Swanton School Board
April-June Minutes
Tobias Maguire (term expires in 2012) (Chair) 868-5983
Mary Wood (term expires in 2013) (Co-Chair)
PattiJo Walker (term expires in 2012) 524-5749
Jay Cummings (term expires in 2014)
Gary "Gub" Thompson (term expires in 2012)
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SWANTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING MINUTES -APPROVED
June 13, 2011 6:00 pm
Present:Tobias Maguire, Mary Wood, Jay Cummings, Gary Thompson and PattiJo Walker.
Administration:Brent Coon, Principal, Holly Rouelle, Assistant Principal,Dr. John J. McCarthy, Superintendent, Becky Hart, Business Manager.
Call to Order: Tobias Maguire called the meeting to order at 6:01pm.
Citizens and Staff: None
PTO Update: Sarah Nielsen provided a PTO update.
Approval of Minutes: Mary Wood made motion, seconded by Gary Thompson to approve the May 9, 2011 minutes as presented. The board voted 5-0 to approve. Tobias Maguire stated that there should have been minutes from the May 19th special board meeting about the boiler. Patti Jo Walker will look into it.
Correspondence: None
Old Business: The board has set the Kindergarten Entrance Age for December 1st, with the goal to set it for September 1st in 2012.
Contracts- for executive session and personnel recommendations.
Financial Report: The financial report in the board packet shows a carryover of $168,057.79. There are no dramatic changes except some interest earnings and the transfer of grant funds for positions at the Swanton School. Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Gary Thompson to approve the financial report as presented. The Board approved the motion by a 5-0 vote.
Check Warrants: There are no check warrants for this meeting.
Usually the board borrows money to meet expenses prior to receiving the transfer of property tax revenue in late fall. Becky Hart stated that they are obtaining loan interest rates from various area banks. Becky Hart inquired if the board would like to have a special board meeting to make a decision on the loan and approve the check warrants? Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Jay Cummings to have the business manager and the school treasurer (Kathy Fournier) review the interest rate loan proposals from the different banks and award the loan to a reputable bank that would be in the best interest of the school district with the approval of the board chair and authorizing the board chair to sign the loan document. The board approved the motion 5-0 vote.
Becky Hart requested approval of next year’s food service agreement that was handed out at the last board meeting for their review. Mary Wood made motion, seconded by Gary Thompson to authorize the board chair to sign the Abbey Food Group Food Service contract for the 2011-2012 school year. The board approved the motion 5-0 vote.
Becky Hart reported that the outside audit has been scheduled for mid August for the Swanton School District.
Principal’s Report:
Brent Coon reported that Swanton is in year 2 of corrective action. A restructuring plan must be developed and submitted as part of that requirement. They have had meetings with the school improvement coordinator, Dena St. Amour, Linda Chaim and Dr. McCarthy to help build this plan around two major goals. The first goal is increasing effectiveness of the Tier One Instruction. They will have a writers’ workshop for the next three days and one day when they return in the fall with a well renowned writer. They will create benchmarks and rubrics so if students improve ability to write, the scores will improve. They will also work to create a formula and assessment in Math. The Math Content Leader will provide professional development directly in the classroom by modeling the lesson and coaching math instruction. The second key component is by co teaching with the special educator in grades 5 and 6 this year. The Special Educator will help plan the lesson for the day and help improve first instruction. The goal is to see a reduction in behavioral referrals. As part of the restructuring plan, the board chairperson needs to sign the plan. They will continue with after school tutoring. Mary Wood made motion, seconded by Patti Jo Walker to authorize the board chair to sign the corrective action plan. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Holly Rouelle had data and comparisons for the board to review showing the improvements in test scores and progress students made from having a half day kindergarten program to a full day program.
There were four bids back from the boiler bid. Steve Shaw gave the specifications for the boiler. Green Mountain Plumbing Services, $165,750, A Cooper Mechanical $149,000, Mountain Care Systems $142, 371, Goulet Plumbing and Heating Corp $130,972. The Board will discuss further in executive session.
Other: Brent Coon wished to thank Holly Rouelle for the great work for the outstanding job she did this year and wished her the best as a principal in her new position.
Superintendent’s Report:
Legislative Report The final educational report summary is in the board packet.
Master Agreement: Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Jay Cummings to approve the 2011-2014 master agreement. The board approved the motion 5-0 vote.
Next meeting date is August 8, 2011 at 6pm. The next Franklin Northwest SU board meeting is scheduled for October 6 at 7pm in Swanton.
Executive Session and Adjournment:
Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Mary Wood to enter executive session for personnel and contracts at 6:50pm. The Board approved the motion 5-0 vote.
Gary Thompson made motion to exit executive session at 7:48pm, seconded by Mary Wood. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Brent Coon explained that the roof had been repaired in 1994-1995 and although the repair lasted 17 years, the roof has settled and now when it rains, the water does not drain and causes leakage. The board directed the administration to start exploring working out speculations for the roof and have some presentations possibly in September at a public hearing for the community.
Motions made after executive session were:
Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Jay Cummings to award the boiler bid to the lowest bidder. The board approved the motion. Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Mary Wood to approve Erik Acanfora’s request for one year leave of absence. The board denied the motion 0-5 vote. Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded Gary Thompson to accept the letter of resignations from Paul Evelti and Justin Wills. The board approved the motion 5-0 vote. Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Gary Thompson to grant ten more hours per week for Kathy Kneebone. The board denied the motion 0-5 vote. Patti Jo Walker made motion to accept recommendations from the personnel committee as discussed in executive session, seconded by Mary Wood, the board voted 4-0 vote with Gary Thompson abstaining from the vote.
Tobias Maguire declared the meeting adjourned at 7:59pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Patty Jo Walker, School Board Clerk
by Pierrette Bouchard, School Board Secretary.
_____________________________________________________
SWANTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING MINUTES-DRAFT
May 9, 2011 6:00 pm
Present: Tobias Maguire, Mary Wood, Jay Cummings, Gary Thompson and PattiJo Walker.
Administration: Brent Coon, Principal, Holly Rouelle, Assistant Principal, Dr. John J. McCarthy, Superintendent, Becky Hart, Business Manager.
Others Present: Sarah Nielsen, President of the PTO, Dawn Tessier, Lora McAllister, and Robin Trushaw.
Call to Order: Tobias Maguire called the meeting to order at 6:00pm.
Citizens and Staff: None
PTO Update: Sarah Nielsen reported that the PTO had met last week with a presentation from Greg Carpenter who is talking about having a ski program. The PTO spent time planning for next year. They will not meet in June but will meet once this summer. They would like to thank the administration for working with them this year.
Approval of Minutes: Mary Wood made motion, seconded by Patti Jo Walker to approve the April 5, 2011 minutes as presented. The board voted 5-0 to approve.
Correspondence: The board and administration is invited to a VKAT breakfast.
Old Business: Mary Wood suggested putting the Athletic Directors position on the agenda for next meeting and getting that organized for the Fall.
Contracts- for executive session. Dr. McCarthy reported that each summer there is a helicopter landing from the National Guard during the CrossRoads summer program and there is an agreement that needs to be signed granting permission to land on the Swanton School’s grounds. Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Gary Thompson to have the National Guard land their helicopter on the Swanton’s Soccer field and have the board chair sign the agreement. The board approved the motion 5-0 vote.
Financial Report: The financial report in the board packet shows a carryover of $170,562.10. Swanton has received higher than anticipated Special Education Intensive Aid Revenue based on the service plan that was submitted in the Fall. They have advanced an additional forty percent of the funds. After the year is done, there will be a financial reconciliation and some of the funds may be sent back to the State in August if the State finds that they have advanced an overpayment of funds. Mary Wood made motion, seconded by Gary Thompson to approve the financial report as presented. The Board approved the motion by a 5-0 vote.
Check Warrants: Gary Thompson made motion, seconded by Jay Cummings to approve April check warrants in the amount of $373,844.00. The board approved the motion by a 5-0 vote.
Becky Hart handed out a draft copy of next year’s food service agreement. The state changed the contract so that aligns with the national food service guidelines. The hot lunch program is a self sustaining program. The hot lunch funds itself through fees, and state reimbursement from free and reduced lunch. The district went out to bid last year and it was awarded to the Abbey Hot Lunch Program. She would like the board to review the contract and next month, she would like the board to approve the agreement. She welcomes any questions that the board may have.
Principal’s Report:
Brent reported that it is a busy time of year.
Student Learning: Brent Coon reported that many of the classes are working on their service learning projects as part of their commitment to character education. The second graders will sponsor their “Bike Safety Rodeo” with the Swanton Police Department. The kindergartners began seedlings in the classrooms which will be planted in front of the school entrance. Two sixth grade classes read “Three Cups of Tea” and raised money for Pennies for Peace. The sixth graders are exploring Direct Aid which builds schools in Afghanistan. There is a dance planned in June to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund, sponsored by a sixth and second grade class. The third grade and one fifth grade classes are getting ready for a mini Relay For Life day to benefit the American Cancer Society. Two fifth grade classes are taking the lead on the school garden. New this year, they will have a school planting day working with Green Mountain Farm to School. One fifth grade class is hosting a long standing, end of the year luncheon with their senior citizen buddies, which will include a tour of the school, artwork from the art show, musical performances and a Reader’s Theater performance. Two fourth grade classes are doing an outreach project with the Humane Society. Earlier in the year, fourth graders wrote persuasive essays to VT House of Representatives encouraging them to support Nick’s law and attended Nick’s Day at the Vt Statehouse. First graders are getting ready to participate in Heifer International to help fight worldwide poverty. The students are learning how to become responsible citizens in the world along with every day academic work and they are very proud of them.
Professional Development- Loree Silvis, our Math Consultant, spent a day working with our new teachers to provide learning “beyond” our Investigations Math program. Joan Lumbra and the math team also offered a final after school workshop in numeracy for our staff.
The first day back from vacation, 15 staff membersattended an after school webinar on “Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RTI) for Elementary and Middle Schools.” The presentation focused on effective mathematics instruction for all students and differentiating for Tier 1 in Response to Instruction.
Our fourth grade teachers are striving to work on improving our NECAP science scores this year. They are in the process of collaborating to provide students with a “practice run” of an inquiry task and also reviewing and analyzing constructive response writing with their students and each other to prepare for the NECAP Testing. Teachers and special educators supporting students for the inquiry task will practice a “dry run” so they can anticipate any test giving issues for their students.
Leadership Team: With the help of our leadership team, we successfully gathered 50 required folders of materials for our school audit. For three days, we hosted 4 consultants sponsored by the Department of Education, organizing classroom observations and interviews (superintendent and central office leaders, teachers, interventionists, special educators, paraprofessionals, and parents). Our staff also participated in an online survey as part of the audit. We are in the “fact check” stage of the process, and will report the finding to the board at a future meeting.
Last week, Holly Rouelle, Brent Coon and Dena St. Amour (director of curriculum and instruction) attended an administrative workshop at Lake Morey, and listened to Doug Reeves as the guest speaker, he has researched around successful schools-What We’ve Learned in a Decade of Research in Successful High Poverty Schools.”
Facilities: Mr. Brow is in the process of working with possible vendors to explore solutions for our Central building boiler issues as well as the issues concerning the aging Babcock roof. We are waiting for the rain to stop so that we may schedule the roof scan as requested by the board. It would cost about $12,000 to replace a section. There is only one functioning boiler in the Central School. To replace the boilers, it will cost about $150,000 for both. Becky stated that they could advertise or ask the vendors to make a proposal for a bid. Swanton could come up with specifications that can be used to go out to bid so that the bids are talking about the same things. The board directed the administration to get specifications so that they can go out to bid. As soon as they get specifications, Swanton can get a special board meeting together to approve the specs.
Calendar Approval: Mr. Coon stated that they did move the April vacation week from the third week to the fourth week of April. Dr. McCarthy did check with the local tech centers and the vacation week does align. Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Mary Wood to approve the 2011-2012 calendar.
Superintendent’s Report:
Legislative Report: In the board packet.
Negotiations: The teachers are meeting May 12th to ratify the tentative agreement.
New Principal: The Highgate School has a new principal, Joyce Irvine.
Asst Principal: There is a contract for executive session for the Assistant Principal.
Tobias Maguire would like to thank the teachers and staff for their outstanding work in honor of teacher appreciation week. The school board decided to sponsor a breakfast for the staff for one of the end of year inservice days. The administration will organize the breakfast.
Grade six barbecue is June 3rd and sixth grade recognition night is June 9th.
Next meeting date is June 13, 2011 at 6pm. The next Franklin Northwest SU board meeting is scheduled for October 6 at 7pm in Swanton.
Executive Session and Adjournment:
Gary Thompson made motion, seconded by Jay Cummings to enter executive session for personnel at 6:41pm. The Board approved the motion 5-0 vote.
PattiJo Walker made motion to exit executive session at 7:54 p.m, seconded by Mary Wood. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Motions made after executive session were:
PattiJo Walker made motion, seconded by Jay Cummings to have the board chair sign contracts as presented on the board’s behalf. The board approved on a 5-0 vote. PattiJo Walker made motion, seconded by Mary Wood to grant one time compensation to Tom Murray as discussed in executive session along with a thank you. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
PattiJo Walker made motion, seconded by Mary Wood to authorize non union wage increases as discussed in executive session. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Tobias Maguire declared the meeting adjourned at 7:56pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Patty Jo Walker, School Board Clerk
by Pierrette Bouchard, School Board Secretary.
SWANTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING MINUTES
April 5, 2011 6:00 pm
Present: Tobias Maguire, Mary Wood, Jay Cummings, Gary Thompson, Patti Jo Walker
Administration: Brent Coon, Principal, Holly Rouelle, Assistant Principal, Dr. John J. McCarthy, Superintendent, Becky Hart, Business Manager.
Others Present: Sarah Nielsen, President of the PTO, Joe Raleigh, Lora McAllister, Dawn Tessier, Mary Ellis, Robin Trushaw, Melissa Larose, Lanny Brow and Mary Babcock.
Call to Order: Tobias Maguire called the meeting to order at 6:00pm.
Citizens and Staff:
Joe Raleigh thanked the board, the administration and Dr. McCarthy for all their work around the bus stops. He was very happy with the outcome.
PTO Update: Sarah Nielsen reported that the PTO was meeting tomorrow regarding the school’s Action Plan. The administration will be attending to present the action plan to the PTO. She wanted to thank the teachers for attending last month to present on the literacy program. Jay Cummings will be attending the April PTO meeting.
Approval of Minutes: Tobias Maguire announced that Gary Thompson has been appointed as the new board member. Mary Wood made motion to approve the March 14, 2011 board minutes, seconded by Patti Jo Walker. The board approved the motion by a 4-0 vote. Gary Thompson abstained from the vote. Mary Wood made motion to approve the March 28, 2011 special board meeting, seconded by Patti Jo Walker. The board approved the motion by a 4-0 vote. Gary Thompson abstained from the vote.
Correspondence: Dr. McCarthy had three requests for Executive Session. He did receive a thank you note from April Kilbury for the appreciation plaque that she received at the Swanton informational budget meeting.
Old Business: Tobias Maguire made some changes to the board committees since Gary Thompson is now on the school board. He has appointed Jay Cummings and Gary Thompson to be on the finance committee. Tobias has appointed Jay Cummings and Patti Jo Walker to the negotiations committee. Patti Jo Walker and Mary Wood are appointed to the personnel committee.
Contracts- for executive session
Financial Report: The financial report in the board packet shows a carryover of $46,241.00. The box on the bottom shows the fund balance that was reported to the State as carryover. In May, Mrs. Hart will report a projection as accurate as possible to the State by June 1st. Mary Wood made motion, seconded by Gary Thompson to approve the financial report as presented. The Board approved the motion by a 5-0 vote.
Check Warrants: Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Jay Cummings to approve Feb. 2011 check warrants in the amount of $339,798.15 and March 2011 check warrants in the amount of $278,487.44. The board approved the motion by a 5-0 vote.
Principal’s Report:
Holly Rouelle reported that they are celebrating Earth Day. The real Earth Day is April 22, but there is a presentation of a documentary, Mother Nature’s Child, tomorrow night. The documentary explores how our children are not making connections with the natural world in ways that they used to.
Student Celebrations: Carole Oglesby, school librarian, sponsored the Reading is an Investment program with all of the children at Swanton Elem. School. Three students have won $250 in college savings accounts. The winning students are: Mariah Witham, Emma Medor and Myah Rocheleau. Swanton had the largest number of winners. They are going to a ceremony at the Vermont Statehouse on April 14th. Three teams in our sixth grade classes won awards at the Statewide Engineers Day sponsored by the Vermont Air National Guard and UVM.. A team won third place for edibility in the Edible Cars: Society of Women Engineers Category. The winning team was Adut Morgan, Haley Longway and Savannah Lamothe. A team won for the best design for the Smart Phone Category and the team members were Aaron Evans, Zach Dezotelle, Austin Hutchkiss and Kevin Bigelow. Another team won in the Most Functional category. The team members were Grace Coburn and Sidni Anair. Holly Rouelle congratulated these students from Jenn Sullivan’s and Eric Acanfora’s classes.
Our kindergarten classes have been learning about the seasons and weather. In March, they had a visit from Tom Messner from Channel 5 news. He taught the students about his job, reporting and forecasting the weather on television.
Teachers met with many parents during conference day to discuss individual student learning and progress. The report cards went out to families.
Professional Development- On the half in-service day on March 25th, the FNWSU Literacy and Science Curriculum Leadership teams presented in the afternoon focusing on Science. Grade level professionals and special educators from throughout the Supervisory Union came together at MVU to link the science power standards.
Jon Udis provided professional development in Swanton to the paraprofessionals with “Playground, Cafeteria and Unstructured Time Supervision.”
Linda Chaim and a whole special education team attended a state sponsored co-teaching workshop in Bolton. Two classes will be piloting co-teaching at the 5th and 6th grade level in the fall.
Leadership Team: Ms. Rouelle reported that they began the first round of student placement. As part of being an identified school, Swanton has an audit scheduled with the Department of Education from April 11-13th. The process will consist of interviews, observations and a survey. The leadership team is in the process of gathering data necessary for part of the audit.
Facilities: Mr. Brow, head custodian, explained that because of the last few snow storms, the flat Babcock section of the roof is wet and there are low spots that are soaking the styrofoam and will eventually cause a leak in the building. Mr. Brow recommends that the roof be scanned so that we can evaluate the damages and see what the issues are, and patch the roof where needed until the roof can be replaced. Mr. Coon reported that one whole section of the Central School boiler is cracking. Replacing one section of the boiler could cost $7,000.00. The board left to go look at the boiler. Upon returning, the board directed the administration to go ahead and have the roof scanned at an estimated cost of $2,000.00 so it can be patched. The board would like the administration to look at the cost to replace one boiler and possibly the second boiler. They would like to get an estimate on the cost of replacement, and then once a decision is made, they could go out to bid. Tobias Maguire directed the finance committee to work with the administration and Becky Hart on getting the preliminaries started for boiler replacement.
NECAP: Last meeting, Brent Coon reviewed the NECAP scores. He explained that the school uses VCAT (Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Tool) to store assessment data, curriculum and run reports. Teachers can go into this web based system and look at their class data and can make adjustments in their instructional practice according to what they are seeing and how students are responding. Teachers can also use VCAT to go to NECAP items to look for more details. Mr. Coon showed examples of some of the released NECAP questions and problems presented to students, and how our students did on these problems.
Calendar: Mr. Coon proposed the last day of school as June 10th, 2011. Dr. McCarthy would like to research what the last day of school is at the other schools so that everyone is making up the same number of snow days and the teachers are fulfilling the 186 day contract with 179 student days. Patti Jo Walker moved to tentatively have an end date of June 10th for the students, and the teachers would work an additional three in-service days until the Superintendent has had the opportunity to research the end dates from the rest of the Supervisory Union. Jay Cummings seconded the motion. The board approved the motion with a 5-0 vote. Brent Coon handed out the updated 2011-2012 calendar. It is now appearing that April vacation may be changed from the third week in April to the fourth week of April. Dr. McCarthy will be verifying it with Franklin Central Supervisory Union as they have to coincide together because of the tech center. Community member, Melissa Larose, expressed her concerns regarding the number of half days and how difficult it is to arrange childcare. Dr. McCarthy acknowledged the difficulties of half days for parents and said that it is an ongoing discussion at administrative meetings. The last day of school would be scheduled for June 15th , 2012 as the 179th contracted student days of school. Gary Thompson made motion, Mary Wood seconded the motion to accept the draft of the 2011-2012 calendar as presented. The board approved the motion 5-0 vote.
Superintendent’s Report:
Welcome to the new board member.
Legislative Report: In the board packet. It is an update from the Vermont Supt’s Association, School Board and Principal’s Association.
Negotiations: Professional negotiations have gone to mediation which is scheduled for April 11th at 5:00pm. The negotiations teams would like to use the Swanton School for the mediation.
Policy: Dr. McCarthy has video surveillance policy for 2nd reading and adoption. It covers the video surveillance in the building and on the busses. Patti Jo Walker made motion and Jay Cummings seconded the motion to adopt the policy E10 Video Surveillance. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Personnel: For Executive Session.
Assistant Principal Search: The committee will be interviewing five candidates on Friday. The finalists should be interviewed before the board and there should be a site visit to the school. More details for Executive Session.
Next meeting date is May 9, 2011 at 6pm. The next Franklin Northwest SU meeting is scheduled for April 6 at 7pm.
Executive Session and Adjournment:
Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Gary Thompson to enter executive session for personnel at 7:24pm. The Board approved the motion 5-0 vote. The board invited Lora McAllister, Mary Ellis and Dawn Tessier into executive session.
PattiJo Walker made motion to exit executive session at 9:08 p.m., seconded by Mary Wood. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Motions made after executive session were:
PattiJo Walker made motion to accept Sara Brooks’ letter of resignation, seconded by Gary Thompson. The board approved the motion on a. 5-0 vote. PattiJo Walker made motion to grant one year leave of absence for the 2011/2012 school year to Alicia Watts, seconded by Mary Wood. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote. PattiJo Walker made motion to grant 30 day extension of contract to Molly Foreman, seconded by Mary Wood. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote. PattiJo Walker made motion to authorize board chair, Tobias Maguire, to sign all contracts on the board’s behalf, seconded by Mary Wood. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
PattiJo Walker made motion to approve the contract as presented and discussed in Executive Session. Seconded by Gary Thompson. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Tobias Maguire declared the meeting adjourned at 9:11pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Patty Jo Walker, School Board Clerk
by Pierrette Bouchard, School Board Secretary.
