HANOVER SCHOOL BOARD
REGULAR MEETING
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2004
7:00 P.M., BERNICE A. RAY SCHOOL MULTI
Minutes
Present: Board members Asmus, Carter, Chamberlin (7:05), Goodman, Pilchman, Segal; Administrators Gersen, Aubin (7:05), Weissmann, Williams; and no members of the public.
1. Call to order
Chair Segal called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
2. Approval of minutes
Nancy Carter moved and Kari Asmus seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of November 10, as submitted. The motion passed unanimously.
3. Sabbatical Presentation
Andrea Harris presented an overview of her 2003-04 sabbatical which focused on adolescent literacy. She detailed her five objectives which were to solidify the Mosaics Initiative begun a few years before at the Ray School, assist teachers with the assessment phase of the Mosaics Initiative, help Ray School parents understand the Mosaics Initiative and its impact on their children’s reading instruction, extend the study of reading comprehension strategies to the other schools in SAU #70, and to assist the K-12 Language Arts Committee with the assessment phase of its work. Mrs. Harris thanked the Board for the opportunity to do this sabbatical, and added that she enjoyed the work and learned a lot.
4. Communications and reports
a) Report of Chair:
1. Board Calendar - The Chair announced that the next Board meeting will be Wednesday, January 5, 7:00 p.m. in the Hanover High School Library. She said this will be the first of three meetings in January to present, discuss, and adopt a budget for presentation to voters at the Annual School District Meeting in March.
2. NHSBA Report - Kari Asmus reported that she attended the November Legislative Advocacy Network meeting and updated the Board about the discussions on the following items: vouchers, charter schools, supporting a kindergarten mandate, adequacy funding and partially funded building aid. Chair Segal commented on the importance of having active Board representation at the NHSBA meetings.
b) Reports of Administrators:
Superintendent’s report: - The Superintendent reported that he has recently spoken with Ann Davis at the Department of Education regarding the Title IIA grants and was told that the Hanover School District has $21,416 in grant money available for the 04-05 school year and approximately $26,000 remaining from the 03-04 school year. Along with these funds the District will also be receiving $30,000 from the REAP (Rural Education Achievement Program) grant and approximately $4,400 from various other grants. He said that the Administration is exploring ways this money might be spent for the health initiative and to fund summer work in core area curriculums to design common District assessments.
Assistant Superintendent for Business report: Mr. Aubin updated the Board on the progress of the budget building meetings and also reported that health insurance quotes for 05-06 are better than expected at 5.9%, while the CPI was slightly higher than expected at 3.6%. He said he plans to send the detailed proposed budget to the Board before the holidays.
Principal’s report: Principal Williams announced the enrollment at 500 students and invited the members of the Board and public to attend one of the presentations of the Holiday Concert on either Wednesday, December 14 or Thursday, December 15.
c) Reports of committee representatives
SB418 Committee report - John Chamberlin distributed a draft of the information that will be posted on the web and solicited comments from Board members.
5. Public comments
There were no public comments.
6. Business requiring discussion
a) Annual building capacity update - Principal Williams distributed an updated building capacity analysis for the Board’s review. He said that only minor changes had been made to the document.
b) Tax Stabilization Fund - Dr. Gersen briefed the Board on Gov. Wentworth’s recent legislative initiative which passed the New Hampshire legislature. Ms. Asmus detailed the process for taking the tax stabilization initiative to the legislature should the Board wish to pursue the option in light of the fact that the DRA has disallowed the vote taken at the 2004 annual meeting. After discussion, consensus of the Board was to ask Attorney David Bradley to contact Representative Peter Burling to explore this option further. The Board set a special meeting for Tuesday, December 14, 6:30 p.m. in the Hanover High School Library to continue this discussion and make a decision whether to go forward.
7. Business requiring action
a. Approval of PTO Grants
John Chamberlin moved and Larry Pilchman seconded a motion to approve the PTO Grants as proposed and attached to the original minutes of the meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
b. Approval to spend remaining funds from Bridgman Trust earmarked for FY ‘05
Nancy Carter moved and John Chamberlin seconded a motion to authorize Principal Williams to use the balance of the Bridgman Trust for 04-05 in keeping with the enclosed memo dated December 2, 2004, and attached to the original minutes of the meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
c. Acceptance of a $5,000 gift
John Chamberlin moved and Nancy Carter seconded a motion to accept a $5,000 gift from Kevin and Punam Keller to be used for children with special needs at the Ray School. The motion passed unanimously.
d. Acceptance of resignation/early retirement
Nancy Carter moved and John Chamberlin seconded a motion to accept the resignation/early retirement of John Wilde effective June 30, 2005, with great regret. Board members expressed many compliments for all of Mr. Wilde’s contributions to the students and the District throughout this tenure at the Ray School. The motion passed unanimously.
8. Nonpublic session
John Chamberlin moved and Larry Pilchman seconded a motion to enter nonpublic session in accordance with SA 91-A:3 (I. ) for discussion of personnel matters. The motion passed unanimously by roll call vote. (8:35 p.m.)
9. Adjournment
Kari Asmus moved and Nancy Carter seconded a motion to adjourn at 8:51 p.m. The motion passed unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 8:51 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary B. Davis
Recording Secretary
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