SAU Joint Board Chairs Meeting Minutes
June 18, 2008 – 5:00 PM
SAU Conference Room
Present: Townley Chisholm, Kathy McNeill, Ray Trueman, Charlie Gargaly, Dave Miller, Cheryl Camacho, Mike Price and Bruce Scamman
Administration: Arthur Hanson, Paul Flynn, Walter Pierce, Jerry Frew, Steve Kossakoski and Nathan Lunney
Other Board Members Present: John Hazekamp and Liz Faria
SAU Joint Board Vice Chair Chisholm opened the meeting at 5:06 PM.
Motion by Ray Trueman, seconded by Bruce Scamman to go into non-public session under RSA 91-A:3II (a) at 5:08 PM followed by roll call vote with all members voting in the affirmative. Walter, Steve and Jerry left the room and Skip and Paul remained. John Hazekamp and Liz Faria remained for the non-public session.
The chairs came out of non-public session at 6:40 PM.
1. Dr. Brian Wazlaw, SAU 16 Chemical Hygiene Plan – deferred until August or September meeting.
2. Resignation of Jerry Frew, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Assessment: Superintendent noted he would recommend the chairs accept Jerry Frew’s resignation with deep regret as he moves onto superintendent of SAU 65 (see Attachment #1 pdf). Motion by Dave Miller, seconded by Charlie Gargaly and unanimously voted to accept with deep regret the resignation of Assistant Superintendent Jerry Frew. On behalf of the SAU Joint Board, Dave Miller presented Jerry with a parting gift and noted the following:
He has served SAU 16 for eight years, three as principal of the Cooperative Middle School and five as assistant superintendent for curriculum and assessment; he has served on many state committees and held the position of president of the NH School Principals and will serve as president of the NH School Superintendents for 2008-09; he will be remembered for his attention to detail and also for his numerous curriculum initiatives that he has overseen during his five years as assistant superintendent; and he will begin his duties as superintendent in Keasarge Regional School District #65 which consists of the towns of Bradford, Newbury, New London, Springfield, Sutton, Warner and Wilmot on July 1, 2008. We wish him the best and thank him for all of his service to SAU 16.
Jerry thanked everyone for the opportunity to serve eight years in SAU 16 and feels he may look back and see these years as the best of his career.
3. Establishment of a SAU Pre-School Committee: Superintendent asked if chairs wanted to begin the committee this summer or wait until the fall to begin. Discussion followed concerning that this is such a big issue that it would be beneficial to get the names to Pat before the summer so the committee could begin; if Pat could email all the chairs with some information on this committee such as number of members from each board, make up of members, i.e., principals, board, parents, school SPED people, etc.; committee’s charge, possibly an informational meeting prior to formation of committee so people interested could understand what their charge would be, etc. Discussion on teachers or SPED school individuals working on the committee over the summer and how the would be compensated with Paul Flynn explaining that their time can be put towards professional development credits on their salary schedule. Ray noted Coop should probably have someone on the committee also just to stay abreast of what the committee is considering. Sally will let Pat know the information she needs to send out to the chairs.
4. SAU 16 Draft Goals: Superintendent noted these draft goals will be used at the various board retreats, etc (see Attachment #2 pdf) and this draft is from the May SAU Joint Board. He asked if any chairs had any input into the wording of these goals. Bruce noted he felt that goals 1 through 5 are goals that each board should be addressing in their own districts and goals 6 through 9 are new goals and are directed at the SAU Joint Board for 2008-09. Bruce left at 6:05 PM and noted John will be taking his place at the table. Nathan noted that in goal 6, from the “and” on, the goal is repetitious and that last part could be removed so goal would read, “To increase the awareness and opportunity for participation of the entire SAU Joint Board in the annual development of the SAU.” Regarding goal #7, discussion followed on what various elementary schools have regarding either a DARE program or having the information embedded in their curriculum. Concern was expressed about the need for a SRO at the middle school and the Coop Board not pursuing it. The Coop Board will be fully developing the wording of this goal at their August retreat. No additional changes to the draft goals were made.
5. HR Report – Paul: Paul report on the new professionals processed to date through the central office and that HR is seeing more new hires coming from communities who are having significant budget discussions that have affected their school budgets. Discussion followed on new superintendent not immediately planning on replacing Jerry’s position and that the final decision on the position, with the recommendation of the superintendent, would be made by the SAU Joint Board. Paul explained that Mike has asked him not do advertise right now and that Mike is conscious of the budget, but he has made no reference he is not going to fill the position.
6. Technology & Research Report – Steve: Shared that for last year and a half CMS has been training students as Internet Safety mentors and recently some of those students visited Swasey where they met with students and discussed Internet safety and did a really good job. He then reviewed three two-day summer teacher driven workshops that will be held on digital portfolios at three different locations – CMS, EHS and Swasey. Additionally, at year end, IT staff meets with all school technology coordinators to review what needs to be done over the summer - all computers are cleaned, dusted and re-imaged so it is a very busy time. Steve has met with Laura Nelson on two different occasions for updates on what is going on so she is updated on the position. Comment that one of chairs understood that the student portfolios are only as good as the material contained in them and what are the guidelines for the materials we will be putting in our student portfolios. Steve noted that we are not using the portfolio as an assessment tool, but as a student’s reflection of what they have learned over a period of time.
7. Curriculum & Assessment Report – Jerry: Jerry’s transition notes will be in a packet so everyone can see status of various committee curriculum work; NWEA testing will only be done at CMS and EHS in the spring and when and if they fill his position, he will be available to fill in whoever follows in his footsteps.
8. Fiscal – Nathan: Given the public discourse over the last couple of months, Nathan passed out excerpts from the most recent audit of SAU 16 (see Attachment #3 pdf). Noted this is a clean audit with no identifiable weaknesses except in the areas where purchase orders are dated after the receipts and this does involve the outside districts. Discussed currently looking into “procurement card” solution for this problem and explained how the card would work. He hopes to spend next year researching the concept and finding a pilot card to use. In this, the piece that pays you money is that every time a PO is issued that turns into a check, there are numerous steps of time and personnel involved to issue that check, and the cost of reducing that time and personnel is where the savings is recognized.
9. SST Renovations Update – Walter: SST is 78% complete and have 8 programs that will be completed over the summer with biggest program being culinary arts. The renovation is still on target to transition to teachers sometime in August. ERCSD hopes to close with Squamscott Community Commons by June 30th.
10. From the Floor: Cheryl had a visitor come to last EK meeting that was concerned with use of pesticide being sprayed on grounds and was wondering what different boards do about this and have any other boards had issues with spraying outdoors. Chairs noted that most of their schools spray in conjunction with the town although Town of Brentwood only sprays certain areas and when they feel there are concerns. Newfields school does its own spraying if they feel it is necessary. Superintendent noted this same individual will be at the SAU Policy Committee meeting tonight. Not really an SAU decision, since most towns control what spraying goes on around schools and it is very individualized.
Motion by Dave Miller, seconded by John Hazekamp and unanimously voted to adjourn at 6:50 PM.
Minutes taken by,
Sally Boyd, Secretary