GEORGIA BOARD OF SCHOOL DIRECTORS
Tuesday,
September 20, 2005, 7:00 p.m.
Georgia
School Library
Staff Present: Phil Higgins, Superintendent; Flora Hurteau, K-4 Principal
The
meeting was called to order at 6:10 p.m.
Motion (Harvey/Sturgeon) to approve minutes and reports as present.
Motion passed unanimously.
III.
General Public Comments
Chris
Masinio, Chair of the Playground Committee, gave an update on the playground.
The structure is in up front. There
was a great turnout of volunteers (25) and he particularly wanted to thank two
local businesses for their help and support:
Ron King and Exit 18. The
playground people commented it was one of the best sites that had worked on.
Exit 18 donated a Bobcat, which saved much time.
They are still lacking a little in some safety features.
He thought a barrier of woodchips should be put around the parameters. $6,000 is needed to run the border around.
Chris wrote a grant and is looking into more money.
H wanted to know if the board had decided on giving additional funds.
The request was for $7000. Chris
Sumner would work with Buildings & Grounds to determine the budget and
availability.
Diane
and Mike Begnoche from Tericel Transportation came to give an update on the
busing. Overall, things have gone
well. There have been a few bumps
along the way they are trying to smooth out.
Some routes are taking longer than anticipated.
The main concern on changing routes is giving as much advance
notification as possible. Diane
asked if enrollment was up that much from four years ago due to change in length
of bus times. Board thought it had
declined. Clarification was made
not to travel on Class 4 roads. A
Class 4 list will be sent to Diane.
IV.
OLD
BUSINESS
A.
Building Maintenance Coverage Plan:
discussed at a later time.
B.
Revisit Transportation Issue: Flora
spoke about the beacons for out front of the school.
The meter would cost ($.44/day or $13/month), plus $15/month for
electricity. It would cost $2,500
to install. What is out there doesn’t meet the requirements for the new laws.
This will be added to the Buildings & Grounds list for review.
C.
Board Self-Assessment Review: A
self-assessment the Board completed was distributed for review.
The only obvious difference in the Board could be found in question 32,
which had confusing language. Ron
King said questions 14-15 needed to be understood by the Board better as it
talked of functioning as a team. Everyone
thought overall the Board had made good progress.
V.
NEW BUSINESS
A.
Special Education Overview: Flora
passed out reports on enrollment, including status of Special Education.
Out of 396 students, 40 are on IEP’s.
Flora noted the school does a good job at intervention.
Ron King asked if we had reviewed a model to get students up to the next
level to increase testing scores. There
is currently no plan, but there is an awareness it should be done.
B.
Bond Refinancing: Phil
Higgins stated the bond bank could be refinanced and would result in significant
savings in the next three years--$32,000 in net savings.
He recommended the refinancing.
Motion
was made(King/Harvey) to refinance
the bond according to the method’s outlined in Phil’s letter.
Motion approved unanimously.
C.
Parking Schedule: There was
discussion that there needs to be a calendar of events of what’s going on and
when to ease the parking problem we’ve had recently.
The fire lane has been blocked and they couldn’t get around the
driveway because of this. Flora is
reviewing building use. Buildings
& Grounds will look at signage for the fire lane.
Doug recommended an outdoor lockbox to store keys for the gates.
The fire department can put locks on the gates.
D.
Budget Forums: Community
feedback sessions should be scheduled in October.
If the Board is conducting, they need to start planning. Can we tie these meetings into another event that gets a
large draw of people? The
Communications Committee will meet to put together a communications plan on the
budget.
IV.
POLICIES
A.
Transportation Policy: There
was an email from the town that is concerned over some of the language in the
policy. This was tabled until the town had an opportunity to respond.
Motion to table (Mitiguy/Harvey) until next meeting.
Motion approved unanimously.
B.
Board Meetings Policy: There
was only one sentence change.
Motion to accept the policy (Harvey/Mitiguy) as changed in red.
Motion approved unanimously.
C.
Safety & Security Policy: No
changes since the last meeting.
VII.
OTHER
A.
The risk management policy is in place.
Phil will review the policy to see if the Board is covered by fraud.
B.
The VSBA will be in Bakersfield on Thursday, September 22 from 5-9 p.m.
C.
Financial statements were distributed for review.
D.
Ron King gave a Buildings & Grounds update.
There are still a number of items left and he is developing a timeline
for them. He hopes to have it all
done by June 30, 2006. Doing
well financially as many of the numbers came in lower than the bid. There is currently $10,000 left unallocated.
He felt they could give the PTA $3,500 to help replenish the fund they
used for the playground.
Motion
was made (King/Harvey) to give $3,500 to the PTA from the Buildings and Grounds
funds. Motion passed unanimously.
A.
FWSU Quarterly Meeting: September
28, 2005 at 7:00 PM, Fletcher School Library
B.
Next Regular Meeting: October
4, 2005 at 6:00 PM, Georgia School Library
C.
Transportation Meeting: October
4, 2005 at 4:00 PM.
Meeting
adjourned at 7:45 p.m.