May212002

Non-approved minutes
MONADNOCK REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Board Meeting Minutes

May 21, 2002

Monadnock Regional Junior and Senior High School

7:10 PM CALL TO ORDER

Present: Winston Wright, Chairman, Don Arguin, Dixie Gurian, Patricia Smith, Gus Lerandeau, Stephen Mettling, Robin Marra, William Felton, John Morin, Larry Colby, Alan Gross, Gene White, Richard Thackston and Geordie Fifield. Absent: Jonathan Kirstein.

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 and Bryan Young.

1. CONSENT AGENDA:

Minutes of May 7, 2002 MOTION: D. Gurian MOVED to approve the minutes. SECOND L. Colby VOTE: 11.78/0/2.20/1.02 Motion Passes.

Minutes of March 26, 2002 MOTION: R. Marra MOVED to approve the minutes. SECOND G. Lerandeau VOTE: 10.06/0/3.92/1.02 Motion Passes.

2. CITIZENS CONCERNS: Richard Clark, a parent from Gilsum, told the Board that he was tired of attending the board meetings and not hearing anything he felt was significant about the Northern School situation. C. Cardine informed Mr. Clark that later tonight he will be bringing new information to the board.

3. STUDENT COUNCIL CONCERNS: J. Duca, a senior at MRHS has completed his senior project with the help of Mr. Stockwell and has brought an up to date report to the board. He asked students, teachers and board members how they would feel about forming a Teacher Student Committee. J. Duca had passed out a survey, gathered the results, and reported the results to the board. J. Duca is asking the board for support of the project. A. Gross asked Mr. Stockwell what he thought about the committee. Mr. Stockwell responded by saying that he feels J. Duca learned many valuable lessons about the process but does not feel at this time that he is ready for a decision. R. Thackston asked if this question should go to the policy committee. W. Wright responded no. D. Gurian suggested that the student, administration and C. Cardine meet and come back at the next meeting. Agreed.

B. Young announced the King and Queen of the recent prom, Tim Wilder and Katie Gauer. He also announced that there will be a Cookout sponsored by the band department on June 1, 2002 at 5:00PM everyone is welcome.

4. Correspondence and Announcements. C. Cardine announced that Emerson School will be receiving a $2000.00 Grant from the New England Green School Grant Program.

C. Cardine was informed by the Monadnock Hockey Club that they have officially dissolved themselves and will be creating the Monadnock Hockey Booster Club.

C. Cardine informed the board that the Monadnock Marauders have been in contact with his office about the field situation.

B. Fowler received a letter of thanks from the 2001-2002 Building Construction class for his help on a recent field trip.

C. Cardine passed out the Curriculum notes from Dave Hodgdon, the Charlotte�s Web Notes, a list of honor rolls by town, and the Cutler Chronicle.

K. Craig announced that there will be an appreciation party for Bev McCulla, who will be retiring after 30 years at Emerson and 40 years in teaching.

5. OTHER SCHOOL BOARD BUSINESS:
A. Board Committte Reports: 1. Policy Committee: Chair D. Arguin reminded the board that they had a first reading on the Use of the Facilities policy at the last meeting. However, some additional changes are required and therefore he is not recommending a second reading at this time. D. Arguin wanted to thank the Policy Committee for all their work on the committee. Kathy Kennedy a parent from the Northern Schools asked if people could attend these meetings with suggestions and concerns. The meetings are posted and open to the public.

2. Communications Committee. D.Gurian announced that G. White will be bringing an action plan to the meeting on the 4^th of June. D. Gurian informed the board that the planting day had to be postponed because of snow and the new date will be May 25, 2002 and food will be served.

3. Finance Committee: This report will be discussed later.

4. Facilities Committee: R. Thackston informed the board that the agreement with the Marauders needs to go to legal council before a decision can be made. R. Thackston understands that the group is in a hurry but informed them that it needed to go to the attorney and to the board for a vote. The next meeting will be May 28, 2002 at 8:30AM at Thackston�s office.

B. New Business: Update on the Northern Schools Situation.

Report Given is below:

I. Introduction: The original complaint was brought to the Monadnock Regional School Board�s attention during the Board meeting of March 19, 2002 under Citizen�s Concerns. A preliminary report was submitted to the Board on April 16 and discussed in non-public session.

II. Summary of Issues Resolved to Date:

Sixth Grade Recognition Night location and ceremony. The parents did not feel involved in decision making process to attend a ceremony in Gilsum and did not want a consolidated ceremony. The issue was resolved by agreeing that each school will hold its own ceremony.

Physical Education Busing to Consolidate PE classes. Decision was rescinded by the superintendent.
Visitors Policy � The present policy has been reviewed by the Policy Committee and is presently being revised.
Parent Teacher Club (PTC) - The superintendent, assistant superintendent and principal met with each PTC during week of April 15, 2002. PTC concerns were listened to and acted on.

III. Remaining issues:

Public

Use of Gilsum Facility � L. Biron has met with the principal, selectmen, and the Chair of the Recreation Commission over the use of the Gilsum School facilities. L. Biron will report to the Board.
Future of the Northern Schools. � Plan and process of how to proceed to be determined. The Administrative Team and superintendent need to establish a process and schedule for deciding a recommendation to the school board on the future of the Northern Schools. This will be given over to the facilities committee of the Monadnock Regional School District Board in the fall of 2002 for review.

Non-Public

Complaints towards the Principal. Superintendent evaluation summary will be made to Board in non-public session.

Resolved:

All personnel changes will be approved by the superintendent.
Field trips will occur consistent with the elementary parent�s guide.
The School Board will be notified and approve of any substantive changes in the operation of the Northern Schools prior to implementation. [i.e. PE busing]
The principal will establish a process to improve his communication with parents and staff to build collaboration and cooperation. Plan to be submitted to the superintendent.
Teacher personnel. Report will be made to Board in non-public session.
Dr. David Hodgdon, Director of Curriculum and Instruction is working with the fifth and sixth grade teachers in the Northern Schools. His assignment is to meet with the teachers, map out how they are meeting curriculum goals, and determine the method of assessment they are using in their classrooms. Dr. Hodgdon will be reporting his findings to the superintendent. This is in process.

Investigation Data Information: The list of issues, allegations, and complaints was gathered through the following actions of the superintendent:

Superintendent�s meeting with Northern School Parents March 27, at Gilsum Elementary
Superintendent�s meeting with Northern School Personnel March 28, at Gilsum Elementary
Superintendent�s meeting with Emerson School Personnel March 29
Parents attendance and report to the Monadnock Regional School Board meeting under Citizen�s Concerns, April 2, 2002
Superintendents meeting with individual Northern Schools staff 4/3,4/02
Personal communications (e-mail, phone, person) to Supt. C. Cardine.
Personal communication and meetings with K. Dassau.
Administrative meetings with Dave Mousette (March, April and May 2002 � 7 Meetings)
PTA meetings. Schedule as follows: April 15/Gilsum; April 17/Surry; April 18/Sullivan.
Weekly visits to ALL Northern Schools for Follow up.

End of Report in Public Session

K. Dassau asked for the board�s support for the � day Pre-School which will be housed at Emerson for this fall. A. Gross thought it was a great idea and very proactive. MOTION: A. Gross MOVED to allow Emerson to form a � day Pre-school Program to start in the fall. SECOND: D. Gurian. VOTE: 13.98/0/0/1.02 Unanimous for those present. Motion Passes. L. Colby asked if there was any research to support the preschool. K. Dassau responded that the literature is very supportive of early intervention initiatives.

C. Old Business: No Report

D. Curriculum Report: No Report

E. 21st Century Report: C. Cardine reported that the MC2 School is carrying a balance of $6,000.00 plus, the district should be receiving another $15,000.00, and $6,000.00-$7,000.00 will be coming in from the Best Schools for next year. G. Lerandeau asked if this information will be going to the selectmen and C. Cardine responded that this information is available to the towns. A question was asked about the transportation of the students to and from this new program and C. Cardine said that Laidlaw will be providing transportation at no additional charge.

F. Action on the Manifest:

A. Gross MOVED to approve the manifest in the amount of $897,648.74 SECOND: J. Morin VOTE: 13.98/0/0/1.02 Unanimous for those present.

6. SUPERINTENDENT�S REPORT: C. Cardine informed the board that the past problem with the phone bill in which the phone company said the district was in default has been corrected. The mistake was at the phone company�s! They had overcharged the district by over $10,148.00. C. Cardine will let the Sentinel know so a correction can be printed.

C. Cardine passed out a packet to the board members which contains information on how your tax money is spent, how each town is figured into the equation and information on the adequacy money. C. Cardine ran through the packet and encouraged each board member to look it over and see him if they have any questions. C. Cardine will be doing a presentation to the Board of Selectmen of the individual towns. C. Cardine will correct the pie charts for a presentation to the Selectmen.

7. SETTING UP THE NEXT MEETING�S AGENDA:

Teacher/Student Committee
Wayne Kassotis Update on Resource Officer Position

8. Non-Public Session

8:45 PM G. Lerandeau MOVED to go into non-public session for the purpose of

personnel. SECOND: L. Colby. VOTE: Unanimous.

9:55 PM G. Lerandeau MOVED to return to public session and to seal this portion of the non-public minutes indefinitely. SECOND: R. Thackston. VOTE: Unanimous.

9. Motion to Adjourn.

9:55 PM D. Gurian MOVED to adjourn: SECONDED: A. Gross. VOTE: Unanimous.

Respectfully submitted,

Laura Aivaliotis

MRSD Board Secretary