Meeting Date:	7/14/05
Minutes Submitted On:	7/15/05
Board Attendees:	Anne Fines (AF), Virginia Scholl (VS), Peter May (PM), Rebecca Coffey (RC)
Administration Attendees:	Ron Stahley (RS), Amelia Stone (AS), Jim Kane (JK)
Community Attendees:	Bob Long and Bob Scarcello of Fitz, Vogt & Associates; Brian Stone, Michele Jones, and Bill Vanzandt of Café Services; Deb Gass of Early Education Services; Lizzie Rosenberg, Ea Maples (community members)

Location:	PCS Writing Room
Meeting called to order at:	4:38
Meeting called to order by:	VS. PM joined the meeting a few minutes late.
Finish time:	6:50

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	Move to approve minutes of 6/28/05	VS		AF				Unanimous
Communications	Because RC’s teaching schedule has been re-arranged, during the academic year, she will need to leave meetings by 7PM.
Warrants	Ratify signatures of warrants signed the week after the June 23 board meeting.	PM		VS				Unanimous
Warrants	Move to approve #1113 A/P’s for $5,411.54 and #1001 REGULAR for $636.96; #1112 FAST for $375.00	PM		VS				Passed
Administrators’ Reports	AS: § Contracted services for maintenance of trim and exterior of building. Tim Dandrea gave an estimate of $3,095. Includes fascia board, lumber, nails, and paint and $2400 in labor. There is money in the current contracted services budget, so board approval is not necessary for this expenditure. The board is considering establishing a board committee for building maintenance. Interested community members (including local builders) should contact AS at the school. § At the end of June there was a problem with the septic. AS thanks the town of Putney and Dennis Wilson for handling the problem quickly. § The voice mail system is activated at PCS until August 15. People calling can leave messages and reach individual classrooms and personnel (i.e. Head Start, Tony Coven). RS: Wednesday evening, July 20, there will be a WSESU committee meeting for teacher contract negotiation.
Old Business
Update on Liability Issues Surrounding School Forest	Tabled until August 18.					PM will talk to attorney Bob Luce and fax to him the current school forest brochure for his review. PM will try to get any suggested language changes to the School Forest Committee for their consideration prior to the August 18 board meeting..
Head Start Contract for 2005-2006. Action Needed.	Deb Gass, Early Education Services, attended. She brought a contract with a few modifications from the last iteration that the board reviewed. § Added item: “PCS will provide the maintenance and cleaning of the classroom at no cost to EES during the school calendar year. Maintenance costs above and beyond daily requirements will be paid by EES.” § “EES will pay the costs of any necessary classroom renovations, including replacement of exit doors.” § The term of the agreement was changed from one year to two years. The board asked Deb to insert the word “all” at the head of the last sentence of the first paragraph in order to clarify that, during the 2-year contract, the program will be for Head Start-eligible families only. Deb will take the contract to the Brattleboro Town School Board for approval. Note: According to Deb Gass, no Windham County community day care providers attended the educational session hosted by EES/Head Start.
Head Start Contract for 2005-2006. Action Needed.	Move to authorize PM to sign, on behalf o the board, the Head Start agreement effective August 15, 2005 between EES and the school board.		RC		AF		Unanimous
IBooks (possible lease on 20 new iBooks and airport capability)	Tabled August 18.
Food Service Vendor Presentations – Action Needed. (Summaries of the proposals as well as the full proposals are in the school board binder in the school office.)	Fitz Vogt Fitz-Vogt is headquartered in Walpole and is in its 28^th year of business. It has a variety of accounts. It is a regional company, working primarily in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It employs over 800 people during the academic year and over 1100 during summers (when the company services summer camps). Fitz-Vogt has been the food service supplier at PCS since the food service’s inception in ’98. The program is now trying to incorporate more fresh fruits and vegetables. They have a program in which they try to deal with as many local companies as they can. The challenge is to find products that are reasonably priced, nutritious, and that children will eat. The Fitz-Vogt response to the RFP did not address the PHACT addendum on nutritional guidelines. The school has only one 2-door reach-in refrigerator and that makes storing fresh food difficult. Fitz-Vogt based its bid on an assumption of the same price per meal that we’ve been charging since October 2004 at PCS. PCS’s charge per meal is about average for Vermont, but within WSESU PCS’s charges are among the highest. Deficits: According to Bob Scarcello, the à la carte sales and vending machine sales were down because the board and PHACT asked that fatty foods and other “junk” items be removed. Those two programs together accounted for about $7000 of what Bob Scarcello projects to be a $12,000 in deficit. (By contract, PCS must cover the first $6,000 in deficits and 50% of the remainder of the deficits, with Fitz-Vogt assuming liability for the deficit not assumed by PCS. This means that, if the school year did, indeed, end with $12,000 in deficits, the PCS liability would be $9,000. PCS has $6,000 budgeted. In the Fitz-Vogt proposal for 2005-2006, the Fitz-Vogt liability would be limited to $3,500 for 2005-2006. Fitz-Vogt recommends an education process with children, letting them know that the healthy foods would increase their energy. Bob Long suggested that Fitz-Vogt could collaborate with the Vermont Food Network and other agencies to provide the necessary education. Fitz-Vogt strongly recommends addressing the refrigeration issue. PCS pays more for fresh foods (about 20% on produce alone) when it cannot order in bulk. Better refrigeration would save money and boost nutritional value. Fitz-Vogt is willing to share the cost of a refrigeration system, but space for the refrigerator is a problem. According to Bob Scarcello, if PCS could have a walk-in refrigerator, it could save about $2000 in one year alone on produce. A walk-in would cost $5,000 - $7,500. Bob Scarcello says that Fitz-Vogt has a few managers on staff that could help support/train our PCS kitchen staff. This would not carry an additional cost. In the current Fitz-Vogt proposal, the food cost is much higher than what was spent in 2004-2005. According to Bob Scarcello, this reflects the board’s desire to move towards fresh foods and more nutritious foods.
Continued: Food Service Vendor Presentations – Action Needed. (Summaries of the proposals are in the school board binder in the school office.)	Café Services It is the largest provider of school lunch services in NH and VT. Founded in 1993, it is employee owned. It handles 23 school districts (including Brattleboro) and 16 business cafeterias. It also handles 22 summer camps. Café Services offered to use a Nutrikids NuMenus POS system for meal participation. It eliminates stigma for free and reduced lunch. The same software includes menu planning features that track fat and other nutritional components. This will conceivably help Café Services meet the guidelines set out by PHACT. Café Services brought with them a school policy for nutrition. Café Services said that the cost effect of a nutritionally sound program won’t be that great. Head Start has specific nutrition/food requirements. Café Services does not anticipate problems meeting those requirements. Staffing would be determined on meal volume. The state recommends 14.8 meals per man hour. Café Services has a couple of people on staff that are trained in their methods of service. It is important that the person fit into the community. The principal could be part of the selection process.
	Move to award a three-year contract (with renewals every year) to Café Services and to authorize PM as chair to sign the contract provided to him by JK.	RC		PM		JK should talk to Café Services about long-range ownership of the food service point of service software. The board also asks AS to give Fitz-Vogt feedback about why the board awarded the contract elsewhere, namely cost overruns and inadequate communication.		Unanimous
New Business
Foreign Language Instruction at PCS	§ Ea Maples: The Chinese instruction at PCS is more cultural exposure than language instruction. She would like to see a more structured approach to language instruction at PCS. Several years ago the board cut foreign language instruction and health instruction in order to save money. Since then, PCS did offer for one year some Spanish instruction from interns at SIT. However, it was not a sequential program. Next year, according to RS, the Brattleboro elementary schools will jointly fund a language coordinator who will coordinate interns such as those that were at PCS from SIT. That may result in language instruction that is very cost efficient and more programmatic and cohesive than PCS’s prior experience with interns. The foreign language discussion will be continued at the second meeting in September as part of a review of FY06 in preparation for FY07 planning. It will also be continued at the second board meeting in November, at which time a representative of WSESU will give a report about the Brattleboro school district’s pilot of a language coordinator and interns in elementary schools.
PCS Outreach Efforts	Tabled until August 18.
Executive Session	Move to go into Executive Session to discuss Food Service contract at 6:26	RC		VS				Unanimous
Upcoming Meetings	August 18. 4:30 in Writing Room at PCS § AS’s recommendations re: recess § Winter Sports funding § Harassment policies and review of related policies § School forest insurance § Discussion concerning building maintenance and infrastructure with Tony Coven. § Update from PM on teacher contract negotiations. § PCS Outreach Efforts § Executive Session: Personnel Matter § iBooks (possible lease on 20 new iBooks and airport capability) First Meeting in September § Superintendent, Administrator and Board review WSSU District Goals and PCS School Action Plan. Board provides input to WSSU District Goals and PCS School Action Plan. § EEOC coordinator § Livable wage (continued discussion with further information from RS) Second Meeting in September § Review of FY06 budget in anticipation of budget season for FY07. Health, Early Ed Outreach, and Foreign Language will be part of the conversation.) § Superintendent meets with Board and Administrator to present to Board Administrator’s professional goals for coming year, with reference to the PCS School Action Plan. Board provides input to Administrator’s professional goals. Executive Session may be held with Superintendent at Board’s request. Second Meeting in November § Presentation to board by Jim Kane or VSBA about school budgets. § Foreign Language Instruction, including report from Brattleboro town about how their pilot of a language coordinator and interns in elementary schools is going. Second March Meeting § Consideration of Head Start contract for 2006-2007

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.