Cavendish Town Elementary School Board Minutes February 13, 2006, 5:00 p.m. Present Board:  Mike Ceravole-Chair, Dr. Bont, Mark Huntley, Jim Ballentine and Jesse Goodman            Administration:  Ed Brown - Superintendent and George Thomson - Principal Public/Staff:  Peggy Svec, Duncan Love, Donna Bonang, Connie Kendall, Liz Calabrese and Becky Plunkard             1.      Call to Order:  Mike called the meeting to order at 5:07 p.m. 2.      Approval of Minutes of January 10, 2006: Mark made a motion to approve the minutes of January 10, 2006 as presented.  Jim seconded. All approved 3.      Reports: a)      Superintendent:  Ed said the Legislature is at work and they appear to have agreed to a state calendar, which will take effect in 2008.  The hottest topic is early education.  The S.U. has a group going to Montpelier on Wednesday to testify on why we think early education is important.  District:  All budgets are finalized and ready to be voted on.  All districts came in under the penalty phase.  GM budget is being presented here tonight at 6:30 p.m.  Discussion ensued.         b)      Principal:  George passed out the full budget summery and the abbreviated version.  George said it looks good.  George said the lease was up on the copier. They settled on a new company.  He is asking the board to authorize Meredith to sign a lease for a new copier for $2,944.00 the first year.  This is a reduction of $149.00 a month.  Discussion ensued.  Dr. Bont made a motion to approve Meredith signing a new lease for the new copier in the amount of $2,944.00 for the first year.  Mark seconded.  All approved.  The staff will be participating in CPI (Crisis Prevention Intervention) training March 10th.  The S.U. will be implementing an anti bullying program.  A team from the school will be trained and will then train the rest of the staff.  The staff has been working on a Local Assessment Plan.  George has a letter from a parent of two students who had to move out of town but still own property in town.  She is asking for her children to remain in the school for the rest of the year.  Her intent is to move back into the school district.  Ed said the statute allows for intent.  Ed recommends they stay until the end of the year.  Dr. Bont moved to approve allowing these students to stay in school for the remainder of the school year.  Mark seconded.  All approved.  George received a letter from a parent who would like to work on getting a lighting system for the stage. Dr. Bont and Jim said they will work on this.  There is a request from Stepping Stones to acquire some grants.  They are asking for board support.  Board:  The board supports Early Education initiatives within the community. On Feb 21st at 6:00 p.m. there is a town water meeting here at the school.        c)      Board:  None d)      Committee Reports:  Liz Calabrese from the music committee said she sat in on some music classes to look at some of the concerns around the music program.  Mike said the committee should talk to the parents about their concerns and Mike and Dr. Bont will report back to the board. Discussion ensued.  Ed said parent complaints should be put in writing and sent to the Board Chair.  Dr. Bont said there was talk about making the school an emergency site and possibly purchasing a generator.  George said the school is an emergency shelter for the town.  Ed said the selectman would be responsible for getting the funds for a generator and the wiring.  Jim said he will talk to Rich. 4.      Pre-school Readiness:  Connie and Peggy gave a presentation on the importance of pre-school readiness. Connie passed out a list of the skills they feel are needed for children entering Kindergarten.  Discussion ensued.  Peggy talked about lack of self-esteem.  Connie talked about the expectations in Kindergarten and the difficulty in getting there.  Discussion ensued.  Peggy passed out an example of problem solving skills they work on in Kindergarten.  Discussion ensued.  They are working on putting together bags of supplies with children scissors, a book, counters etc. to make available for parents to help prepare their children for Kindergarten. They said one third of this year’s Kindergarten did not come to school with the basic skills presented.  Discussion ensued.  The Board thanked Peggy and Connie for coming.              5.      Mentoring:  Donna talked about the volunteer mentoring program.  The WSWSU mentor program was started four years ago.  The mentors spend an hour a week with their “mentees”.  Two or three times a year they have a special event.  They start the year off with a “kick off” event and they do a special event at the end of the school year.  Donna puts 3 or 4 hours a week into this program.  Becky said the programs have been funded by grants for the coordinator stipend and supplies.  She said the grants have run out.   It is funded this year but not next year.  Becky said she came to ask the board to consider possibly funding the program next year.  She said the cost is about $3,000.00 per school.  The board thanked them for coming.         6.      Budget Information Agenda:  The meeting is Wednesday, March 1st.  Mike said they will put something together. 7.      Annual Meeting Agenda:  Monday, March 6th.  Mike said they will take care of it.   8.      Public Discussion:  None 9.      New Business: None 10.     Executive Session- Personnel: None 11.     Adjournment:   Dr. Bont made a motion to adjourn. Mark seconded.  Meeting adjourned at 6:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Virginia M. Walsh Mack Recording Secretary