MONADNOCK REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Board Meeting Minutes

                                                     February 3, 2004

   Monadnock Regional Junior and Senior High School Library, Swanzey, N. H.

                        

Present: Don Arguin, Dixie Gurian, Chair Robin Marra, Sam Johnson, Winston Wright,  Alan Gross, Karen Cota, Gus Lerandeau, John Morin, Richard Thackston, William Felton, Colline Dreyfuss and Bruce Tatro. Absent: Patricia Smith and Larry Colby.

Also present: C. Cardine, Supt., K. Dassau, Asst. Supt., L. Biron, Business Manager and T. Warner, Tech. Director.  Principals: B. Tatro, and D. Stockwell and Kim Carter.

 

R. Marra reminded the Board why they are here: “To strive for the best education of every child.”

 

1.         CONSENT AGENDA:

Minutes of January 20, 2004 Board Meeting: MOTION: D. Gurian MOVED to approve the minutes. SECOND: J. Morin. VOTE: 13.488/0/0/1.512. Motion Passes.

 

CORRESPONDENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: C. Cardine informed the Board that his office had received a letter from Judd Gregg thanking them for the visit to Hinsdale High School to view the Virtual High School Program funded by the Monadnock Regional Public Schools of Choice Grant.  This program is also available at Monadnock Regional Junior and Senior High School.

 

C. Cardine reported to the Board that John Paul Nikiforakis, the district’s newest Eagle Scout will be saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the Deliberative Session.

 

C. Cardine reported that the forms for tax relief would be available on March 1, 2004.

 

2.      STUDENT COUNCIL CONCERNS: No report.

 

PUBLIC COMMENTS: W. Imon said that he is dismayed from the budget cuts made by the Budget Committee. He would like to see the money put back into the operating budget for 2004-2005. 

 

R. Bauries commented on items that were presented to the Facilities Committee from F. Marinace.

 

5.  Other School Board Business:

 

A.      Board Committee Reports:  

1. Community Relations Committee: D. Gurian reported that the committee has been working on providing a clear explanation (in simple English rather than the language used on the ballot) of the warrant articles for the voters. The committee also set a schedule of presentations to talk to the community about the budget. The committee will hold a meeting at the High school on Wed. Feb. 18, 2004, and a meeting in Gilsum on March 3, 2004. The next meeting would be in the conference room on Feb.10, 2004 at 5:30 PM. C. Dreyfuss asked if the committee was doing anything to get the people to the Deliberative Session. D. Gurian said that they have not done much but a non-board group, Kids Count has been working on this issue. 

 

2. Facilities Committee: G. Lerandeau reported that the committee met on Feb. 2, 2004. The committee voted on the minutes of the Jan. 19, 2004 meeting. The committee discussed the conditions of the buildings throughout the District and discussed forming a committee composed of the School Board and local citizens to discuss building projects. The committee will be meeting on Feb. 9, 2004 at 8:30 AM to discuss Article Five and Article Six. Prices have not yet been received from F. Marinace.  Once received, that information will go to the Finance Committee.

 

3. Finance Committee: R. Marra reported that the committee met Jan. 30, 2004 and discussed a proposal from L. Biron that the committee has endorsed. L. Biron explained that in an effort to help the school district treasurer they are seeking Board approval to change the schedule of payment dates. These are the payments in which the school district receives money from the towns. R. Thackston asked what if a town does not have the money. G. Lerandeau commented that the RSA allows us to do this. L. Biron said that the Board needs to approve the change before asking the towns. L. Biron will send the information proposal to the Board for review.

 

4. Policy Committee: D. Arguin reported that the committee met Feb. 2, 2004 to talk about various issues. The next meetings will be on Feb.5, 2004 and Feb. 16, 2004 at 5:30 PM in the MRJ/HS conference room. At these meetings the committee will make recommendations for presentation to the Board. 

  

B. New Business: Assignment of Articles to Board Members: R. Marra explained that usually a Board Member would choose an article to speak about. Article One. R. Marra feels that the School Board should defer changes to Article One to a Budget Committee member. D. Arguin said that the Board should continue to assign the articles because if the Budget Committee does not propose, the Board should be prepared with an amendment. R. Marra said that at the Budget Hearing it was a close vote. He said he believes that some members that were absent would have voted against the cuts and that members of the Budget Committee would bring the budget to the original number. 

  Article Two: R. Marra said to make sure that the article is explained. D. Gurian will be moving this article.

           Article Three: D. Arguin will be moving this article.

           Article Four: G. Lerandeau will be moving this article.

  Article Five: This article may be moved by the Budget Committee because they changed the amount from $80,000.00 to $40,000.00.

           Article Six: This article will be moved by R. Marra.

           Article Seven: A. Gross will be moving this article.

           Articles Eight: Nine and Ten are by petition.

           Articles Eleven and Twelve are “housekeeping” items.

R. Marra informed the Board that the meeting will begin at 10:00 AM and he would like to meet with the Board at 9:00 AM. L. Biron will prepare enough packets for 2000 people. L. Biron said that he is not sure how many people will be attending the meeting. The people will go into the gym after they receive their pink card. Non-voters will go to the right side of the gym. He said that the fire chief would not allow all the bleachers to be down. Any overflow of people will go to the auditorium. An overflow of people will result in voting by ballot. The yes or no ballots are ready. K. Cota asked about manpower for the counting. L. Biron said that the deputy school clerk from each town and the supervisors of the checklists will be available. D. Arguin asked about security. C. Cardine said that there would be two officers on duty. A. Gross said that he is happy about the childcare available. He would like to see that each person is respectful of each other. K. Carter asked if a bake sale was appropriate. R. Marra said that no food was allowed in the gym or auditorium.  

 

C.     Old Business: C. Cardine presented a report on the past five years of budgets including revenue growth and other details.

 

D.    Curriculum Report: No report

 

E.     E.  21^st Century Report: K. Carter passed out a two-sided sheet. On one side it explained the Advisory Committee for the MC2 School and on the other the Governance Council. She explained that both committees are well aware that the School Board supercedes both committees. K. Carter explained the makeup of the Governance Council, when they meet and topics that they have discussed. D. Arguin asked if the school policies apply to the MC2 School. K. Carter said that the policies are the basis for discussion. School Board policy is first. She than explained the Advisory Committee, its make up, when they meet, and the topics on the agenda. W. Felton asked if the Advisory Committee was by a formal vote and were minutes kept. K. Carter said that minutes are kept. They go by Roberts Rules in the Governance Committee but not in the Advisory Committee. W. Felton asked if decisions were made that the School Board needed to review. K. Carter said that the 100 student enrollment was discussed by the School Board. W. Wright asked how many students did the grant plan for. C. Cardine said that it planned for up to 100 students. R. Thackston asked how many students were in the program. K. Carter said 34 students. She said that the students move according to competency in phases. R. Thackston asked if they accept upper classmen. K. Carter said, “Yes”, Phase III. C. Cardine said that he has discussed the space situation with the President of Antioch. C. Dreyfuss asked if it looks as if there will be 100 students. K. Carter explained that the plan was to have 25 students for the first year and then increase it 25 students thereafter for the next three years. C. Cardine explained that the numbers are down because the MC2 budget was cut last year. W. Wright asked if the cuts proposed for this year would affect the student intake. C. Cardine said that if there is a reduction in staff it would limit enrollment. K. Carter said that the MC2 School is part of the District and that we have to be fair to all the buildings. D. Arguin asked if a student was in phase one for two years and showed no progress and returned to the high school what grade would they be in. K. Carter explained that they would probably go to the 9^th grade but we would never wait that long before doing something. We would wait one quarter to see progress. R. Marra asked K. Carter to describe what Paul Bocko does. She explained that his role is to as a placement councilor for the school choice selection process, and to describe the different programs available. She said that she has received calls from Vermont, Peterborough and Jaffrey expressing interest in placing students in the program. She said that in those cases tuition would come into the District but the spots would be saved first for the MRSD students. W. Felton asked about phase 4 students. K. Carter said that they would be accepted. W. Felton asked if they would graduate from Monadnock. K. Carter said that they would be receiving a Monadnock High School diploma. C. Cardine said that the students go to the YMCA for physical education and the guidance is subcontracted. P. Bocko is not just working for the MC2 Program but he also works with all the guidance counselors at the schools. K. Cota asked if the parents pay for the transportation of the students attending a school of their choice. C. Cardine responded yes.

             

F.      Action on the Manifest: MOTION: G. Lerandeau MOVED the manifest in the amount of $1,155,246.02. SECOND: W. Wright. DISCUSSION: L. Biron was informed that the dates on the manifest were not the same. Some were dated 2-4-04 and some dated 2-3-04.  VOTE: 13.488/0/0/1.512. Motion passes.  

 

6. Superintendent’s Report: C. Cardine asked D. Stockwell and the Athletic Director to come up with cuts to the athletic account to address the reduction made by the Budget Committee. These cuts would be used if the 1.8 million dollars was not added back to Warrant Article One at the Deliberative Session. C. Cardine asked the Board for direction in order to prepare for the Deliberative Session. C. Cardine said that with the cuts the Athletic Budget is down to the 1986 Budget. R. Thackston asked if there was anything left after these cuts. D. Stockwell said that there is one major sport for each the boys and girls teams for each season. K. Cota asked if the salaries listed are teaching or coaching. D. Stockwell replied that they are coaching salaries. C. Dreyfuss asked where the kids swim. C. Cardine said at KSC. R. Thackston asked if they need an Athletic Director. C. Cardine said that she is also a math teacher. C. Cardine noted that money was put into the library, a full time librarian was hired, a resource officer was hired and the P.E., music and art classes increased all by direction of the Board. C. Cardine explained that not much in the high school could be touched.  He recalled when in Winchester the budget was cut by $750,000.00 and the high school could not be touched. J. Morin asked what the overall Athletic Budget was. C. Cardine said the budget was $338,972.00 and with the cuts it would be $238,972.00. This budget is below the budget in 1986. B. Tatro asked how many students this would effect. D. Stockwell said that he would have to get that information and then would give it to C. Cardine. R. Thackston asked if the situation comes to pass would all the teachers be pink slipped. C. Cardine said that he would need to notify the teachers and there would not be time, so he would be forced to issue pink slips to everyone in order to have the time to determine grade levels, need, and seniority. R. Thackston asked if you terminate all the teachers does that mean you can rehire who ever you choose. He also asked if you pink slip the Athletic Director could you hire her back as a math teacher. C. Cardine said that there are three items that hire a teacher back, seniority, certification and need for the teacher in the program. K. Cota said that some of the sports were kept, would it be possible to cut only some of the different sports. D. Stockwell said that you can rearrange anyway you would like but the rational was to keep one sport each season for the girls and the boys. R. Marra said that Title IX requires boys and girls to have equal treatment. S. Johnson asked if the girls have soccer and field hockey could you cut one or the other in order to reinstate the football program. R. Marra said that it would depend on the number of students that participate. He said that Title IX is complicated and is looked at over the entire year. C. Dreyfuss asked if the administration had a chance to talk to the coaches and ask them to coach for free. W. Felton asked what is likely to happen when the teachers are let go to the class sizes and the courses in order to meet graduation qualification. D. Stockwell explained that in general they would keep all the courses necessary.  D. Stockwell said that the rationale was to keep one major sport each season for the girls and the boys. They would keep most of the high school classes. The junior high school would suffer the most. The junior high would have more study halls and he predicted that discipline issues would increase due to the reduction in the teachers. K. Dassau estimated that 95% of the aides are attached to student IEPs. Betty Tatro explained that you would have to have the aides unless you rewrote the IEPs with parental agreement. G. Lerandeau asked C. Cardine what direction he wanted from the Board. R. Thackston said that this is a bad situation. He said that it would take sometime to adopt a special discussion on everything to give to C. Cardine. R. Thackston said that the Board should give C. Cardine a free hand on what to say on Saturday and support him. D. Arguin said that some will say that the elimination of some sports is a scare tactic. R. Marra agreed with R. Thackston to move ahead and support C. Cardine. MOTION: W. Wright MOVED to have available at the Deliberative Session the information for the cuts and what would happen. No second to the motion. Motion dies. R. Marra explained that he would not like to box us in. The next Board would need to make the cuts. W. Felton said that the Board should direct C. Cardine to provide the information. MOTION: W. Felton MOVED to allow C. Cardine to provide general information about the cuts in academics, sports and cuts across the board. SECOND: K. Cota. VOTE: 11.353/2.135/0/1.512. Motion passes.

 

A. Gross commented on the great job done by B. Tatro and S. Rashid during a difficult situation with the bus accident. C. Dreyfuss would like to personally thank the principals and the fire dept. for their help during the situation.

 

W. Wright asked if there was any information on the accident in Fitzwilliam. C. Cardine would get the information to the School Board as he was away when the accident occurred. W. Wright would like to know the policy on this sort of situation and if it is being followed. C. Cardine said he was sure all policies were followed and would be giving a report at the next meeting.

 

7. PUBLIC COMMENTS: R. Bauries commented on the 2002-03 budget and the increases of the proposed 2004-2005 budget. 

 

J. Fortson commented that she felt any handouts should include all information including sports and programs that remained after the cut. R. Marra said that the Board is not prepared to distribute the flier from the motion but if it happens the information would be complete.

 

 8. Board Chair Report: No report.

9. SETTING UP THE NEXT MEETING’S AGENDA:

1.      Committee Report

2.      Letter from N. Carlson-new payment dates

3.      Curriculum-Charlotte Lesser

4.      Supt. Fitzwilliam Bus accident

5.      Discuss Deliberative Session

6.      Board Evaluation Session

 

10. NON PUBLIC SESSION

9:15 PM Wm. Felton MOVED to enter into non-public session for the purpose of approving the minutes of the non-public session on January 20, 2004, personnel, and legal. SECOND: S. Johnson VOTE: 14.488/0/0/1.512

 

9:40 MOTION: R. Thackston MOVED to return to public session and to seal this portion of the non-public minutes indefinitely. SECOND: G.Lerandeau. VOTE: Unanimous for those present.

11. Adjournment

9:41 PM G. Lerandeau MOVED to adjourn. SECOND: S. Johnson. VOTE: Unanimous for those present.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Laura Aivaliotis

MRSD Board Secretary