Meeting Date

12/20/07

Minutes Submitted on

Board Attendees

Virginia Scholl (VS), Benji Cragin (BC), Ellen Pratt (EP), Anne Fines (AF)

Community Attendees

Rachael Peters, Chris Ryan, Town Manager, Josh Laughlin, Chair of Selectboard, Howard Weis-Tisman

Administration Attendees

Amelia Stone (AS), Jim Kane (JK)

Location

PCS Writing Room

Meeting Called to Order by:

VS

Meeting Called to order at:

4:30 pm

Meeting adjourned at:

7:06 pm

Agenda Item

Motion

Moved by

Seconded by

Discussion

Passed?

COMMITTEE REPORTS
A.   Finance
B.  School Forest Committee-no report at this meeting
VII.   UNFINISHED BUSINESS, If Any
A.   FY ’09 Operating and Capital Plan Budgets – General Discussion—see below

VIII.  NEW BUSINESS, If Any
A.   Report – Early Education Outreach Program

B.   Report – Indoor Air Quality Grant to Westminster School – Rachael Peters
 
C.   Policy Review:
·     D12 – “Harassment of Employees” – Updated – 1st Reading

D.   Putney Endowment

E.   Other
 
 
 
 

BC reported that the Supervisory Union’s Finance Committee passed a budget that the supervisory union board will vote on at its Jan. meeting.

Amelia Struthers reported on the Early Education Outreach Program  program. She reported on where Putney’s preschoolers attend preschool. 4 of them are at home, and the rest are in the 11 child care centers in the area and in 3 family child care programs in Putney.
She also reported that there are an estimated 22 incoming kindergartners.
Amelia reported that the bulk of  her time is spent with center visits and working with kids not in child care.  She runs a Thursday morning program in the PCS library.

 EP asked which of the 5 preschools in the area signed the contract with PCS (so that we can access Public Education dollars).  AS said she would check with the Central Office on this.

After Amelia’s report the board discussed the future of the program.  The board will discuss at its next meeting whether to incorporate some of the work of the Early Education Outreach Program into the work of a teacher if the school opens another preschool classroom. Potentially, one of the teachers in this new classroom could spend some time with community outreach.

Rachael Peters reported on a grant-funded project she worked on with the Westminster schools. The project looked at ways to improve schools’ indoor air quality. The project was funded by the VT Health Department for $3,000. The project resulted in a set of policy recommendations, one of which was for schools to use environmentally-friendly cleaning products. She encourages PCS to apply for the grant.
 

Policy review D12 – “Harassment of Employees” – Updated – go to second reading.

Endowment—the board was not able to discuss this topic and will discuss it at the next meeting.

    ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Approval of Minutes – November 29 (previously distributed)

To approve the minutes of the Nov. 29 meeting.

VS

BC

The minutes reported on the group, Coyote Path, using the School Forest. The sentence about this group was incomplete and should read:  “Coyote Path held its first meeting.”

The minutes also reported on a building committee that would meet. This report should include the statement that the committee will make  recommendations to the school board.

yes

Communications

none

Approve/Ratify Warrants

To approve 1039, 1040, 1042 Fast, in amounts of $1,712.02; $70467.33; and $571.22 and #1044 Regular in amount of $6770.57

EP

BC

yes

FY ’09 Operating and Capital Plan Budgets –

JK distributed the budget. The combined total increase is 1.65%. The increase is less than in previous years because we’ve had more senior teachers retire and we’ve replaced them with teachers who are lower on the pay scale.

The board reviewed the budget by line item.
The board expressed its gratitude to Maria DeLuca, the school secretary, for her excellent work.  The board also expressed its gratitude to the maintenance staff for their hard work while one of the maintenance staff is out.

AS distributed staffing tables which show possible staffing scenarios for upcoming years. AS is not recommending any changes in staffing next year but the middle school team is beginning to explore moving the 6th grade into the middle school.

VS to go into Exec. Session at 6:56 pm to discuss a student matter. BC seconded. Passed. Out at 7:05pm

Upcoming Meetings:
Jan 3 6:30 pm Supervisory Union board meeting at BUHS

PCS Board meeting:
Jan.10 4:30 pm
Continued budget discussion
Continued discussion of the Early Education Program