December 18, 2007
Georgia School Library
Board Present: Jennifer Petrie, Casey Hager,
Ron King, Doug Bergstrom, Irene Bonin
Administrators: Flora Hurteau, Frank Calano, Armando Vilaseca
Others: Joyce Alspach
I. Call
to Order
The meeting was called to order at 6:15 PM.
II. Public
Comment – None.
III. Consent
Agenda
● Minutes
● Reports
● Correspondence
● Other
ACTION: Motion by Jennifer Petrie to
approve the Minutes dated December 4, 2007, seconded by Casey Hager, approved
unanimously.
IV. New
Business
● Education Presentation – Joyce Alspach was present to discuss the Fundations Reading Program. Two first grade and two second grades are piloting the program this year. There was a video of Ms. Alspach’s classroom working on the program. They used a magnet board, sky writing, gel boards and other tools to learn words, sounds and the composition of words. Flora mentioned that Fundations is included in the budget for next year for all first and second graders.
● Continued Budget Work – Armando presented the budget numbers at a 4.37% increase. At this increase there is exposure for possibly the 6th, 7th and 8th grade to a foreign language and the kindergarten could be increased to three full-day kindergarten and a 70% session, which is currently the program at this time. There was some discussion regarding what constitutes a “full day”. There are currently two teachers who teach two full classrooms. Doug stated that we are currently within the time frame, as far as hours, as many other districts who are considered to have “full day” kindergarten. Ron suggested 4 kindergarten classrooms at 70%. The school transportation provider has agreed to carry over the contract for one more year. There was a review of past years increase history. There has been a representative at both the senior luncheon and pancake breakfast to register voters and to take names for absentee ballots.
V. Policies
● Drug, Alcohol & Substance Abuse Policy - 1st Reading – Armando stated the policy does not currently cover situations where children are using materials not for their intended use.
VI. Other – Armando stated this past week there was an
interruption with the phone service.
Armando came up some ideas should this event happen again such as notify
the town clerk, post on the website, notify the Northwest Supervisory
Union. Frank will be contacting the
Alert Now system. Armando also
suggested a cell phone program. Armando
stated that BFA-St. Albans will not include money in their budget for busing
next year. There was a $7,000 fee for a
consultant to review the supervisory unions which has been withdrawn. The legislators will be discussing this
issue soon and the board will wait to see what comes of it.
VII.
Executive
Session (Personnel) - Entered
Executive Session at 8:30 PM, exited at 8:55 PM.
VIII. The
Board continued their regular meeting and discussed different options for the
kindergarten issue. They decided to
include, for the time being, the option of 4 sections of 70% kindergarten, with
3 of those teachers staying with 100% FTE contract and the new person hired at
.70 FTE. The budget would stay the same
as presented.
IX. Upcoming
Meetings
A. FWSU Quarterly Meeting:
December 19th at 7:00 PM, Fairfax Community Library
B. Next Regular Meeting: January 8th at 6:00 PM, Georgia
School Library