MONADNOCK
REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Board
Meeting Minutes
Sullivan
Elementary School, Sullivan, NH
Present: Chair Robin Marra, Richard Thackston, William Felton, Winston Wright, Colline Dreyfuss, Bruce Tatro, Marianne Mathis, Karen Cota, Alan Gross, Gene White, Tim Aho, Jeff Friedman, Bruce McCulley and John Morin. Absent: Dixie Gurian.
Also present: C. Cardine, Supt., K. Dassau, Asst. Supt. L. Biron, Business Manager, T. Warner, Technology Director and D. Hodgdon, Curriculum Director. Principals: D. Mousette, J. C. Russell and B. Tatro. Student Council Representative: L. Cota and M. Bush, Adrienne Noel, and Jeannine Leclerc assistant principals at Northern Schools.
R. Marra reminded the Board of their mission to strive for the best education of every child.
Interview of Troy School Board Candidates: R. Marra informed the Board that there were two people seeking the position for the Troy School Board position. R. Marra handed out a resume for the first candidate Peter Brodie. The other candidate was Bruce McCulley. He asked each candidate to explain to the Board why they would like the position. The Board then asked questions of the candidates and the Board voted. R. Marra explained that the new member from Troy will fill this position until March. VOTE: 1.179/9.386/1.114/3.321. B. McCulley was sworn in by Chair Marra. R. Marra thanked P. Brodie for attending the meeting and encouraged him to continue his interest in the school district.
1. CONSENT AGENDA:
Minutes of
October 19, 2004 Board Minutes. MOTION: W. Felton MOVED to
approve the minutes. SECOND: C. Dreyfuss VOTE:
9.544/0/3.156/3.321. Motion passes.
2. CORRESPONDENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENT: C.
Cardine passed out copies of articles from the Keene
Sentinel regarding state funding of education and its effect on school funds.
He encouraged the Board members to share this information with their town
representatives. He mentioned that the District will only be receiving 70% of
catastrophic aid and the District will also be receiving less in Building Aid
and Adequacy. Mr. Cardine
expects to make up the difference in other revenue accounts.
C. Cardine informed the Board that there was a book challenge at Mt. Caesar.
C. Cardine
informed the Board that students at the high school had a mock election. They
had 1150 students who participated and 882 voted. The students were given a
ballot that contained questions to be answered concerning the war and other
issues. Representatives from many parties visited and talked to the students.
The students then held a mock election.
The Masters Family from Connecticut
wrote a letter to the Sullivan School thanking them for a pumpkin that they
have acquired from the Pumpkin Festival. The pumpkin was carved by a student at
Sullivan Elementary School. The Masters Family sent a $25.00 check and thanked
them for the pumpkin.
C. Cardine
reported that the District would be receiving 2 scholarships. One scholarship
will be from the Jesse Phillips Family in the amount of $24,235.00 and the
other grant will be coming from the Greatbatch Family
in the amount of $15,000.00.
W.Wright,
M. Mathis and R. Thackston informed C. Cardine that
they had not received their Board packets. C. Cardine
said that they would now be e-mailed and mailed to the Board Members.
C. Cardine
reported that the Cutler School would be receiving a Service Learning Award in
the amount of $10,000.00. The Finance Committee will look at this on Nov. 12,
2004.
A.Gross
suggested that when the Board visits a school that the principals introduce the
staff present at the meeting. D. Mousette introduced
his staff to the Board.
R. Marra mentioned that the
information on the School Renaissance Institute was for the Board to
review.
3. STUDENT COUNCIL CONCERNS: M. Bush
and L. Cota reported that this Sunday would be the
Ellen’s Walk. They also reported that the cheerleaders are sponsoring a dance
on Friday.
4. Other School Board Business:
Board Committee Reports:
1.Community Relations Committee: D. Gurian was not in attendance. The next meeting will be announced at a later time.
2.Facilities Committee: Board member B. Tatro explained that the Committee had a joint meeting with the Finance Committee to review the construction proposal. Both committees voted unanimously to bring the proposal to the Board. L. Biron provided the handout to the Board. L. Biron explained that they are looking at 22 classrooms in a 2-story building. The committee is exploring whether to propose the project in 3 phases or to bond it out and construct the addition all at once. L. Biron explained the payment schedule on the bond to the Board.
He explained the different ways in which the Board can finance this project. R. Thackston stated the joint committees agreed to build all at once as there would not be any savings to do this project in phases.
K. Cota had concerns on labeling the classrooms. C. Dreyfuss said that there was some confusion expressed by the group looking at the middle school concept. She also would like to see the classrooms to be labeled with the middle school area of the building marked out.
C. Cardine explained that 4 years ago the Building into the
Future Committee produced option C. At
that time the staff had input into the types of rooms needed to separate grades
7 and 8 from the high school. There are two phases of option C. The cafeteria
was expanded and the current teachers’ room will become a deli line. L. Biron commented
that there are 22 rooms being asked for and then they can be labeled along with
the space that will be used for a middle school in the current structure. R.
Thackston commented that we need the space. B. McCulley
said that the Board needs to make the decisions on strategy to be used
explaining why the voters need to support it. R.Marra
gave a historic review on the building addition. He said that no action is
being taken tonight only information. This
information will need to be brought to the Budget Committee and a Bond Hearing
needs to take place. W. Felton would
like the proposal in writing with a rationale to address the concerns, pay as
you go or bond and make it clear. B. Tatro said that the intent of the proposal was to allow the
board to digest and discuss the proposal. R. Marra commented that the Finance
and Facilities Committees and the administration would come back with a more
specific configuration of the classrooms. M. Mathis asked how many net classrooms. C. Cardine said that
replacing the trailers, modulars, and divided
classroom makes 8 spaces that need replacement so a total of 14 new classrooms
will be the net gain. C. Cardine reminded the Board
that some students from the Troy Autism Program will be graduating from Troy
Elementary and will need space at the middle school also. L. Biron would like to ensure that the proprietary information
from American Construction is not shared with anyone else except for the Board.
The Facilities Committee will meet on Nov. 5, 2004 at 8:00 AM.
3. Finance
Committee: W. Wright said the committee met with the Facilities Committee
and discussed making the best financial decision would be to bond the building project.
The joint committees also received an energy efficiency presentation from
Honeywell. The proposal will be brought
to the whole Board. The next meeting will be on Nov. 12, 2004 at 8:00 AM.
4. Policy
Committee: W. Felton explained that the committee has not met.
5. ADHOC Committee: R. Marra reported that the committee met last Wednesday at 6:00 PM. He wanted to correct the fact that the paper said that the Policy Committee would be looking at the Northern School situation. About 40 people attended the meeting. The proposal from the ADHOC Committee was circulated to the Board. MOTION: W. Felton MOVED acceptance of the recommendation of the ADHOC Committee to charge and make the composition to create an advisory committee to look at the Northern Schools issue. SECOND: A. Gross. DISCUSSION: W. Felton read a written statement in which he had given to the Board Members. He commented that he had a problem with the multi-classrooms and the high cost per pupil. He said that the composition of the committee was stacked by the Northern Schools Community and that a solution is way overdue. K. Cota commented that she felt a member from each town should be on the committee because this is a school problem not just a Northern Schools problem.. W. Wright moved the question. VOTE: 10.658/0/2.042/2.3. Motion passes. R. Marra said that he would notify the selectmen, the Budget Committee and the administration. K. Cota asked for the minutes of the ADHOC Committee. He will get those to K. Cota.
5. PUBLIC COMMENTS: R. Bauries commented that some of the Budget Committee did not think that there was a need for 22 new classrooms. He said that this is not the year to ask.
G. White
leaves at 8:39 PM.
J. Morin
arrives at 8:40 PM.
T. Aho commented that after looking at the budget he was impressed by the low increase in the Northern Schools. He said that D. Mousette had done a very good job.
6. Other School Board Business:
A. New Business: C. Cardine explained to the Board that Keene is now paying their substitute teachers $70.00. He would recommend that the Board increase the substitute teacher pay to $65.00 from $62.50.
Board Report: MS 25 Year End Position for 2003-2004: C. Cardine passed out a packet to the Board which contained a copy of the MS25. He explained the form in depth and informed the Board that $410,937.07 would be going back to the towns to reduce taxes. Fifty thousand dollars will be put into the Capitol Reserve Special Ed. Account. All of these funds are from excess revenue from tuition. The district spent its appropriation in full.
C. Cardine passed out information titled Board Report: Grant Paid Tuitions-Teachers.
He first produced the grant awards for two years for the MRPSOC Grant. They state in Line 1 the grantee of the MRPSOC Grant is the Monadnock Regional School District.
He reviewed the packet with the Board showing revenue from grants broken out by each school. C. Cardine noted that the revenue from grants covered the Special Ed. Accounts being over last year. T. Aho asked if there was a requirement to continue the MRPSOC Grant activities when the grant runs out. C. Cardine explained that there is no requirement. He said that the various Boards and districts could gather together and come up with policy that allowed many of the functions of the School Choice Program to continue. For instance if 8 students go to Keene than 8 students from Keene could go to Monadnock an exchange could take place. He also said that if our top students are able to go to KSC and receive college credit for courses we do not offer the current amount is $5000.00 why wouldn’t we put that amount in the budget to give those students the opportunity.
A. Gross would like to receive more information on the catastrophic aid from the state. R. Marra suggested that the Board review the information and bring questions to the next Board Meeting.
B. Old Business: Board Goal No. 5 Discussion:
R. Thackston,
J. Friedman and K. Cota leave at 9:29 PM.
R. Marra passed out information from D. Gurian concerning Board Goal #2 and #5. R. Marra suggested that the Board Goal be deferred until the next meeting under Old Business.
C. Curriculum Report: There is no report tonight but C. Cardine did comment that D. Hodgdon manages a majority of the grants which add up to more than 10 times his salary.
D. 21st
Century Report: No report.
E. Action on the Manifest: MOTION: B. Tatro MOVED the manifest in the amount of $ 1,361,000.83. SECOND: W. Felton. DISCUSSION: A payment to the KSD in the amount of $75,000.00 is a tuition payment for students to attend Keene Middle School’s Fine Arts Program. Monadnock received reimbursement for that amount from the MRPSOC grant electronically in Fund Code 5 when the check was cut.
Several payments to teachers were questioned. Staff development checks are made out to the individual teachers. They are being reimbursed for expenses incurred under the contract regarding their staff development. The monthly payment to Antioch New England was inquired about. Antioch New England Institute receives a payment each month for expenses around managing the grant. VOTE: 9.550/0/1.179/4.113. Motion passes.
7. Superintendent’s Report: See New Business above .
8. PUBLIC COMMENTS: J. Carnie commented that he did not agree with the comments made by the superintendent regarding the grant. He stated his belief that the grantee of the MRPSOC Grant is not Monadnock School District.
9. Board
Chair Report: R. Marra thanked the Board for creating a committee to review
the Northern Schools.
10. SETTING UP THE NEXT MEETING’S AGENDA:
1. Committee Reports
2. Recommendation from Finance and Facilities Committees
3. Teacher substitution pay
4. Board Goals #2 and #5
5. Report on grants
6. Virtual High School
7. State Aid
8. Middle School Task Force
11. NON
PUBLIC SESSION
9:47 PM. A.
Gross MOVED to enter into non-public session for RSA 91-A:3(a) Resignation. SECOND:
B. Tatro. VOTE: 10.729/0/0/4.271. Motion
passes. Roll call vote was taken.
10:00 PM A.
Gross MOVED to return to public
session. SECOND: M. Mathis. VOTE: Unanimous for those present. Motion
passes.
12. Adjournment
10:00 PM C. Dreyfuss MOVED to adjourn. SECOND: J. Morin. VOTE:
Unanimous for those present. Motion Passes
Respectfully submitted,
Laura L. Aivaliotis
MRSD Secretary
Non-approved
minutes
MONADNOCK
REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Non-Public
Board Meeting Minutes
November
2, 2004
Sullivan Elementary School, Sullivan, NH
9:47 PM. A. Gross MOVED to
enter into non-public session for RSA 91-A:3(a)
Resignation. SECOND: B. Tatro. VOTE: 10.729/0/0/4.271. Motion passes.
Roll call vote was taken.
Present: Chair Robin Marra, William Felton, Winston Wright, Colline Dreyfuss, Bruce Tatro, Marianne Mathis, Alan Gross, Tim Aho, Jeff Friedman, Bruce McCulley and John Morin. Absent: Dixie Gurian, Gene White, Richard Thackston, Karen Cota, Jeff Friedman.
Also present: C. Cardine, Supt., K. Dassau, Asst.
Supt. L. Biron, Business
Manager
Superintendent Cardine informed
the board of a pending retirements.
10:00 PM A.
Gross MOVED to return to public
session. SECOND: M. Mathis. VOTE: Unanimous for those present. Motion
passes.