Great Bay eLearning Charter School Minutes

June 19, 2008 – 4:30 PM

Tuck Learning Campus, 2nd Floor, Room 216

 

 

Present:          Roy Morrisette, Patty Lovejoy, Ben Hillyard, Lucy Cushman, Bill Perkins and Anne Sloan, Sara Baer-Sinnott and Kim Casey

 

Absent:            Tomasen Carey and Kent Chamberlin

 

Administration:           Arthur Hanson, Steve Kossakoski, Peter Stackhouse

 

 

 

1.   CALL TO ORDER: Chair Morrisette called the meeting to order at 4:34 PM followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

2.   NON-PUBLIC SESSION: None at this time

 

3.   APPOINTMENT OF NEW TRUSTEE

3.1  Nomination of two trustees – Skip Hanson: Superintendent would like to nominate Steve Kossakoski and Kim Casey as trustees.  Steve will be a as a good conduit going forward, especially with his on-going consulting with VLACS.  Motion by Lucy Cushman, seconded by Patty Lovejoy and unanimously voted to appoint Steve Kossakoski as trustee.  Superintendent further shared that Kim Casey would be a parent trustee along with Anne Sloan and is also a NH State Representative who sits on the Education Committee and is a member of the Task Force on Education Adequacy in Concord and would be a great asset to the trustees.  (Sara arrived)  Motion by Lucy Cushman, seconded by Patty Lovejoy and unanimously voted to appoint Kim Casey as a trustee.

 

4.   APPROVAL OF MINUTES

4.1  April 24, 2008: Motion by Ben Hillyard, seconded by Sara Baer-Sinnott and voted 6-0-1 (Cushman abstained as not present at meeting) to approve the minutes of April 24, 2008 as presented.

 

5.   VISITORS: None at this time

 

6.   BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL

6.1 End of Year Financial Report – Nathan Lunney:  Kim Casey arrived.  Superintendent noted could not be present and he passed out the June 19, 2008 Treasurer’s Report (see Attachment #1 pdf).  At the last trustees meeting the trustees agreed that GBeCS should separate their accounts from ERCSD.  Because Peter and Cheryl’s salaries go through ERCSD and we need to make sure NH Retirement is all set with the separation, this process should be finalized by the end of July or first of August.  Additionally, all SAU 16 districts are switching July 1st from Primex3 to NH Local Government Center for pooled risk management coverage (item #4), but this will not affect GBeCS (item #4).  Kim spoke to HB 39 which she foresees passing and this bill in 2009-2010 approve up to $5400/student.  Next year GBeCS will still receive $3800/student from the state.  Peter reviewed his enrollment projections for next year and noted a potential for 117 students.   

 

7.   GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE: None at this time

8.   SUPERINTENDENT'S/ADMINISTRATION’S REPORT

8.1  EDies School of Promise Award – Peter Stackhouse: Peter spoke to receiving this award for GBeCS and he and Cheryl were quite honored to receive this award from the New Hampshire Excellence in Education.  They were pleased to be the only school present who had a student speak to their award, senior Emilio Jimenez.

8.2  Incorporation of GBeCS as a Non-Profit - Skip Hanson/Steve Kossakoski: Steve noted that part of state’s requirement for a charter school is that they incorporate as a non-profit.  He has recently just done the paperwork for VLACS and the process costs about $6000.  Steve noted that the knowledge he gained in his research on becoming a non-profit can be used for the GBeCS process and should help with the costs.  The first step of having articles of agreement has already been done and then a special meeting is required, registering with the state and then filling out a very time consuming 501(c) application which costs about $700.  Once the application is submitted, it takes about six months for the state to award the status.  Patty noted that she has done 501(c) applications in the past and can assist Steve and others in accomplishing this.  Motion by Kim Casey, seconded by Lucy Cushman to approve going forward with incorporating GBeCS as a non-profit.  Discussion followed if there are any downsides to becoming a non-profit and it was noted that there are some extra reports required, but usually your auditor will fill those out.  Trustees then discussed moving all business functions to GBeCS.  Chair Morrisette and trustees Patty and Lucy will meet with Mike Morgan sometime in late July or early August to discuss his future thoughts on GBeCS.  With no further discussion, Chair Morrisette called for a vote: unanimous.  Motion by Kim Casey, seconded by Lucy Cushman and unanimously voted to hire the law firm of Soule, Leslie, Kidder, Sayward & Loughman to do legal work to incorporate the school. 

 

8.3  Principals’ Report – Cheryl McDonough/Peter Stackhouse: Peter discussed that GBeCS is pretty far along creating their school portfolios through professional development with Victoria Barnhart workshops; noted their re-accreditation will be coming up and that it is difficult to get hard data on how community feels about the schools and shared feedback they received on their teachers predictions of student responses, student responses, high school parents’ responses and staff responses to their Education for the Future surveys (see Attachment #2 pdf).  Parent surveys were mailed out with return stamped envelopes, but only received about a 35% return while student surveys were done in their advisory groups.  Today was last day of school and reviewed summer activities/professional development plans for staff.  No questions.

 

8.4 GBeCS Policies: None at this time

     

9.   EMPLOYEES: None at this time

 

10.  BOARD REPORTS

 

11.  BUILDING AND GROUNDS

 

12.  PUPIL RELATED MATTERS

 

13.  OLD BUSINESS

 

14.  NEW BUSINESS: Peter has been contacted by an architectural firm in Boston who is donating some furniture to school and will save them around $5000 in items they would have needed to purchase.  Jessica Boyd, science teacher has resigned and trustees need to accept that resignation.  Motion by Patty Lovejoy, seconded by Bill Perkins and unanimously voted to accept with regret the resignation of Jessica Boyd and best wishes with her new job.  With 8th graders coming in next year, Peter noted that they have changed Jessica’s position and her replacement is Lisa Hammond who is transferring from EHS and will teach math and science, which both the GBeCS trustees need to approve. All resignations and new hires need to be brought forward to the ERCSD for their approval unless the position is paid out of GBeCS.  Motion by Patty Lovejoy, seconded by Kim Casey and unanimously voted that the trustees approve the hiring of Stacey Clark, English for a .5 position that will replace the decrease of .5 with Veronica Brooks-Sigler and Crystal Anilowski for the new .5 wellness/biology position for the 2008-2008 school year.  Discussion that trustees should give new superintendent hiring authority over the summer with the understanding he would bring forward those new hires at the August meeting.  Motion by Kim Casey, seconded by Lucy Cushman and unanimously voted to give Superintendent Mike Morgan authority to hire GBeCS staff over the summer and to bring forward new hires at the August meeting.

Superintendent noted that Patty as a member of the SAU Policy Committee will shepherd any new policies that need to come forward to GBeCS.  Also, at the end of each meeting, an item called “Agenda Items Going Forward”.  For the August meeting, it was noted that the following items need to be on the agenda: incorporation status; new policies; testing data going forward.  Peter shared that the school will need to develop a more strict attendance policy going forward and he will bring a draft to the August meeting keeping in mind that with staff also needs to decide at what point do you, the student, demonstrate to us that you don’t want to be a student here anymore.

     

15.  ADJOURNMENT – Next meeting is Thursday, August 21, 2008: Motion by Kim Casey, seconded by Sara Baer-Sinnott and unanimously voted to adjourn at 5:42 PM.

 

Minutes taken by,

Sally Boyd, Secretary