Meeting Date:	8/18/05
Minutes Submitted On:	8/22/05
Board Attendees:	Ellen Pratt (EP), Anne Fines (AF), Virginia Scholl (VS), Peter May (PM), Rebecca Coffey (RC)
Administration Attendees:	Ron Stahley (RS), Amelia Stone (AS)
Community Attendees:	Don Linden, PCS teacher and technology contact at PCS; John Harrison of Laidlaw

Location:	PCS Writing Room
Meeting called to order at:	4:42
Meeting called to order by:	PM
Finish time:	7:18

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	Motion to approve the minutes		AF			PM			The Executive Session that the board had during the 7/14/05 meeting to assess the Food Service bid should not have been an Executive Session according to the Open Session law. (Even though the Executive Session itself was “out of bounds” everything discussed in that session was made public in the 7/14/05 meeting minutes.) Despite its best efforts, the board has consistently had difficulty adhering to the Open Session law regarding Executive Sessions. The board asked RC to make up laminated cards for each board member. On those cards will be the complete list of circumstances under which a board may go into Executive Session. Furthermore, in response to any motion at a future board meeting to go into Executive Session, the clerk will recite the conditions allowing Executive Session. This routine will encourage board members to examine each and every time if there is a match between the matter to be discussed and the law allowing such a discussion to happen in Executive Session.			Unanimous
Communications	A Putney voter contacted the board chair when the tax bills came out. The taxpayer lives outside the “band of services” (i.e. doesn’t get town water, etc.) The board chair met with him and explained to him school board process. RC got a call from a parent asking about when the academic year calendar will be distributed. According to AS, it will be distributed in letters mailed on August 20 and at First Day Hooray. The board suggested to AS that, from now on, that calendar get distributed at the end of the prior academic year, perhaps at Move Up and Out Day. AS agreed. Note: This year’s calendar will be posted on the school web site. The board’s first meeting in September (September 8) has the following agenda item: “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.” According to the fall ‘04 PTSB document setting forth the procedures for the evaluation of the administrator, the board needs to receive a copy of the District Goals and PCS School Action Plan prior to 1st September board meeting. RC agreed to email Barbara Nowakowski at WSESU and ask that that those two documents be distributed to board members along with the meeting agenda prior to the meeting. Our second September meeting will be on September 29 rather than 22 and it will begin at 4pm. Other meeting dates through the end of ’05 are noted below, in the Upcoming Meetings section of these minutes. RC notified the board that courts have construed Open Session laws to prohibit board members from discussing school matters by email between meetings.
VSBA Resolutions Committee	The VSBA suggested the excision of one phrase from the resolution on health care proposed to it by the PTSB.
VSBA Resolutions Committee	Move to support the resolution as reworded by VSBA	PM			RC					Unanimous
Committee Reports: Finance/School Forest/Early Education Outreach Advisory Committee	None.
Warrants	No warrants
Possibility of liability to school by community’s recreational use of school forest	AF brought to this meeting a copy of the Vermont law regarding landowner’s liability for recreational use of property when no fee is charged for such use. PM was supposed to bring an opinion regarding liability from attorney Bob Luce to this meeting. He has not had time to discuss this with Luce but will do so prior to the first meeting in September, at which point the board will take up this question again.
Bus Routes	John Harrison from Laidlaw came to discuss bus routes. The routes have not changed since the spring. He sees no reason to add or subtract routes.
Bus Routes	Approve proposed Laidlaw bus routes for 2005-2006.	PM			AF			Bus routes and times at specific stops will be published in the Reformer. Laidlaw will provide a CD of the routes to the board. The board will place it on the school web site.		Unanimous
Parking lot safety	John Harrison has noticed that the parking lot at pickup time presents dangers for children. He proposed that cars use the horseshoe area currently used by busses and that the busses use the parking lot currently used by cars. The board saw some problems with that suggestion. (For example, how would all of the cars fit in the horseshoe area? If parents who needed to park and run into the school were invited to do so in the parking lot, how would children know where to meet a parent?) The board will take up the parking lot traffic discussion on the first meeting in October.
Administrators’ Reports	Paul Smith of WSESU has obtained Federal money for use by PCS this year for memory and software for the servers at PCS. $3430 is additionally requested by the technology committee to lease 20 iBooks to replace computers that are now obsolete. The board discussed whether this should be a capital plan expenditure, as the $3430 is for the first year only. In Years 2 and 3 the school’s liability will be approximately $8,430 per year. The board discussed whether to use some of the additional tuition revenue anticipated for 2005-2006 and from the $20,000 unspent teacher buy-out offer to prepay Years 2 and 3 of the lease. Disadvantages of prepaying Years 2 and 3: Most school districts purchase through a 3-year lease program. All districts’ technology expenditures per year are compared by the state. Were PCS to pre-pay Years 2 and 3 (and, in essence, purchase the computers outright) the statistical comparison would be skewed. Furthermore, purchasing the computers outright would be predicated on the assumption that the extra tuition revenue and the $20,000 of unused buy-out money won’t be needed for extraordinary out-placement expenditures this academic year. That is not an assumption that the board necessarily feels prepared to make. Enrollment figures to-date (not final): 198 students. That includes 13 Westminster students and 12 kindergartners. The 198 does not include the 15 Head Start preschoolers (who will be included in the child count this year in the hopes that the school can be reimbursed with ADM money for Head Start’s use of the school). Kindergarten will run half-day (8:30 – 12:30) through September 23 so that kids can ease into a full day program and so that kindergarten teachers can do home visits. After that it will be full-day. First graders will have half days on September 1 and 2 so that teachers can do home visits in the afternoon. August 21 is First Day Hooray, 8:30 – 12:30 for all grades. Letters are being mailed on August 20 with school schedules/calendars. Anyone who does not receive a letter should call the school office. Recess: At the 6/9/05 meeting, a group of 5^th and 6^th grade boys and some parents presented data indicating that recess times at PCS are shorter than the amount recommended by several educational experts and shorter than those in other schools in the WSESU. At the 6/9/05 meeting the board asked AS to consider the information presented and to formulate a response. According to AS, she spent many hours thinking through the scheduling crunch and will have additional discussions with teachers and paras. For the time being, the fact that lunch happens in the gym and that the gym is available for use by lunch only between the hours of 11:15 and 1:45 presents a scheduling crunch. AS proposes as follows: Kindergarteners will eat family style in their classroom. Their combined lunch/recess will be 60 minutes. 1^st – 4^th graders will have lunch in the cafeteria and recess on the playground together. They will have 50 minutes. 5^th and 6^th will have a 45 minute lunch/recess period. 7^th and 8^th will also have 45 minutes. Time wise, for recess, this does not represent a change for the group of students who requested that a change be made. AS’s hope is that, for those students, the lunch line will move more quickly in the upcoming year. A more quickly-moving line will allow more of the 45 minute period to be used for recess. (Formerly 5^th-8^th graders were grouped together. This meant that the lunch line was crowded and slow. Now 5^th graders will only share the cafeteria with 6^th graders. 7^th graders will only share with 8^th graders.) Furthermore, the new food service supplier will handle lunch payments differently, a change that may expedite the line.) Board members and AS agreed that the proposed “fix” may not be the final fix. More input is needed from parents, teachers, and paras both on the value of extending recess and on whether time in art/music/phys ed could be sacrificed in order to obtain it. The board invites students and parents concerned about recess at PCS to plan on attending the board meeting on October 27. In the meanwhile, at AS’s suggestion, the board will meet with teachers and paras for input on this and a host of other issues. (AF informed the board that, in years past, the school board met with the teachers and paras annually for input on whatever matters were of interest to the teachers and paras. The board expressed interest in reviving this custom. The board asked AS to discuss this possibility with the staff and to propose a special meeting date in the near future. Such a date could, if most convenient to the teachers and paras, be immediately after school, perhaps at or after a Tuesday staff meeting. August 21 is a bake sale at the Vermont Welcome Center. Donations can be accepted through 4PM August 19. Food Service: The new cook for Café Services at PCS is Tony Vongsy, whose family owns Anon’s Thai Cuisine in Brattleboro.
Outreach efforts	Outreach efforts. RC will meet with the Primary Team to get ideas for a brochure. AS suggested that a note in first newsletter could request input from parents.
PCS Capital Improvement Projects	Custodian Tony Coven and AS presented a chart of Putney Central School Capital Improvement Projects. The chart identified almost 30 items that need attending. A building committee has been formed to go over the chart and devise specific recommendations to the board. The committee includes Steve Ingram, Steve Anderson, Beth Muskat, Pip Bannister, Tony Coven, and AS. The board asked the building committee to present to it a prioritized list of tasks and to make that presentation at its
Technology Purchase	Approve an additional expenditure of $3500 for the first year of a three-year lease program to purchase 20 iBooks.			PM			AF and EP		The board would also like to consider a long-term technology expenditure plan. The board requested that Don Linden present such a plan by November.		Unanimous
Putney Town Plan: Review draft sections regarding Education and Childcare	The board reviewed the draft created by the Planning Commission. AF will forward the board’s comments to the Planning Commission.

Upcoming Meetings:

First Meeting in September (September 8) § 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. § Livable wage (continued discussion with further information from Ron Stahley) § PM report on liability issue regarding school forest. § Winter Sports coordinator question § First Reading: Policy F23, Policy on Prevention of Harassment of Students. § First Reading: Policy F30. Pupil Privacy Rights – Student Surveys Second Meeting in September. (Note: This meeting will be held at an a-typical time. It will begin at 4pm and will be on September 29.) Nothing more can be added to this date’s agenda. It will start with the second bullet below. § 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. First Meeting in October (October 13) § Parking lot safety Second Meeting in October (October 27) § Check-in on recess § Discussion with Kathy Bartlett of issues related to (but not quite addressed by) harassment policies. § Second Reading: Policy F23, Policy on Prevention of Harassment of Students. § Second Reading: Policy F30. Pupil Privacy Rights – Student Surveys § Report from Scott Henry on WSESU Negotiations Committee and about his role as a sole Putney rep to the BUHS board.

First Meeting in November § Nothing scheduled to-date. Second Meeting in November (November 17) § 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. § Building committee presents to the board a prioritized list. First Meeting in December (December 1) § Nothing scheduled to-date. Second Meeting in December (December 15) § Nothing scheduled to-date. First Meeting in January § Superintendent meets with Board and Administrator in Executive\ Session to consider provisional budget allocation for Administrator Salary for coming year. Executive Session may be held with Superintendent at Board’s request. First Meeting in February § Superintendent distributes Administrator Performance Feedback Questionnaires to stakeholders (parents, teachers, staff, etc.). Second Meeting in February § Superintendent meets with Board and Administrator in Executive Session to provide Progress Report to Board with respect to Administrator’s progress against Administrator’s professional goals for the current year. Purpose is to provide constructive feedback on Administrator’s performance and identify critical issues, if any, that may impact any contract renewal notice dates. Executive Session may be held with Superintendent at Board’s request. 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.