HIGHGATE SCHOOL BOARD MEETING Minutes HIGHGATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LIBRARY

May 14, 2015 6:15 PM

Present: Connie Beyor, Chairperson, Nola Gilbert, David Roddy and Richard Flint. Chad Larivee is absent from the meeting. Others Present: Marcel Choquette, Principal, Karen Casavant, Assistant Principal, Winton Goodrich, Superintendent, Lora McAllister, Assistant Business Manager, Channel 16 Cameraman, Pierrette Bouchard, School Board Secretary Visitors from the community and staff: Vickie Machia, Stacey Bennett Connie Beyor called the Meeting to Order at 6:17pm. Agenda Amendments:

Public Comments: Vickie Machia introduced herself as a community member for 35 years, a teacher at MVU and travel group communicator. She meets with mostly Highgate students once a month from September to May. She would like to use the Highgate School Library once a month. The group is a non profit, she is a volunteer and is not paid for this travel group. Her concern is that she will be charged $50.00 an hour to meet. Connie recommended that Vickie fill out a building use form for the Fall and meet with the principal first, then continue to follow protocol by consulting with the Superintendent next and if she is still not satisfied, then she can come to the board. Connie Beyor requested the board enter executive session for an employee leave request. Richard Flint moved, seconded by David Roddy to enter executive session for employee request at 6:30pm and invited Karen Casavant, Marcel Choquette and Winton Goodrich. Board Approved 4-0. The board exited executive session at 7:15pm. Motion to not grant the leave that was requested by Stacey Bennett. Direct the Superintendent to draft a letter of leave denial and deliver to Stacey Bennett on May 15, 2015 was moved by Richard Flint and seconded by Nola Gilbert. The board approved 3-1 vote. Business Report: Check Warrants: The bills and check warrants were reviewed by the board committee. Motion to approve the check warrants made by Richard Flint and seconded by David Roddy. The board approved on a 4-0 vote. Financial Report: Lora McAllister explained that she met with Marcel Choquette and Connie Beyor and had a thoughtful discussion about the year end spending. She is reporting $40,000 more revenue than last projection due to higher intensive Special Education reimbursement. There was some savings on staffing positions not filled, equipment and supply lines that have not been expended. There were spending overages in speech, long term substitutes, increased change in participation of health insurance and plant. Winton complimented Marcel and Lora for working closely together and bringing a financial report with a positive carryover. David Roddy moved, seconded by Richard Flint to approve the financial

 

report on a 4-0 vote. Win explained that when the Supervisory Union transfers over to VSBIT for their general insurance policy, the SU will receive $8500 to be used for a surveillance system. Win added that they will look at obtaining dampers to gain more control over the temperatures in the rooms. Approval of Minutes: Nola Gilbert moved, seconded by Richard Flint to approve the April 9th minutes with revisions. Board approved 3-0 with David Roddy abstaining. Nola Gilbert moved, seconded by David Roddy to approve the May 4th minutes with the addition of the executive session and the adjournment times. The board approved the motion 4-0 vote. Buildings and Grounds Report: Terry Brace reported that one of the smoke alarms went off in the white building. They have found that the wrong smoke detector is being used. After Terry Brace has a Simplex conversation with Lora McAllister, he will contact a vendor to make the change in the smoke detectors. Terry has been working with Marcel Choquette and had a roof consultant look at the roof valleys to determine why there has been leaks. The consultant will be coming on Monday to provide a recommendation on how to best repair this issue. Richard Flint suggested that they arrange a date to do a walk around to determine the summer work. Terry Brace left at 8pm.

Principal’s Report: Updates Announcements Celebrations: Ted Sheu came in and worked on poetry with all our grade level students and teachers on May 13th & 14th. This project was organized by the school librarian Kelly Thomas and was completely funded by the collection of box tops. Edna Iannaco and Kyle Ashton organized a Literacy and Math night on May 13th. This evening was funded by Title I funds. The evening started with pizza and salad and moved to the library for poetry writing activities with Mr. Sheu. Families were given the opportunity to share their work at the end. The evening concluded with a raffle for free books, educational materials, parent educational materials and a Kindle. The evening was a huge success. Marcel thanked Mr. Ashton, Mrs. Iannaco and Ms. Thomas for organizing the event. SBAC: Karen Casavant reported that the students have completed the testing with 100% participating. The SBAC SWAT team were Edna Iannaco, Kyle Ashton, Heather Larivee and Karen Casavant. Marcel thanked Ms. Casavant, Mr. Ashton, Mrs. Iannaco and Mrs. Larivee for their great leadership from start to finish. The Science NECAP will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Summer School: Linda Rixford will be the director of the summer school. Mrs. Iannaco, Mr. Ashton, Ms. Ormerod and Mrs. Vanslette will be the teachers. They will have project based learning with hands on multi-age groups. The summer school will take place 5 days a week for four weeks starting on July 6th. They will be actively recruiting more kids to participate. Marcel has emailed the board a summary of the end of the year field trips. Grant: Krista Tatro has received a Presidential Youth Fitness Program grant for the school and our students. The grant will include Fitness Gram/Activity Gram software for the FY16, FY 17 and FY18 academic years. This is a web based site for students to record their scores. It will included the Presidential Youth Fitness Program virtual training package for four courses, physical best teacher and

 

activity guides, Brockport Physical Fitness Test which is specifically designed to test the fitness of youths with disabilities. There will be Presidential Youth Fitness Awards and for K-3-Presidential Youth Fitness Program Fitness Club items. Professional Development: Marcel and Karen Casavant attended the Hunger Free Vermont Council. They meet with other groups on how to better support our families and brainstorming on how to provide them access to resources such as food shelves, food kitchens etc. Marcel has organized professional development for staff from June 15th-19th on supporting children who have emotional disturbance. Katherine Spense from the AOE will provide a bullying seminar, Alex Gibson on mandated reporting to DCF, Gillian Boudreau-90 minute segment on supporting students on the Spectrum; Joelle Van Lent-4 hour workshop with staff to work with kids who have been affected by some form of trauma; Para-Educators-Learning community planning time for 2015-2016. Anxiety discussion-building experts in our building. PLC training activity. PLC grade level and unified arts meeting times, vertical PLC’s. Smart board share and workshop; Grade level unit planning in math and literacy for the Fall of 2015. Marcel is working with NCSS on filling some of the roles of Jen Ormerod and provide some counseling as well. The Staff is working on a school vision. He passed it out to the parents at the Math and Liter3 Superintendent’s Report: PLC Conference: Win attended the National PLC Conference with Marcel Choquette, Libby Bonesteel, Brent Coon and Mike Weber. It was a fabulous conference with top speakers on professional learning communities work and culture. One speaker talked about 90-90-90-with 90% of the children from different ethnic backgrounds with 90% poverty but with the right expectation and culture-90% met or exceeded standards. With laser like focus on student achievement, they have a no excuses approach that all kids can succeed. Next Meeting Dates: Next Highgate Board Meeting-June 11th 2015 @ 6:15pm FNWSU Board Meeting-June 3, 2015 @ 7:00pm in Sheldon Executive Session and Adjournment: On a motion by David Roddy, seconded by Richard Flint, the board entered executive session for negotiations update and staff contract at 8:45pm inviting Win Goodrich and Marcel Choquette. 4-0 vote. (Pierrette left) The board exited executive session at 9:47pm. Action: On a motion by Richard Flint, seconded by Nola Gilbert, the board denied Kristy Knott’s leave request. 4-0. Richard Flint moved, seconded by David Roddy to direct the principal to expand both office assistant’s contract days as needed. 4-0 vote. David Roddy moved, seconded by Nola Gilbert to renew Karen Casavant’s

 

contract on a 4-0 vote. Due to an evening conflict, the board decided to change the next board meeting to June 10th. Connie Beyor declared the meeting adjourned at 10:15pm. Respectfully submitted, Chad Larivee Highgate School Board Clerk