|
Fairfax Board of School Directors
Monday, January 8, 2007
Regular Board Meeting at 6:30pm
Fairfax Community Library
Present: Chairperson Peg Stewart, Greg Beeman, Jeff Loller, Lauri Fisher, Rachelle Howard, Dustin Howard, Clara Pedley, Scott Lang, Thomas Walsh, Lisa Delorme, Armando Vilaseca
Public: Carolyn Branagan, Gary Gilbert
1. Call to Order - Peg Stewart called the meeting to order at 6:30PM.
2. Approval of Minutes
Action: Lauri Fisher moved to accept the Regular Meeting minutes of December 18, 2006. Greg Beeman seconded. Motion passed.
3. Correspondence – Peg Stewart received a thank you letter from Madeline Mann complimenting the Nordic Ski Team on their recent trip to St. Anne in Quebec.
4. Public Comment- Representatives Carolyn Branagan and Gary Gilbert came to speak to the Board. They stated they plan on keeping the Board advised on issues impacting the school and education. It is their feeling that education funding is going to be a hot topic this session. The Board stressed that taxes and education funding are important issues to Fairfax. Discussions took place on property tax prebates and district consolidation.
5. Reports
a. Principals’ Report – Scott Lang reported that the committee looking at graduation requirements will be meeting. End of semester exams are coming up. They will be interviewing for 2 English positions. He has made the decision to drop calculus, which had very low enrollment, to create an additional Math II position. The calculus students will take course through CCV.
Lisa Delorme reported that there will be in-service on Monday and in the elementary, the faculty will spend a half-day working on the math program and other half on report cards. The enrichment committee met and gave money towards middle school. There is a storyteller coming next week. The State of the Academy will be given on January 23rd and a status report will be brought to the Board in February.
Tom Walsh reported a committee is working on the logistics of having the security system up and running with limited access 24hrs per day. The safety committee will be meeting to update protocols for Clear the Halls drills and will be planning the next drill. The middle school faculty will hear a speaker on harassment and bullying for Monday’s in-service. Youth Risk Behavior Survey will be given on February 5th in grades 8-12. The middle school Student Council will be hosting assemblies on various diversity issues. Rachelle Howard questioned how the implementation of the differentiated instruction is going since the in-service in November.
b. Board Reports – Clara Pedley reported that students are looking forward to the end of the semester as well as the Winter Ball on February 3rd.
Dustin Howard reported that the district’s band festival is on the February 9th at MMU.
Jeff Loller reported the high school did get to ski at Bolton on Jan. 4th. He also reported on the meeting on graduation requirements.
Peg Stewart reported that the combined meeting with the Selectboard would now be on February 12th at 7:00PM. Discussion took place on what topics will be discussed at the joint meeting.
6. New Business
a. Budget Communication Plan – The Board discussed the plan for communicating the budget to the public. Thoughts were voiced on the best way to present the data and ways to showcase the benefits to the students and all the benefits the taxpayer is getting for their money. Ideas were shared on how to get better voter turnout and how to promote absentee ballots for those who are out of town. February 19th will be a dry run of the budget presentation.
b. Approve Updated SAP Job Description – The previous job description was not explicit enough at stating the expectations and requirements for the job. The position was previously shared with Georgia. There has been great turnover in staffing the position over the years. There is now a concentrated effort in the health curriculum in elementary and middle school to address drug and alcohol, so the new focus of the position will be on grades 9-12 two days per week. It will be funded through grant money. The new job description more clearly reflects what is needed in the high school.
Action: Lauri Fisher moved to approve the new job description for the SAP Counselor. Jeff Loller seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
7. Policies
a.Section 504 Policy
Action: – Rachelle Howard moved to approve the 504 Policy. Lauri Fisher seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
8. Other –Armando Vilaseca requested the Board’s input on whether to put on next meeting’s agenda the discussion around moving to once-a-month meetings. The Board agreed to put it on the agenda and discuss it.
Armando distributed a draft copy of the warnings for the budget vote for the Board to review.
9. Executive Session
Board entered executive session at 8:40.
No action taken.
Respectfully submitted,
Julie Filiberti
|
