Non-approved minutes
MONADNOCK REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Board Meeting Minutes
April 16, 2002
Emerson Elementary School
7:15 PM CALL TO ORDER
Present: Winston Wright, Chairman, Don Arguin, Dixie Gurian, Patricia Smith, Gus Lerandeau, Stephen Mettling, Robin Marra, William Felton and John Morin . Absent: Richard Thackston, Gene White, Jonathan Kirstein, Larry Colby, Alan Gross and Geordie Fifield.
Also present: C. Cardine, Supt., K. Dassau, Asst. Supt.; L. Biron, Business Manager; D. Hodgdon, Dir. of Curriculum; B. Fowler, Director of Buildings and Grounds. Principals: D.Mousette, D. Stockwell, K. Craig, B. Tatro and J.C. Russell. Student Council Representative, J. Duca.
1. CONSENT AGENDA:
Minutes of April 2, 2002 MOTION: G. Lerandeau MOVED to approve the minutes. SECOND R. Marra VOTE: 7.64/0/.78/6.58 Motion Passes.
2. CITIZENS CONCERNS: D. Arguin asked to have the policy committee speak out of order on the agenda. MOTION: D. Gurian MOVED to allow the policy chair to speak and explain Section K before the citizens spoke. SECOND: P. Smith VOTE: Unanimous for those present. Motion Passes. D. Arguin explained that the committee would like to revisit policy Section KK which is Visitors to School. The committee feels that this policy is okay but needs to be reviewed. Section KLD-public complaints school personnel, Section KL public complaints and Section K are available to the public on the web site or at the local library. D. Arguin addressed the parents and the issue about the Northern Schools saying that under the RSA 91A Right to Know Law until the facts and figures are in D. Arguin feels that the board is doing exactly what it should be doing. He explained that W. Wright and Supt. Cardine will give the board a presentation in non-public and explain the situation further. C. Cardine explained that he has met with some of the personnel from the Northern Schools onsight, offsight and as a whole. He has met with the Gilsum PTA and discussed their role in the school and will meet with the Surry and Sullivan PTA’s. K. Dassau has also been talking to parents on several occasions. C. Cardine explained that the awards night will take place at the individual schools as well as PE and it has been made clear that the PTA is not just a fund raising committee. K. Kennedy asked W. Wright what concerns the parents may bring to the board. W. Wright responded by saying that the concerns need to go to the individual first, the administration, Supt. Cardine and then the board. D. Arguin explained that all concerns need to be heard but anything that deals with an employee or any personnel needs to go to the Supt. Than a final report will be done in non-public session. A parent asked when the final report would go out on consolidating the Northern Schools. C. Cardine responded that the idea is in the study process and that it will be some time until it is decided. No one singular group will make the decision. The school will give a recommendation to the board and then the board will decide.
3. STUDENT COUNCIL CONCERNS: J. Duca is conducting a survey as part of his senior project. This survey when completed will be a major part of his Teacher-Student Committee which he has formed. The committee is to improve communication between the teachers and the students on issues in the school. He has collected a good amount of surveys but will continue. By the next meeting he will be coming back with more information for the board.
4. Correspondence and Announcements. C. Cardine informed the board that he had received a letter from Crotched Mountain praising D. Stockwell for his presence and assistance during a recent van evaluation. He was highly commended for his participation.
Jerry Kuhn, the Building Coordinator for Destination Imagination sent a letter to C. Cardine explaining their most recent competition. The StranDld team took fourth place in a field of eight and placed first in the Instant Challenge section of their competition. The Dual Dilemma team came in first place and will be representing Monadnock and the State of New Hampshire at the Destination Imagination Global Meet at the University of Tennessee, May 21-25. Congratulations.
C. Cardine informed the board that Rebecca L. Guion has received $2500.00 from Discover Card. She is the winner in the Arts and Humanities category of the Discover Card Tribute Award Scholarship program for New Hampshire. Congratulations.
C. Cardine informed the board that Casey Nearing and art educator, Deb Crowder are among the national winners from NH for the NH Art Educators’ Association and the NH Scholastic Art Award Program. The drawing was for the life cycle and received the Silver Award. The art project will be on exhibit in Washington during the weekend of June 14th- 17th.
C. Cardine read a letter which he sent to James Toye congratulating him on a wonderful job during a recent spelling bee competition.
C. Cardine mentioned the article the Sentinel wrote about the school lunch at Emerson going organic.
5. OTHER SCHOOL BOARD BUSINESS:
A. Board Committee Reports:
2. Communications Committee. D. Gurian reported that a dinner meeting will be held on April 29, 2002 it will run for 2 hours and fifteen minutes. The meeting is to review the entire past year and look at how the committee will move ahead with the district goals. The committee thought that for the beautification project they would invite the 6th grades as well as their parents to join together at the high school on May 18th to plant flowers and cleanup. This would be a way to let the children get familiar with the school they will be attending this fall. C. Cardine will contact the principals for this event. The committee thought it would be a good idea for the board to attend as many recognition and graduation events as possible. C. Cardine will get the list of events together and make them available to the board. Thank you notes from the suppport staff and board still need to go out thanking the citizens for the past vote. The committee thought that at any event where parents and citizens were involved the principals could remind them to vote and invite them to tour the buildings. W. Wright will meet with D. Gurian on the letter to the paper. Jan at the SAU is now collecting clippings from the paper to then give to the individual towns. R. Marra will be the fourth member of the negotiating team.
3. Finance Committee: No report the committee did not meet.
4. Facilities Committee: G. Lerandeau announced that R. Thackston is now the chair of the facilities committee. The committee will make a draft for the use of the facilities and give it to the policy committee for review. The committee has been approached by the Marodas to meet with the facilities committee about the use of the building. B. Fowler reported that at Mt. Caesar school is having a problem maintaining water pressure. B. Fowler reported that Cushing came and replaced the pump and breakers but there is still a problem in the 1950 addition at Mt. Caesar. Upgrading fixtures and work in the crawl space is underway. There are electricians and plumbers trying to fix the situation. The kitchen and the children’s drinking water is bottled and when the vacation is over a water test can be done to see if it is safe to drink. Troy School has an air quality problem. The roof has been leaking which makes everything including the insulation wet which in turn forms mold which can affect the staff and the students. This is not a major issue but over vacation there will be removal of above the tiles. This should help the situation. Some of the board members did not know about the water and air situations because the phones at the SAU had been turned off because of an unpaid bill. C. Cardine asked L. Biron to explain the situation. L. Biron reported that the phone company is looking for a bill from 1998 that has not been paid. This is a bill which has changed companies twice and is now looking for payment. L. Biron refused to pay because he did not know if the SAU really owes this money. After the turning off of the phone L. Biron and C. Cardine went to the PUC. The phone was turned back on and that is why phone calls and emails were not made. G. Lerandeau complimented L. Biron and C. Cardine for going to the PUC.
B. New Business: C. Cardine reported that the board’s planning session was held on April 10, 2002. The group went over the Mission Statement and the Objectives. There were not many present from the board only three members showed up but there were a lot of administrators present. C. Cardine passed out the list of what was done in the district according to the goals and what could be better. C. Cardine asked the board to look over the list and add or change the goals. C. Cardine will be working with the policy committee to come up with a policy for field trip permission slips. It has come to his attention that some schools have one permission slip signed for the whole year and others have a permission slip signed each time. J. Morin asked about the asbestos report. B. Fowler said a report goes out every three years to all the parents in the district. B. Fowler reported that floor tiles and boiler equipment are some products that have asbestos.
C. Old Business: C. Cardine reported to the board that the State Board ruling on the weighted vote is that they want the numbers to stay as fractions, whole numbers can not be used. He reported that at the second meeting in May the board can use the new numbers. R. Marra asked C. Cardine if the fraction could go out 3 decimals and C. Cardine responded yes.D. Curriculum Report: Betty Reid a teacher at Emerson School in Fitwilliam presented the board with a power point presentation on Education by Design. Prior to the meeting the children involved in this project gave tours to the board members. Betty Reid has traveled to the United Kingdom to present this learning tool and will return to present the second half. A parent asked how communication between the parent and the student was done. Betty responded that there are newsletters, weekly challenges and parent involvement in the project. Parents were asked to help the students find the information on the internet.
E. 21st Century Report: C. Cardine informed the board that the District Planning Session will be in April of 2003. He thought that the original group as well as more members could be in attendance and he wishes to hire a consultant to run the meeting. He explained that this is a long process and he would like authorization to move forward with the plans. D. Gurian MOVED to authorize C. Cardine to move ahead with the District Planning Session plans. SECOND: P. Smith. DISCUSSION: D. Gurian would like to report to the original people that attended in 1998. R. Marra asked if this meeting could take place before the district vote. C. Cardine responded that in order to keep it nonpolitical we can not do this before the vote. C. Cardine wanted to make sure the board knew he would not be running the meeting. VOTE: Unanimous for those present.
E. Action on the Manifest:
R. Marra MOVED to approve the manifest in the amount of $ 1,208,011.12 SECOND: G. Lerandeau VOTE: Unanimous for those present.
6. SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT: C. Cardine would like permission from the board to have Attorney Prigge in attendance at the next board meeting to discuss the Errors and Omissions claim. Wayne Kassotis will be undertaking a leadership role and checking to see if there are any holes in the emergency service at the school.
C. Cardine warned the board that they may receive a call from their selectperson concerning the ADM letters. C. Cardine mentioned that he communicates mostly by email and had a concern that members without email were not receiving the information. A board member suggested that a board member without email team up with a board member who has email and receive that information from him or her. D. Arguin wanted to thank Fitzwilliam for the refreshments.
7. SETTING UP THE NEXT MEETING’S AGENDA:
NON-PUBLIC SESSION
7:20 PM D. Gurian MOVED to go to non-public session for the purpose of discussing a student issue. SECOND: G. Lerandeau. VOTE: 11.91/.78/0/2.31
MRHS Principal reported to the Board on a student issue.
7:30 PM G. Fifield MOVED to end discussion. SECOND: ?????. VOTE: 12.69/0/0/2.31
7:32 PM D. Gurian MOVED to seal the minutes.SECOND: G. Lerandeau VOTE: 12.69/0/0/2.31
7:35 PM G. Lerandeau MOVED to return to public session.SECOND: L. Colby VOTE: Unanimous
Please Post with Board Agenda
Listing of Board Committee Meetings
Communications Committee: Thurs., April 16, 2002 at Wilcox School at 7:00 a.m.
Finance Committee: 1st Meeting in May 2002 prior to the Board Meeting (6:30)
Facilities Committee: Monday, May 13, 2002 at Thackston Realty at 8:30 a.m.
Policy Committee: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 (tentative) at 5:30 at Wilcox
CVC: Monday, May 13, 2002 at CVC Center 7:00 p.m.