Meeting Date:	April 13, 2006
Minutes Submitted On:	April 14, 2006
Board Attendees:	Ellen Pratt (EP), Anne Fines (AF), Virginia Scholl (VS), Benjamin Cragin (BC)
Administration Attendees:	Ron Stahley (RS), Amelia Stone (AS)
Community Attendees:	Jan Blanchard, Maureen Ward

Location:	PCS Library
Meeting called to order at:	4:30
Meeting called to order by:	VS
Finish time:	6:15

NOTE: These minutes should be considered a draft that awaits approval and possibly amendment by the board at its next scheduled meeting.
AGENDA TOPIC	MOTION	MOVED BY	SECONDED BY	DISCUSSION	PASSED
Prior Meeting’s Minutes	To approve last meeting minutes	VS	AF	Beckie Coffey emailed to clarify that the Kindergarten Committee’s recommendation re: staff to student ratio should be 1 fully qualified teacher per 16 students. The minutes should be amended to reflect that change.	Yes, with the change.
Communications
Committee Reports: Finance/School Forest/Early Education Outreach Advisory Committee	AF reported on the School Forest Committee: the committee ran an on-campus Winter Sports Program for older children 4-6 grades. Activities included a treasure hunt, scavenger hunt, 2 cookouts, a hike, making a snow shelter, tubing and winter stories with snacks. Steve Anderson produced a description of all the trails and the Windham Regional Commission mapped the trails. Both will be posted on the school forest kiosk. The committee is working on the spring after-school program which will run Monday and Tuesday afternoons from April 24 – June 5 from 3:15-5 pm. There will be 15 students/group. The activities will include a treasure hunt, nature studies, trail maintenance, a hike, and a cookout/picnic. An Antioch student had asked the committee if he could conduct an evaluation of the PCS School Forest for a class. He reports that if we developed the forest it would result in a net loss of between $.5 million - $2 million in 30 years. He recommends that the school continue to preserve the school forest. The report is filed with these minutes. EP reported on the Early Education Committee’s meeting last week. Amelia Struthers (the Outreach Coordinator) will be discussing with local child care providers the potential for them entering into collaborations with the school to provide preschool services. If local childcare providers have an accredited program and have a licensed teacher, the school can include the Putney 3 and 4 year olds who are in these preschool programs in the school census, and thus draw down Public Education funds for the school’s early education activities. Amelia Struthers reported that she received books from the Cosby Foundation to distribute. She will be conducting a story hour on Wednesdays starting the week of April 24. The Preschool Fair will be held on May 13 from 10:30-12. The next meeting of the committee is June 6 at 6 pm. The minutes from that committee meeting are posted outside of the principal’s office.
Warrants	To approve warrants #1082 $(638.35) and #1084 ($36,842.53)Fast and #1085 Regular ($16,235.30)	EP	VS		Yes
Administrators’ Reports	AS reported the Science Fair is tonight at 6:30 pm. AS attended a conference in Chicago which focused on building background knowledge in children. The work focuses on building a rich, diverse vocabulary for children because research shows that children who come to school with a diverse, rich background of experiences do better in school. AS will be working with staff to implement what she has learned at the conference. Kindergarten registration was yesterday. Twenty-five children attended; two of these children are non resident students (these families will need to go to their local school board to request that they be tuitioned in to PCS). Two children who are on our list of incoming kindergartners didn’t come to the registration. After vacation AS will meet with the primary team of teachers to look at ways to configure the primary grades. AS will report back to the board at its next board meeting (April 27) on the options the team comes up with. RS handed out the WSESU calendar for 2006-07. The first day of school will be August 30, 2006. The calendar will be sent out with an upcoming school newsletter. All of the 360degree survey results for the principal evaluation are in. AS will summarize them and will provide the summary to the board at its second May meeting. Ron reported that one Putney high-school student has been accepted into Leland and Gray’s Journey East program (a semester long program in an Asian country). While the program is primarily for Leland and Gray students, they open it to about 5 kids from outside Leland and Gray district. In the past a few WSESU kids attended. It’s BUHS’ responsibility to fund these children. Four WSESU students have been accepted and RS is hopeful that all of our 4 district kids will be able to attend. RS reported on the Brattleboro Town Schools Foreign Language Program. The Brattleboro Town had surveyed parents last year about their foreign language experience and their preference for which foreign language would be taught in the school. The town worked with the School for International Training on background research on foreign language learning. The research shows that there are educational benefits to adding foreign language instruction, beyond learning a new language. The high school has a novice and an intermediate section for Chinese language. The Brattleboro town schools have committed to $30K/year for a full-time coordinator to work with SIT interns who teach Spanish and French 20-30 minutes 3 times a week. RS reported that there are different models for foreign language instruction in addition to having SIT interns teach. PCS currently has an exploratory Chinese class for 7 and 8 grades. The school board has not budgeted anything for foreign language for next year. It would be a good time to start discussions with SIT if we want foreign language for the following year. AS suggests we engage the Putney community in the discussion of whether to have a foreign language program at PCS. She suggests establishing a steering committee to do some research on benefits of foreign language study and to assess the community’s interest. The board will discuss this issue again at its June 8 meeting and invites community members to attend. AS suggested having a fall retreat when the board could look at program development at the school. It would be during these discussions that we would look at how we might fit foreign language instruction into our school programs.
Old Business
New Business				AF reported no response to Darrow Scholarship request for applicants. These scholarships are a small amount of money to help defray college expenses. Applications can be obtained from the school counselor. Applications due May 5. Putney School and BUHS students who are interested in the scholarship should contact their school’s counseling departments for the applications. The board retreat will need to be rescheduled because AF can’t make the May 1 date. BC attended a school wellness policy meeting. It’s federally mandated that schools have a wellness policy by September 2006. The Supervisory Union is developing a union-wide wellness policy. A draft of the policy is available at the school office. AS will post the policy on the iPutney.com website. A final copy will come before the school board to be voted on.
Executive session	To enter into Executive Session at 5:54 to discuss a personnel matter.	VS	BC		No action taken. Board exited Executive Session at 6:00
Upcoming Meetings	April 27: Need to reschedule the Board Retreat May 11: RS will give info. To Board on PCS use of Medicaid Café Services management to give update on food program May 25: Deb Gass reports on Head Start Program June 8 Discussion of foreign language instruction and possible establishment of Steering Committee Discussion of use of possible ADM revenue from the pre-school population Jan 2007(second meeting): Ensure that preparations for 360 degree survey to be distributed are underway. NEED TO BE RESCHEDULED: ·         Review of Transportation bids ·         Discussion of 4-day Week

Respectfully submitted by: Ellen Pratt, Board Clerk

This represents my understanding of this meeting. If you have any changes, please submit them at the next board meeting.