Georgia Board of School Directors

September 19, 2006 at Georgia School Library

Executive Session (Student Issue) at 5:15 PM

Regular Meeting at 6:00 PM

MINUTES

 

Board Present:                  Wendy Larose, Alice Sturgeon, Dan Harvey, Ron King, Doug Bergstrom

Administrators:                  Frank Calano, Armando Vilaseca, Flora Hurteau

Others:   Rachel Fightlin, Kristine Jenkins, Megan Demingware, JoAnn Harvey, Pat Chamberlain

 

I.                    Executive Session (Student Issue)

Entered Executive Session regarding a student issue at 5:30 PM; exited Executive Session at 6:35 PM.

                  ACTION:  Motion by Ron King to support the Superintendent’s recommendation on a student disciplinary matter; seconded by Wendy Larose, approved unanimously.

 

II.            Call to Order                                                                                                                                                                                                

The meeting was called to order at 6:45 PM

 

III.            Consent Agenda/Minutes

            ACTION:  Motion by Alice Sturgeon to approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting on September 5, 2006 with changes regarding the roof replacement update, seconded by Ron King, approved unanimously.

            ACTION:  Motion by Alice Sturgeon to approve the hiring of Dayle Payne as a one-year .77 FTE technology educator, seconded by Ron King, approved unanimously.

 

IV.      Public Comments No comment.

 

V.            New Business

            A.      Preschool Presentation – The preschool team presented their curriculum, staffing which includes special educators and initiatives.  The teachers presented a video clip of their butterfly project.  A booklet of parent’s comments was passed around for the Board to review.

            B.      Single Bus Run 2007 –

            C.      Standard Weekly Progress Report Sheet – Doug Bergstrom raised the issue of communication between school and parents in the form of a standardized weekly progress report.  Flora and Frank indicated that in their experience the teachers are communicating with parents in different forms, e-mail, phone calls, meetings, newsletters, etc. 

                  ACTION:  Motion by Wendy Larose to direct the administrators to evaluate the current communication system and report to the board their recommendations by November 21, 2006, seconded by Dan Harvey, approved unanimously.

            D.      Protocols – Armando is looking for a way to improve the agenda items.  Armando suggested meeting with Doug Bergstrom prior to the meetings to review the agenda for the upcoming meeting.

 

            VI.      Policies – Doug Bergstrom mentioned that he would like to review the policy manual to see if there are policies that can be eliminated/consolidated.

A.      Tuition Payment Policy - Tabled

B.      Student Conduct & Discipline Policy - Tabled

C.      Student Suspension & Expulsion Policy – Tabled

      ACTION:  Motion by Dan Harvey to table all policies on agenda, seconded by Alice Sturgeon, approved unanimously.

 

VII.      Other – There was a complaint on Silver Lake Road regarding the bus.  Flora went to Silver Lake Road to survey the site.  The bus backs into a farm field that is a public road.  Flora returned the call to report her findings and has not heard from them again.

            Vermont League of Cities and Towns has put together a 2007 education finance reform proposal.  They are looking on a plan that relies less heavily on property taxes and possibly shift it to more income taxes, control educational spending, statewide appraisal process, statewide grand list, delineate core educational spending shift to state spending. Dan Harvey brought up the playground committee presentation from the spring.  The fallback plan to not providing any money toward the playground, would the board be willing to provide a line item in the proposed budget and support his grant applications by providing a letter from the board stating that they would do their best to match grant funds.  Armando will ask Chris Sumner to add a line item for playground improvements.

 

VIII.                  Upcoming Meetings                                                                                                                              

A.     Next Regular Meeting:  October 3, 2006 at 6:00 PM, Georgia School Library

B.    FWSU Quarterly Meeting:  September 27, at 7:00 PM, BFA Fairfax