Meeting Date

1.10.08

Minutes Submitted on

1.13.08

Board Attendees

Peter May (PM), Virgnia Scholl (VS), Benji Cragin (BC), Anne Fines (AF)

Community Attendees

Administration Attendees

Amelia Stone (AS), Ron Stahley(RS)

Location

PCS

Meeting Called to Order by:

PM

Meeting Called to order at:

4:37 pm

Meeting adjourned at:

7:25 pm

Agenda Item

Motion

Moved by

Seconded by

Discussion

Passed?

Approval of minutes

To approve the minutes of the 11/29/07 meeting

AF

VS

passed

Warrants

To approve warrants # 1050, and #1052 fast in the amounts of $3,308.43 and $31,207.82; and #1053 Regular in the amount of $3,885.11.

BC

AF

passed

Administrator’s Report

AS reported that the Winter Sports program was postponed for Friday due to the weather.  There is almost 100% participation in the program this year. Many thanks to Nancy Gagnon and Bob Burch for running the Mt. Snow program; to Heather Chaffee and Gay Foster for running the Grafton program, and to Jennifer Hed for running the on-campus program.

Lauren Petrie has organized a showing of the Warren Miller ski movie on Jan. 26th at the Latchis Theatre. This is a district-wide benefit for adventure-based/winter sports programs.

The raffle to benefit the Winter Sports program will kick off next Monday through Jan. 28th. Thanks to Heather Chaffee for organizing this.

The winter concerts will be held on Jan 16 for the K-4 grades and on the 17th for the 5-8 grades. 6 pm for both concerts.

Ed Anderson (Custodian) is still out. Randy McDonald will be starting on Monday. Thanks to Tony Coven who has done a remarkable job filling in while Ed has been out.

The New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) testing results will be in at the end of this month.

RS reported that 7 school board members from our district attended the Legislative Breakfast held last month. (BC from our board attended).
Act 82 is not likely to be repealed in this legislative session although some of its provisions might be changed. 
RS reported that the supervisory union received another 3 year Asian Studies grant from the Freeman Foundation. The grant is for $200,000/year for 3 years.  This is slightly less than in the past and will need to be supplemented by district budgets. The money will fund language studies.

Committee Reports

AF reported on the School Forest: the Coyote’s Path program now has 16 students enrolled. They will be giving another scholarship to a PCS student. 

There have been requests for overnight camping in the forest.  It is allowed on a case by case basis, only in designated spots according to a written policy.  Permission is granted by the forest committee.

Communications

AF reported a complaint about the planters next to the school wall. This will be dealt with.

Anita Combs reported that EP and VS will need to get petitions signed if they are running for re-election.  PM reported that he will not run again. His position is open and the board encourages townspeople who might be interested in learning more about elected office in Putney to attend a Democracy Party on Thursday, Jan. 17 at 7 pm at the Putney library.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS, If Any
A.   FY ’09 Operating and Capital Plan Budgets – Continued Discussion
B.   Early Education Outreach Program – Continued Discussion
C.   Policy Review:
·     D12 – “Harassment of Employees” – Updated – 2nd Reading

The board asked Amelia Struthers (the early education outreach coordinator) to report back in writing on the feedback from preschools that did not enter into contracts with PCS.  AS will meet with Deb Gass (of Early Education Services, which runs the Head Start classroom) and Jim Kane to discuss program costs and benefits of PCS opening another preschool classroom. The board will discuss this at its next meeting. The goal is to have 10 more preschool slots including tuitioned students. The board expressed its support of this goal subject to a review of the finances at its next meeting.

Budget discussion:

RS reported a 1.44% increase in the budget. Putney’s spending per pupil is $12,121. The spending cap is $13, 287.

Second reading of  Policy D12.

Endowment

AF reported on the progress towards potentially creating an endowment:

1. she contacted the VT Community Foundation which said that they would manage the fund after we have $10,000 to start.
2. 2. Jim Kane said that we will need to fomulate a policy dictating who the endowment will benefit and how it will be governed.

In a brainstorming session, the board talked about the purpose of an endowment --to supplement, not supplant programs. Not to reduce taxes but to add more services for students. RS said that endowments usually fund things like more computers. AF said she’d like to see it fund more enrichment programming (e.g. after school programs, the School Forest, Asian Studies, etc) not to support services already covered in the budget. Possibly it could fund scholarships like the Darrow Scholarship. VS said that it might fund artist-in-residence.  On the topic of governance of the endowment, PM asked whether school board members would be members of the governing body. RS said that board members are usually trustees of the fund. PM offered that members of the students’ assets committee could be on an advisory group to the endowment.  PM said he will draw up a document for the board to review at its next meeting. PM said he would commit $100 to the endowment. AF said she would match anything he offered.

Executive Session

PM moved to enter executive session at 7 pm to discuss a personnel issue. Out at 7:10

Upcoming Meetings

January 24 5:30 pm