Cavendish Town Elementary School Board Minutes March 13, 2007, 6:00 p.m. Present Board:  Mike Ceravole, Dr. Bont, Sharon Huntley, Jessie Goodman and Jim Ballantine          Administration:  Ed Brown – Superintendent, George Thomson – Principal   Public/Staff:  Duncan Love, Paulette Martel, Tracey Churchill, Jen Harper, Jesse and Jim Back, Robin Bebo-Long, and Kata Welch, and Wendy Regier   1.      Call to Order:  Ed called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. 2.      Re-Organization of Board A)      Election of Officers 1.      Chair: Ed accepted nominations for school board chair. Jim nominated Mike as board chair. Dr. Bont seconded.  All approved. 2.      Vice-Chair:  Jim nominated Dr. Bont as vice-chair.  Jessie seconded.  All approved. 3.      Clerk: Dr Bont nominated Jessie as board clerk. Jim seconded.  All approved. 4.      Time and date of meetings:  Jim made a motion to set the date and time of the meetings on the second Tuesday of each month at 6:00p.m.  Dr. Bont seconded.  All approved. 3.      Approval of Minutes of February 13, 2007:  Jim made a motion to approve the minutes of February 13, 2007 as presented.   Dr. Bont seconded.  All approved. 4.      Reports: a)      Superintendent:  Ed discussed the legislative bill that addresses education costs and governance.  This will give the commissioner control to redraw school district lines. Ed discussed the bill and how it will effect our schools.  Discussion ensued.      b)      Principal:  George passed out the budget summary, which is complete through today.  George asked the budget committee to meet with him in the next couple of weeks and discuss the budget.  They had an ice jam on the backside of the library and there was some damage but he thinks it has been resolved.  They had some stage lighting problems and had an electrician come in and fix it.  The bus has been out of commission and is being fixed. The staff has been working on calibration and scoring pieces on the assessments.  Robin explained the process.  Last Friday they had a district wide in-service training on interpretation of the MAPS tests.  Mentioned previously, Plymouth school may be closing so there was a family from Plymouth looking at the school.  The ski program is being extended due to the cold weather in February.  The Okemo Challenge grant focus will be the “outdoor classroom”.  This Friday evening at 5:00 p.m. is a silent auction and a talent show.  A paraprofessional staff member has a sick daughter and she is having surgery.  She is asking for Family Medical Leave.  Ed said she is entitled to it.  The teaching staff asked about a sick bank.  Ed said the employee is a support staff member and the sick bank is in the teacher contract.  It would violate the negotiated agreements. Discussion ensued regarding investing the money the school starts the year with.  The board asked for a briefing from Meredith regarding this process.  George is going to ask the trust administrator to come and talk to the board about the trust funds.    c)      Board:  Mike said they are looking for an Interim superintendent.   d)      Committee Reports: None 5.      Staff Presentation:  Robin gave a power point presentation on the Keewaydin Environmental camp that the sixth grade attends each year and how important she feels it is to the sixth graders at CTES. Discussion ensued.  The board thanked Robin for the presentation.      6.      Policy-Professional Courtesy Full Time Staff:  First Read- Ed passed out and read the Professional Courtesy Full Time Staff Policy.  Discussion ensued.  Bussing and school choice needs to be added.     7.      Approval of Teacher Contracts: Ed read the teacher contracts.  Ed requests the boards recommendation to authorize the board chair to sign the contracts.  Dr. Bont made a motion to approve the teacher contracts as presented.  Sharon made a motion to amend the motion to approve all contracts except Arthur Branton’s contract.  All approved as amended. 8.      Other Business:  The library committee came to speak to the board on behalf of Kata Welch.  Wendy Regier, a library trustee on the library board is petitioning the board to allow Kata Welch, school librarian, take advantage of the Professional Courtesy Full Time Staff Policy.  Kata explained why she is requesting the board consider her request.  Discussion ensued.  Ed said this is the first read of the policy and the board will discuss this in executive session and announce a decision at the April meeting.  Discussion ensued.  Ed said George and the library board need to come up with Kata’s percent of time as a school librarian. Determining committees:  Finance committee; Jim and Mike, Facility Committee; Dr. Bont and Jessie, Policy Committee; Sharon and Jim, Education Committee; Dr. Bont and Sharon, No Kids Left Inside Committee; Dr. Bont and Jessie. 9.      Executive Session: Jim made a motion to go into executive session at 7:51 p.m. to discuss personnel.  Jessie seconded.  All approved.  Dr. Bont made a motion to come out of executive session at 8:45 p.m. Sharon seconded.  All approved.  Jim made a motion to RIF Arthur Branton. Sharon seconded.  All approved. 10.     Adjournment:   Jim made a motion to adjourn.  Jesse seconded.  Meeting adjourned at 8:46 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Virginia M. Walsh Mack Recording Secretary