Members Present:  James Bell, Shelly Bennett, Larry Davis, Patricia Davis, Ralph Eastman, Pam Goulette, Nancy Hall, Cinthia Hoak, Patricia Izbicki, Anita Kain, Lorna Marshall, Susan McAvoy, George Nuite, Donna Runnels, Michelle Ward and Charles Woodmancy.

Members Absent:      Melissa Douglass and Donna Littlefield

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

Call to Order:             The meeting was called to order by George Nuite at 7:00 p.m.                                    

Approval of Minutes:  A motion was made by Pam Goulette and seconded by Nancy Hall that the minutes of the November 8, 2005 Board of Directors meeting be approved as printed.

Vote: Yes ~ 15   No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

Public Forum:             none  

Correspondence:       none   

Educational Reports:             Julie Orton reported that Language Arts and Math (K-12) will be our focus areas over the next several years.  Our data, MEAs and STAR testing, indicate large percentages of students are not meeting standards in these areas.

Language Arts

• The Reading First Grant is well under way in the elementary schools and we believe there is a need to continue with this philosophy and instructions as students move through the grades.

• We are in the process of exploring options for the middle school, in particular, grades 4-6, with a focus on grade 4 for the 2006/2007 school year.

• Professional development is an important component of the Reading First Grant and it makes sense to think about ways to provide a similar model in the middle school.

• Scheduling adequate time for language arts in grades 4-6 will be one of our first challenges.  We are trying to allot a minimum of 2 hours each day for language arts instruction in the 2006/2007 school year.

Math

• Scores in math (MEAs and STAR testing) show a steady drop from grade 4 to 8 and further drop from grade 8 to 11.  While these assessments don’t tell the whole story, we are taking the results seriously and we’re making short term and long term adjustments to math instruction.
• Short term:
• At the middle school, we’ve added extra time to the math schedule so that students can do the practice games recommended by EM (one hour each week).  This is a critical component for building computational skills.
• We are exploring professional development opportunities, regarding standards-based math programs, for teachers to attend during this school year.
• Title I staff is providing remedial math support for students
  
  Long term:

• We will communicate, to parents, the philosophy of Everyday Math, a standards-based program, which “spirals”, introducing new material, moving forward, and then revisiting material previously taught.  Along with this, we will give them the help they will need to teach math at home.
• Professional development opportunities for teachers will continue in the 2006/2007 school year
• Schedules are being looked at to allot more time for math each day.
• We will be looking very closely at several aspects of the k-12 math instruction, including the content, scope and sequence, curricula materials, etc.  We look to increased communication among math teachers all levels

Lasting change takes time.  We look to the next four to five years for evidence regarding the effectiveness of these changes, both in language arts and math. 

1.         Adjustment to Agenda:  

A motion was made by James Bell and seconded by Shelly Bennett that the Board of Directors Change Item 11 to read as follows: 

Recommendation:  That the Board of Directors go into executive session for the purpose of evaluating the Superintendent of Schools pursuant to 1M.R.S.A. § 405 (6)(A).

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

2.         Contract for School Privileges and Transportation Services with the Town of Willimantic:

A motion was made by Anita Kain and seconded by Larry Davis that the Board of Directors accepts the recommendation to continue a contract for school privileges and transportation services with the Town of Willimantic as presented.

Vote: Yes ~ 15  No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

3.         Recommendations to Employ:

A motion was made by Michelle Ward and seconded by Patricia Izbicki that the Board of Directors accepts the following recommendations to employ for the 2005-2006 school year (one year contracts):

April Harvey – Gear Up Advisor

Rodney Gudroe - Gear Up Advisor

Vote: Yes ~  15 No ~ 0 Ab. ~ 0

4.         Policy Development:

A motion was made by Ralph Eastman and seconded by Michelle Ward that the Board of Directors approves the first reading of BBBAB & IKF and gives final approval for policies BEC,BEC-E, EBAA, EFE, GBO, JFABD, JJE, JLCD and JLCD-E of the revised SAD #4 policy book.

Policy BBBAB was sent back to committee with the suggestion that two students be involved in order to ensure continuity to the process, and also to correct the heading.

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

5.         Comprehensive Plan:      

A motion was made by Ralph Eastman and seconded by Patricia Davis that the Board of Directors adopts the following portions of the SAD #4 Comprehensive Plan:  Affirmative Action Plan, Personnel Plan, Personnel Training & Development Plan, Administrator Recertification Plan, LEP/Lau Plan, Students at Risk of Failure Identification Plan, Comprehensive Guidance Plan and the Gifted & Talented Plan.

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

6.         PCHS Prom:

PCHS Students Claire Cook and Abbie Galuski, representing the PCHS Prom committee, made a presentation to the board requesting permission to hold the spring prom in an off site location.  Several social, financial, liability and logistical details of the concept were discussed.

A motion was made by Sue McAvoy and seconded by Patricia Davis that the Board of Directors sanction an off campus venue for the PCHS Prom to be held in the spring of 2006.

Vote: Yes ~ 14 No ~ 1 Ab. ~ 0

7.         Committee Reports:

Policy Committee: Michelle Ward reported that the committee met on 11-22-05 and brought forward policy changes to IKF in order to align graduation requirements with new timelines from the state DOE, a new policy BBBAB that would create a non-voting representative from the student body to sit on the SAD #4 Board of Directors.  BBBAB will go back to committee with suggestions for refinement.  BID – the policy dealing with compensation for school board members was discussed and interpreted.  This policy will also be brought up for review at the next meeting of the Policy Committee.  The committee also worked on a policy defining appropriate employee/student boundaries and will continue to work on that policy before presenting anything to the board.

Building & Grounds:  Patti Davis reported that the committee met on 11-29-05 and discussed energy pricing and conservation strategies, a report on the condition of the PCHS roof and the recent update of vfa data by J.W.Sewall, Inc.  It is planned to replace the boiler at PCHS with two smaller, more efficient units before the 2006-2007 heating season.

Communications/Student Personnel:  Sue McAvoy reported that the committee met on 12-6-05 and discussed the possibility of a policy development and dissemination of information regarding appropriate boundaries between employees and students.  The concept-feasibility of a middle school advisor/advisee program was discussed.  Mr. Bellemare spoke of programs and strategies currently in place at PCMS to ensure that students have a daily “check-in” with an adult in the building in other than an academic conversation.  Mr. Bellemare informed the committee of health initiatives including the HMP and CSHE grants.  The benefits of a satellite hot lunch program were discussed.  Mr. Aronson briefed the committee on the desire of the Prom Committee at PCHS to be able to explore holding the event at an off-site location in the spring of ’06.

8.         Administrative Reports:

Trisha Kurt (Special Education Director):

Family Literacy Program:          K-3 has started a Family Literacy Program called “Supper with a Side of Reading”.  This will be held once a month at GPS for K-3 families.  The program will consist of supper and then the new elementary literacy coach will do a 15 minutes "lesson" with parents on an aspect of reading while Mrs. Violette the librarian reads a book and does a short activity with the students.  Families will then have an opportunity to check out a bag of books to take home with them for the month to read.  Our first meeting is tomorrow night at 5:00 at GPS.  So far the response has been tremendous.

Gifted and Talented:      As you are aware - we are supposed to have our Gifted and Talented Program up and running this year.  We have identified three students this year in reading and math due to the results of last years MEA's.  These three students exceeded the standards in reading or math.  After the holidays I will be sending home a letter to the parents of these students to offer support in whatever way we can to these students. 

We will be looking to extend to other grades next year.

Greg Bellemare (PCMS Principal):

·                    Mrs. Post will be giving another parent math night on Wednesday Jan. 4th. 

·                    Hero assemblies will be on Dec. 19^th for 5^th grade ( 9:00), 4^th grade (9:50) and 6^th grade (1:05) and Dec. 20^th, 8^th grade (9:00) and 7^th grade (9:50).

·                    Grades 5-8 concert Wed. Dec. 14th at 7:00 - 4th grade will be with the elementary concert on

·                    Dec. 20th.

·                    We have added Rod Gudroe as our Gear Up person.

·                    Alex Sockabasin spoke with the 4th grade on Monday, Dec. 13th on Indian culture.

·                    Student Led conferences went well.  Attendance was about 60 to 70 %

·                    Discussed our Math Plan with the staff and implemented some changes starting with Elaine Bartley talking to the staff about standards based math.

·                    Basketball is under way and we had our holiday dance.

·                    Skiing is up in the air at Squaw Mountain until we hear from the owner.

·                    Ranks went out on Monday. 

Jeff Aronson (PCHS Principal):

Thanks to every faculty and staff member’s hard work, we continue to make significant strides towards student academic achievement. I also want to thank the Special Education, Technology, Transportation and Maintenance Departments in making these three months of school positive experiences for everyone.

            Examples of the activities to date include:

·        Parent – Teacher Conferences held in November filled every available time slot;

·        Student Pep Rally assemblies were held on December 9^th and December 15^th for all winter sport teams, chess club and Key Club;

·        Student Council made recommendations for the Senior Prom as an off-site, met with Student and Personnel Committee of Board, and School Board;

·        Opening games of boys and girls basketball seasons; ski team and cheerleading squads were chosen and practices are underway;

·        PCHS faculty member recognized as leader of Career Pathways efforts; spoke at EMCC conference;

·        College representatives are visiting our school on a regular basis;

·        Guidance has enrolled all Juniors for SAT’s this April;

·        PCHS beginning preparations to administer SAT to all juniors as per state requirements;

·        Planning underway for summer school program and elective courses for 06-07;

·        Community-School reading initiative approved for partial grant funding; additional funding requests sent out;

·        Professional Development Workshop will be held December 19^th;

·        Continue process of establishing budgetary needs for 2006-07;

·        Regular meetings of Senior Management Team (Principal, Assistant Principal, Guidance Counselor, District Tech Coordinator) to meet operational and administrative needs of the school;

·        Regular meetings of faculty/administration Leadership Team on strategies for advisories;

·        Participation in SAD #4 Administrative Team meetings; and

·        Regular Faculty meetings held on November 14, 28, December 5, 19

Julie Orton (Elementary Principal/Curriculum Coordinator):

Students at McKusick and GPS will donate food goods to the local food cupboard.  They have been collecting canned goods and other packaged foods under the “Giving Trees for the last few weeks.

Third graders received their own dictionaries from the ‘Words for Thirds” program sponsored by the local granges (Valley Grange 144 in Guilford) and South Sangerville Grange on November 30^th.  Elementary students are participating in the “Reading is Giving” Program sponsored by Scholastic Book Clubs.  If each of our classrooms reads 100 books by February 17^th, Scholastic Book Clubs will donate 1200 books to the children and schools affected by the hurricanes this fall.

The elementary holiday concert is scheduled for Tuesday, December 20 at 6:00 at the high school.

Crystal Priest (technology):

*          Things are running fairly smoothly around the district. 

*          Roxanne and I have managed to successfully file the 470 application for next year's e-rate.

*          The network backbone, router and firewall will be upgraded over Christmas vacation.

*          I will also be working on the technology plan for E-rate and the state over vacation.

9.         Chairperson’s Report:  Mr. Nuite thanked board members for their prompt and thorough response to request for input on the evaluation of the superintendent.  He mentioned that committee work was in full swing, and commended board members for their commitment to attend committee meetings. 

10.       Superintendent’s Report:

            *          Budget work has begun – data collected at the building level;

            *          No retirement notices at this time;

            *          Process for selling/trading a piece of land – same as for closing a school

            *          Tuition Rates:   

level                 ’06       ’05                   difference

                                                  secondary         6,248   6,358               - 110.70

                                                  elementary        4,891   4,808               +83.82

*          Letter out to town officials about budget timeline/open communication;

*          TCTC funding seems to be resolved – anticipate “typical” increase        task force to recommend EPS formula for TCTC funding 18 months;

*          Glenn Gish has been hired as an Ed Tech at PCHS – replacing Rod Gudroe

                        Resignation accepted from Bruce Priest – Boys Varsity Soccer;

            *          Ski Team uniform gift – Ellen and Rob Haley;
            *          PCHS Students involved in SAD #4 website review; and

            *          PCHS students are helping design a folder on SAD #4.

11.       Yearly Evaluation of Superintendent:

A motion was made by  Ralph Eastman and seconded by Pam Goulette that the Board of Directors go into executive session for the purpose of evaluating the evaluating the Superintendent of Schools pursuant to 1.M.R.S.A. § 405 (6)(A).

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

Time In: 8:47                Time Out:  10:19

Action Taken:   A motion was made by Larry Davis and seconded by Michelle Ward that the salary of the superintendent be set at $82,000 for the ’07 school year with a benefit package valued at $7,000. (Note: Contract runs through June 30, 2008).

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

9.         Adjournment:

Paul A. Stearns
Superintendent of Schools
SAD #4