Board Meeting Minutes
Monadnock Regional Junior and Senior High
School Library
7:00 PM CALL TO ORDER
Present: Don Arguin, Winston Wright, Chairman, Dixie Gurian, Stephen Mettling, Gene
White, Alan Gross, William Felton, John Morin, Robin Marra, Patricia Smith, Gus
Lerandeau, Richard Thackston, Jonathan Kirstein and Larry Colby Absent: Geordie Fifield
Also present: C. Cardine, Supt., K. Dassau, Asst. Supt. and L. Biron, Business Manager.
Principals: D. Stockwell, D. Mousette and B. Tatro. Student Council
Representative B.Dahl.
Chair W. Wright asked the Board and the people in attendance to give a moment of silence for the Ferris Family.
1.�������� CONSENT AGENDA:
Minutes of February 18, 2003
MOTION: W. Felton MOVED to approve the minutes.� SECOND
A. Gross. �VOTE:
13.04/0/.78/1.18. Motion Passes.
2.�������� CITIZEN COMMENTS: R. Luendowski asked C.
Cardine how much it would�
cost to operate the new high
school.� C. Cardine, passed him a data
sheet explaining the cost.� The school
would be open in September of 2005. He said that with combining the 6th,
7th, and 8th grades the teachers could move with the
school. R. Marra commented that the total budget for operating both schools be
about 10 million dollars.
3.�������� STUDENT COUNCIL CONCERNS: B.Dahl invited the Board to
their Beach
����������� Dance on March 15, 2003. She
informed the Board that the Council came in
���������� � second for the
Husky Paw snow sculpture at the Ice Festival. The Student
����������� Council sent flowers to Valley High
as a gesture to the two students who died last
� Sunday. The Council is planning as Easter Egg
Hunt. J. Morin asked if the students were going to do anything for the Ferris
Boys. B. Dahl said that they had not talked about that as of yet but will soon.
D. Gurian explained that the students in Kindergarten are putting together
pictures to send to Albany. K. Dassau explained that more would be discussed
about the Ferris boys in non-public session.
C. Cardine asked the Board to allow K. Carter of the MC2 Program to do her presentation at this time.� See Curriculum Report.
4.
CORRESPONDENCE AND
ANNOUNCEMENTS: C. Cardine reported that he had received a letter from Sue Norton who
has been developing a Community Based Arts Service Learning Program at Cutler
School. She wished to thank the people that made this program possible. She
thanked C. Cardine, S. Rashid and Sue Kessler.
Baybutt Construction donated
two basketball tickets to Project Graduation.
C. Cardine received a thank
you note from the mother of Staff Sargent Christopher R. Cryan. She
thanked the Cutler school for the Valentine Cards she had received from them.
D. Stockwell received
notification that the Monadnock Regional High School yearbook had been honored
with an Award of Excellence from the Taylor Publishing Company.
C. Cardine received a letter
from Risa Keene, SAU 38 speech pathologist, who had the opportunity to observe
J. Robinson’s class. She was very impressed.
C. Cardine wrote a letter to
T. Stewart congratulating him on being entered in the Coaches’ Hall of Fame.
5.
OTHER SCHOOL BOARD BUSINESS:
A.
Board Committee Reports:
1.
Policy Committee: MOTION: D. Arguin MOVED to
accept Policy BBA, School Board Powers and Duties as a second read. SECOND: D. Gurian. DISCUSSION: W. Felton explained that the policy emphasizes
principle over personality. W. Felton read a letter which showed his support
and rational for the policy. W. Felton explained that he voted against cutting
the budget that was to be presented to the Budget Committee. The Board voted to
cut. He was in the minority but once the
vote was taken went with the Board’s decision. W. Wright commented that he
would be voting against this policy because he does not believe in the “gag
rule.” He stated that people should be able to have a minority opinion. R.
Thackston he does not agree with the policy that requires members to agree with
the Board. D. Gurian commented that once a vote is taken it would be impossible
to move forward with a project with people on different sides. MOTION: D. Arguin MOVED to move the question SECOND:
J. Morin DISCUSSION: W. Wright
had recognized R.Marra before the question. R. Marra stated that the only words
being changed in the policy are “or action”. W. Wright asked for the vote on
the motion. C. Cardine informed W. Wright that a second had not been made on
the motion. J. Morin will second the motion. VOTE: 12.64/1.18/0/1.18 Motion Passes. VOTE on main motion: 9.48/4.34/0/1.18 Motion Passes. MOTION: D. Arguin MOVED to accept Policy BBB-R Weighted Vote Charts as a second
reading. SECOND: L. Colby DISCUSSION: D. Arguin commented that
the top of the second page will be corrected. VOTE: 13.82/0/0/1.18 Motion Passes. MOTION:
D. Arguin MOVED to accept Policy BCA-R School
Board Member Ethics as a second reading. SECOND:
S. Mettling. DISCUSSION: G.
White commented that where it states “free expression of school board members “
it contradicts Policy BBA. VOTE: 12.80/0/1.02/1.18
Motion Passes.
MOTION: D. Arguin MOVED to accept
Policy BDE Committees and Delegates as a second reading. SECOND: L. Colby. DISCUSSION:
D. Arguin pointed out that the CVC is now called the CCC Advisory Committee
and transportation will be listed under negotiations. VOTE: 13.82/0/0/1.18 Motion Passes. W. Wright thanked the committee
for all their hard work.
2.
Communications Committee: D. Gurian passed out
information on the Monadnock Regional High School back in 1963. She explained
that most of the work on informing the voters about the vote has been done and
the committee will wait to see what happens.
3.
Facilities Committee: G. Lerandeau explained that
the committee is working on reviewing the Crisis Manual. The next meeting will
be on March 24, 2003 at 8:45 AM in the Facilities Building.
4.
Finance Committee: W. Wright reported that the committee
did meet and that 33.5% of the budget remains.
Freezes may be placed on items in order to ensure the district remains
within budget till the end of the year. He explained that the district is in
good shape. L. Biron passed out information to the Board titled Monadnock
Regional School District Anticipated Tax Rate Effects of the Proposed 2003- 04
Budget Subject to Change. He explained that the lower right hand corner was the
worst case scenario. L. Biron said that there are a lot of numbers floating
around but the numbers on this sheet are concrete. G. White asked if Article
Fourteen passes would these figures be affected. C. Cardine said that they have
not done those numbers. C. Cardine updated the cost per pupil data. The state average is about $7400 per pupil
and Monadnock is slightly below state average. Winchester was not on the sheet
as their costs are skewed by low numbers of students (i.e. they are high). D.
Arguin asked about prioritizing the freezes. C. Cardine said that the freezes
would not affect the projects being done now. R. Thackston asked for the cost
by school. C. Cardine said he had given that information to the Board. He said
he would get R. Thackston that information. D. Gurian informed the Board that
they have received $30,000 for the construction project at the MC2 Program. The
money was donated by the Putnam Foundation to Antioch New England as they have
paid for the construction.
B. New Business: G. White commented on the
article in the paper about the
population. He said depending on who
or what you are looking at for the record as
a Swanzey representative if
you live in Swanzey you will see an increase
of kids coming to this area.
Swanzey has two housing units that will be going up and the people that he has
spoken to have two or more children coming into this district. C. Cardine
explained that he tried to straighten out the ADM on a 40 year population
today one projection as he had done in Winchester but it was not very good.
One year the student count could go up 50 and then decrease 10. C. Cardine
commented that if you build it they would come. G. White commented that if you
don’t build it they would still come. R. Thackston asked G. White if he was an
advocate of the 50%-50% warrant. G. White said yes and that is how he will
vote. L. Biron commented that with Home Depot and Target coming and Keene
pretty much full these people will need homes. The Troy bypass and the Keene
bypass will also contribute to the population growth.
D. Gurian announced that
there will be a Regional Board Training Session either on Apr. 14, 2003 or Apr.
28, 2003. The federal No Child Left Behind Act will be the topic. The Deputy
Commissioner will be in attendance. More information will be available with the
set date. The session is free.
R. Marra quoted two
publications on how the schools are ranked.
C. Old Business: W. Felton commented that the committee reports should contain
more information.
R. Marra commented that in his presentation
at the Deliberative Session he
commented that there were 550
students in one lunch period. Someone had
remarked that he was lying. In
October there were 542 students today 498. The
reductions is because teachers have
voluntarily split their classes.
D. Curriculum Report: K.Carter, Director of the Monadnock Community
Connection School (MC²) explained to the Board that the MC² Program tries to
increase parent involvement. There are three ways: attendance, nutrition and
direct parent involvement. Her
presentation to the Board was done using the laptop computers that each student
has. These computers are the communication between the student and teacher, the
student and parent, and the parent and teacher. Students are asked to complete
the information on the computer. S. Mettling asked how long it took the
students to learn the program on the computer. K. Carter said that it took
about 40 minutes but that some students may need more training. J. Morin asked
about the concerns with answering to the next group of peers. K. Carter said
that she is looking forward to having more than one grade. Accountability is
the key piece. G. White asked how the children are graded. K. Carter explained
that it is rubrics. Grades can be attached to it but they need to be specific.
At one site the student could be learning math, english etc. that will need to
be broken down to see how many hours for each. G. White said he was curious
because of college. K.Carter said that similar programs such as Souhegan has
had great success with colleges. She said that she is presently working with
college admissions office. The Board thanked Ms. Carter for her presentation.
F. Action on the Manifest: G. Lerandeau MOVED to approve the manifest in the
amount of $934,456.37 SECOND: J.
Morin VOTE: 13.82/0/0/1.18 Motion passes.
SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT: C. Cardine commended B.Tatro and S. Rashid and the
staffs of the Cutler and Mt. Caesar schools for all they had done to support
students and staff in response to the tragedy of the Ferris family. Staff from
other schools came to help. The Board also complimented the staff and
administrators for their work.
C. Cardine commented on the
discipline report for Jan. and Feb. He said there were two dropouts, eleven
suspensions and twenty-five offences. At the next meeting he will discuss the
way they keep track of behavior at the Emerson School.
7. SETTING UP
THE NEXT MEETING’S AGENDA:
1. Policy
Committee
2. Communications
Committee
3. Facilities
Committee
4. CCC
5. Elect
Chair
6. Officers
7.
Swearing In
8.
Finance Commmittee
9.
Review Vote
10.
Legislative Meeting
9:05 PM G. Lerandeau MOVED to enter into
non-public session for the purpose of discussing a student issue. SECOND: R. Thackston. VOTE: Unanimous.
9:15 PM D.
Arguin MOVED to return to public session and to
seal this portion of the non-public minutes indefinitely. SECOND: D. Gurian. VOTE: Unanimous.
9:15 PM D. Thackston MOVED to enter into
non-public sssion for the purpose of discussing a personnel issue. SECOND: J. Morin. VOTE: Unanimous.
Motion to adjourn. MOVED to
adjourn the meeting at PM. SECOND: VOTE: Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Laura Aivaliotis
MRSD Board Secretary