Swanton School Board
October and November Minutes
Corrine Bonnette: 868-9444
Donald Collins, Chair: 868-7975
Roy Eckler, Vice Chair: 868-5612
Lisa Gorton, Clerk: 868-3059
April Kilbury: 527-7152
Patti Jo Walker: 524-5749
SWANTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING MINUTES
October 12, 2009
Present: Don Collins, Roy Eckler, April Kilbury, Patti Jo Walker, and Corinne Bonnette.
Administration: Julie Benay, Principal, Brent Coon, Assistant Principal, Dr. John McCarthy, Superintendent, Becky Hart, Business Manager.
Others Present: Toby Maguire, Sara Maguire, Erin Gagne, Melissa Larose, Sara Nielsen.
Call to Oder: Don Collins called the meeting to order at 6:00pm
Citizens and Staff: Carol Lizotte, Director of 21st Century Grant Crossroads After School Program and the New Crossroads Explorer After School Program. The Crossroads program targets grade 5 & 6. The Explorer Program Grant is new this year and targets grades for grade 2, 3 and 4th grade. Grades 2, 3 and 4th grade meets twice a week for twenty weeks while grades 5 & 6 meets four times a week. Highgate and Swanton share teachers for alternative days for the Explorers grades 2, 3 and 4 program. Carol Lizotte handed out a copy of the 21st Century Grant budget for all the schools and the Franklin Northwest Central Office. This is the fifth and last year of the 21st Century Grant. They have an opportunity to re-apply for fifty percent of the funding for another five years through the 21st Century Grant. The school budget has provided some of the matching funds and they pick up other grants for some of the other funding. The State provided 75% of the funding for the expanded Explorer Program for the next three years, year four will reduce to 65% and then on the fifth year, the grant will be reduced to 50% of the funding. The Crossroads program ends June 2010 and in order to write the grant for the next five years, Carol needs the board’s support that they would provide the match through the school budget, if other funding (grants/fees etc.) falls through.
Approval of Minutes: April Kilbury made motion, seconded by Patti Jo Walker to approve the minutes of September 14, 2009 as written. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Correspondence: None
Old Business: None
Contracts: Dr. McCarthy has a revised contract for executive session.
Financial Report: Becky Hart reported that the financial report included in the board packet shows expenses through the end of September and anticipates expenses until the end of the year. There is very little change from the end of last month and projecting a small carryover of $11,419.24. The property insurance bill came in under $2,000.00 and received a small reimbursement under tutors. April Kilbury made motion, seconded by Roy Eckler to approve the financial report. The board approved 4-0 vote. The board reviewed the bids for snow removal. Mrs. Hart stated that the lowest bid was Dick’s Construction who we have used in the past. The board would like to know if the $125.00 ton of salt and $75.00 per hour for the Loader Is included in the $6,700.00. The board would like to have clarification on the bid especially for the salt. Roy Eckler made motion, seconded by Patti Jo Walker to award the snow plow bids to Dick’s Construction not to exceed $7,000.00 including the salt. The board approved the motion 5-0 vote.
Check Warrants: Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Roy Eckler,to approve the check warrants dated September 10, 23 and September 24th, 2009 totaling $183,488.20. The board approved the motion 4-0 vote.
Principal’s Report:
Full Day Kindergarten -Toby Maguire spoke in support of requesting that the board consider going to a full time Kindergarten. There is space in the school and on the bus. Parents suggests revisiting entrance age to September 1st , 2009. The PTO will be discussing full day Kindergarten at their next PTO meeting. They feel it will be very beneficial. There is a complete packet of information regarding full day Kindergarten in the board packet. Kindergarten and Early Education is not mandatory to attend, but mandatory that the school offers it. Mrs. Benay is showing sustained data from Math and Reading Club that it has been beneficial. Don Collins has received suggestions about putting the full day Kindergarten proposal as a separate line item in the warning on Town Meeting Day if they do put in the 2010-2011. The parents would appreciate the boards’ consideration for a full day Kindergarten in their continued budget talks.
Budget Priorities: Mrs. Benay created a power point presentation outlining basic information and consideration included in the board packet for the board’s consideration. Mrs. Benay would like the board to give the administration some direction so as they know what they should include in the Draft 1 Budget Proposal. The board tabled to discuss later depending on the time available.
Lighting Audit: Brent Coon included a spreadsheet proposal for an analysis of lighting in the board packet. The Kiley Company (Design and Build Service) has completed a conservative and aggressive analysis of placing an energy efficient lighting saving the school district money. The conservative approach would cost $67,581.00 for an annual savings of $6,200 as compared to the aggressive approach costing $76,808 for an annual savings of $16,371.00. The payback time would be 4.7 years for the aggressive approach as opposed to 10.9 years for the conservative approach. The aggressive strategy saves 250% more for an additional costs of $9,227.00 or 13%. For the cost of his services, they would collect all the specifications, bid documents, contact all the contractors and provide contractor supervision and obtain all the rebates. Brent Coon would like the board to consider this proposal in a long range capital investment plan. Don Collins recommended having Efficiency Vermont do a free analysis first to see if the school district can come to the same place without adding costs to the school district. The board would like the administration to continue to pursue the lighting efficiency analysis with local resources.
Superintendent’s Office:
Negotations- Chris Leopold is sending some dates for the Supervisory Union Wide Negotiating Council to meet and discuss the upcoming negotiations for the five schools for the professional master agreement. He will send some dates to the board and the meeting will be with just the board representatives and will not include the NEA so as to provide an opportunity for the board to discuss their expectations and goals.
Superintendent’s Evaluation: This is a reminder for the Superintendent’s Evaluation is this evening.
Non Union Base Pay: Wants to change the non union conditions of employment . Instead of having the base pay be $9.00 an hour, Dr. McCarthy would propose changing the wording so that the non union base pay would be the same as the paraprofessional starting pay so as to not have to change or update the document each year. The board agreed to have this be on the agenda for November meeting as an Action Item. Roy Eckler made motion, seconded by Corinne Bonnette to include the non union base pay on next month’s agenda. The board approved the motion 5-0 vote.
H1N1: The school district has already agreed to allow the school to become an H1N1 inoculation site run by the Vermont Dept. of Health. Sheldon and Franklin are under 300 students so they are run by the local school nurses. The State of Vermont and the Department of Health has declared a proclamation holding schools harmless. Corinne Bonnette made motion, seconded by April Kilbury to approve Swanton being a site for the Health Department to distribute the vaccine to the children. The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Correspondence: For Executive Session.
FNWSU Meeting Review- Dena St. Amour reported about curriculum and the administrators have been meeting about their goals. Corrinne Bonnette noted that there were a number of Swanton professionals that have received special training & education and were commended by Linda Chaim. George Raynak reported that they have purchased a number of netbooks to be used as mobile labs.
Back to Principal’s Report:
Celebrations: Mrs. Benay invited the public to go the website Swanton School.org to view the activities and celebrations that are happening in the Swanton School. The Swanton School Library has just had a successful book fair during Open House and the proceeds will go to have an author in residence for the day. The Central Cafeteria is decorated with beautiful banners created from the artwork by Swanton students working with Kehoe Design depicting our Core Concepts. The All School Walk was a great success along the one mile path to the historical society museum, with many thanks to Ron Kilburn, from the Historical Society, Dick Thompson ,Town Administrator and Don Collins, AKA Mr. Footsteps. Mr. Astleford organized an “All Pro Dad breakfast”. This is a National program that Eric Astleford brought to the Swanton School on his own initiative with financial support from the PTO. Over 30 Dads came to school for an early breakfast with their children. Student leaders in grades 3-5 went with school counselors Cindy Rose and Deb Light to the Elks Club in St. Albans where they worked with student teacher teams from other FNWSU Elementary Schools to create a plan for year -long bullying prevention and education efforts with bullying prevention training from Mike Dreiblatt. The students are now called the “Speak out Swans” and will assist the guidance counselors along with a strong bullying prevention program. Don Collins wanted to congratulate Mary Sherman for winning the UVM Outstanding Elementary School Teacher in the Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union. Dr. McCarthy congratulated Doug Bradford from Sheldon School on winning the outstanding teacher award for the secondary teacher.
Budget Priorities: For the first draft, the board suggested that the administration can bring two different budget proposals with existing programs and then they can add full time Kindergarten and Crossroads. Also, the Business Manager will need some direction for negotiations increase. Don Collins suggested adding the funding for the Technology position and look at the number of days contracted for the technology IT position to the budget draft proposal.
Roy Eckler made motion, seconded by Corinne Bonnette to enter executive session at 8:04pm.The Board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote.
Don Collins made motion seconded by April Kilbury to exit Executive Session at 8:50 p.m. Motion approved on a Vote 5-0
April Kilbury motioned to approve revised hourly contract. Roy Eckler seconded motion. The motion was approved on a Vote 5-0.
Don Collins declared the meeting adjourned at 8:56pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Patty Jo Walker, School Board Clerk
by Pierrette Bouchard, School Board Secretary.
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SWANTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING MINUTES
November 9, 2009
Present: Don Collins, Roy Eckler,Patti Jo Walker, and Corinne Bonnette. (April Kilbury was absent from the meeting.)
Administration: Julie Benay, Principal, Brent Coon, Assistant Principal, Dr. John McCarthy, Superintendent, Becky Hart, Business Manager.
Others Present: Toby Maguire, Sara Nielsen
Call to Order: Don Collins called the meeting to order at 6:00pm
Citizens and Staff:
Approval of Minutes: Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Roy Eckler to approve the minutes of November 9, 2009. Patti Jo Walk would like to revise the adjournment time to 8:56pm. The board approved the revised minutes motion on a 4-0 vote.
Correspondence: Roy Eckler has submitted a letter of resignation from the school board effective November 25, 2009 because he is moving to Southern Vermont. Contact Dr. John McCarthy by November 30, 2009 by 4:00pm deadline if someone is interested in filling this board vacancy. The board will appoint someone to finish the term until town meeting. If there is more than one candidate, then the school board can conduct interviews, then vote to appoint someone to finish out this year’s term until town meeting. At town meeting, candidates can submit their names to be on the ballot for March town meeting to become elected to finish the term. Interested persons can submit a letter of interest with a deadline of 4pm on November 30th and the interview process can take place on December 7th so that they can appoint someone in time for the Monday, Dec. 14th board meeting. The board chairperson asked if Patti Jo Walker would be interested in replacing Roy Eckler as signer on the Tabor Fund.
The board received a nice thank you note from Mary Sherman, the UVM Outstanding Teacher from Swanton.
Old Business: None
Contracts: None
Financial Report: Becky Hart reported that the financial report included in the board packet shows expenses through the end of October and anticipates expenses until the end of the year. There is very little change except from the revenue side where Title I is fully funding a position that was previously funded from the Swanton local budget. Roy Eckler made motion, seconded by Corinne Bonnette to approve the financial report. The board approved the motion 4-0 vote. Don Collins made motion, seconded by Roy Eckler to authorize Patti Jo Walker to be a signer on the Tabor Fund Account. The board approved the motion.
Check Warrants: Roy Eckler made motion, seconded by Patti Jo Walker,to approve the check warrants dated October 2, 6, 7, 9, 12, 20, 30, 31, 2009 totaling $591,656.55. The board approved the motion 4-0 vote.
Principal’s Report:
Celebrations: The Swanton PTO, Building Bright Futures, and the Caring Community Project collaborated for a successful fun family evening on November 5th. Many families from all age groups attended. Phyllis Paro, the Swanton school Psychologist, has taken the lead on coordinating efforts to support families affected by the most recent deployment of the National Guard. The Swanton community has some of the highest number of men and women being deployed, and our guidance, health and behavior staff members have all been connected with resources for students and families. Several classrooms are working to support Operation Home for the Holidays, raising funds to support deployed members to come home in December prior to being sent overseas. The fourth grade started their service learning project which is related to food and hunger issues in our community and our fourth graders are actively support Operation Happiness. We plan to “fill the bus” with food donations for families in our county. Swanton has been able to connect with MVU’s national honor society signed up to provide free child care for families to attend parent-teacher conferences without trying to manage a toddler.
Informational Items:
Full Day Kindergarten: The Swanton PTO held a well attended meeting on November 4th to discuss the possibility of a full day Kindergarten Program for all Swanton students. Mrs. Benay presented information through a power point presentation which was included for the Board in their packet. The PTO offered parents a form to indicate their thoughts about full day Kindergarten. The forms will go directly to the Board Chair Don Collins. The forms will go home to families of PreK-6 in the Swanton School, through the Monday playgroup, the Friday story hour at the library and through local childcare settings as well as the Wednesday weekly.
School Improvement Process: Under No Child Left Behind required action, assuming that Swanton does not close the gap under our obligation on NCLB, Swanton must plan to begin the Commissioner’s Requirements to “restructure” our school by 2011-2012. Information was gathered from the staff last spring, from parents at the First Day Celebration and from other stakeholders. Mrs. Benay is providing information and gathering input from the community during the month of December by visiting the senior citizens meals, the community/business roundtable, Title VII Indian Education Parent Advisory Committee, the Swanton Historical Society and the Swanton Town Select-board. Dr. Karen Tyler, literacy content specialist, has suggested that we need to look at points of data that are relevant in research and is effective in schools. The “Center on Performance Assessment” describes research on an assessment where 90% of the students are on free and reduced lunches and ethnic minorities but 90% of the students met the expected standard. Vermont duplicated features of a similar study called the “Roots of Success” included in the board packet. Swanton has also completed a self-assessment. They want to be tied to proven effective practices.
Draft I of the Budget: Full day Kindergarten and Crossroads have been included in the first. They are looking for guidance from the board as to their goals of percent or total increase. Don Collins term is up this March along with Roy Eckler’s position and Corrine Bonnette’s position is also. Kindergarten School Entrance Age is also an issue.
Don Collins stated that the board needs to set a goal of what they are looking for an increase percentage or total that the budget will increase. The board recommended budgeting $25,000 for the legal services. They will discuss the amount of increase for the teacher salaries in executive session because of negotiations. They have increased the instructional books to purchase classroom sets of books will need to be increased because of proposed changes in the science/social studies units in curriculum. They increased the manipulatives because the new strategies that the math interventionist are learning through professional development. The board wanted to look at increasing the number of days for the technology position and get a breakdown of what days actually worked beyond the 186 school/in-service days. The board approved last year that non union staff that travel for the school are reimbursed at the IRS rate. Becky Hart is waiting for ADM numbers and revenue until December 15th and after. There are many variables that affect the tax rate including the CLA, if the state education fund is level funded etc.
Superintendent’s Report:
Negotations- The negotiations council met and have set up two new dates, Nov. 16 at 7:00pm and Dec. 8th at 7:30pm. Corinne Bonnette made motion, seconded by Roy Eckler to appoint Patti Jo Walker as the second representative from Swanton for the Negotiations Team to replace Roy Eckler. The board approved the motion.
Crossroads: Dr. McCarthy wanted to clarify that the Crossroads after school program was looking for an additional $8,200 increase to what was budgeted in last year’s budget.
Policy: The policies should be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
Non Union Base Pay: Corinne Bonnette made motion, seconded by Patti Jo Walker to change the non union support staff Conditions of Employment- starting/sub pay to be the paraprofessional starting pay instead of the fixed figure currently in the document. The board approved the motion on a 4-0 vote.
H1N1: The dates for the H1N1 clinics are being changed in the schools throughout the county due to the delay in having available vaccines. Julie Benay stated that they have a scheduled date of Nov. 13, with a back up date of Nov. 20th.
Board Vacancy: The board has already discussed the process to replace Roy Eckler as he resigns from the board effective Nov. 25th. The board will need to replace Roy Eckler as a representative on the Franklin Northwest Board Committee. The current representatives are Corinne Bonnette, April Kilbury and Roy Eckler. Corinne Bonnette made motion, seconded by Patti Jo Walker to appoint Don Collins as a representative on the Franklin Northwest SU board committee. The board approved the motion on a 4-0 vote.
Governance: The legislators, the educational committee, lawmakers, business people, the commissioner, the superintendents association are discussing and is looking to change to 62 supervisory school districts instead of supervisory unions. The majority of superintendents support this change, while others, including Dr. McCarthy, feel that this change may eliminate local control and may not be in the best interest of the students. Don Collins agreed that there is a lot of momentum to change school governance.
Executive Session and Adjournment:
Roy Eckler made motion, seconded by Corinne Bonnette to enter executive session for personnel and negotiations at 7:40pm. The Board approved the motion on a 4-0 vote. Patti Jo Walker made motion, seconded by Roy Eckler to approve the medical leave of absence as discussed in executive session.
Don Collins declared the meeting adjourned at 8:22pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Patty Jo Walker, School Board Clerk
by Pierrette Bouchard, School Board Secretary.
