Members Present:  Shelly Bennett, John Cartwright, Larry Davis, Patricia Davis, Pamela Goulette, Nancy Hall, Cinthia Hoak (late), Patricia Izbicki, Anita Kain, Donna Littlefield, Lorna Marshall, Susan McAvoy,  George Nuite, Donna Runnels, Michelle Ward and Charles Woodmancy.

Members Absent:      James Bell and Ralph Eastman

Also Present:  Julie Orton, Greg Bellemare, Trisha Kurt, Jeffrey Aronson, Crystal Priest, Paul Stearns and Jim Chasse.

Call to Order:             The meeting was called to order by George Nuite at 7:01 p.m.                                    

Approval of Minutes:  A motion was made by Nancy Hall and seconded by Patricia Davis that the minutes  of the April 11, 2006 Board of Directors meeting be approved as corrected below:

                                                3E – Vote:        Anita Kain                    Yes~13            No~3    Ab.~2
                                                                        Donna Runnels              (Spelling of name)

   Vote: Yes ~ 15   No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

Public Forum:                         Anushree Kaushal & Hanne Rigter from India & Switzerland gave a presentation regarding their countries.

Educational Reports:             Budget overview – Paul Stearns & Larry Davis

                                                Paul and Larry presented the Budget Committee’s recommendation to the Board of Directors.

Correspondence:                    Mr. Stearns read a note of thanks from A.R. Ward as well as a note of thanks from the PCHS Prom Committee.

1.         Adjustment to Agenda:          A motion was made by Pam Goulette and seconded by Larry Davis that the Board accept the following adjustments to the agenda:
                                                Item #3 – Adult Ed Budget to read $212,071.38
                                                Item #11 – Add audit firm of “Brantner, Thibodeau & Associates” 

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

2.         Budget Approval:

A motion was made by Larry Davis and seconded by Pam Goulette to adopt the Fiscal Year 2007 Budget of $6,804,626.10 with a local assessment (Foundation/Debt Service/Local Additional) of $2,537,491.00 for SAD #4

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

3.         Adult Education Budget:

A motion was made by Anita Kain and seconded by Michelle Ward that the Board of Directors adopts $28,750.00 as the local share of the Fiscal Year 2007 PVAEC Budget of $212,071.38.

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

4.         Establish District Budget Meeting:

A motion was made by Pam Goulette and seconded by Nancy Hall that the Board of Directors sets the District Budget Meeting for Tuesday, June 13^th at 7:00 P.M. (preceding the regularly scheduled Board of Directors Meeting) in the PCMS Cafeteria.

Vote: Yes~ 15 No ~ 1 Ab. ~ 0

5.         Warrant Approval:

A motion was made by Larry Davis and seconded by Pamela Goulette that the Board of Directors authorizes the Superintendent of Schools to issue checks prior to the signing of accounts payable and payroll warrants for the Fiscal Year 2007.         

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

6.         Operating Loan

A motion was made by Patricia Davis and seconded by Pamela Goulette that the Board of Directors gives Mr. Stearns approval to apply for an operating loan if needed for the 2006-2007 school year.

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

7.         Re-assignment/Transfer

A motion was made by Patricia Davis and seconded by Susan McAvoy that the Board of Directors re-assign/transfer the following employees recognized under the SAD #4 Board of Directors and the SAD #4 Education Association Contract for the 2006-2007 school year.

Joseph Luchini – Full Career Prep (PCMS/PCHS) to Half Career Prep and Half Phys Ed
Shelly Connolly – Kindergarten Teacher to Elementary Special Education Teacher

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

8.         Employment Agreements for employees not covered by bargaining agreements:

A motion was made by Anita Kain and seconded by Patricia Davis that the Board of Directors authorizes the Superintendent to offer employment contracts to employees not covered by the collective bargaining agreements for fiscal year 2007.

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

9.         Probationary Contracts:

A motion was made by Susan McAvoy and seconded by Patricia Davis that the Board of Directors authorizes the Superintendent to offer 2^nd year Probationary Contracts to the following teachers for the 2006-2007 school year:

·                    Jeffrey Hamlin – Integration/Media
·                    Eric Sherman – Social Studies
·                    Shelly Johnson – Reading Specialist (Federally Funded)
·                    Rexford Dam - Mathematics
·                    Carol Poirier – 8^th Grade
·                    Bridget Grant - Spanish

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

10.       Continuing Contracts:

A motion was made by Patricia Izbicki and seconded by Pam Goulette that the Board of Directors authorizes the Superintendent to offer Continuing Wage Agreements to the following for the 2006-2007 school year:

·                    Deborah Fournier – Music
·                    Eric Smith – Mathematics
·                    Don Moen – Industrial Technology
Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

11.       School Auditor:

A motion was made by Pam Goulette and seconded by Patricia Davis that the Board of Directors authorizes the Superintendent to offer the SAD #4 audit contract to the audit firm “Brantner, Thibodeau & Associates”. 

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

12.       Readiness Resolution:

A motion was made by Patricia Davis and seconded by Lorna Marshall that the Board of Directors authorizes the superintendent to enter into a Resolution to become a “Readiness” Partnership with the Maine Readiness Campaign.

Vote: Yes~ 15 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 1

13.       Drug Task Force Statement:

A motion was made by Pam Goulette and seconded by Anita Kain that the Board of Directors adopts the following statement in support of the Drug Task Force:

The MSAD #4 Board of Directors supports efforts by parents, families, students, teachers, administrators, community members and appropriate agencies in their efforts to reduce and eliminate the abuse of prescription drugs and any other substances known to cause harm to the health of individual students and their families.

While it is understood that chemical abuse is a societal problem that will take the involvement of many more than the school community to curb, the board also expects staff and administration to take the necessary steps, within policy, to keep our schools drug free.

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

14.       Policy Development:

A motion was made by Michelle Ward and seconded by Lorna Marshall that the Board of Directors     gives final approval for policies ECAF, GBGE and JL of the SAD #4 policy book.

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

15.       Committee Reports:                                                                                                      

Budget Committee – Larry Davis reported that the Saturday workshop in February seemed to be a good way to start the budget process.  

Communications Committee:

·                    Discussed and formulated Drug Task Force Statement
·                    Committee recommends second Saturday in June Graduation
·                    Recommended that the Drug Task force continue in their work next year.

16.       Executive Session:

A motion was made by Patricia Izbicki and seconded by Pam Goulette that the Board of Directors go into executive session for the purpose of discussing the employment of a High School Principal pursuant to Title I Maine Revised Statute Annotated, Section 405, Sub-Section 6-B.

Vote: Yes~ 16 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0
               
                Time In:  9:14   Time Out: 9:45

            Action Taken:   A motion was made by Pam Goulette and seconded by Patricia Davis to offer Jim Chasse a two year contract as the PCHS Principal.

Vote: Yes ~ 16 No ~ 0   Ab. ~ 0        

17.       Administrative Reports:       

                Julie Orton: McKusick School and Guilford Primary School:

·         Midterm reports went home with students on May 5^th.  This was a Guiding Principles grading report.

• Charlotte the Spider, a new climbing apparatus at the McKusick playground, has been a big hit with all of the children. We are so grateful to HUGS for purchasing this new equipment and for arranging to have it installed in the playground. Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped out with the project.
• We celebrated Nurses’ Day on May 5^th by honoring Sue Pulkinnen with a gift certificate to pamper herself at Then & Now in Sangerville.
• End of Year assessments have begun.  Students did STAR testing this past week.  Terra Nova testing (a Reading First requirement) will be done during the week of May 8-12.  And DIBELS (another Reading First requirement) will be done during the week of May15-19.  Writing prompts are scheduled for the week of May 22-26.
• May 25^th is the date of the Visual and Performing Arts Festival.
• Arts Alive Celebrations are approaching fast.  McKusick School will have Arts Alive on May 26^th.  GPS will celebrate Arts Alive on June 1.

                Julie Orton - Curriculum:

• The Professional Development Committee will be meeting on May 17^th to continue discussion regarding the best use of our in-service days and early release days for the 2006/2007 school year.
• I attended a Maine Principal Association conference recently.  The topic of discussion, building professional learning communities, is very timely as we begin to look at our goals for the coming school year.
• I’ll be participating in the MEA standard setting process on the 15^th and 16^th of May.  Although it is a busy time of year, I am excited about the opportunity of having some input in the process.

                Greg Bellemare- Middle School Principal:  The PCMS book club has been working on reviewing literature for our own  LA staff development.   The group has met many times and is generating many good ideas and discussions.

                The district Speech Contest was conducted on April 25^th.  We did not have any winners but a good turnout and our   students did very well.

                Midterms for the 3^rd trimester have gone out.

                A letter has gone out to Grades 4 through 12 parents on Internet Safety.  This is particularly aimed at the parents to give them knowledge of what occurs on the internet and what they can do to protect their children.  A night with Supper will be May l7th followed by a presentation given by MECASA.  The Supper is at 5:00 with the presentation following.  The supper and presentation will be free.

                Our 7^th graders will be going to the Challenger Center on May 9, 10, and 11^th.

                Our district wellness team is sponsoring a Wellness Carnival on May 13 at the PCMS gym from 9 to noon.  We have   received a check for $1000 from the Maine Highlands Credit Union for nutrition.  This will be used mostly in this program to help offset the costs.

                PCMS sponsored District V Music Festival on April 28^th.  We had approximately 200 students from other schools participating in this year two festival.  I’d like to particularly thank Mr. Tomlinson and Mrs. Fournier for a great job organizing this event.  Our spring concert will be tentatively June 7^th.

                Crystal Priest – Technology:  The phone system has been installed at the middle school, this went fairly smoothly.  Most of the bugs have been worked out of the system over the last week.

                The Firstclass email server was also updated over vacation to the latest version.

                Jeff Aronson – High School Principal – Attached

18.       Chairperson's Report:           Mr. Nuite reported that Wednesday, May 24^th will be another public budget presentation.

19.       Superintendent's Report:      Boiler Project - heat will be turned off  May 23 at PCHS – prep work – removal of asbestos – boiler removal – installation of pad and steel – boiler installation in July

                McKusick Roof project – quotes in on metal roofing – recommend delay of roofing project one year – use $13,000 toward boiler/lighting  - see if RRF comes into play

                Teacher minimum salary – ’07 will be $27,000 – our base is $27,810 – not affected

                For ’08 minimum will be $30,000 – our base will be $28,714 – and that year we enter negotiations with teachers.  Those                 negotiations will likely be affected by the required raise in salary.

                Committee assignments – are effective now – not July 1^st.

                Adult Ed report – Anita

                I have accepted resignations, effective at the end of the school year, from the following:

                                                Nicki Greene                          Elem Special Ed
                                                Kate Lovering                       PCHS Special Ed
                                                Annette Gish                        PCHS Ed Tech
                                                Courtney Martin                  Elem PE/Health

                Milk bids are in – switch from Oakhurst to Garelick – lower price than current year.

                Abbot Assessment Change Process

                Great time of year to reflect on accomplishments and celebrate successes!

20.       Adjournment:

Paul A. Stearns
Superintendent of Schools
SAD #4