Cavendish Town Elementary School Board Minutes 9/20/11

Board Present: Gene Bont, Peter Gregg, Sharon Huntley, John MacLean

Administration Present: George Thomson – Principal

Public: K.P. Whaley – LPC-TV, Connie Kendall, Peggy Svec, Janet Currier – Recording Secretary

Call to Order: Gene Bont called meeting to order at 5:05 p.m.

Comments from the Community – Peggy Svec commented that it was good to be back at school

Approval of Minutes of July 19, 2011: Gene moved acceptance of minutes. Peter seconded. Minutes were approved.

Personnel: a) Hiring School Based Clinician – Michelle Golden – has her Masters, meets criteria, etc. She has been a school based clinician before. Salary – not to exceed $16,000.00 for the year. Peter made motion to hire Michelle Golden, John seconded. The board was told she does more beyond Counselor, she is a school psychologist, does testing, teaching guidance – “Mental Health”. Board approved unanimously.

Finance: a) Health Reimbursement Arrangement – This Health care reimbursement plan has been in effect for many years and can be used for certain kinds of medical expenses. Officially, the board needs to approve this plan. It is not changing anything but does need board approval. In negotiations for support staff it was approved that they can participate as well. The money comes out of employees pay, it does not come out of funds that the school board controls. Motion to approve made by Peter, seconded by Sharon. The board unanimously approved.

Principal’s Report: George passed the Budget summary around for review. This is the document they will use to do our audit which was scheduled for an earlier time but had to be rescheduled because of Tropical Storm Irene. George said they have supplied many details by mail, email and fax. The official audit will be done soon. George said we should be in the black and we will be close. The Budget summary for this year was passed out and nothing shows a red flag so far.

George told the board that school opened 2 weeks late because of school being used as an emergency center and having the National Guard housed here. The building was well used. No generator was on site but future discussions may revisit that situation. Teachers were ever present and put in lots of time during that time. The staff absolutely held up their end to try to be supportive of the community. Some from Green Mountain Union High School, some from Chester-Andover, Flood Brook, etc. It was an impressive response, a huge outpouring. The building took its toll and every corner got cleaned, etc. for the first day of school. George said there was a loss of pots and pans and food was all over Town. Rich Svec feels these things can be replaced. George said they have a list of what was lost in the freezers. The Public Health people also came and helped them sort through the freezers as to what needed to be thrown out. George said people did a wonderful job with what they had to work with. He wants to come up with a better emergency plan for the future.

George said they opened school with 103 students and no potable water or transportation. The Town was great in making sure the school had plenty of bottled water. They had sanitizer and everyone had to sanitize their hands after washing them as the water was still unsafe. a) Transportation Report: There are still no busing services. The plan was to reduce to one bus this year. The Town has done a great job in getting the roads passable. George and Mr. Van Scheik rode the roads and decided they are not ready for school buses yet. George wants to get the bus on the road as soon as possible but still needs to come up with a different bus route than the one originally planned for.

The storm Irene damaged Greven Field and the Fletcher fields. He said they are doing a soccer program with the Ludlow Recreation Program. On Thursday, September 29th there will be a pot luck supper at 6:00 p.m. and an Open House at 7:00 p.m. He said they are still getting veggies out the CTES garden as it was not touched by the flood waters.

On September 28th the NECAP Science test results will be released. MAPS testing in Math, Language Arts and Reading are now going on. George got an extension for the month of October for the NECAP testing to be done.

George then talked about make up days, a total of eight (8). He is proposing the following for make up days: 9/28/11 (It was to be an in-service day) 10/10/11 (Columbus Day) 11/11/11 is a planned in-service and it will be kept as one, 3/26/12 (was supposed to be an in-service day), the rest of the days will be made up at the end of the year along with snow days. Even with the snow days, school should be out by the middle of June as the original last day is scheduled for June 6th.
George informed the board that David Adams is very sick and that is why he is not at the meeting this evening. He said that David plans on coming to the meeting tomorrow evening to be held with Rutland-Windsor S.U.

Superintendent Report –George said that last year there was a committee for Supervision and Evaluation. The Charlotte Danielson model is what the committee came up with. George reviewed this new plan. He said there will be a professional trainer that will come and make sure everyone is on the same page. The goal is to have everyone evaluated once a year. (Professional Staff).

Policies – a) F-14 – Enrollment of Children of Non-Resident Teachers – Sharon said their question regarding this policy is does Green Mountain have a policy so our students under this CTES policy can continue on with their class at Green Mountain. Also can teachers send their children to Chester-Andover or Cavendish under this policy. Sharon would like to discuss this with Green Mountain and Chester-Andover to see whether they have this policy in place or not. George said he does not know what the policies are at Green Mountain and Chester-Andover but he will find out. Sharon said busing should not be expected to travel to pick up these students but they could ride from Cavendish School to Green Mountain and back again.

Other Business – George said our State is requesting a waiver from the Federal Government regarding No Child Left Behind. The request has been made by Governor Peter Shumlin. The Federal Government needs more information as to what we are going to do for an accountability system, but they are considering the request. George is not positive but he thinks Vermont is the first State to request a Waiver for No Child Left Behind.

Executive Session – None.

Adjournment – Sharon moved adjournment and John seconded. Board adjourned at 5:55 p.m.


Respectfully submitted,

Janet Currier
Recording Secretary