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Fairfax Board of School Directors
Monday, March 10, 2008
Regular Meeting at 6:30pm
Fairfax Community Library
Present: Chairperson Peg Stewart, Jeff Loller, Angela Baker, Elaine Carpenter, Robin Freeman, Clara Pedley, Adam Benay, Armando Vilaseca, Scott Lang, Thomas Walsh, Lisa Delorme, Chris Sumner
Public: Christel Michaud, Cassie Blakeney, Ashley Sullivan, Maxx McNall, Kyle Gagnon, Dave Buckingham, Karen McNall
1. Call to Order - Armando Vilaseca called the meeting to order at 6:37 PM.
2. Board Re-Organization
Action: Jeff Loller nominated Peg Stewart as Board Chair. Elaine Carpenter seconded. Peg Stewart accepted the nomination and the Board voted unanimously to elect Peg as Chair.
Jeff Loller accepted the position of Board Clerk.
The Board made the following committee assignments:
FWSU Board – Robin, Jeff and Angela
Steering Committee – Peg
Technology Committee – Jeff
Library Committee – Elaine and Angela
Recreation Committee – Angela
Safe Routes to School Committee– Peg
Safety Committee – Peg
Legislative Contact – Robin
New Board members were provided with email accounts and Armando reminded the Board that the State requires all Board business to happen on or through these school email accounts.
- Town Meeting Recap – Peg distributed the voting outcomes from the school budget and articles to the Board. Peg has had feedback from the public expressing a negative opinion about the elimination of Tech Ed. She noted the public was pleased with the flyer.
Armando reviewed an error in the budget that was presented for the vote. Article 3 approved $150,000 for repointing of the bricks in the ’43 wing of the building. This $150,000 was also inadvertently included in the budget. It didn’t get double checked. Deb Markowitz was consulted and recommends having the Board vote to not exercise the article. Because it was voted as an article, it is not a spending requirement. This error will be related to the public and a vote to not exercise the article will be taken at the next meeting.
- Consent Agenda
Minutes -Regular Meeting: February 11, 2008
Correspondence
Elaine Carpenter commented on possibly making the minutes more detailed. Discussion occurred on how much detail to include and on the feasibility of having the meetings videotaped. It was decided that more input was needed from the public on the topic of whether the public would find videotaping the meetings a benefit.
Action: Angela Baker motioned to accept the Consent Agenda. Robin Freeman seconded. Passed unanimously.
- Public Comment - none
- Reports
a. Principals
Lisa Delorme stated that report cards will go out on Friday. The elementary now has a salad and sandwich bar in the lunchroom.
Scott Lang reported this year’s Course Fair was well attended last week. He expressed the need of the Board to approve two overnight field trips coming up. The Spanish Club will be traveling to Spain for 9 days in April and Mike Brown has an exchange set up for the baseball team in Dover in April.
Action: Jeff Loller motioned to approve the overnight trips of the Spanish Club and the Baseball Team in April. Angela Baker seconded. Passed unanimously.
Tom Walsh will be sending a letter out this week with updates on the middle school activities and will provide the Board with a copy. The 7th grade’s Greek Festival was before vacation and was once again successful. This festival was probably the last one that will take place and Tom thanked Jan Jeffords and Jim Lonergan for a wonderful run of 20 years.
b. Financial – Chris Sumner distributed an updated financial report. She indicated that there is a surplus due to increases in tuition and Special Ed costs but the expenses are very close to the budgeted amount.
c. Superintendent – Armando Vilaseca informed the Board that he received a letter of resignation for Pamela Gude as of June 30th.
d. School Board Members
Angela Baker reported on the town hall style meeting that she is organizing around underage drinking. This is planned for the evening of April 9th. Students and parents and community members are urged to attend.
Clara Pedley reported on the NHS blood drive. The Red Cross collected 89 usable pints.
Adam Benay reported there is a band and chorus concert happening on March 12th. Drama productions (one-acts) will come up at the end of the month.
Jeff Loller had suggestion on updating the presentation at the Course Fair.
Peg Stewart reported on the Safe Routes to School meeting and reported on Recreation Department updates.
- Old Business
a. White House Update - The Selectboard would prefer a long-term lease. Peg proposes the lease start April 1, 2008 for a total lease time of 20 years. The House cannot be deeded to the Town because there would be no attached land. The attorney stated that the lease could require that the Town is responsible for the building and any maintenance. Robin suggested in looking into the liability issues for the immediate property surrounding the White House as well as the maintenance agreement. There are still things in the attic.
- New Business
a. Graduation Committee – Dave Buckingham and Karen McNall were present to discuss the Graduation Requirements. The Graduation Review Committee was formed to take a look at the credit requirements for graduation. The applied academics requirement was considered and after review the committee is suggesting a ½ credit of applied academics instead of a full credit. Discussion ensued around the reduction of this credit requirement. The second recommendation of the committee was to no longer allow students to use co-curricular activities as substitutions for graduation requirements. Much discussion ensued over this recommendation also. The committee also decided to keep the computer requirement for graduation based on the importance of and reliance on technology in the world today. The final recommendation is to not include a Capstone requirement as a graduation requirement at this time due to logistical and pragmatic concerns.The present 8th grade class would be the first to be affected by these changes if they are approved by the Board. Current high school students will be exempt from the new requirements. This will be on the agenda for discussion at the next meeting and the vote on these requirements will be warned for May. Scott Lang gave the Board a copy of his recommendations on the changes and thanked and acknowledged the committee for spending so much time looking at and discussing the credit requirements.
b. Draft School Calendar 2008-2009 – Armando reviewed the changes that are being proposed for next year’s calendar. They are adding 2 extra student days for a total of 177 student days. Inservice days for teachers will be a bit different. November 4th, Election Day, is being proposed as a day off for students but an inservice day for the staff since they are anticipating heavy voter turnout.
c. Approve FY2007 Audit
Action- Jeff Loller moved to approve the FY2007 Audit Report completed by A.M. Peisch & Company. Robin Freeman seconded. Passed unanimously.
- Other – The School Board members completed a self-assessment survey. Peg distributed the results of this survey to the current Board and they will discuss it at their next meeting.
- Policies
a. Substitute Teachers Policy
Action: Robin Freeman moved to approve the Substitute Teachers Policy. Jeff Loller seconded. Passed unanimously.
b. Copyright Policy – 1st Reading. The Board was provided with a VSBA sample policy to review. This policy will protect the district surrounding illegally copyingprint/video media.
c. Graduation Policy – The Board reviewed this policy and it will be approved/changed once the Board decides on the graduation requirement.
- Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Julie Filiberti
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