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These meeting have yet to be voted on as approved.
Fairfax Board of School Directors
Monday, October 12, 2009
Regular Meeting at 6:30pm ~ Community Library
Present: Peg Stewart, Elaine Carpenter, Robin Freeman, Barbara Murphy, Kim Lesny, Ben Langelier, Chris Hogan, Bruce Chattman, Michael Clark, Thomas Walsh, Lisa Delorme
Public: Carolyn Branagan, Nancy Mead
1. Call to Order – Peg Stewart called the meeting to order at 6:30PM.
2. Consent Agenda
Minutes of Regular Meeting: September 14, 2009 – Corrections to the minutes were noted.
Action: Elaine Carpenter motioned to approve the Consent Adgenda and Barbara Murphy seconded. Passed unanimously.
3. Public Comment – The Board received notification that the bridge reconstruction on VT104 in town is scheduled to take place between May 25th and June 25th of next year. The school has concerns because the bus routes will be affected during this time frame. If it could be moved until after school was out in mid June, it would be appreciated. Carolyn Branagan commented that she did not know if there was any flexibility in the dates but would be willing to take the Board’s concerns to the State transportation department. She will make a phone call to see what can be done about delaying the project until after the end of the school year.
4. Reports
a. Superintendent
The BFA wiki is being utilized as a tool for expanded and improved communications (it has been viewed 475 times since it began). The Board should periodically check this out. While it is only one tool in our communication repertoire, the goal is to encourage more pubic participation in governance matters, such as policy work by the board.
The professional development plan for this year is in full action with both Vertical and Horizontal Team meetings occurring monthly. Vertical Team Leaders attended workshops last week to compare strategies and discuss common challenges. FWSU administrators also met to discuss and plan for continued PD efforts.
A new Learning Network of Vermont system is being setup by the state. Ann Dunn will be meeting with the principals and teachers to start to identify uses for this system over the next few months. We have started the process of choosing a new student management system and will look at 2 or 3 different systems to determine the best fit in functionality and cost. The old system, WinSchool, will no longer be supported after this school year. We are also implementing a new email system that will make email available to middle and high school students. The cutover schedule is not yet complete, more details will follow. Last year's Technology Institute was very successful and many teachers at BFA have new technology in use in their classrooms following the program. The 2010 Institute is being planned now. The goal is to hold this next session at BFA to encourage more BFA teachers to participate with the intent to share how technology can be used effectively to help students learn and succeed in all grades.
Nurses across FWSU have met with representatives from the Vermont Department of Health to plan for the H1N1 flu clinics to be held in public schools. Although a specific date has no yet been announced for BFA, it is expected to be in October.
The Board received a letter this week from the Fairfax Education Association requesting negotiations on a successor agreement. Board representatives on the negotiation team (Robin Freeman, Barbara Murphy) and I will meet with the Association representatives before November 1st to begin the process.
As a result of an appeal of their 2008 real estate assessment by DDH-SSH Trust (Handy Property), the Franklin County Superior Court has ruled that the Town’s assessment of this property located at 15 Old Academy Road was not correct. Consequently, the Court ordered that the Town return to DDH-SSH Trust taxes collected in excess of the Court established tax liability. Because these tax funds had been passed on to the school district, the school has received a bill from the Town for its share of these funds - $21,865.75.
The Town has also notified the School District that work on Bridge 10 (replacement) will occur in the spring of 2010.
Respectfully Submitted,
Bruce Chattman
Superintendent
Robin questioned the details on the Vermont Learning Network. Bruce stated that the plan is to be able to interface with the VCAT system. Because WinSchool will no longer be supported, the school has to choose a system before the state has their exact plan laid out. Therefore they are looking at what the bigger schools have in hopes that it will fit into the state’s plans.
b. Principals
Elementary School
The first six weeks of school have been very busy. Our annual K-5 hike was a success. Weather was cooperative and many families joined us as we hiked the trails behind the school for the first time. TV turn off week culminated the last week in September with an ice cream sundae celebration with over 100 students that met the challenge. The annual Book Fair and Open House were widely attended. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the PTSA for their support with school pictures, the Open House dinner for the staff, the Book Fair and TV turn off week.
Students in grades three through eight are in the process of taking the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) assessments. We kicked it off on Tuesday, October 6th during our whole school morning meeting. This is the assessment used to measure of our school improvement efforts and to determine our identification status.
As part of our ongoing efforts to monitor the progress of students with disabilities we have contracted Rich Reid, from the Green Mountain Psycho-Educational Services (GMPS) to assist us in examining kindergarten through eighth grade special education services that we provide to children. His report will be available in December. This document will help us to review and improve our current practices. The process is funded by School Improvement funds.
Lisa Delorme
Elaine questioned if it was the first time that Rich Reed was contracted. The administration replied that it was and that is part of a recommendation resulting from being an identified school.
Middle School
My recent letter provided a comprehensive overview about what was happening in the middle school. Please let me know if you need clarification or more input about anything in the letter.
NECAP testing is underway and students appear to be giving their best efforts. The entire staff is to be commended for their preparation and facilitation of this process. The three grade levels are completing the assessments during the October 6-18 window. Students in grades six and seven will complete the reading and math assessments. Students on grade eight will complete reading, writing and math.
The “Beauty and the Beast” production is underway. The sets are almost completed. Stop by the high school gym and see the progress. There are a number of students and staff involved with this production, both on the stage and behind the scenes. I would like to thank Peter Ladensack for donating his time to construct an amazing set.
I met with Katrina from the Recreation Department and Mile Brown on September 28 to discuss the status of the agreement with the town. It appears that Katrina has worked out a solution for maintaining the fields for the remainder of this year and the next. I informed her that our insurance carrier will not permit us to allow nonschool employees to use the school’s equipment. We discussed exploring alternative options if the current arrangement fails. At this point there is no recommendation to revise the Memorandum of Understanding between the school and the town.
The middle school faculty has been busy. All members are participating in monthly vertical team meetings, monthly department meetings and monthly faculty meetings. We are using our department meeting time to review student NECAP data through the SMART goal process and to develop targeted literacy and math interventions during the weekly enrichment sessions. Finally, the entire staff is reading Fair Isn’t Always Equal, Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom, by Rick Wormeli. This book is being used a tool to examine effective grading practices and to develop ways to provide students feedback that will impact their learning.
Respectfully,
Thomas Walsh
High School
S E P T EMB E R FA CUL T Y ME E T ING AGENDA S
September 22 Agenda
We will begin the meeting in the FACS room. I will share information regarding progress reports and Maroon Notebooks. This part of the meeting should take less than 10 minutes.
Next we will have 3 break-out sessions to help people with their Maroon Notebooks:
· Session 1 Exemplars and Tools and Protocols for Peer Review
· Session 2 Help with Enduring Understandings and Writing Overarching KUDs
· Session 3 Tiers and Templates Revisited
September 29 Agenda
We will begin the meeting in the FACS room. The goal of this meeting is to share a draft of the overarching Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions for one of your Maroon Notebooks with a peer using a process based on the protocols for peer review that you used last year. We will briefly review the protocol as a whole group and then will use the rest of the faculty meeting time to work with a peer. I will partner people from different departments to work together on this peer review process. If it makes more sense for you to work with someone specific, please let me know who that is and why. Additionally, I expect to talk briefly about next year’s budget- specifically about enrollment (For the Board Report I’ve attached the file I used for this report). Dave B will also review the NECAP testing schedule.
COMMI T T E E S
Each of the 5 committees have met at least twice and are making progress. As a reminder the committees are:
HS Principal’s Advisory Team (PAT)
HS Professional Development Team
Writing Center Set Up Committee
HS Technology Committee
Community Fitness Center/Art Room Committee
Work Block Committee
CO-CUR R I CUL A R AC T I V I T I E S
The athletic seasons are progressing well. The Cross Country Fairfax Relays happened on October 6, this
annual event was once again a hit and was well attended.
Band and Chorus will have a concert on October 21 beginning at 7:00
Beauty and the Beast is doing well and will have shows on November 12, 13, and 14
COMMUNI T Y BUL L E T - IN
We put out our first Community Bullet-In on September 29th. I believe you received an e-mail copy. I have
received little feedback, but on the plus side, all of the feedback I have received about it was positive
WOR K BLOC K
As I noted in my September principal’s report, guidance is going into senior work blocks. Seniors are required to attend these sessions. This work is going well so far.
MEMB E R TO MEMB E R AGR E EMENT
I have a request from a student of ours to participate in a Member to Member agreement with Milton on their hockey team. I support this request and under VPA guidelines, need approval from the board to let this happen for the student. I suspect that there will be more of these as the year progresses. I am happy to bring each of them to the board, however, I feel your time is valuable and concerned that this encroaches on that time. If the board prefers, I think it could authorize me to make these agreements in the future without bringing each one to the board. I would still need the board chair’s signature which I could get outside of the meeting time and I would still inform the board when I entered into the agreement.
OUT OF COUNT R Y FI E LD TR I P S
I have two requests for field trips that are out of country and as such require board approval.
Mr. Griffin has requested an enrichment fieldtrip from 12/10/2009-12/13/2009. The participants are the BFA Fairfax Cross Country Ski team to Mt Ste Anne, Quebec. This is an annual trip that has gone without incident in the past. I have attached a description of the trip. I support this field trip.
Mr. Vecchio has requested a fieldtrip to Costa Rica over April Vacation (departing 4/23/2010, returning 5/1/2010). Students from Mr. Vecchio’s Spanish classes will be the participants. French and Spanish have historically alternated trips abroad. I have attached a copy of the itinerary for this trip. I support this field trip.
PROGR E S S RE POR T S
On October 5, every High School teacher sent a progress report home with every student in every class. In the past, progress reports were sent only to students who were failing.
AC T I V I T I E S FA I R
On October 2, we held an Activities Fair in the high school gym. This event was organized by high school senior Morgan Sanderson. The intention was to help make students aware of the different co-curricular activities that we offer at BFA. The following groups participated: TASC, Scholars Bowl, Football, Chorus, Cheerleading, Art Club, NHS, Student Council, Helping Hands, VTLSP, Ski and Board Club, High School Friends, Tongues Untied, Drama, Fitness Club, Baseball, and Girls Soccer.
E-MA I L GUIDE L INE S
In and effort to improve teacher/parent communications, I have provided teachers with guidelines for communicating with parents using e-mail. See the attached guidelines.
NECAP TE S T ING
We administered the NECAP test to our juniors on October 6 (Reading), October 7 (Mathematics).
Anecdotal feedback is that it went well. We could review the structure. On October 13, we will administer the writing part of the test. This year, the testing block is 2 hours and 20 minutes long for each subject area. We will administer the tests from 8:30-10:50. The guidance department and I have been careful to ensure that whenever possible, tests are administered in a room relevant to the subject area and are proctored by teachers most involved in that area. Additionally, because the blocks are different lengths, we will adjust the school day so that blocks do not fall in the same order.
DRUG VIOL A T IONS
In September, we had three school policy drug violations and 1 additional drug related violation of the cocurricular training rules. Student’s behavior was addressed according to the policy except that the policy specifies that the students will work with the school’s certified SAP counselor. We do not have an SAP counselor as this was a grant funded position and we did not receive the grant. My understanding was that the SAP program in the past has been ineffective. I am working on developing a comprehensive Substance Abuse Prevention Program at the high school in connection with the guidance department. As I work on this process, we will look for alternative funding sources; Bruce, Mary Lynn, Adrienne, Tom, and Lisa have been supportive in this process and I thank them for their input. In the meantime, the Guidance Counselors and I will work to support these struggling families.
THE F T S
We have two students who have had theft-related disciplinary issues at the high school this year. In the first instance, the student stole a community badge out of the library drop box. The student was caught when he attempted to use the badge. The second student was caught with a school laptop. The student brought the laptop to school where the technology people saw it and identified it. In both situations, the students received the appropriate school consequences and the Franklin County Sheriff’s department was notified. A deputy from the Sheriff’s office came to the school and addressed each issue with the student.
VT GR ANDP A . COM
There is a forum on Henry Raymond’s site titled, “A little Bit of BFA St. Albans rubs off on BFA Fairfax.”
In the discussion, Loctavious (a person posting on the site) indicates that their daughter thinks there was some sort of law enforcement sting at BFA Fairfax High School. In addition, the daughter believes that there are undercover police at the High School and that we would potentially be bringing in a canine officer and a dog. Frankly, the person making this post came across as supportive of these actions if they happened and took advantage of their daughter’s concerns and had a good conversation with her. An employee of the school sent an e-mail to Henry (without my knowledge) clearly stating that this did not happen and was completely incorrect. Henry posted the employee’s e-mail and invited me (the new principal) to respond, which I did. My response commended Loctavious and their daughter for having an open dialogue. I cited some statistics from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and explained that the student’s information suffered from the “Telephone Game Effect” (the game that starts with one statement, is passed through a group of people, and comes out completely different by the time it gets to the last person), and affirmed my commitment to ensuring that BFA Fairfax is a safe and respectful learning environment. I have attached a copy of what is happening on the site.
To be clear, there are no undercover police at the school. I have not talked with anyone regarding having a canine unit come to the school. There have been no police drug busts at the school. I believe these rumors are circulating as a result of the Deputy being in the school dealing with the theft issues. The deputy and I did tour the school as we waited for the parent of one of the students to be available to come to school. I think that it is a good thing that this is causing a dialogue about this issue.
PA R K ING
I have had complaints about parking from a parent (3 times). Each time I have addressed the parking issue.
The parent believes that the parking issue creates a safety concern. I did send Bruce and Barb pictures I took shortly after the last time the parent made a complaint. I do not believe that there is a safety issue. I do believe that students and faculty are adjusting to a more controlled parking environment. I have not had any student complaints. We have sold out of parking permits.
ENROL LMENT A T THE HIGH S CHOOL
As you saw in my September 29 Faculty Meeting Agenda, I talked about enrollment with the high school teachers. If you look at the attachment, you will see that our enrollment at the high school will be down by
30 students next year (assuming that we can get 20 Georgia, Fairfield, Westford, Grand Isle, or other tuition students), and it continues to drop in years to come. I explained to the faculty that we needed to actively seek out these students and encourage them to come to BFA Fairfax. Guidance and I will do this by going to each of these school’s choice fairs and promoting our school. I plan to have some of our students create a video that we can show at these fair to highlight the great things happening at BFA, and may recruit 9th graders from these schools to go back and talk about BFA Fairfax. Guidance and I are working to formalize a plan. I will update you as we progress.
Michael J. Clark
Robin questioned the fact that enrollment is declining. Michael responded that he as looked at numbers of incoming students based on current enrollment of grades 3 and up and there will be a gradual decline in students through 2015/2016. They will be looking to market the school to some students from surrounding areas to make up for the losses. Elaine mentioned that some parent interviews should be included in the video that will be made to promote BFA to students of surrounding areas.
Elaine asked if there was a parking lot update. Robin questioned the parent complaints. Michael elaborated on the details of how he followed up with the complaints.
Robin suggested the administration contact Angela Baker about resources in forming the Substance Abuse Prevention Program as she has been very active in that area in the past.
Elaine questioned whether financial considerations would be made for students to go to Costa Rica that could not afford it. Michael Clark responded that they will be doing fundraising to support the trip and he will speak with Sr. Vecchio on the issue.
Action: Robin Freeman motioned to approve the out of country trips to Mt. St. Annes, Quebec and to Costa Rica. Kim Lesny seconded and the motion passed unanimously.
The Board discussed giving Michael Clark the authority to enter into new Member to Member agreements for this school year.
Action: Robin Freeman motioned to give Michael Clark the authority to sign any new Member to Member agreements along with the board chair for this current school year. Kim Lesny seconded and the motion passed unanimously.
c. Board Reports
Chris Hogan reported on NECAPS, the Fairfax Relays, and the PSAT test.
Ben Langelier reported on football, parking, and the programs being held for college bound seniors. He finds them very helpful.
Robin Freeman reported that the 6th graders were happy with the breakfast served before NECAPs. He went to the kindergarten curriculum information night and learned a lot about the program.
Barbara Murphy wondered if it was stressed to the students that to be eligible for a Merit Scholarship, the PSAT has to be taken as a junior. Michael replied that all college-bound juniors are encouraged to take the test.
Elaine Carpenter reported on the highlights of the VSBA regional meeting.
Kim Lesny followed the thread on vtgrandpa.com regarding the drug issue and thanked Michael for his attention to the discussion. She also has been hearing that there are parents still supporting the need for full day kindergarten. Discussion took place around the issue.
Peg Stewart attended the public meeting about the sidewalks in town. The Selectboard has requested a joint meeting to discuss Safe Routes to School and the Memorandum of Understanding. Peg will try to find out the details on what exactly the Selectboard would like to discuss and let the Board members know prior to the meeting.
5. Other – The advertised upcoming meeting for budget input from the community will change from the 23rd of November to the 9th. It will be warned for 7:00pm. Peg will meet with Natasha about sending a postcard to the public to advertise the meeting.
6. Policies
a. Pesticide Protocol (Update) – This was a 1st reading of the policy and will be brought back.
b. Energy Management (New) – The Board discussed whether the policy was needed because of all the work that has and is done to promote efficiency at the school. It will be revised to be more suitable for BFA and be brought back.
c. Gifts, Donations, & Scholarships (New) – This was a 1st reading of the policy and will be brought back.
d. Alcohol & Drug-Free Workplace (Update) – This was a 1st reading of the policy and will be brought back.
e. Public Participation at Board Meetings (Update) – This was a 1st reading of the policy and will be brought back.
- Executive Session (Personnel/Negotiations/Legal Matter)
The Board entered Executive Session at 7:45pm.
The Board exited at 8:30pm.
No action was taken.
8. Adjourn
Robin Freeman moved to adjourn at 8:30pm. Elaine Carpenter seconded.
Respectfully submitted,
Julie Filiberti
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