All Boards Meeting

Putney Central School Music Room

December 6, 2006

7-9 pm

Minutes

Attendees:

Selectboard: Lyssa Papazian, R. Scott Henry, Josh Laughlin

School Board: Peter May, Ellen Pratt, Benji Cragin, Anne Fines, Virginia Scholl

Cemetery Committee, Putney Conservation Committee, Putney Historical Society: Laurel Ellis

Putney Community Center: Leon Cooper

Conservation Committee: Jacquie Walker, Pamela Cubbage

Zoning Board: Mary Heller Osgood, Hildamarie Hendricks

Planning Commission: Phil Bannister, Mary Heller Osgood

Putney Library: Paul LeVasseur

Town Manager: Chris Ryan

Board of Listers: Mike Finnell

Putney Cares: Steven Haisley

Putney Family Services: Mike Mrowicki

Others: Ann Kerrey

Lyssa Papzian welcomed everyone and said that this meeting of all the boards in Putney is an annual event whereby committee and board members can hear from each other about their previous year’s activities.

Selectboard Report

Lyssa Papzian reported on the Selectboard’s activities this past year – The following board/committee seats will be open for the election in March:

Selectboard: 1 three-year seat

School board:1 three-year seat; 2 one-year seats;

Board of Listers: 1 two-year and1 three-year seat;

1 three-year auditor position;

1 three-year Cemmetery commission seat;

2 Grand Jurors

Town Moderator

The Selectboard will host a “Democracy Party” for people interested in learning more about these positions. Date to be determined.

Substantial completion of the sewage treatment plant upgrade has taken place. Putney entered a contract with Simons Operation to manage the treatment plant.

Other projects included developing and building a new gravel pit in collaboration with Dummerston.

Putney has also just received a new grader and fire truck.

A committee is working on renovations of the upstairs of the town hall. The hope is that this space can be a public space.

The town has completed paving of Kimball and West Hills.

The Selectboard made the decision to switch the town’s 911 coverage from the Sheriff to the state police. The Sheriff’s contract will now focus on traffic/speed enforcement and animal control.

Continuing work: the Selectboard is still thinking about how to fund sidewalks in the village; The board is looking into working with Efficiency Vermont to do an energy audit of town buildings (the school board asked that the school be included). Putney Family Services and the school board and selectboard have been looking at the social service needs of Putney residents; the Selectboard is looking at human resources issues for town employees (health care and pension plans); the Selectboard is just beginning the budget process.

Scott Henry: The Selectboard put together a committee to look at potential for the Brattleboro Area Land Trust to develop the old Basketville property for affordable housing (across from the retail store). Sid Wolf is the chair of that committee. An architect has been selected. It may take three years of more for the project to be completed.

Zoning Board

Mary Heller Osgood: It has been a quiet year for the zoning board. The planning commission writes the zoning regulations and the zoning board interprets them. The zoning board deals with conditional use permits which provides the opportunity for neighbors to provide input on development projects.

Board of Listers

Mike Finnell: The Board of Listers wants to thank everyone for their patience through the reassessment process. All appeals are over. The board is not accepting any more appeals. The state does a statistical analysis of sales compared to new assessments and we met all criteria. Two seats are open on the board; one is immediate as one member has resigned. The board is budgeting for an assistant to the board.

School Board

Peter May: The school board reports that we have a new teachers’ contract and we thank Scott Henry for representing the board on the Negotiations Committee. We are now beginning negotiations with paraeducators. Over last two months two experienced teachers have announced their retirements after this school year.

We’ve had 2 ½ meetings on the budget; the first draft budget shows a 5.5% increase; the Selectboard will join the school board at its Dec. 14 meeting (4:30 pm) to discuss the budget. Due to declining enrollment we are looking at having one fewer classroom at elementary level next fall. The school won an award for best international curriculum in elementary education for the school’s Asian studies program. We now have 100 students on the free/reduced lunch program, representing 50% of the school population. The teachers have expressed their desire for the addition of a health coordinator and the inclusion of a life skills component to the curriculum. The board is interested in adding foreign language instruction at the school.

The Commissioner of Education, Richard Cate has proposed a new model of school governance. The Commissioner will be holding regional discussions of his proposal. There will be a discussion in Brattleboro but the date and time has not yet been announced. The school board will notify the community (through its minutes) when the date has been made public. The school board encourages the public to attend this meeting.

All of the school boards in the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (including Putney) have signed a petition to remove special education from the state school funding formula. The petition will be delivered to legislators. Our school only receives 40% of the special education reimbursement from the federal government for the federally-mandated special education programming. Out-of-district placements for children requiring special education services can be very costly. The Supervisory Union is exploring whether it can construct our own in-district programs which would be less expensive than sending children out of district.

Benji Cragin reviewed the school board’s goals, which are:

Ellen Pratt reported that the school board is committed to improving the quality of early education for Putney pre-school children. High quality early education improves outcomes for children during school and life. The school is in its second year of hosting the Head Start preschool program which is run by Early Education Services in Brattleboro. Fifteen preschoolers attend the program from 8:30-5 pm. Because the school has been including these children in its school census each fall it has been able to draw down Public Education funds for preschool in the community.

Leon Cooper said that years ago the school surveyed Putney ninth graders to determine how well the school was preparing students for high school. The board will look into this for the future.

Scott Henry reported that the high school addition will be completed on budget and a bit ahead of time. The High School population is stable. Putney’s assessment for the high school budget will increase by 1 ¾ % ($30,000).

School Forest Committee of the School Board

Anne Fines: The School Forest Committee is working on programs to encourage the school and the community to use the 176 acres of school forest. More than 10% of the school population has been involved in the school forest. Many students and volunteers from the community have worked on building and maintaining trails. The committee would like the community to know that the forest is open to everyone. In addition, all are welcome to participate on the committee.

Paul Levasseur thanked the school board for its good work and commented about how great the school is.

Cemetery Commission and Putney Historical Society

Laurel Ellis: The Cemetery Commission is looking for more space. Any land that is donated is tax deductible. There is no criteria for donated land. Ideally land adjacent to existing cemeteries could be used. Our current cemeteries require a lot of work. The commission needs a new commissioner.

The Community Club in East Putney (Pierce’s Hall) is dissolving because they need board members. Laurel encouraged anyone who is interested in revitalizing the organization to contact her.

The Putney Historical Society is located in the town hall. They are looking for space to store items. Potentially the town garage space (where the recycling is now located) could be used for a small museum and storage space; this would entail extensive renovations. Currently the Historical Society is using the upstairs of the town hall for storage.

Putney Community Center

Leon Cooper: The Putney Community Center is looking to initiate programming opportunities for kids.

Laurel Ellis reported that the teen dances held at the Putney Community Center are going very well.

Conservation Commission

Pamela Cubbage: The Conservation Commission has published a brochure on building and renovating. The commission worked with the Windham Regional Commission in 1998 to draft a zoning ordinance about building on ridgelines. The planning commission didn’t adopt that ordinance for a variety of reasons. Some of the information that was in that original document is now in the brochure. The conservation commission is still working with the planning commission on building on ridges.

The commission is continuing to work on the idea of having a trail from the school forest to the river. The Commission’s big project this year is the PLACE Project, which is a community-building project. Putney received a grant from the University of Vermont, the Vermont Land Trust and Shelburne Farms for the 18 month long project. The grant targets communities in which there is significant amount of conserved land and where there’s an interest in conservation.

Putney Library

Paul Levasseur: The library is attracting new users; the number of library users has increased by about 1/3 since its new space was built. Paul reported that the library staff is terrific and that many library users comment on the quality of the staff. The library has been holding an artist series this fall, highlighting local people. The library held a poetry series this fall. This winter the library will be hosting a travel series “Bringing the World to Putney.” The library will also start collecting oral history stories from local people. The library hosted children’s programs this past summer. The library trustees invite the community to use the library as a public space.

Meeting attendees thanked Paul for his work on iPutney.com last year. Paul reported that the website is averaging up to 4,000 page views/day.

Planning Commission

Pip Bannister: The planning commission has had a quiet year; this reflects low development activity in town. The Planning Commission received an award from the Vermont Forum on Sprawl for its “Visualizing Density” study. The planning commission has been working on updates to the zoning regulations in accordance with the town plan.

Putney Cares

Steven Haisley: Putney Cares is now being run by the Brattleboro Area Land Trust. Putney Cares is working on developing an emergency plan. Currently 2,500 meals are being delivered by 38 volunteers to people who can’t get out.

Putney Family Services, White Whitney Committee and Town Picnic

Mike Mrowicki: The Town Picnic, which began five years ago, is a big success but need volunteers to make it happen again this coming year. Mike reported that most of the work happens only on the day of the picnic.

Mike reported on the White Whitney committee, a subcommittee of the selectboard which meets annually. The purpose of the committee is to make recommendations to the Selectboard for one-time grants up to $250 for emergencies for Putney residents. The committee makes recommendations to the Selectboard which has final approval of the grants. The committee needs members. The annual meeting will be held on December16^th 9 am at Town Hall.

Mike reported that the mission of Putney Family Services (PFS) is to identify and address needs that threaten the healthy development of children and families in Putney. PFS runs the free health clinic on Thursday evenings. Leon Cooper runs the clinic. PFS also provides afterschool care at the Central School and provides emergency and crisis counseling and referral services. There is currently a need for early education/child care in Putney because in the last 3 years we’ve had the Putney Day Care and the Landmark College Child Care businesses close; the Village Nursery School will close after this school year. PFS is looking for a site to locate a child care center that it would run. They hope to have it running by September. They are looking for people to help with this project (time, monetary and human resources).

Pamela Cubbage: A group of Putney citizens formed the Putney Energy Committee with the purpose of fostering energy conservation and to influence future development to be environmentally appropriate. The committee has been meeting since August. They are looking for funding to conduct energy audits of town buildings. They have begun to look at street lighting in Putney with an eye to improve efficiency. She reported that about 90% of Putney streetlights are the least efficient kind.

The committee has done a compact florescent drive, replacing (at cost) about 700 lightbulbs with compact flurescents in town. The committee meets at DoSolutions on the last Tuesday of the month.

Respectfully submitted by Ellen Pratt, School Board Clerk

December 7, 2006