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BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
MINUTES
DATE: Tuesday, March
15, 2005
WHERE: PCHS
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Members Present: Paul
Bridge, Larry Davis, Patricia Davis, Ralph Eastman, Pam Goulette,
Nancy Hall, Cynthia Hoak, Patricia Izbicki, Anita Kain, Donna Littlefield, Lorna Marshall, Susan McAvoy, Raymond Morse, George Nuite,
and Michelle Ward.
Members Absent: Laura Auger, James Bell, Melissa
Douglass
Also Present: Kevin Jordan, Greg
Bellemare, Trisha Kurt, Crystal Priest and Paul Stearns.
Call to Order: The meeting was
called to order by Chairman George Nuite at 7:32 p.m.
Approval of Minutes:
A motion was made by Pam Goulette and seconded
by Nancy Hall that the minutes of the February 8, 2005 Board of Directors meeting
be approved as printed.
Vote: Yes~ 15 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0
Public Forum: none
Correspondence: Mrs. Hall read a letter of commendation
re: Joe Gallant. Sue McAvoy read a
letter written to
Coach Russell from Mr. Stearns regarding the PCHS Boy’s Varsity Sportsmanship
Award at the recent Eastern Maine Tournament.
Educational
Reports: none
1. Adjustment
to Agenda: Item 2 – add Sharon Nichols to
the list of resignations (effective 3/18)
Item
3 – Delete from Agenda
2. Resignations:
A
motion was made by Pam Goulette and seconded by Patricia
Izbicki that the Board of Directors accepts the following resignations:
* Berthe Leavitt – Yearbook Advisor (Effective August 14, 2005)
* Elaine Larson – PCMS Special Education Teacher (Effective August 14, 2005)
* Sharon Nichols – Food Service (Effective March 18, 2005)
Vote: Yes~
15 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0
3. Volunteers:
No
action taken.
4.
Recommendation
to Employ:
A motion was made by Lorna Marshall and seconded by Nancy Hall that the Board of Directors approves the following recommendation to employ for the
2004-2005 school year (one year contracts):
·
Chad Graffam - PCHS Baseball (one
year position)
·
Merle Gilbert – PCHS
Softball (one year position)
·
Jill Taylor – PCHS
Track (one year position)
·
Berthe Leavitt - PCHS Assistant Track (one year position)
·
Rex Webb - PCMS
Baseball (one year position)
·
Joseph Luchini – PCMS Asst. Track (one year position)
·
Diane Stephens – PCMS
Softball (one year position)
Vote: Yes~
15 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0
5. Approval of the 2005-2006 School Year Calendar:
A motion was made by Michelle Ward and seconded by Larry
Davis that the Board of Directors approves the proposed 2005-2006 school year
calendar.
Vote: Yes ~ 15 No ~ 0
Ab. ~ 0
6. Committee Reports:
Curriculum – Pam Goulette reported that the Curriculum Committee
had reviewed the Houghton Mifflin
Social Studies series and approved the purchase pending available funds.
7. Administrative Reports:
Crystal
Priest (Technology Coordinator):
Things
are running relatively smooth in tech land.
The early
data from FastForWord for the first half of the year
is in to UMF and Scientific Learning, they
are crunching the numbers. The second
groups have started. Paul was able to go
to a FastForWord
conference in Florida
during vacation.
The 8th
graders are doing the MEA with pencil and paper rather than online
The 7th
& 8th graders taking their laptops home appears to be going well.
After much
work, the data in MEDMS is up to date and the secretaries will be trained
during the March 18th half day
workshop so they can do the uploads in the future. MEDMS is going to require constant updating and is a time
consuming process for whoever does it.
The first
version of a searchable database for the Policy Book is coming along nicely,
watch for it to be available on
the district website by the end of next week.
I do have it available here tonight if you
want to look at it later
The
multimedia class with David Inglehart at the HS is
expanding their online offerings. Along
with the latest edition of the
Pirate Post, the students are working on a cyber classroom area. The students are
collaborating with teachers to create classroom websites. Another new area is surfcity. It is an area
for students to create their own personal websites and learn to do web page
layouts. Due to student safety concerns, this area will be password protected so
that only students and staff can see these
web sites. Students and teachers need their user id and password for Gizmo to
access these sites.
Upcoming School Visits:
April 7th
- Singapore
- ministry of lifestyle and education will be here with a group of about 10 people
Also have
requests for a visit from SAD #13 and Georges Valley
in Thomaston sometime in March or
April.
Other News:
The laptop
program in the district has been featured in several publications lately.
The Metiri Group in California
is doing an NSF research report on ubuquitous
computing.
The New London, CT.
paper - The Day- had an article a few weeks ago.
District
Administrator also has an article in the current issue -Paul mailed that out in
your packets.
Also, if
you saw last week's Piscataquis Observer, not only was the front page article
written by a PCHS student about
the Pirate Post, but a majority of the articles inside the Newspapers in
Education section were written by the
students as well.
Greg Bellemare
(PCMS Principal):
Winter Fun Day was enjoyed by PCMS
Students on Friday before vacation.
Winter Sports Banquets were very
successful and enjoyed by students and parents.
PCMS
Chorus and Band attended District V Large Group Festival in Greenville on March 4th. Both groups
earned a #1 rating - Superior Performance.
Ten
students from PCMS attended the 2005 Maine Scholastic Chess Championship on
March 5. Our middle school novice team placed second in the state
championship ( Kenny Brown, Samantha
Hunt, Meagan Weeks, Julia
Schaffer, Troy Stewart, Tyler Ellis and Kelli Griffin).
Student Speech
Contest for 7th graders will be held Thursday 6:30 to 8:00.
Stacy Prise
finished 2nd in the County
Spelling Bee. Our 8th grade champion was Stacy Prise, our 7th grade champion was Tylor Toby, our 6th grade champion and school
champion was Felicia Fortier. Our 4th
and 5th grade winner was
Cheyenne Clukey.
Skiing is
going very well.
Fay Booker secured the Appalachian
Mountain Club to do snowshoeing and cross country skiing with our 7th
and 8th graders.
4th & 8th grade students will be taking MEA tests during the weeks
of March 7th & March 14th. 5,
6 and 7th graders will do NCLB.
Students
participated in “Caught Being Polite” during the week before February
vacation. Each classroom designed and posted respectful triangles in the
windows in the office. Staff put the
names of students caught being polite
in a container and at the end of the day six names were drawn for prizes. Respectful Communications “ We Are All In This Together”
CLC
Birds and Blooms starts on March 1st.
Mr.
Bellemare & Mr. Gallant will be attending a
Middle Level Sports Conference on March 30th.
Trisha
Kurt (Elementary Principal/Special Education Director):
Kindergarten
Registration for next year is scheduled for Friday, April 1st.
March 2nd was “Read Across America
Day” as well as Dr. Suess's birthday. Dads and Grand Dads cooked Green Eggs and Ham for breakfast at McKusick
school. That evening GPS had about 100 people at Snuggle up with a book. Students and parents came in pajamas. The first half hour students and parents read books together, second half hour
they had a fabulous storyteller that read to parents
and children
Chewonki
is coming to both GPS and McKusick elementary this
month
Chewonski
presents natural history lessons that help students discover and explore the
lives of plants
Report Cards: Grades close for report cards this Friday the
11th.
Report Cards
will go home with students on the 18th.
Kevin Jordan (PCHS Principal):
MEA Testing has begun. 12 hours of testing this year.
NEASC Accreditation update
PCHS Boys were awarded the
Sportsmanship award for the Eastern Maine Class C Boys Basketball Tourney.
The Senior Ski Trip is Wednesday
March 16th.
The PCHS Principals Award student of
the year is Melissa Lutz
PCHS Key Club, Student Council, and
National Honor Society will be helping to put on the Piscataquis River Festival this summer.
March 3rd - Maine Author
Stephen Clark was at PCHS talking about his book “Following Their Footsteps” about the Appalachian Trail.
8. Chairperson’s Report:
none
9. Superintendent’s Report:
Mr.
Stearns reported on the Fast ForWord Executive
Forum (handout), trying to get funded
through the Libra Foundation
OSHA Report is complete – waiting for the appeal
meeting
Meeting with
Jim Rier – Ed Committee on March 7 Re: Essential
Program & Services
Singapore Visit
- April 7th - Delegation of ten
on one-to-one technology
Task Force
meets next on March 23, 2005
NCLB Review
will be April 13, 2005
CLC Update
A letter was
sent to the Congressional Delegation Re: different pays for ed techs that coach.
Food
service review – excellent exit report
Cindy Hoak is our new Board Member for Cambridge
A. E.
Robinson is giving a gift of scoreboards to PCHS
The last
day of school will be Monday, June 20th,
if we have no other storm day.
Summer
schools are in the planning stages – coordinated to start on the 21st
of June and run for various
lengths of time
Randy Nelson in our Transportation
Department now has his Inspection license
We will be
purchasing a bus next year bus at the current year’s prices pending budget
approval
10. Yearly Evaluation
of the Special Education Director/Elementary Principal:
A motion was made by Michelle Ward and seconded by Larry Davis that the
Board of Directors goes into executive session for the purpose of evaluating
the Special Education Director/Elementary
Principal.
Vote: Yes ~ 15 No ~ 0
Ab. ~ 0
Time In: 8:32 Time
Out: 8:47
Action
Taken:
A motion
was made by Pam Goulette and seconded by Nancy Hall
that the Board of Directors extends the Special Education Director/Elementary
Principal’s contract through June
30, 2008.
Vote: Yes ~ 12 No ~ 0
Ab. ~ 0
11. Negotiations:
A motion was made by Pam Goulette and seconded
by Anita Kain that the Board of Directors goes into executive session for the purpose of discussing
negotiations.
Vote:
Yes ~ 15 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0
Time In: 8:56 Time
Out: 9:01
No
Action Taken
12. Adjournment:
A motion was
made by Lorna Marshall and seconded by Anita Kain to
adjourn the meeting at 9:01 p.m.
Vote: Yes ~
15 No ~ 0 Ab.
~ 0
Respectfully Submitted,
Paul A. Stearns
Superintendent of Schools
SAD #4