Meeting Date:	November 17, 2005
Minutes Submitted On:	November 21, 2005
Board Attendees:	Ellen Pratt (EP), Virginia Scholl (VS), Peter May (PM), Rebecca Coffey (RC)
Administration Attendees:	Amelia Stone (AS)
Community Attendees:	Sue Kochinskas (parent)

Location:
Meeting called to order at:	4:45 pm
Meeting called to order by:	PM
Finish time:	(RC left the meeting at 7:00. The actual end time of the meeting will be noted in the next meeting’s minutes.)

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 11/10/05:	PM			VS	On 11/10/05 the board actually approved minutes of 9/29/05 and 10/4/05. The 11/10/05 minutes only state that the meeting minutes of 9/29/05 were approved. As part of the budget discussion, at the 11/10/05 meeting AS presented an updated staffing scenario based on current information and expected enrollments. It suggests maintaining the current number of non-“specials” classroom teachers for kindergarten through 8^th grade. This would allow for an average of 14 students per class in grades 1 and 2, 17-18 students per class in grades 3 and 4, 16 students per class in grades 5 and 6, and 15 students per class in grades 7 and 8. Kindergarten enrollment may be as high as 18 students next year. AS’s staffing scenario allotted one teacher for those 18 students. The staffing scenario is in the school board binder in the school office. Page 5: Under “Superintendent’s Evaluation”: In the Discussion column, the last sentence reads “The Board will discuss the Superintendent’s professional goals on 12/1.” In that sentence, “Superintendent” should be replaced by “Administrator.”		Passed.
Communications	RC pointed out that the kindergarten committee, having conducted a “best practices” review of current literature regarding kindergarten class size, recommended that the fully qualified teacher/student ratio for kindergarten class be capped at 1:17. She questioned why the staffing scenario distributed at the 11/10 meeting (which she did not attend) only allotted one teacher for 18 students. The board members who had been present at the meeting said that at this early date it is difficult to tell what kindergarten enrollment will actually be. The options for capping the teacher/student ratio at 1:17 include hiring an additional teacher and reverting to half day kindergarten. The board has yet to address these issues. The school board would like Jim Kane to provide it with the Excel spreadsheets as he gives us different iterations of the FY07 budget
Administrator’s Report	The Winter Sports raffle has begun. Brad Borofsky has pulled together 37 excellent prizes. For the next three Mondays children will be returning money that they have collected. Angela Deprato, Anna Potter, and LeVonne Betts have been very helpful to Brad in organizing this. The Winter Sports program has registered for programs (at Ascutney and Grafton Ponds) AS and EP are together interviewing the first round of applicants for the Early Education Outreach Coordinator. AS will invite the staff to a 3:30 meeting with the board at the school on January 31.
Policy on Prevention of Harassment of Students F23.	Move to adopt.		PM		VS	Administrator is developing more specific procedures to accompany the policy.	Passed
Policy on Pupil’s Privacy Rights – Student Surveys. F30	Move to adopt		PM		VS		Passed
Counting preschoolers in order to draw down ADM money	AS and EP attended a meeting of the Early Childhood Council of Windham County. One of the things that the Council is looking at is establishing partnerships that are between schools and childcare providers throughout the individual supervisory unions. There are some grants available from private foundations. EP urged AS to consider having PCS apply for money that the childcare providers would need in order to become licensed/accredited so that they can begin pulling ADM money into the school. The board thanked EP and AS for their work in this direction and encouraged them to work in this direction. The board had a brief discussion about what would happen to ADM money were it to be drawn into the school via school/childcare provider partnerships. EP recommended that all of the money be funneled back to childcare providers to improve programs and boost salaries. Other board members said that they were not so sure that 100% of the money should be used in that way. The board will discuss this matter further at a future date.
Building Committee	The committee has not concluded its work. They are looking at all of the building needs and determining whether individual needs should be addressed through the capital plan or from annual line items regarding planned building maintenance and improvement. The committee is considering recommending that $10,000 be allocated for a system study to look at how what opportunities and problems are presented as heating and other systems age. The board asked the committee, when looking at replacing boilers, to examine the long-term benefit to the school worth of pellet stoves. The Town of Putney conducted an accessibility study for the public buildings in Putney. They presented to the Building Committee a list of desired (and perhaps legally required) changes to the PCS building. The Building Committee will report to the school board on this matter as part of its final report.
Budget	The board had intended to go through the budget line item by line item but there was inadequate time at the meeting to do so. The board scheduled an additional meeting at 8am on November 29 in the library. This will be a work session with WSESU Business Manager Jim Kane. Items that PM would like to address in that and at the 12/1 board meeting: § Would it be possible to add additional Health responsibilities to the nurse’s position? If we don’t want to add hours, we could trim the hours of the nurse’s position. § Eliminate a day a week of the librarian position. § Regarding the Phys Ed position, what aspects if any of the Health/Wellness program could be brought under the PE umbrella? § K-8 instruction on Art. A large number of students are having art twice a week. Should that be examined? § Do we want to add language instruction? According to AS, the school schedule is already pretty tight; there may be no room in the schedule. (We are discussing language instruction on December 1 with a presentation by WSESU Supervisor Ron Stahley.) The Brattleboro school district splits the salary of a language coordinator with S.I.T who works full time in the Brattleboro schools. A similar option may work well for PCS.) § Notes on the FY07 Draft 1 Budget from Jim Kane via AS: The estimate for Legal/Audit (combined) is up 120% because this next year we need to do the audit. Property/Liability on page 5 includes Workmen’s Comp. Page 8: The difference in the Special Ed budget reflects the fact that PCS will pay the WSESU for special ed and not pay those costs directly. The actual budgetary impact is not going to be as large as a first look at the line item suggests. § The board would like more info from Jim Kane about the anticipated rise in fuel prices given that gas prices are now falling § Psychological Services have jumped by $4000 because more students have been identified as in need of services.
1% Fund	Move to adopt 1% requests for spring 2006		PM		VS		Passed
Off the Record Communications	This item was scheduled when, at a previous board meeting, the board asked RC to compose the meeting minutes so that they did not include mention of unattributed stakeholder comments that had been part a significant part of the board’s open session discussion. This meeting’s discussion sought to clarify the circumstances under which inclusion of unattributed stakeholder comments is appropriate. For example, should a statement from AS along the lines of “First Day Hooray went well and we’re getting lots of nice comments from parents” be reported in the meeting minutes essentially as it was given or edited down to a more neutral “PCS sponsored First Day Hooray?.” And if the “went well and we’re getting lots of nice comments from parents” is appropriate for inclusion, why is “I’ve heard serious concerns from several faculty members” not appropriate? Are unattributed comments appropriate only when they reflect well on the board and school? The board had a brief discussion. It does not, for example, accept anonymous letters or emails from stakeholders. Board members agreed that the definition of “anonymous communication” would be important in any attempt to set a guiding rule for future meeting minutes. The board also discussed whether it is appropriate for board members to have discussions with stakeholders such as faculty members at all. RC noted that the board has worked hard to open communications with stakeholders and that other board members have reported to the board on several occasions that they’re getting “lots of positive comments” from stakeholders about one program or another. So board members listening to the concerns of stakeholders has precedent in this community and the opinions of those stakeholders has been included by reference in meeting minutes. RC pointed out that board members listening outside of board meetings to stakeholders about matters concerning the school also has precedent in the country at large. According to RC, some school board associations encourage board members to wear badges all day every day saying, essentially, “I’m on the school board. Talk to me about your concerns.” The board decided to table this discussion. Continuation date TBD.
4-Day Week as initiated by the Webster County Public Schools in Kentucky.	Because each year the board meets the difficult challenge of trying to continue the level of academic and arts programs at PCS while minimizing the tax impact to the citizens of Putney, RC distributed information about a public school district in Kentucky that, working with the full support of community organizations, had moved to a 4-day week of slightly longer school days and accomplished just that. The school district found that moving to a four-day week reduced absenteeism in students and in professionals, improved teacher and student morale, allowed time for tutoring programs for at-risk learners, allowed teachers ample time for planning and professional development, and saved the school district significantly on, among other items, transportation, operational costs, and substitute teachers. At the same time, academic scores improved. The challenges faced by the school district in Kentucky included options for child supervision on Mondays. (In the KY school district, community groups helped coordinate Monday child care programs.) The handout distributed by RC at the meeting is in the school board binder in the school office. It is also available at http://www.webster.k12.ky.us/4dayweekinfo/WEBSTER%20COUNTY%20SCHOOLS.htm
Potential collaboration with Putney Family Services and the Select Board regarding the town’s future human services needs	Mike Mrowicki said that Putney Family Services and the Select Board have lately done a pretty good job looking at future town needs in terms of infrastructure. They are now, at the instigation of Select Board member John Nopper, looking at future human services needs in the town. Mike invited the school board to join in a discussion that might lead to a public forum on the matter. The board expressed interest and requested more guidance about how the select board and PFS would like the board to help.
Committee Reports: Finance/School Forest/Early Education Outreach Advisory Committee	none
Warrants	none
Executive Session	7:00. Move to go into Executive Session to discuss WSESU Superintendent evaluation	PM		VS

Upcoming Meetings

November 29. 8am. PCS Library. § Budget Work Session with Jim Kane (WSESU Business Manager) First Meeting in December (December 1) § Foreign Language Instruction, including report from Brattleboro town about how their pilot of a language coordinator and interns in elementary schools is going. § Superintendent meets with Board and Administrator to present to Board Administrators professional goals for coming year, with reference to the PCS School Action Plan.  Board provides input to Administrators professional goals.  Executive Session may be held with Superintendent at Boards request. § Line by Line Budget Review (w/Draft #2 - Up-dated) § Negotiations Committee Up-date (parties Meet 30 November) Second Meeting in December (December 15) § Nothing scheduled to-date. First Meeting in January § This is the meeting by which the FY2007 budget must be adopted. § 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. January 31. 3:30. § Meeting with faculty at PCS. 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: Ellen Pratt

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