marlboroschool.net

Attending: Lauren Poster – Chair, Gussie Bartlett – Vice Chair, Jen Carr – Clerk, Francie Marbury – Principal, Steven John – Superintendent

The meeting was called to order by Lauren at 6:15pm.

We reviewed the 5/18/10 School Board minutes. Lauren made a motion to accept the minutes as corrected. Gussie seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Principal’s report. Attached.

Lauren made a motion to authorize Francie to spend up to $5,000 on kitchen renovations contingent upon receiving a $3,500 grant from the State of Vermont. Gussie seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Francie and Lauren will communicate with the Select Board about the possibility of a back-up generator for the school in case of power failures.

Abby Dillon and Judy Lang joined the meeting at 6:30pm.

Abby Dillon made a special education presentation until 7:20pm. Overall the special education budget is down from last year. Abby shared her experience of various models for special education. Judy commented on her experiences in the Primary classroom at MES.

Judy Lang left the meeting at 7:35pm.

The Marlboro School Board joined the Dover school Board at 7:35pm. Steven John and Abby Dillon were present at the joint meeting.

The Dover School Board President Rich Werner spoke about ways in which they have made changes in their special education program.

Note on Dover Elementary School structure: The Dover School is pre-K to sixth grade. No multi-age classes. There is one teacher in each class. No assistant teachers. Pre-K is half-day, five days per week. Kindergarten is a full day.

Abby Dillon left the meeting at 8pm.

Gussie spoke briefly about her participation in the recent Supervisory Union Governance Committee meeting.

The two boards spoke about commonalities in the schools. There was some interest in the possibility of shared transportation to high school. The two boards thought it could be useful to form a group that would further discuss transportation issues.

The two boards talked about ways the kids from the two schools could come together like a joint winter sports day or shared music programs/events.

Superintendent’s report was presented to both Boards. Attached.

The Marlboro School Board resumed its own meeting at 8:40pm. Steven John was present for this portion of the meeting.

Lauren made a motion that, in anticipation of school expenditure over the summer and into autumn, we authorize Gail Chaine to move $50,000 from the Future Tuition Reserve Fund into the General Fund, to be replaced automatically when revenues come back from the Town in the fall. Gussie seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Steven John left the meeting at 9:15pm.

The Marlboro School Board had a brief discussion to recap the joint meetings with Abby Dillon and the Dover School Board.

In conclusion, we appreciate the opportunity to learn form other schools’ special education programs. We encouraged Francie to follow up with Abby Dillon about how we could meet students’ needs effectively in the least restrictive setting. Francie will check back with the School Board on progress.

We also agreed that a joint winter sports day with the Dover School could be a good way for our kids to get to know other children outside the school.

Meeting adjourned at 9:35pm.

Note pay orders 24-25 at bottom of minutes.

Respectfully submitted,

Jen Carr

Pay Orders: #24 5/21/10 $82,793.95
#25 6/4/10 $46,357.10

Our Guiding Principles:
Students will be at the center of our decision-making.
We will keep to the agenda.
The chair will estimate the amount of time necessary for each item
and act as timekeeper during the meeting.
Every voice is heard as discussion goes back and forth.
Decisions will not be made hastily.
We will ask ourselves, “What other information do we need
in order to make a thoughtful decision?”
Decisions/discussion will be recapped before moving on to a new item.
Items requiring action will be identified and we will note who is responsible for each action item.
Follow through will occur before the next meeting.
We will use e-mail judiciously to communicate between meetings.
Implementation Guidelines:
Meetings will be held on the first Monday of each month with the fourth Monday
kept in reserve, if an additional meeting is needed.
The chair will send out the agenda the Thursday before the meeting.
The meetings will start at 6 pm and go no later than 9 pm.

Marlboro School Board
Principal’s Report
Monday, June 7, 2010

Student Learning
End of year assessments – local assessment plan
Gathering information for Title I Schoolwide report
Action Plan 10-11
Application to VAC for Winter Workshops supplement by request to Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Foundation

Policy or Regulation Implementation

Buildings and Grounds
Installation of projectors and interactive white boards
Energy Efficiency Grant update
Kitchen upgrade – grant update
Power outage – generator VEM

Finance/Accounting
On target to come in close to budget

Enrollment/Staffing
Student enrollment – 85
Staffing
Co-teacher in Primary
Special Educator
.5 assistant in 3rd/4th
Emma Hallowell to Guilford
Professional development funding for Spanish teacher
Fluency Fast Teacher Training Program: http://fluencyfast.com/how-tos/how-to-teach.htm
Fluency Fast Language Class: $130.
International Forum on Language Teaching Conference (www.iflt.org): $325.
Course Total: $455
Course Total: $455.
July 24-31 in Los Alamitos, CA

Informational items

Mon-Wed, June 7-9 8th grade graduation portfolios
Tues, June 8, 7pm Consortium
Thurs, June 10, 7pm Graduation
Last day of school – Saturday, June 12, 11:45

Superintendent’s Report for the Marlboro School Board
Monday, June 7, 2010

Note: I understand this meeting will convene at 6:00 at Dover Elementary School, followed by a joint meeting with Dover School Board at 6:30 or 7:00. Apart from the first item below my report is identical to the Dover Board for this meeting.

Student/Staff Learning
1. I am meeting with Francie Tuesday morning to review all staff evaluations for this school year. This is a regular year-end activity leading to my summative evaluations of each principal’s work.
2. On June 2, the principals met to review the year-end calendar and Title I Schoolwide reporting requirements. We also presented Betty Ann Runge with a token of our appreciation for decades of service to the WCSU and to wish her all the best in her second retirement.
3. The Professional Development Team met last Thursday to plan professional learning goals and opportunities for WCSU in FY11. We will regularly schedule grade level meetings for all teachers next year. I commend the members of this committee for providing leadership for their teaching colleagues and their commitment to excellence.
4. Professional learning continues this summer with the third section of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) course. The WCSU principals meet August 18-19 with me for the annual summer retreat to revise our action steps and plans for making further progress toward the goals of the Strategic Plan. Student performance data will be analyzed to inform our deliberations.
5. August 3-5 the L&G administrative team will attend the Vermont Principals and Superintendents Annual Conference with Frank, Abby and me. This will give Dr. Dorinne Dorfman to formally collaborate and plan with her new colleagues.

Policy/Regulation
1. Governor Douglas has allowed H. 66- the Voluntary School Merger Bill to become law without his signature. I emailed his letter of explanation separately.
2. As called for by H 66 Superintendents will see their statutorily-required duties expand on July 1, 2012. These include:
· Reporting all financial operations of the supervisory union and/or its member districts;
· Hiring non-licensed staff and dismissing all staff, subject to all legal and contractual procedures;
· Nominating individual candidates for licensed positions for board approval. If the board rejects the nominee, the superintendent would bring forth another single nominee.
· Developing and implementing class size policies in conjunction with school boards
3. Each supervisory union and member school board must adopt class size policies by January 15, 2011specifying minimum and optimal class sizes. The policies may include differentiated minimum and optimum figures for various districts, courses, grade levels. The policies must be posted on the supervisory union website and messaged to the Commissioner of Education.

The Commissioner is required to develop at least two model class size policies and make them available online by August 31, 2010.
4. The existing exceptions to the requirement that collective bargaining be conducted at the supervisory union level have been repealed (i.e., there will be no exceptions). Contracts can still have district-specific terms and individual school districts must still ratify contracts.
5. Each supervisory union (SU) board is required to discuss by December 1, 2010 whether to formally explore a merger within the SU or with neighboring districts. By October of 2012, each supervisory union board must vote whether to engage in a formal merger planning analysis process. The Department of Education is required to develop a merger template to assist districts in evaluating whether a merger would be beneficial to the district or its students. The template will be made available by December 15, 2010.

Finance/Accounting/Operations
1. H. 66 targets for education savings will total $23.2 million statewide and will ask school districts collectively to cut approximately two percent from their fiscal year 2011 education spending. The formula will not assign each SU an equal dollar amount or percentage as its target. Instead, the formula must favor SUs with districts that (1) have demonstrated fiscal restraint in recent years, (2) have low per-pupil administrative costs, (3) have high student-to-staff ratios, (4) have high percentages of students in poverty or who are English-language learners, or (5) have “other unique circumstances that affect education spending.” The Commissioner of Education must notify SUs of their targets by August 1, 2010. The board of each supervisory union and each district within it must notify the Commissioner by December 15, 2010 “whether their combined budgets will be able to meet recommended reductions.”
2. The Commissioner of Education will develop and present a plan by January 15, 2011 to restrict the recipients of Small Schools Grants to districts that are deemed geographically isolated. The report will include an analysis of what amount of supplemental financial support is necessary to allow these geographically isolated districts to provide an adequate education. The plan would also include a timetable to withdraw Grants “gradually” from districts that are not geographically isolated.
3. The Commissioner of Education will develop and implement by July 1, 2011 an “integrated process for financial management and reporting that includes common accounting standards…”
4. From H. 783 (Tax Bill): The Department of Taxes must produce a “feasibility report” by July 1, 2011 regarding developing an electronic system that would allow the Department to directly administer and collect the education property tax.

Enrollment/Staffing
1. Abby Dillon and the principals of those schools affected by three special educator openings will meet to interview the most promising candidates. We hope to fill these positions by mid July if not earlier.
2. The job descriptions for all non-certified staff positions in the WCSU Office are being reviewed based on our experience this fiscal year.

Informational Items
1. Save August 11 as a possible WCSU summer retreat date (very late afternoon – dinner – evening?). Details TBA.
2. ATM Summer Retreat meets August 18-19.
3. VPA/ VSA Summer Conference will be August 3-5.