“Unofficial” Minutes of
the
August 17, 2006, CBMS Office Meeting
Room
The meeting was called to order by Chair Dale Smeltzer at 6:07 p.m.
In attendance:
School Board: Dale Smeltzer, Susan Flynn, Sherry Ziemke, Dawn Poitras, Michael Roche
Administration:
Public: none
TBPS Renovation:
Don Schneider reported that the curbs went in today. They
are scheduled to pave next week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Susan Flynn
asked Don what his biggest concerns were before school starts. Don said traffic
flow, sidewalks and exiting from the building. Susan asked if the TBPS website
could be updated to update the public about the project. Don said that they
would do this, and also that an update was to be mailed to all families. He
also said that the site had been visited by members of the
Architect John Alden said that he has lots of praise for the work being done by the DEW Construction firm. Business Manager John Pike reviewed Construction Project financials and reported an Owner’s Contingency of $311,154 at this point. Architect John Alden said that there will likely be a savings from the Contractor’s Contingency as well.
There was general discussion about the communication process and the chains of command for the construction project.
John Pike handed out a summary of the Change Orders. John Alden said that we are on target with respect to the contingency. Susan Flynn asked the other board members if the Ed. Leader’s authorization to approve change orders should be lowered from $10,000 to $8,000. Dawn Poitras said that she did not see a need for this as long as we are staying within the established contingency. Dale Smeltzer asked John Alden to keep the board apprised of just where they are with each component of the job in regards to contingency. John Pike passed out a sheet entitled “Cash Flow and Interest Earnings and Expense.
Budget Development
Goal
Dale Smeltzer passed out a sheet entitled Budget Development Goal First Draft. She said that this is a process to look at staffing needs for the budget for the 08-09 school year and future years. Ken suggested that it be called Multi-Year Budget Development Goal. Sherry asked how this process will coordinate with the strategic planning process. Dale said that this is an on-going process where the parts will feed on each other. Superintendent McNamara shared that this was similar to the process advocated by Dr. Ray Proulx of UVM called Goals Based Budgeting. Dale asked board members and administrators to read the draft and prepare suggestions in preparation for the September 7th School Board Meeting.
Action Plan
The next item was the Action Plan. Barbara Tomasi-Gay handed out a draft of the Action Plan that she and her committee developed this summer. She had previously e-mailed this to board members however not all had received it. She asked Board members to become more familiar with it so that we could discuss it at the meetings in September. Dale said that the Action Plan goes well with the previous discussion about budget development. She asked board members to review the Action Plan draft and to e-mail questions to Barbara. Dale said that the comments will be reviewed at the next meeting. Dawn Poitras asked about professional development needs that are indicated in the plan and if staff members are involved with working with other staff members on identified needs. Sherry asked if the Action Plan should be approved at the next meeting. Ken asked if the board should give preliminary approval so that we indeed have met the School Quality Standard (of annual review of the Action Plan). Dale said that this Action Plan Development is an evolving process. Sherry asked about timelines in the plan and whether we should have more definitive timelines so we can know if we’re “on track.” Again, Dale asked board members to come up with comments and be ready to discuss at the next meeting. Dawn Poitras asked if we should report progress (toward meeting Action Plan goals) each month. Dale said if the staff is going to be getting a monthly update, perhaps the school board should get an update as well and that the frequency of updates should be discussed.
Ed. Leaders’ Report
Don Schneider reported a need to ask an Instructional Assistant (who is also a certified Teacher) to pick up teacher responsibilities for one math class per day in grade 3.
Ken Page said that he had some personnel and hiring needs to
discuss in Executive Session. He also reported that Crossett Brook had applied
for and received two important certifications. One is an Indirect Water
Discharge permit (until 2011) and the other is an amended Land Use Permit (now
listed as
Superintendent’s
Report
He also told the board that Washington West had received an ESL Grant for $10,000 to pay for after school tutoring services for new ESL students as well as staff training and mileage for the ESL parents to come to school for meetings.
He handed out
Bob also explained the State Accountability System for figuring our adequate Yearly Progress of schools. He said that this year, our Waterbury-Duxbury Schools are doing well above the state average for regular education. However, students with disabilities are not meeting the adequate yearly progress requirements. He said that this is really a technicality since all schools with greater than 40 students with disabilities made the list of schools not making adequate yearly progress, and only schools with 40 or more students within a particular category are held responsible for progress for that category of students. In fact, Harwood got off the list this year, based on a technicality too, since their number of students with disabilities dipped below 40, thereby removing them from being measured for these students. But, despite the technicality, he urged our schools to take the designation seriously and to continue to work to make progress. He reported that Special Education Coordinator, Donarae Cook will be looking to coordinate special services between the two schools. He asked board members what they had heard from the community. No one reported receiving calls. Bob said that the State Department of Education would be having a series of meetings this school year for those receiving this designation, and he reported that we are going to participate in these meetings and see if extra Title I funding is available. There was some discussion about writing an article for the paper, but Bob’s advice now is to address people’s questions as they come up. He urged board members to redirect people with questions to him. He did urge the board to put information about this in the annual town report.
In other business,
Ed. Leader, Don Schneider, read a letter from John and Lini Alberghini requesting
a waiver of tuition to allow their son,
ACTION ITEMS
At 8:21, the board went into executive session (Motion by Susan Flynn and seconded by Sherry Ziemke, passed unanimously) to discuss personnel. At 8:36, the board agreed to leave Executive Session.
Action following Executive Session
At 8:37, the Board again went into Executive Session to discuss employment contracts.
(Motioned by Susan Flynn and seconded by Sherry Ziemke, passed unanimously).
At 8:57, the board agreed to leave executive session. There was no action following this executive session.
Given the tight timeline for filling the now-vacant Art Teacher position at Crossett Brook, the board directed Ken Page to phone poll school board members once he has found a suitable candidate.
With no additional business before it, the board adjourned at 8:59 (Motioned by Michael Roche and seconded by Dawn Poitras). The vote to approve was 5-0-0.
Respectfully submitted,
Ken Page
Clerk
Pro-tem