SAU #70 - Dresden School Board

Present: Board members Bruce, Carpenter, Carter, Chamberlin, Fleischer, Gray, Pilchman, Sachsse, Vitt, Williams; Administrators Gersen, Aubin, Finer; Gillespie; and 7 members of the public. Recorded by R. Lohr

1. Call to order

Vice-Chair Bruce called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.

2. Chair Report

The Vice-Chair announced that the next regular Board meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 27, 7:00 p.m. in the Hanover High School Library. The Annual School District meeting will be held on Thursday, March 1, 7:00 p.m., at the Hanover High School Gymnasium. This will be the discussion phase of the meeting; no voting will take place at the meeting. The voting phase of the meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 6, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., at the Richmond School Gymnasium for Hanover residents and Tracy Hall for Norwich residents.

The Dresden School District has filing dates from Tuesday, January 16 through 5:00 p.m., Monday, February 5. Filing for School District Officers can be done with either the School District Clerk, Deborah Carter, or at the SAU Office, 45 Lyme Road, Room 27, Hanover. Positions open are Moderator, Clerk, and Treasurer for one year each, and Auditor for three years.

Petitions for inclusion in the Dresden School District Warrant must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Monday, February 5. Petitions may be presented to any member of the Dresden School Board, or delivered to the SAU #70 Office at 45 Lyme Road, Room 27 in Hanover. January 25 is the date that such petitions should be delivered if they are to be included in the Annual Report.

3.Public Hearing in accordance with RSA 198:20-b, for the purpose of accepting a $20,000 gift for the JV Boys Ice Hockey, two $7,000 gifts for JV Boys Ice Hockey, one $7,000 gift for the Swim Team, and a $14,500 gift to the Vic Chaltain Fund.

Mr. Bruce opened the public hearing. The Board reviewed the particulars associated with various gifts to athletic team programs. Superintendent Gersen referenced a memo on the topic and reported that the staff plans to confer with Dave Bradley to determine how it plans to deal with sizable gifts to the teams like Boys JV Ice Hockey and Crew where teams are required to raise large sums of money on an annual basis. The public hearing was closed at 7:12 p.m.

A motion was made by Nancy Carter and seconded by John Chamberlin to accept a $20,000 gift for JV Boys Ice Hockey, two $7,000 gifts for JV Boys Ice Hockey, one $7,000 gift for the Swim Team, and a $14,500 gift to the Vic Chaltain Fund. The motion passed unanimously.

4. Approval of Minutes

A motion was made by John Chamberlin and seconded by Linda Gray to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of December 19, the budget meetings of January 9 and January 16, and the nonpublic sessions of January 9 and January 16, as submitted. The motion passed unanimously.

5. Public Input – There was none.

6. Reorder of Agenda – Warrant Article #4 Discussion

Warrant Article #4 is intended to create a Deputy Treasurer who would have the ability to sign checks and act as the Treasurer, when the Treasurer is unavailable. Dresden School District attorney David Bradley spoke about the language in the article. He supported the Board’s suggestion that the power to remove the Deputy Treasurer be a joint power with the Treasurer and the Board. There was consensus to insert the words “or the Dresden Board of School Directors” were to be inserted into the article to specify this joint authority.

7.Public Hearing in accordance with RSA 32:5 on the proposed 2007-2008 budget

Vice-Chair Bruce opened this public hearing at 7:37 p.m. in accordance with NH RSA 32:5. The public packets included a line item budget, which contains all purposes and amounts of appropriations to be included for proposed 2007-08 expenditures. A notice for this Public Hearing was published in the Valley News on Monday, January 15. The Assistant Superintendent John Aubin reviewed the changesto the Dresden budget and mentioned that the budget information is on the SAU Web site. The final budget total is $20,554,755, which is seven percent greater than the previous year’s budget. This amount includes the two-year teacher contract. The Richmond School share of the budget is $5,852,915 (4 percent increase above previous year) and the Hanover High School budget is $10,100,685, which is a 9.8 percent increase. The town assessments associated with the budget are approximately $14 million with Hanover funding $8,940,977 and Norwich $5,699,712.

Mr. Aubin distributed documents showing entity-wide expenditure history that incorporated a view that removed unduplicated expenses (inter-district transfers); he also illustrated the budget history and projections. Additionally, the Board reviewed a summary of appropriations associated with the Warrant Articles and the impact of the teacher contract on the 2006-07 and 2007-08 budgets.

He reported that the Dresden Finance Committee would meet on January 25 at 4:00 PM at the Hanover Town Hall to consider its support of the school district budget. The Board also discussed enrollment and its influence on teacher FTE’s, the calendar for the 2007-08 budget process, and the Finance Committee’s opportunity to participate in the budget process. The public hearing was closed at 8:32 p.m. A motion was made by Nancy Carter and seconded by John Chamberlin to adopt the 2007-08 budget in the amount of $20,554,755 to be placed on the Warrant and voted upon by Australian Ballot on March 6, 2007. The motion passed unanimously

8. Approval of the School District Warrant

The Board agreed to the suggested amendments to the Warrant Articles including adding Robin Carpenter’s name as a Board member. The Board discussed how the towns would raise the fundingnecessary for the teacher contract and the need to use the term “deficit appropriation” in the state of New Hampshire.

A motion was made by Nancy Carter and seconded by Chip Fleischer to approve the March 2007-08 School District Warrant as proposed and amended by the Administration and as attached to the original minutes of the meetings, and to further authorize the Administration to make whatever technical changes that might be necessary in order to ensure that the Warrant is legal and accurately addresses the intent of the School Board. The motion passed unanimously

9. Communications and Reports

a. Council Representative Report

Zoe Proom reported on the council’s review of the high school’s Common Ground groups and how their effectiveness might be enhanced. There was also a vote to save a school mural.

b. Superintendent Report

Dr. Gersen reiterated that the staff would be working with the Board’s attorney to clarify the gift policy. He also reported about the recent Quality of Education Committee meeting. The SAU Web site has extensive background information related to Quality of Education efforts, which included a series of sub-committee meetings at each school in the SAU. He indicated that parents on the Quality of Education Committee learned about the assessments used at all the District schools, and were surprised to learn about the depth of the diagnostic information that is done at district schools. There were three subcommittees formed to organize and work on the Quality of Education Committee’s process: one to review quantitative measures; one to review qualitative measures; and one to review governanceissues.

With regard to the Search Committees, Dr. Gersen reported that 25 applications have been received for the Richmond School principal position and about 10 were received for the assistant superintendent position. It is expected that the search committee will screen the applications, develop a set of questions, and schedule the decision process. Final applicants for the principal position will have an opportunity to meet the public and a final applicant is to be selected at the March Dresden Board meeting.

c. Assistant Superintendent Report

The Warrant Article presentations were assigned to the Board members as follows: Article 2 – Nancy Carter; Article 3 – Larry Pilchman; Article 4 – John Chamberlin; Article 5 – Chip Fleischer, Article 6 – Kari Asmus and Chip Fleischer.

d. Principal Reports

Principal Gillespie reported that the Hanover High School Attendance Committee has set up a section on the school Web page where results of the recent survey can be found. An attendance policy will be drafted by the committee and presented to the Board later this year. Exam Week at the high school has just been completed. The Director of Guidance is visiting the schools of prospective tuition students.

Principal Finer reported that the Hemberger Art Gallery Hall at the Richmond School will be officially open at an event planned for January 30 at 5:00 p.m. There will be more than 50 works of art on display. The sixth graders from Marion Cross and Richmond School will be visiting the Richmond School as part of a program about the brain. The Renaissance Festival will be held with the eighth graders on February 13-15. The seventh graders will hold a health fair. The school is setting up a partnership for French and Spanish in Senegal and Guatemala, respectively.

e. Committee Reports

HS Committee on Instruction – Mary Sachsse reported that the committee discussed the upcoming survey of current seniors and Hanover High graduates is under review and some new questions may be added.

Budget Committee – Stan Williams spoke about the budget process. He suggested that the budget targets could be defined more precisely in the future.

Staff Development Committee – Nancy Carter reported that candidates for sabbatical have beeninterviewed and a sabbatical was awarded to Ray School teacher Cathy Richardson. There is a meeting scheduled on Thursday to consider enrichment grants.

Athletic Committee – John Chamberlin reported that this committee is reviewing the athletic handbook and that the Board will be able to review it in March.

10. Nonpublic Session

A motion was made by Mary Sachsse and seconded by Robin Carpenter to enter

nonpublic session in accordance with RSA 91-A:3 for discussion of personnel matters and RSA 91A:2 (l.b.) for discussion of negotiations. The motion passed unanimously. Roll call was conducted and the Board entered nonpublic session at 9:23 p.m.

11. Adjournment

A motion was made by Mary Sachsse and seconded by Nancy Carter to adjourn the meeting at 9:35 p.m. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 p.m.