NORWICH BOARD OF SCHOOL DIRECTORS
RESCHEDULED REGULAR MEETING
THURSDAY JANUARY 5, 2006
7:00 P.M., MARION CROSS SCHOOL LIBRARY
Approved Minutes
Present: Board members Cheney, Gray, Kaplan, Sachsse, Vitt; Administrators Gersen, Aubin, Edson; and 5 members of the public. Recorded by R. Lohr
1. Call to order - Chair Sachsse called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m.
2. Approval of minutes
Deb Kaplan moved and Linda Gray seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting of December 13 and the executive session of December 13, as submitted. The motion was unanimously approved.
3. Communications and Reports
a) Report of Chair
Chair Sachsse announced that the next regular Board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 12, 7:00 p.m., at the Marion Cross School Library. This is the budget deliberations meeting and the second of three budget meetings. The Public Hearing and Budget Adoption will be on January 19 in the Marion Cross School Library. The next regular Board meeting will be Wednesday, February 1, 7:00 p.m. in the Marion Cross School Library.
Two Board seats are open in March, Deb Kaplan’s (a two year term and a non voting term on the Dresden Board) and Mary Sachsse’s (a three year term). Filings take place any time from now until January 23, 2006. A candidate must present a petition with 35 signatures to the Norwich Town Clerk.
The Dresden School District has filing dates from Tuesday, January 17 through 5:00 p.m., to Monday, February 6. 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 in Hanover. Open positions include Moderator – one year; Clerk- one year; Treasurer-one year; Auditor – three years.
Chair Sachsse reported on a communication to the Board that Bill Zimmerman, the NESDEC consultant for the Principal and Superintendent searches, sent her a 1973 letter regarding Marion Cross’ retirement that will be put in the archives at the school.
b) Reports of Administrators
Superintendent’s Report
Superintendent Gersen distributed a legislative bulletin from the Vermont Superintendents Association and recommendation for working with legislators. Some of potential legislation described in the bulletin included binding, interest arbitration, and a proposal to change the school year from days to hours, a change that could limit opportunities for teacher in-service days. He also highlighted the ongoing discussions on how to cover teacher retirement short falls.
Principal’s Report
Principal Edson reviewed his written report, highlighting the enrollment, which has increased by 10 students since the school term began. He reported that a second special education assistant resigned. He also sought the Board’s perspective on the proposed Facility Use Regulation as it relates to the school and the town recreation department. The Board favored applying the Facility Use policy for the recreation department in full this year. It was suggested that representatives of the Board, administrators, and town Finance Committee discuss the wisdom of this strategy with the town select board. Principal Edson indicated he would follow-up on this issue immediately.
Principal Edson reported that the engineering consultants indicated that the potential saving from the proposed wood chip heat system installation would not meet the threshold for 90 percent reimbursement from the State. Consequently, the project would be too costly for the school to consider.
4. PTO Report
PTO Chair, Cinny Bensen announced that the next PTO meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 9 at 8:30 a.m. in the Art Room. There will be a family skating night organized on February 3; a Valentine’s Day teacher appreciation; television turn-off week, an “IM forum” regarding child Internet use, and a PTO school display at the Norwich library. Ms. Bensen offered to mention the school board openings in the PTO newsletter.
5. Business Requiring Discussion
a) 2006-07 Budget Presentation
Assistant Superintendent John Aubin reviewed the proposed budget document with the Board. The Marion Cross School budget is proposed to increase from $4,081,909 to $4,192,861 or 2.72 percent. This is below the inflation rate (4.4 percent), a result of hard work to present a budget that was as lean as possible. Enrollment continues to decline, which makes it difficult to avoid the state penalty that is determined by spending beyond 125 percent of the previous year’s average budgeted per pupil costs across all the districts in the state. The budget at this point is 126.6 percent above the State average, which results in a $105,382 penalty.
Mr. Aubin explained the CLA (Common Level of Appraisal) that the state uses as a mechanism to equalize state tax values across the state. The CLA has been announced as 109.36, a rate which improved the school tax situation in Norwich.
There are some staff reductions planned in the budget including a 1 FTE regular teacher, .78 FTE regular educational assistant and 1.44 FTE special education assistants. Medical insurance inflation will increase no more than 9 percent, which has a significant impact on the budget increase. Another key issue is that the teacher contract has not been finalized in Dresden with regard to the teacher insurance costs. The staff hopes that a new agreement and plan for health insurance might provide savings to the school district. The health insurance decision should be finalized by next week.
Revenues from the state for special education should help offset some of the expected increases in the special education expenses, and it is proposed that $50,000 be transferred from the local Special Education Fund to help cover some of these expenses, too.
Significant changes to the budget from the previous year were discussed. These changes represent more than 95 percent of the increase in the budget. The major changes in the maintaining program include the heating fuel and pupil transportation. The special education budget increases are mostly due to the tuition costs to send students to outside institutions. The special education increase represents more than 57 percent of the total amount of increases in the budget.
The bus service was discussed, with John Aubin noting that a new contract will be finalized this coming year for the service. This new contract will likely increase by over 20% given changes in pupil transportation expenses. He hopes that a new contract will result in improved service and increased student ridership.
b) School District Warning
The School District Warning document will use the same wording as last year. The Board decided to delete the requests to transfer $25,000 into both the Special Education Fund and the Repairs and Capital Maintenance Fund, respectively.
6. Business Requiring Action
Linda Gray moved and Deb Kaplan seconded a motion to approve the continuation of the exemption of a breakfast and lunch program in accordance with 16 VSA & 1265 for one additional year. The motion passed unanimously.
7. Executive Session
Deb Kaplan moved and Linda Gray seconded a motion to go into Executive Session in accordance with Title 1, Section 313 for discussion of negotiations and personnel matters. The motion passed unanimously. The Board went into Executive Session at 8:47 p.m. The Board closed Executive Session at 9:15 p.m. and re-entered public session at 9:16 p.m.
9. Adjournment
Linda Gray moved and Margaret Cheney seconded a motion to adjourn at 9:17 p.m. The motion passed unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 9:17 p.m. |
