Great Bay eLearning Charter School Minutes
March 16, 2006 – 4:30 PM
Great Bay eLearning Charter School
Present: Roy Morrisette, Lucy Cushman, Linda Henderson, Sara
Baer-Sinnott, Peter Stackhouse,
Ben Hillyard, Tom Wisbey and Cheryl McDonough
Absent: Kent Chamberlin
Administration: Arthur Hanson, Nathan Lunney and Steve Kossakoski
GBeCS Staff: Kristi Johnston, Jess Boyd, Shawn Bodi, Judy Graham and Jennifer Kinsey
1. CALL TO ORDER: Chair Morrisette called the meeting to order at 4:29 PM followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
1.1 Introductions: Board members introduced themselves.
2. NON-PUBLIC SESSION: None
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
3.1 January 19, 2006: Sara noted there was a correction on the minutes as she was not present. Motion by Sara Baer-Sinnott, seconded by Peter Stackhouse and unanimously board voted with no discussion to accept the January 19, 2006 minutes with her correction.
4. VISITORS: None
5. BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL
5.1 Financial Report – Nathan Lunney, Treasurer: Still just shy of $20,000 remaining in the second of three grants with money in final grant of $300,000 that is untouched with only a few minor encumbrances. Steve has worked up a budget that keeps us within the same basic constraints we have been operating in.
6. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE: None
7. SUPERINTENDENT'S/ADMINISTRATION’S REPORT
7.1 Enrollment Report/Registration for SY 2006-07 – Steve: passed out a Current Enrollment report, noting that enrollment is presently at 79 students and the maximum allowable for this year is 80 students. Students can continue to enroll this year until we reach 80.
7.2 Committee to Discuss Foundation Money – Steve: Bill that has passed the legislature and is now in the senate which will enable charter schools to receive their money right from the state’s education trust fund at $3500/student plus CPI and not require the monies to come from the sending districts. This would be very positive for us since we do not use the $3500 per pupil to fund the teachers since the Cooperative District has allowed the teachers to come from the Coop budget. Discussion continued and Linda noted next year we have juniors and we are looking at offering 4 year commitments to students as they enter the school and that we need to be on top of what the cost per student is. Nathan will bring forward a cost per pupil cost so we have an idea of what we are spending.
7.3 Teaching Principal/Teaching Staff Report – Cheryl McDonough & Staff:
· Shawn did a Social Studies update;
· Jess gave an updated Science report;
· Kristi discussed math;
· It was noted that Carol Murray, civil engineer from state might enjoy coming to speak to students since she works with bridges;
· Jennifer reviewed internship possibilities for the students and the seven students who are involved with the healthy snacks package that will be used to share with schools and will be called NH SNKS;
· George shared that he has 25 students (about 30% while regular high schools is about 12% of population are identified) who are identified and continues the cycle of annual IEP meetings and reviews;
· Judy explained that in technology they are trying out bridge construction software to prepare for the bridge project;
· Cheryl reported on GBeCS activities.
· Discussed next exhibition in May that will occur before Memorial Day and the theme is a miniature utopia. This will be made up of individual projects versus group projects. Cheryl also gave an English update.
· Kristi and Cheryl met with 8th graders and have had an overwhelming response regarding the charter school; may have to use the lottery for next year. Have received 15-20 phone calls from parents out of district who are interested in the school.
7.4 Student Representatives Report: Judy Graham and Cheryl discussed the two day US First Robotics competition in Connecticut that eight charter school boys attended (Dylan Chenevert, Christopher Cox, Justin Evans, Bryan French, Alex Inzenga, Tim LeClair, Gary Lemoine and AJ Tremblay) and they chaperoned. The students gave a robotics demonstration to the trustees. Additionally, Raya Al-Hashmi and Shelby Phoenix showed the movie they made for their Social Studies project.
7.5 NWEA Report – Cheryl/Kristi: Kristi discussed the Power Point presentation she had with the school’s NWEA results. Discussion followed on no comparative NWEA data for the students; whether or not the testing results of GBeCS could be compared to the same age group at EHS; that the value of this testing is the individual growth/goal development versus group comparison of growth; and GBeCS offers not only standardized test, but other project based work and exhibition nights as some of the ways to compare growth. Cheryl shared that they will be taking the PSAT tests this fall.
7.6 VLANH – Steve: Explained that we have received a visioning grant for a Virtual Learning Academy of NH, which will be a state wide, on-line school; will try to apply some of the things we have learned here if we go forward in this endeavor; will offer AP courses. Linda asked if adults could take AP courses and Steve said would not be sure unless they are involved in the high school curriculum. He explained you can have some controversy in having a school like this because there could be the scenario that you had a student at EHS who did not want to take math at EHS, but wanted to take through the virtual school. Trustees noted they would like to have full discussion on this at next month’s meeting. Steve noted that we do not have a charter, just a visioning grant. Ben added that we may want to touch base with his stepfather as he has a PhD in on-line learning.
8. EMPLOYEES
8.1 Nomination/Resignation of Professional Staff/Trustee: None
9. BOARD REPORTS/ POLICY
9.1 Review of Policies – Second Reading/Approval: Motion by Linda Henderson, seconded by Lucy Cushman and unanimously board voted with no discussion to approve the following policies: BDD – Board Superintendent Relationship; BGF – Suspension of Policies; DJC – Petty Cash Accounts; DM – Cash in School Buildings; GBCD-R – School Employee Background Investigation; GCQC – Resignation of Professional Staff; IJNDB – Technology Integration; JICK-R – Investigation of Harassment Complaint; JIH – Student Searches; and JIH-R – Student Searches.
10. CURRICULUM: None
11. BUILDING AND GROUNDS: None
12. PUPIL RELATED MATTERS: None
13. OLD BUSINESS: None
14. NEW BUSINESS: On a motion by Linda Henderson, seconded by Sara Baer-Sinnott and unanimously voted with no further discussion to have Roy Morrisette continue as a trustee representing the community business of Rockingham County. The trustees also discussed waiting until the next new set of parents come on board before soliciting input for a parent trustee. Tom asked for an update concerning the request from the Greenland superintendent to allow one of his students to attend GBeCS and it was explained that the student decided in the end not to come.
15. ADJOURNMENT: Motion by Lucy Cushman, seconded by Ben Hillyard and unanimously voted to adjourn at 6:17 PM. The next meeting is May 18th at 4:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Sally S. Boyd, Secretary