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Meeting Date: |
1/26/05 |
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Minutes
Submitted On: |
1/30/05 |
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Board
Attendees: |
Ellen Pratt (EP), Anne Fines (AF), Virginia
Scholl (VS), Peter May (PM), Rebecca Coffey (RC) |
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Administration
Attendees: |
Ron Stahley (RS), Amelia Stone (AS) |
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Community
Attendees: |
Angela Walton, Gerry Gatz (both PCS teachers), David Gartenstein |
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Location: |
PCS Writing Room |
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Meeting
called to order at: |
5:05 pm |
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Meeting
called to order by: |
PM |
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Finish time: |
7:55 pm |
| NOTE: These minutes should be considered a draft
that awaits approval and possibly amendment by the board at its next
scheduled meeting.
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| AGENDA
TOPIC |
MOTION |
MOVED
BY |
SECONDED
BY |
DISCUSSION
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PASSED? |
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Prior Meeting’s Minutes (January 13, 2005) |
Move to approve as amended. |
PM |
AF |
In School Forest Committee report, the minutes read, “Erosion on the far side of the Portal to the Sacred Woods bridge is a concern. May try to pile bricks there next spring.” Amend as follows: Change “bricks” to “stones.”
In Administrator’s Report, the minutes read, “Eight days to put the bar codes on the shelves. “ Amend as follows: Change “shelves” to “books. |
Unanimous |
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Communications |
AF received four phone calls regarding the Jan. 14 Reformer article (“Putney Decides to Cut One Teaching Position”) and the letter to the editor of January 18 from RC, AF, and EP. All calls were supportive of the school board FY06 budget process. One caller noted, however, an error in the letter to the editor of January 18. The letter stated that, “the budget that we passed at meeting’s end will increase taxes by 13%.” It should have instead stated that the tax rate will increase by 13%. Furthermore, it should have made clear that the 13% tax rate increase is an estimate based on information provided to the board by the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union. The legislature has yet to finalize the tax rate for FY06.
AF presented an article from the Business section of the International Herald Tribune. Dated December 21, 2004 and headlined “For Hottest New ‘Toy,’ It’s Purely a Matter of Timing,” it is about the Time Tracker, a toy that is meant to help young children develop a sense of passing time so that, when they are just a bit older, they can better manage time during standardized tests. One quote in the article called the Time Tracker, “the modern-day equivalent of hanging a mobile above the baby’s crib or playing Beethoven for the baby – those were supposed to stimulate creative thinking. Now the emphasis is on test-taking.” AF presented the Time Tracker’s popularity as evidence that concerns about standardized test performance may be running amok. The article itself suggested that the Time Tracker’s popularity may be “an ominous testament to priorities gone awry.”
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Committee Reports: |
School Forest Committee No official report. Everyone has been having a wonderful time playing in the snow.
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Warrants #1042 FAST for $29,789.02, #1043 FAST for $332.97, #1044 FAST for $179.00, $1047 FAST for $896.00, #1048 FAST for $290.00, and #1049 REGULAR for $63,923.65 |
Move to approve. |
VS |
PM |
PM noted that #1042 FAST includes a line item “941 P/E 12/31/1999 Penalties and Interest” in the amount of $1,617.57. He asked RS to convey to Business Manager Jim Kane that we would like information about that item. |
Passed. |
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Administrators’ Reports |
The Winter Sports Program has been going extremely well. The program is cancelled for January 27 due to forecast of frigid temperatures. AS will double-check with Ascutney on makeup dates or next-year credits. According to AS, each time we cancel Winter Sports the program saves about $500 in bus fares and $250 in fees to Grafton Ponds. (Winter Sports is not paid for by the school. About 50% of funds come from fundraising and about 50% come from family-paid fees. Scholarship funds are available for families that can’t afford to pay.)
National Assessment Education Progress testing for 4th and 8th graders will take place on March 2. This test does not return data on individual students. Rather, the school is ranked against other schools. Parents who don’t want their children participating must put their request to exempt their child in writing to AS. They must do so by a date in the near future. (Parents: Check with AS regarding the date.)
Last Wednesday the middle school team hosted an open house for families of children who live in Westminster and who will be middle schoolers in academic year 2005-06. (Westminster families can send their children to PCS; Westminster pays PCS tuition) Seven families attended the open house. Five of the potential students returned the next Monday to spend the morning. (The other two had come previously to spend time in classrooms.) Kathy Bartlett had registration forms and other paperwork for the families. Families were told that, if they want to enroll their child for academic year 05-06, they must return their registration forms and paperwork by Feb 11. Two have done so already. Once all paperwork is in, AS and Kathy Bartlett will consult with Westminster Center school to determine which students are in good standing. To those who are, PCS will issue letters of acceptance. Five Westminster students are currently enrolled in PCS middle school. The board expressed interest in learning the expected tuition rate for 05-06. RS said that he would ask Jim Kane on behalf of the board.
On January 18, an in-service day, PCS had a team-building workshop. Teachers completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a personality inventory widely used by corporations and educational institutions to help teams understand fellow team members’ preferred problem-solving modes. During the in-service day, teams also worked on identifying common classroom assessments for grade levels and grade clusters. Para educators were in all-day training sponsored by the district.
PCS received a grant that will send AS and seven PCS teachers to a Learning Communities conference at Lake Morey.
The Putney Health Action Coordinating Team PHACT) has started Path to Wellness, a 10-week fitness awareness program for PCS staff. Kate Lampel-Link (of the Vermont Department of Education and the Federal Centers for Disease Control) has been working through PHACT to gather data for the School Health Index, which is a tool to help the school assess its physical activity and nutrition policies and programs. . Quite a few parents and visitors have begun disregarding No Parking and Fire Lane signs in the parking lot. This is a dangerous practice as it could stop emergency vehicles’ access to the school. AS and the school board urge parents and visitors to find other places to park their cars.
The PCS Winter Concert will be Feb. 16 at 6pm.
The board and AS expressed pride in sixth graders Christy Akley and Hannah Kochinskas, who put collection cans for tsunami relief in all PCS classrooms. |
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Old Business |
Discussion of Early Education Outreach Coordinator Position. Tabled until 2/10/05. |
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New Business: David Gartenstein presentation on the Role of School Boards with Performance Reviews |
David Gartenstein is an attorney with the State’s Attorney’s office. He used to be the Town of Putney’s attorney. He was on the Brattleboro School Board for 2-1/2 years.
He prefaced his presentation by saying that he was not giving the school board legal advice.
Prior to the meeting, Gartenstein reviewed the Vermont Statutes as well as a Vermont School Board Association document regarding the roles and responsibilities of the board. He also had reviewed the School Board’s Code of Ethics and Policy D11 (Public Complaints about Personnel).
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| New Business: David Gartenstein presentation on the Role of School Boards with Performance Reviews (continued) |
Gartenstein spoke to the board from a risk management point of view. He advised that one of the board’s many responsibilities is to arbitrate in the event of a contract or personnel dispute. According to Gartenstein’s risk management perspective, if even one board member gets involved with the day-to-day workings of the school, that involvement can compromise the entire board’s ability to arbitrate impartially. He expressed the opinion that the board should not avail itself of any input other than the superintendent’s regarding the evaluation of the principal, as any exposure whatsoever brings with it some risk of the board being seen as involved in the day-to-day workings of the school. Evaluation of the principal, according to Gartenstein, should be the sole purview of the superintendent. Evaluation of the superintendent is the responsibility of the board.
Board member RC pointed out that the Vermont Statutes do say that the board should consider the supervisor’s input when considering whether to renew a principal’s contract. They do not, however, specify that the superintendent’s input must be their sole source of evaluative information regarding the principal. RC also suggested that the board has many roles and that occasional conflict among these roles and responsibilities is to be expected. For example, according to Robert’s Rules of Order, board chairs set meeting agendas. The current board chair meets with the principal regularly to check in and to discuss the next meeting’s agenda. While “checking in/agenda setting” meetings arguably present some risks (those meetings could be seen as evidence of a board member getting involved in the workings of the school, thereby ruining his objectivity in the event of a contract dispute), the benefit of such meetings probably offsets the danger of them. Duties sometimes conflict, but as a practical matter zero tolerance of risk cannot drive board procedures all of the time.
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| New Business: David Gartenstein presentation on the Role of School Boards with Performance Reviews (continued) |
RC read to the board an email exchange that she recently had with secretary of state Deb Markowitz. RC had asked for guidance regarding the question of board access to 360-degree principal evaluation survey data. In the email exchange, RC reiterated many of the concerns that had led the board to develop a procedure that included very limited access for the board to collated survey data. They include the desire on the part of the board to respect appropriate reporting relationships; an acknowledgement that not every supervisor will necessarily be able to objectively evaluate every principal; and a desire not to compromise the board’s ability to objectively arbitrate in the event of contract or personnel disputes. In the email exchange, Markowitz replied to RC by saying that it is “appropriate and common” for board members to have access to evaluative material. She suggested that the board may want to obtain legal advice.
David Gartenstein’s presentation, while it was not legal advice, did an excellent job of elucidating for the board the “zero tolerance of risk” perspective. Risk management regarding the various responsibilities of the school board is an ongoing concern of the board and Gartenstein’s perspective was much appreciated. The board wishes to extend its thanks to Gartenstein for his contribution to board education and process.
The board decided not to revisit its recently designed procedure for board input to the supervisor regarding principal evaluation, as the very limited access that it gives the board to 360-degree survey information seems to the board to be appropriate to the well-considered process that the board has developed. The board will continue for this year with the input process that is currently under way.
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| New Business: Superintendent Performance Criteria |
Tabled. |
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| New Business: VSBA Dues 2004-05 – authorization needed |
Move to authorize payment of Vermont School Board Association dues in amount of $1300. |
PM |
RC |
Budgeted item. |
Unanimous |
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| New Business: Buy-Out Discussion and Reduction in Force |
RS distributed to the board “Voluntary Exit Incentive Program Appendix A,” which describes the criteria for eligibility for the teacher buy-out and the early retirement benefit itself. The sheet (with modifications listed below) will be distributed soon to teachers. Teachers who, after receiving and reading the document, have questions about the affects on their benefits of accepting a buy-out offer should consult their annual retirement plan summary booklet (it is small and beige) or call the Vermont State Teacher Retirement System at 1-800-642-3191.
Modifications requested by the board to the document, ““Voluntary Exit Incentive Program Appendix A”:
· The second paragraph on page 1 says, “If more than one (1) eligible teacher applies for this offer, the teacher with more years of service would qualify.” After “years of service,” the phrase “with the Putney Town School District” should be inserted as a qualifier.
· Page 2, paragraph numbered “3(b)” begins with, “The District shall pay for the total premium cost of the teacher’s medical and/or dental insurance coverage for two years…”
o This paragraph should include a statement that says that teachers who are eligible for coverage on another plan will receive a $500/year lump sum payment in lieu of District payments for medical/dental premiums. o The word “total” should be removed from the sentence, “The District shall pay for the total premium cost of the teacher’s medical and/or dental insurance coverage for two years…”
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| Voluntary Exit Incentive Program Appendix A |
Move to approve as amended. |
PM |
RC |
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Unanimous |
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| Executive Session: 7:02pm – 7:10 |
Consider a personnel matter related to buyout |
PM |
VS |
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Unanimous |
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| New Business: Buy-Out Discussion and Reduction in Force (continued) |
If no teacher elects to accept the buy-out offer, the school board will have to reduce its teaching staff by what is known as a RIF (reduction in force that follows protocol established in the Master Agreement). RS said that it is not necessarily a K-6 grade classroom teacher that would be RIFed. The school wants to eliminate an elementary grade classroom. In eliminating a position it needs to make sure that the staff that it retains meets licensure, certification, and “highly qualified teacher” requirements for the positions remaining. Reassigning staff from any team or specialty area in the school is not out of the question as long as the teachers being reassigned are qualified or can become qualified for their new positions in the time period that relevant regulations allow. |
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| New Business: Town Meeting Planning |
School board members divvied up responsibilities for the school board presentation at Town Meeting. Each school board member will bring first drafts of their presentations to the board’s February 10 meeting. The total school board presentation at Town Meeting should not exceed 20 minutes, so members are encouraged to keep their individual contributions to under three minutes. |
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| New Business: All Town Board meeting prior to Town Meeting |
PM will call the Select Board and ask if they are interested in a having joint meeting prior to Town Meeting. |
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| Next meeting:
Thursday, Feb 10 at 5pm. 5:00 in Writing Room. Special Work Session (no communications, warrants, etc.)
· Kindergarten committee report. · Head Start Review · EEOC · Town Meeting Prep
Thursday, Feb 17 at 5pm. 5:00 in Writing Room.
· Town Meeting Prep · Keyboarding. · Review of 360-degree survey instrument that is part of the annual principal review process. It is to be distributed in February by the principal to students, teachers, staff, parents, and community members. · Executive Session: Superintendent Performance Review.
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Respectfully submitted by: Rebecca Coffey
This represents my understanding of this meeting. If you have any changes, please submit them at the next board meeting.