NORWICH BOARD OF SCHOOL DIRECTORS
REGULAR MEETING
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2004
7:02 P.M., MARION CROSS SCHOOL LIBRARY
Minutes
Present: Board members Cheney, Gray, Kaplan, Sachsse, Vitt; Administrators Gersen, Aubin, Edson; and nine members of the public. Recorded by R. Lohr
1. Call to order
Chair Sachsse called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.
2. Approval of minutes
Linda Gray moved and Deb Kaplan seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of September 1, as submitted. Corrections to the minutes were offered: page one, item 3 changed name spelling to Alida; page two, item 4 change the third sentence to begin “The Board suggested that the Norwich Energy Committee.” The 9/01 minutes were unanimously approved as submitted with corrections.
3. French presentation
Allison Litten presented the Board with an overview of the French program. She spoke about her duties and responsibilities to teach French to 4th-6th grade students, and interdisciplinary activities with other departments. She noted that the Marion Cross French program is aligned with the Ray Elementary School and Richmond Middle School. The books and tactics used for the French program were discussed and differences between the programs for the 4th, 5th and 6th graders were highlighted. The Duncan Report on K-12 Foreign Language, which was issued in October 2001, was distributed in the Board packet and was referenced during the presentation.
4. Communications and Reports
a) Report of Chair:
(1) Calendar - Chair Sachsse announced that the next regular Board meeting will be Wednesday, November 3, 7:00 p.m., at the Marion Cross School Library.
b) Reports of Administrators:
Superintendent’s Report - Superintendent Gersen briefly discussed the SAU 70 Curriculum Model. He reported that the various curriculum committees were working to develop a common language. He handed out the enrollment projections for the next five years, which showed 2004 with the lowest enrollment. During the four years between 2005 and 2009 enrollment ranged between 316 to 319.
Principal - Principal Edson reviewed his written report, highlighting the newsletter, the hiring of the school psychologist, and the retirement of custodian Walter Martin, who served for several years at Marion Cross School. Rob Edson also briefed the Board on the NECAP test, the joint testing program with New Hampshire and Rhode Island that will be piloted in late October for grades 3-6. He noted that next year the test reports will be issued in February rather than in November. Part of Mr. Edson’s report included a chart that analyzed special subject contact hours with students. The chart did not include some pertinent positions such as librarian or guidance counselor. The Board discussed the challenge of balancing the budget and programs in terms of the cost per pupil. The Board felt using the charts as supportive information and adding a column for class minutes per week and a pie chart of student time correlating to different subjects would be useful, too. The Board Chair plans to incorporate the issue into the next Board agenda.
5. PTO Report- PTO Chair, Cinny Benson distributed a written report that provided PTO highlights and she announced that the gift wrap sale earned $3,000, half of which goes back to Marion Cross. The PTO committed itself to convene a committee to discuss community/school relations. The next PTO meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 1 at 8:30 a.m. in the Art Room.
6. Public input – A member of the public stated that an effort should be made to correlate school philosophy with numerical goals.
7. Business requiring discussion
a) The drafted Board budget guidelines were discussed and the Board agreed to maintain the 125 percent goal in the document. John Aubin reported that the state average cost per pupil was presently $8,700.
8. Business requiring action
a) Linda Gray moved and Margaret Cheney 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.
b) Deb Kaplan moved and Margaret Cheney seconded a motion to approve the Norwich Police Chief, Stephen Soares, as Truant Officer for the Norwich School District for the 2004-05 school year. The motion passed unanimously.
c) Linda Gray moved and Deb Kaplan seconded a motion to approve the 2005-06 Board Goals as proposed and attached to the original meeting minutes. The motion passed unanimously.
d)Margaret Cheney moved and Deb Kaplan seconded a motion to approve Policy JBCB-2, Resident and Non-Resident Students Tuition, as proposed and attached to the original meeting minutes. The motion passed unanimously.
- Margaret Cheney moved and Linda Gray seconded a motion to approve the 2005-06 Budget Guidelines as proposed and attached to the original meeting minutes. The motion passed unanimously.
- Margaret Cheney moved and Linda Gray seconded a motion to approve Debbie Hall to the Local Action Plan Committee for the 2004-05 school year. The motion passed unanimously.
9. Executive session
Linda Gray moved and Deb Kaplan seconded a motion to enter executive session in accordance with Title 1, Section 313 for discussion of personal matters (8:40 p.m.). The motion passed unanimously.
10. Adjournment
Geoffrey Vitt moved and Margaret Cheney seconded a motion to adjourn at 8:50 p.m. The motion passed unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Roger Lohr
Recording Secretary |
