systems since the Charter school will be using Linux.
11. PUPIL RELATED MATTERS: None
12. OLD BUSINESS: None
13. NEW BUSINESS
13.1 Presentation of Trustees’ Responsibilities: There was to be a Power Point presentation on board orientation but Skip was unable to run the program so will do at next meeting.
A. Brief biography: for Website: Skip discussed what information we would like on the GBeCS and SAU Websites on the Trustees and it was decided that Sally will first email what we are thinking of putting on the Websites and each Trustee can review the information and approve it being posted.
B. Contact information: Discussed putting trustees work e-mail addresses and their work address on Website not home information like board members have listed since they are elected officials.
13.2 Next Trustees Meeting – November 4, 2004: Please email Sally if there are any agenda items you would like for the next meeting. Linda will not be at this meeting due to a conflict with the EHS Principal Search Committee.
14. BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL
14.1 Post Charter Grants – Steve: Applied and received okay for $65,000 from DOE and have not received monies from state; our extension application for September 30th deadline to spend current $300,000 has still not been received; and have applied for additional $200,000 and still waiting for that.
15. ADJOURNMENT: Motion by Linda Henderson, seconded by Peter Stackhouse and unanimously voted to adjourn at 5:05 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Sally Boyd, Secretary