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School Board Meeting Minutes |
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back to School Board meeting minutes archive BARRE TOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT Minutes are not official until approved by the Barre Town School Board BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: ADMINISTRATORS: Guests: Video Vision Tech, Matt Safford BOARD SECRETARY: Donna Holden 1. Call to Order The Chairperson, Brenda Buzzell, called the Wednesday, May 20, 2009, meeting to order at 6:00 p.m., which was held in the Barre Town Middle and Elementary School Library, 70 Websterville Road, Barre Town, VT. A flag salute followed. 2. Visitors and Communications None 3. Consent Agenda
On a motion by Mr. Kirkland seconded by Mr. Bond, the Board voted to approve the warrants, and regular meeting minutes of May 6, 2009, as submitted. 4. Board Action Items None With the Board’s permission, items on the agenda were taken out of order. 5. Regular Reports to the Board A. Curriculum Director A written report was provided in the Board packet. For the benefit of the community, Mrs. Buzzell reviewed the report before the camera. B. Committee Reports All Committee meetings are held in the BTMES 2nd floor conference room. Approved minutes for each Committee can be viewed on the Website at www.btmes.org.
C. SU Report Ms. Moore provided an update on SU Board matters including the May 14th discussion regarding application for the Consolidated Federal Grant Program funds. She also advised that an SU Action Plan was completed, and once reviewed by the SU Board would be shared with the three district Boards for feed-back. Ms. Moore further advised that either the September 10th or October 8th regular SU meetings would be held as a Tri-Board meeting to discuss the financial management system and related matters. She said date confirmation and information would be provided as timely as possible. Ms. Moore informed the Board that with the support and approval of the three Boards within the SU, negotiations regarding the Ayers Street property were successfully achieved. She invited and encouraged attendance by all Board members to witness a contract signing with the Mayor, scheduled to be held in the SU Office on Wednesday, May 27, 2009, at 5:00 p.m. D. Superintendent Dr. Bacon provided an oral report including notification of a meeting held earlier in the day with the Commissioner of Education for the primary purpose of seeking a waiver to file three separate CFP applications, which would ensure distribution of funds to the schools based on their population. He explained under the current SU-wide application process that despite BTMES generating Title I funds based on their 190+ free & reduced lunch students, once the funds were distributed to Barre City Elementary and Spaulding High School, there were no funds left over or retained by Barre Town. He said the Commissioner would review the federal application requirements and make a ruling next week. Dr. Bacon also advised that under the separate application process, BTMES could receive approximately $160K, which would be used to support educational programs and/or interventions for the neediest students, including initiatives such as an early education program for all BT 4-year olds, remedial services in reading and math, etc. Dr. Bacon and Ms. Moore also advised the Board of a spending proposal for Title I ($714,805), and Title II ($44,597) stimulus funds, which were not included (but could support) strategies identified in the CFP application. Ms. Moore noted the SU Board also added other items to be considered if possible, and Dr. Bacon shared his plan to purchase a smart board for each class room in the district along with providing a teacher to co-teach and train teachers on use of the smart boards. Dr. Bacon notified the Board that based on their failure to meet AYP; the school would be receiving approximately $50K in school academic improvement funds from the DOE. He said the funds must be used for services, interventions, and to support the corrective plan designed to improve student performance and meet AYP status. Dr. Bacon agreed to work with the administrators to prepare and provide a spending plan for the Board’s consideration. Dr. Bacon advised the Board a letter of retirement resignation was received from kindergarten teacher Christine Mears, a teacher of nearly 30 years at BTMES, and a resignation from a more recent hire 4th grade teacher, Timiny Bergstrom, who accepted a teaching position closer to her home. With regret, the Board offered best wishes to both Ms. Mears and Ms. Bergstrom, in their new endeavors. Mrs. Buzzell commented on the wonderful beginning to formal schooling that Ms. Mears provided for Barre Town children throughout the many years. Dr. Bacon informed the Board that in an attempt to reduce cost he had asked Business Manager, Linda Rosa, to work with the three schools to negotiate a common woodchip contract. E. Administrative Report Mr. Crowley reviewed several current and upcoming events, including that the BTMES 8th grade graduation was scheduled for June 18, 2009. For additional information on these and other events, visit www.btmes.org. Mrs. Prichard updated the Board on administrative activities regarding the special education department. Mr. Crowley announced a community-wide open house and reception would be held from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on May 29, 2009, to congratulate Ted Riggen on his retirement and celebrate Dr. Riggen’s 22 years of service at BTMES. 6. Board Discussion Items
The Board confirmed the retreat was scheduled for July 6, 2009, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and that the Superintendent and Administrators would be included during some part of the day. Upon discussion of potential agenda topics, the Board agreed to focus the agenda on the vision and mission of the school including what opportunities and obstacles exist, and to discuss the spending plan for the $50K school academic improvement funds. Mrs. Buzzell and Dr. Bacon agreed to prepare and provide in advance of the meeting, the agenda including the day’s schedule. 7. Old Business
Mrs. Buzzell advised there were currently 76 children enrolled for kindergarten in the upcoming 2009-2010 year. She said six (6) teachers were budgeted for kindergarten, however, based on the class size policy if there were five (5) kindergarten classes there would be 15.2 children per class, which would comply with the policy of an ideal at 16 and the maximum at 18. She said there would be one teacher left over in the budget to utilize in another grade. Mrs. Buzzell continued and said, 99 students were expected for 1st grade with the class size policy maximum for 1st grade set at 20. She said five (5) teachers were budgeted for the first grade brings those classes to 19.8. Mr. Buzzell shared her factual opinion and statistics regarding the varied capabilities of students in the primary grades and the importance of success in early education, particularly in reading. Mrs. Buzzell proposed the left over (budgeted kindergarten teacher) be assigned to the first grade to reduce the class sizes. Mr. Crowley advised the Board the same situation of 19.8 students per class also existed in grade 2. The Board discussed the alternatives. Considerations included assigning an additional classroom teacher, hiring additional specialists for the earlier grades, hiring half-time teachers to come into the classrooms and target academic areas such as reading and math where smaller groups are more beneficial and desirable, or creating a grade 1-2 to alleviate maximum class sizes in both first and second grades. Mr. Crowley advised that it was difficult to find teachers willing to teach multi-aged classrooms and successfully achieve grade level expectations, implement multiple grade level curriculum, etc. Mr. Crowley asked the Board for additional time to review the situation and options. He noted that he, newly hired principal, Alice Worth, and Mrs. Prichard would like the opportunity to explore the strategic approach discussed and originally suggested by Mr. Barone, and any other alternatives. Dr. Bacon suggested other options to be explored could potentially include use of grant funds, and supported the administrators request to take time to review the matter before a decision was made. The Board agreed to the request, and that recommendations would be brought to the Board for final approval. 8. Other Business Matt Safford addressed the Board as both a Barre Town tax payer, and school bus driver at BTMES. He encouraged the Board to broadly publicize and communicate with the community any proposed changes to the transportation system, before a decision was made. He said he was concerned about having a single wave system, from a safety standpoint, and that other community members should be heard and a community discussion held before a decision was made by the Board. Dr. Bacon (and Mr. Kirkland) assured Mr. Safford that exploration of changes to the transportation system, which included several proposals, were in the early stages. He offered to share copies of information distributed at the May 6th meeting and referred both Mr. Safford and the community to Board minutes if they were not at the public meetings. Mr. Bond invited Mr. Safford, and other interested community members, to attend the Finance Committee meeting on June 11th and Facility/Transportation Committee meeting on June 17th, where the proposal would be discussed, again. Dr. Bacon also indicated a community forum would be offered to discuss the Board’s deliberations and decision once they had arrived at the conclusion of their study. 9. Executive Session
At 7:50 p.m. on a motion by Ms. Moore seconded by Mr. Bond, the Board unanimously voted to enter into executive session, pursuant to Title 1 § 313, to discuss a personnel matter, and the bus contract/cost sharing matter. Dr. Bacon, Mrs. Prichard, and Mr. Crowley were invited into the executive session. At 8:30 p.m. the Board exited executive session. 10. Next Meeting Dates Meetings are held at 6:00 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of the month, unless noted. The next Barre Town School Board meeting dates are: June 17, 2009 – 6:00 p.m. 11. Adjournment On a motion by Ms. Moore seconded by Mr. Kirkland, the Board unanimously voted to adjourn at 8:31p.m. Respectfully submitted, Donna Holden
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