Please review and submit edits, etc. by the weekend.  Thanks .... Wavell



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\paperh15860\widowctrl\ftnbj \sectd \sbknone\linemod0\linex0\cols1\endnhere \pard\plain {\f20 MINUTES\par
MORETOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BOARD MEETING\par
Regular Meeting\par
Tuesday, June 12th, 2001\par
5:45pm in the library of Moretown Elementary School\par
DRAFT\par
\par
}{\f20\ul Present}{\f20 : \par
Board members - Kent Holden, Wavell Cowan, Karen Horn, Deb Hunter and Amy Kuzio\par
Principal - Roberta Barone\par
\par
Meeting called to order at 5:48 pm by Chair, Kent Holden\par
\par
}{\f20\ul Approval of Minutes}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 Wavell moved the adoption of the minutes of the special board meeting on May 2nd and of the regular board meeting on May 8th.  The motion was seconded by Amy. The former meeting minutes were
 approved unanimously, the latter with abstentions from Wavell and Karen who did not attend that meeting. \par
}\pard {\f20\ul \par
Board Orders}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 Upon a motion by Amy, seconded by Deb, the following board orders were unanimously approved for payment:   Board Orders #39 for $8,610.52;  #34 for $4,000.00;  #49 for $42,599.31, #50 for $42,538.40 and #52 for $46,874.55\par
}\pard {\f20      \par
}\pard {\f20\ul Correspondence}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 A letter was received from Paddy Hill Road residents in respect to re-instituting the bus stop at the intersection of South Hill and Paddy Hill roads.  Roberta indicated that
she has received mixed messages from the bus company in respect to this issue and will be seeking clarification.\par
}\pard {\f20 \par
A letter was received from our lawyers, Paul Frank & Collins, in respect to the Joe Gabaree matter (see later agenda item)\par
\par
}{\f20\ul Fuel Bids}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 The WWSU submitted quotes obtained on our behalf from two suppliers in respect to next year's heating oil contract, with a recommendation that the prepaid fixed price of $0.9560  submitted by
 Agway be accepted.  Apparently Harwood and Waterbury are not accepting this quote on the expectation that their greater oil usage should allow them to get more favorable terms.  This brought up the question as to why we were not purchasing heating oil
for the WWSU as a whole rather than for individual schools, thereby allowing everybody to benefit from the larger bulk purchase.  It was agreed that this question should be brought to the attention of the superintendent and this matter tabled
 pending his response.  Wavell was asked to draft an appropriate letter in this regard for submisson by the chair.\par
}\pard {\f20   \par
}{\f20\ul IDEA Money}{\f20 :  \par
}\pard {\f20 Federal money for special education (IDEA grant) is allocated to supervisory unions according to a federal formula and requires the following administrative motion
: Move to approve the Local Education Agency Plan (LEAP) for Individuals with Disabilities Act, Part B, Part 2 for fiscal yea
r 2002 and to authorize the Washington West Board chair to sign. Accordingly this motion was made by Wavell, seconded by Deb and unanimously approved.  As a side issue the question was brought up as to how Moretown's allocation of $24,732
 was calculated.  Roberta will discuss this with Michelle Baker.\par
}\pard {\f20 \par
}\pard {\f20\ul \page Financial Statement}{\f20 :  \par
}\pard {\f20 Although still anticipating a surplus, the latest financial statements indicate that this anticipated surplus has shrunk to $32,294, some $16,000 less than were assumed to become availabl
e to the reserve fund when the 2002 budget was being prepared.  This shrinkage is due to greater than budgeted expenditures in special education, largely in the preschool area ($8500),
larger costs in substitute teaching to accomodate a longer than anticipated maternity leave situation ($3,000), a greater than anticipated reimbursement requirement for teachers taking advanced degrees
 ($3,000), and unanticipated septic system maintenenance charges (($1,200).  These results suggest that future budgeting should consider a septic system maintenance line item, and review the adequacy of the current professional development budget. \par
}\pard {\f20 \par
}{\f20\ul WSSU Teacher Contract:\par
}\pard {\f20  A meeting is to be held to discuss the proposed WWSU initiative to move toward a single teacher contract for all schools in the WWSU.  This meeting will be held at the WWSU Central office from 7:45 - 8:45 AM on Monday, June 18th.
 Karen Horn will attend this meeting to support the board's position in favor of an aggressive pursuit of a single teacher contract.  With such a contract in place it would be possible to have all schools share the total WWSU teacher cost in accordance
with an average per FTE teacher cost multiplied by the total teacher FTE.  This would allow teachers to easily shift to any school in the WWSU without any local budgetary concerns
 - a huge advantage over the current system which essentially traps teachers in a given school. \par
}\pard {\f20 \par
}\pard {\f20\ul Home School Coordinator:\par
}\pard {\f20 This important function which allows family support in situations where family problems are seriously effecting a student's school performance has in the past been subcontracted to Washington County Mental Health
.  This arrangement is no longer satisfactory and Roberta is proposing the following solution:  That the Moretown nurse (2 days per week), Ann-Marie DeSantis, under the title Home Health Coordinator will be additionally employed 2 days (16 hours) per week
 to handle this responsibility.  Roberta is confident that DeSantis' general experience well qualifies her for this task.  This arrangement has been approved in respect to qualifying for being financed from Medicaid funds
.  It was moved by Amy, seconded by Deb and unanimously approved that Ann-Marie DeSantis be appointed to fill the above position and that the chair be authorized to sign the employment contract. \par
}\pard {\f20 \par
}{\f20\ul Grade 1/2 Classroom Teacher}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 With Pam Dow taking over the Kindergarden class for Kim Lincoln's 2002 leave of absence, Roberta proposes to offer a one year contract to Melissa Anderson to take over Pam Dow's grade 1/2 class.  Melissa is a recent Trinty College honors
graduate with glowing recommendations emanating from her practice teaching work.  It was moved by Amy, seconded by Deb and unanimously approved that Melissa Anderson be offered a contract to fill the above position
 and that the chair be authorized to sign the employment contract. \par
}\pard {\f20 \par
}{\f20\ul Second Language Program}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 Roberta presented a stack of references dealing with second language instruction some of which Amy and Deb will review.  These relate to two different approaches.  One seeks to produce reasonable spoken language fluency
 by grade 6, the other referred to as the FLEX system seeks to provide basic acquaintance with the language
as a foundation for future language instruction.  Upon discussion it seemed that the current general practice at Harwood would mandate that second language instruction be in French, and that cost and current practice at Harwood mandate a FLEX system
.  A big problem with introducing a second language program particularly in the upper grades is the increased erosion of sustained classroom time in basic curriculum areas which this presupposes. Roberta will give thought to these various issues as
we further investigate implementing such a program.\par
}\pard {\f20 \par
}{\f20\ul Roberta's 5 Minute Feature}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 What lego constructed devices could students (primary grade) develop in order to help out their extremely busy principal?  A selection of these with appropriate commentary by the principal were presented to the board.\par
}\pard {\f20 \par
}{\f20\ul VSBA Survey}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 Kent distributed a VSBA survey to all board members and asked that they fill it out and return it to the school office by Friday.  Lauren will arrange to send them to the VSBA.\par
}\pard {\f20   \par
}\pard {\f20\ul Pre-School 2002 Enrollment}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 Pre-school will have two mornings for 3-year olds and two mornings for 4-year olds.  Because of the high incidence of special ed
 children in the 4-year old category the school is recruiting preschool children (tuition-free) from outside the town.  This is intended to produce a necessary balance so that regular students will receive a satisfactory overall experience.\par
}\pard {\f20 \par
}\pard {\f20 The board took a 1/2 hour break in order to view the grade 5/6 skits, songs and dances dealing with early American history, under the title "The History of US".\par
}\pard {\f20 \par
Special Ed:\par
}\pard {\f20 The public hearing on the proposed rules for allocating money to school districts with unexpected or unusual sp.ed. costs turned out to be a Moretown affair with Kent, Karen and Roberta across the table from Dept. of Education personnel,
Dennis Kane, Bill Talbott, and John Nelson.  The Moretown protest against the rules did not seem to make much of an impact.  A tape of the proceedings was given to Wavell to review.\par
}\pard {\f20      The next protest opportunity is at the State Board of Education meeting to be held on Tuesday, June 19th (time? place? - Karen to report).  Wavell and Kent will attend, also Roberta if the meeting is not in the evening (daughter'
s graduation).  Wavell after reviewing tape will develop strategy for review with Kent.  \par
}\pard {\f20      Additional efforts are: 1. to send copies of the Moretown rules protest already submitted to the Dept. of Education to be additionally submitted to
Howard Crawford (Chair of the House Education Committee), to Jean Ankeney (Chair of the Senate Education Committee), and to Edie Miller (Executive Director of the VT School Boards Association), and to Ann Cummings (Chair of the Rules Committee).   2.
for Kent to seek a meeting with Commissioner Wolk as a follow up to the submitted protest.  3.  Wavell will continue through Bill Talbott to push his analysis of sp.ed. action requirements.\par
}\pard {\f20 \par
}{\f20\ul WWSU}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 It has become very clear that Moretown is very much an odd man out on the WWSU board with only lip service being paid to any of the issues that Moretown
has advanced as being important.  After discussion it was agreed that Moretown should  pursue two initiatives.  One is to request specific amendments to the minutes of the May 21st WWSU excom meeting
 which make clear the Moretown disagreement with current decision-making of the board as well as correcting egregious omissions.  The second is to make a specific proposal in respect to WWSU policy manual and rules for policy adoption
 and request a WWSU excom meeting at the soonest opportunity to consider this proposal.  Wavell will provide drafts of these for review by board members who will submit sugg
estions, etc. to Kent who will finalize and submit to the WWSU list serve as well as in writing to Bill Riegel and Michael Vasseur.\par
}\pard {\f20 \par
\par
}{\f20\ul Joe Gabaree}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 In respect to the request that Joe Gabaree repay half of the double payment that was inadvertently made to him by central office
 for services in 2000, which Joe had refused to do, the matter has been settled by the court.  Joe's lawyer has requested that this court ordered repayment (with interest) be made at the rate of $148.62 per month
 for 12 consecutive months.  The court has agreed pending our approval.  Kent moved, Karen seconded and the board unanimously agreed that the Moretown Board accept the above schedule for repayment. \par
}\pard {\f20  \par
}{\f20\ul Adjournment}{\f20 :\par
}\pard {\f20 On a  motion by Deb, seconded by Amy, the board meeting was adjourned at 9:45 pm.\par
}\pard {\f20  \par
APPROVED\par
\par
Date:  _________________________\par
\par
\par
____________________________________________________\par
Wavell Cowan - Board Clerk\par
}\pard \par
}