January 14, 2008 Minutes of Regular Meeting
Present:
Becky Auger, Board Member
Kristin McKeon, Board Member
Ege Cordell, Board
Member
Greg Blair, Board Member
Wayne Woolridge, Co-Superintendent
Timothy Ruehr, Business Administrator for
Towns
Sharyn D’Eon, Principal
Kathleen Selvidio,
Recording Secretary
Also present for all/portion
of meeting:
Catherine Weil taxpayer
Nancy Brooks taxpayer
Gregg Tewksbury taxpayer/presenter
1. Call to Order: Ms. Idelkope called the meeting to order at
5:45 p.m.
2. Celebrations: Big celebration given to Mr.
Ruehr and his wife Karen on the birth of their daughter, Greta Lynn.
6. Financial Report: Moved ahead on agenda, Mr. Ruehr needed to
attend another meeting.
Mr. Ruehr presented the General Fund Financial Report. Currently he reports a balance of $155,533,
with a recent out of district placement,this
could change to $120,000 - $130,000.
o Psychology Services deficit continues to grow, currently
-13,600.
o Special Educaiton Consult deficit
continues to grow.
o Balance on the Health line seems high, $22,000 is due to salary.
Food Service: Mr. Ruehr has met with the Food Service
Director, Pat Porter. He is unable to
make a determination at this point.
Needs to access more raw data, what he is seeing does to look right. Food Service is able to now access more
reports, this should help.
Ms. Idelkope asked about a
recent letter from the auditor regarding an increase in their audits.
Mr. Ruehr said that when he
spoke with the auditor he was told the increase was for the 2008-09 year. He hasn’t seen a bill yet.
Ms. Idelkope asked if we are
legally required to do an audit, could we just do a review?
Mr. Ruehr stated that we are
not “required”, but he does feel more comfortable with the size of our budget
having a CPA do the audit.
At this time the 2008/09
Budget Overview was handed out.
Ms. Cordell stated that the
Finance Committee recommended acceptance of checks #100345 – 1003523 in the
amount of $1,421,027.48.
Vote was taken, 5-0, motion
passed.
2. Celebrations:
Ms. D’Eon celebrated the new middle school report card system put in
effect by Mrs. Kristen Warner. Parents
seemed to like this new layout. Ms.
D’Eon commended Mrs. Warner and the middle school team for all of their hard
work.
Ms. Auger shared that she
now has a new job working with the Girl Scouts providing support.
3. Public Input I: Catherine Weil asked if this budget overview
was the same as the last one?
Ms. Idelkope answered that
there is a tuition change and a treasurer change.
4. Approval of Minutes:
December
10, 2007 Regular Meeting; Ms. Cordell asked for “Accapella
Choir” to be changed to “Chorus”, on page 1, Celebrations section.
Page 3, 2nd paragraph, Ms.
Auger asked to change “better purchase” to “best purchases, while balancing
quality health and price.”
Page 6, section 10. 3rd paragraph, Ms. Auger asked for line to read, “should
have an option (if member requests) to be reimbursed…..
Ms. Cordell made a motion to
accept minutes with changes, Ms. McKeon second that motion, vote taken, 5–0,
minutes approved.
Nonpublic, December 10,
2007, Ms. McKeon made a motion to accept as written, Mr. Blair second the
motion. Vote taken, 5-0, minutes approved.
Special Meeting, December
17, 2007, Ms. D’Eon requested a change to page 2, Psych Services section to
read, “spoke about possibility of looking into a social worker, and paying with
grant funds.”
Ms. Cordell, page 3, section
2620, change “some windows” to “all remaining” windows. Last paragraph to read…..”costs
related to door and locks closing hardware”….
Mrs. Auger made a motion to
accept minutes with changes, Mr. Blair second the motion, vote taken, 5-0,
minutes approved.
5. Bills and Manifests: Done earlier in conjunction with Mr. Ruehr’s earlier presentation of finance reports.
6. Financial Report: Done earlier.
7. Reports:
a. Ms. D’Eon reported current enrollment at 379.
o Boiler project continues to go very well, company is working
very well
with us. They are Granite State Plumbing out of
o January 19th, 2008, Smart School Workshop, would like to attend
this.
o Gearing up for Nature’s Classroom. Currently a glitch with
transportation, budgeted for $1600 but
looks like with the cost of gas it will be more like $1900.
o AHT kickoff – some changes in the program. Added
o There have been several recent bus issues. Ms. D’Eon is in contact with Mr. Woolridge
and Paula from First Student. There have
been some injuries, changes in pick up and drop off times. There
will be a meeting with First Student and Mrs. D’Eon to attempt to resolve these
issues.
o Health & Wellness:
Food Program discussed. Physical
Education
department is thinking of doing a
walking club at recess.
o Roof shoveling: Very
expensive, but worth it.
o Keene YMCA will be starting an after school program at the Keene
Y. Will run a Y van to our school to transport kids.
o Asked the board to read through Suzanne Cooper’s proposal for
Special Education Plan and asked for feedback.
Would rather not do an hourly rate.
b. Co-Superintendent:
Mr. Woolridge reports that one student missed five or more days at KHS,
due to illness.
Discussed
state having to deal with significant issues regarding funding.
(i.e. statewide property tax) Consequences could be significant for our community.
c. Board Members:
Ms. Cordell reported from Facilities Committee. A comprehensive 10-year plan has just been
drawn up for the town. Report from Safety
Committee, last month staff were interviewed and surveyed.
They now have a good
direction to move in.
Ms. Auger shared that
FRIENDS shared that roller-skating went smoothly with the new time
changes. No injuries. FRIENDS is now
taking requests for scholarship money.
10a. Chesterfield Public School
Foundation: Moved ahead on agenda.
Mr. Gregg Tewksbury came to
give a brief overview and history of this foundation.
Want to make a statement to
those who might want to contribute in the future.
Ms. Cordell asked if there
have been any requests from staff. Mr.
Ms. Idelkope asked if they
had thought of surveying people at the auction.
Also pointed out that the
board had a “gift policy”. The
Foundation needs to run any intentions of gift giving through the board. She also pointed out that her personal
feeling is that financial literacy is not a huge need. Also did not feel the money would ever be
dispersed to individual students. Felt
that there were far greater needs. Mrs.
Idelkope felt that the foundation needed to communicate more with the school
board.
Ms. Auger felt that there is
a population of children that excel, maybe try to meet their needs
somehow. Maybe an
instrument program?
Catherine Weil asked when
this foundation began?
Ms. D’Eon thought sometime
around 1989 or 1990.
Mrs. Weil would like to
advocate at this time for bright children, with the NCLB act, feels that we are
focusing on the lower end.
Ms. Cordell thought that if
more felt positive about the direction the foundation was taking more would
support it.
Mr. Tewksbury said they are
looking for input.
Mrs. Brooks pointed out that
the number of children falling below grade level is frustrating, feels we need
to focus on early education and reaching out to families in our community (i.e.
preschool)
8. Public Input II: None at this time.
9. Old Business:
a. Withdrawal Study
Committee Article Recommendation: Ms.
McKeon handed out a report that had an overview of tasks completed by the
committee. At this time the committee is
not recommending a yes vote on the article on withdrawal. Would like to recommend that it is not
feasible to leave the district at this time. Official
recommendations of the Withdrawal Committee can be reviewed on page 3 of the
Withdrawal Committees handout.
Ms. Cordell felt that it
might be helpful to see minutes from meetings, might help fine tune with they
are looking at and help focus for the 2nd year.
Ms. Idelkope asked why the
committee is not recommending leaving?
Ms. McKeon stated that you
couldn’t continue on with the committee work for another year unless you do it
this way. The committee is not currently in a place to
make a final recommendation that it is economically feasible to withdraw.
Ms. Idelkope asked if she
has commitment from the people on the committee to stay on for another year?
Ms. McKeon felt the commitment
was pretty high and that most would stay on.
Ms. Idelkope had a concern,
the school board has to approve a written warrant or the committee needs to
draft one themselves and get 25 signatures for it to
appear.
Mr. Ruehr had drafted a
warrant article.
Discussion ensued on
recommendation of the committee in relation to withdrawal.
Ms. Idelkope asked if
Article V on Tim’s draft cover what they needed?
Ms. McKeon said it did not.
Ms. Idelkope asked who at
this time would draft the warrant articles?
Ms. McKeon was told that the
board would draft, but she could write them up and fax them to Mr. Woolridge.
Mrs. Idelkope said they
needed them by January 22, 2008.
Mr. Woolridge said to email
them to Mr. Ruehr, he writes the articles.
b. Goal Setting:
Ms. Idelkope asked Ms. D’Eon if we had staff representatives to help
with this. Ms. D’Eon stated that she had
some but not the final two, she will have one teacher
and one support staff.
c. Volunteer Policy, IJOC, 2nd
reading: Ms. D’Eon had a concern with
the 3rd paragraph in relation to the evaluation of volunteers. Ms. Idelkope said that this was procedure and
the administration could determine this.
Page 2, CPR/First Aid
Training – should we be paying for this training?
Ms. Idelkope felt we needed
to add overnight chaperones. See IJOC
correction and bring back for a reading next month.
GBCD, Mr. Woolridge will
give this to Mr. Cooper and will bring both back next month.
10. New Business:
a.
.
b. Approve School Year
Calendar 2008-09. Ms.
D’Eon pointed out that
there were nine workshops, only
needed eight. Take out Thursday, August
21st.
Need to review the early
release days. Ms. Idelkope stated that the
board needed feedback from the staff before the board will approve again.
Ms. D’Eon needs to
communicate with Mr. Hanlon regarding the early release days and the set up on
the
Mr. Blair made a motion to
accept the calendar subject to staff meeting conditions of granting the early
release days. Ms. Cordell second that motion.
Vote taken, 5-0, motion passed.
c. Autism
Collaborative: Ms. D’Eon, Mr. Woolridge
and Mrs. Reeves will get together to discuss this. This was discussed earlier in non-public
session.
d. Other: Ms. Idelkope asked if there were any
objections to Article III and $40,000, no objections.
Any
objections to Article IV and $30,000, no objections.
Ms. Cordell made a motion to
approve the warrant as drafted except for Article V.
Mr. Blair second
the motion.
Articles 3
& 4 change to “is”. Vote, 5-0, motion
passed.
Jamie Card, 256-8728, is the
person to contact for filing for positions.
You will need to make an
appointment to file. Open positions are
two school board members, moderator, clerk and treasurer. All positions have a stipend.
11 Policies:
a. Summer Activities Policy IHCA, 1st reading: Ms. D’Eon will direct staff to take this
policy seriously.
Ms. Cordell made a motion to
accept this policy as written, Ms. Auger second the motion, 4–1, with Mrs.
McKeon voting against, motion passed.
b. Students to Classes and Grade Level Policy JG 1st
reading: Building principal determines
placements/grade level; parents can appeal to superintendent then the
board.
Ms. D’Eon spoke to the lack
of parental input in this policy. Need
to do a 2nd reading, Mr. Woolridge will meet with Ms. D’Eon to review.
12. Future Agenda/s:
? Goal Setting
? Report on Collaborative
? Policies
? Board Self Evaluation – forms at the next meeting
Warrants need to be posted.
Public Hearing, January 26th
at 1:00
Ms. McKeon will draft the
warrant for withdrawal. Will remove Article 5 from warrant article.
13. Public Input III:
Catherine Weil said that
CPSF was an exciting idea and opportunity.
She asked if warrants could be changed at meeting?
Ms. Idelkope said that they
could be amended.
Mrs. Weil; In regards to class placement for her daughter this past
year.
Was very
unhappy that her letter was not honored. What
does balancing of classes mean exactly?
School year calendar, feels
that before and after Labor Day is difficult, would rather do after the holiday
for start of school. Maybe a 10-day
vacation in March and cut out other breaks (no Feb. or April vacation)
Maybe we need a more robust
summer program for those that need it.
There should always be a summer reading list.
Meeting adjourned at 9:30
p.m.
Respectfully submitted
Kathleen Selvidio
Recording Secretary