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Attending: Lauren Poster – chair, Andy Reichsman – vice chair, Gussie Bartlett – clerk, Francie Marbury – Principal, Tina Shakespeare – interim WCSU Assistant Superintendent

The meeting was called to order at 7:12 pm.

This being a reorganizational meeting, Tina initiated the proceedings.

Gussie nominated Lauren to be School Board chair. Andy seconded the motion. The motion passed. Lauren nominated Andy to be vice chair. Gussie seconded the motion. The motion passed. Lauren nominated Gussie to be clerk. Andy seconded the motion. The motion passed.

We made Linda Peters and Lauren Poster the board’s authorized signatures.

We established the Brattleboro Reformer as the board’s paper of Record.

We established our regular meeting time as the first Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm unless otherwise posted.

We delegated Lauren to be our WCSU representative, with Andy and Gussie as substitutes.

We assigned the Constable to be Truant officer.

Gussie moved that we accept the minutes from the meeting of February 6th, with minor corrections. Andy seconded. The motion passed. Lauren abstained as she did not attend the meeting.

Lauren moved that we adopt the Mandatory Drug & Alcohol Testing: Transportation Employees Policy. Gussie seconded the motion. The motion passed.

Principal’s report: enrollment the same, staffing unchanged.

Lauren moved that we go into Executive Session at 7:20 to discuss a personnel matter. Gussie seconded the motion. The motion passed.
We left Executive Session at 7:26. No action was taken.

Winter Workshops were very successful and the show the students put on illustrated that success to parents, teachers, friends and families.

Francie informed the board about the organization Progressive Educators of Northern New England. She feels PENNE is a good philosophical fit for MES. She and the board agree that it cane be very useful to find outside groups that can support our small school. She also described a visit to the school by teacher and author Ron Berger. He proved to be an inspirational visitor who displayed very impressive student work from his years of teaching and as an educational consultant. He very much liked what he saw at MES and has offered to continue to interact with us in the future. After hearing what Ron had to say, each teacher was asked to come up with a small idea that might impact their classroom and a big idea that might impact their classroom as well as a small idea that might impact the school and a big idea that might impact the school.

Crisis Plan. Drills at the school have made it clear to teachers and students how to proceed in an emergency, how to leave the building and where to report after having left the building. There has been some concern that substitutes and other non-permanent staff at MESD may need more information to be prepared in emergency situations. As part of our building engineering report from Stantec, we are expecting to get a floor plan from Stantec, which will be useful in preparing diagrams for posting and other purposes.

Lauren moved that we enter Executive Session to discuss a benefits matter. Andy seconded the motion. We entered Executive Session at 8:00 pm. We left Executive Session at 8:25 pm.

A decision was made to clarify benefit payments with Gail Chaine and to make sure employees better understand their benefits.

We then had a discussion regarding the board’s role at MES and to what degree we should be getting involved with curriculum and day to day classroom matters. Some concern was expressed about an informal learning environment at MES. It was expressed that trying to dictate to classroom teachers would not be an effective approach but we talked about ways to initiate dialogue between the board and staff that would allow the board to have input and insight in the bigger picture at MES. tone in the school. We decided it would be quite valuable for the board to meet with all the classroom teachers at some point in order to have an opportunity for dialogue and discussion about the school.

Update on tuition student issues. Abby Dillon explained to Francie that if a student was determined to require a special education evaluation after attending MES through parental request (ie, being tuitioned in to MES), the evaluation planning team would include the LEA from the sending town. The LEA would help the team decide where the student’s special education should occur. If it was to occur in Marlboro, the LEA would be required to fund the expenses incurred by Marlboro. Francie is going to continue to pursue Patti Page’s response to Abby’s interpretation.

Andy moved to adjourn at 9:22 pm. Gussie seconded. The motion passed.

Meeting Tuesday March 13th at 7:00 pm to complete Superintendent evaluation. Regular meeting Thursday April 5th at 7:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Andy Reichsman

Pay Orders:

#17 2/16/07 $80,398.20
#18 3/2/07 $36,467.67