PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MINUTES WILL
NOT BE FINAL UNTIL
THE BOARD HAS APPROVED THEM AT
ITS NEXT MEETING.
September 28, 2006
The Board of Directors
of
The following
Directors were present: Robert W. Hill,
Chairman; Maryane Burns; Dorothy “Dee” Carrier; Marie
Dickson; Dorothy Gardner; David A. Johnson; Jane Meisenbach;
Andrea Najarian; Joanne Rogers; Donald A. Russell; Rebekah Stimpson; Gwen Thomas;
and Kim Totten.
Not present was Roland
Tufts.
Also present were Sara
Todd and Sam Prindall, student representatives to the
Board of Directors.
1. Call to order
The meeting was called to order by Chairman
Hill at 6:42 p.m.
2. Pledge of Allegiance to
the Flag
3. To consider action relative to
additions or adjustments to the agenda and to ask for comments from the
audience
(add)
6.3 To consider a request from Katie
Benner, a .5 FTE special education teacher, for a leave of absence without
pay effective 12 weeks after the birth of her child until the end of the school
year – This item was tabled.
7.2 This item will be taken out of order.
3.1 RECOGNITIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
√
Welcome to
√ Welcome Sam Prindall
– New student representative to
the Board of Directors
4. To take action relative to accepting as
printed the minutes of the September 14, 2006, regular meeting of the Board of
Directors
It was moved by Mrs. Carrier, seconded by Mrs. Rogers, and VOTED (924 yeas, 0 nays, 69
abstentions, and 77 absent) to accept as printed the minutes of the September
14, 2006, regular meeting of the Board of Directors.
Voting
yea were Ms. Burns, Mrs. Carrier, Ms. Dickson, Mrs. Gardner, Mr. Hill, Mr.
Johnson, Mrs. Meisenbach, Ms. Najarian,
Mrs. Rogers, Mr. Russell, Ms. Stimpson and Mrs. Totten.
There
were no nay votes.
Abstaining
from voting was Ms. Thomas.
Mr.
Tufts was absent.
7.2 Facilities Committee
The Facilities Committee met prior to the Board meeting to hear a
presentation from Phil Kerber, Middle School
Alternative Education teacher, and his students seeking authorization to
construct an outdoor stage.
Students Trevor Gray, Jaclyn Shaw and Sebastian Knickerbocker
assisted Mr. Kerber in the presentation.
The project will be
It was moved by Mrs. Carrier, seconded by Ms. Najarian,
and VOTED (unanimously) to approve
the proposal as presented to the Board.
5. OLD BUSINESS:
5.1 To undertake a first reading of a School Board Members Code of Ethics
The School Board Members Code of Ethics received the first of two
required readings.
Chairman Hill suggested that Board members advance any suggestions for
change to the Superintendent. It’s
anticipated that the Board will entertain a second reading and adoption at its
next regular meeting.
5.2 To consider a resolution in opposition to the Taxpayers Bill of Rights
It
was moved by Mrs. Rogers, seconded by Mrs. Carrier, and VOTED (unanimously) to approve a resolution in opposition to the
Taxpayers Bill of Rights.
Chairman
Hill asked how passage of this resolution would be publicized, emphasizing the
importance of communicating to the public the Board’s sentiments regarding
TABOR. Superintendent Wilhelm related
that when the Tax Cap initiative was being considered, he had devoted an issue
of the Directions newsletter to the topic and had also attended as many PTO
meetings as he could to discuss and answer questions about the issue. It was suggested that some of the
Superintendent’s presentations could be taped and aired on cable channels.
Superintendent
Wilhelm reminded the Board that its meetings are taped and aired. He plans to speak to Selectmen and Managers
of the towns to discuss the possibility of holding a joint forum regarding
TABOR. Mr. Russell believes the Town of
The
suggestion was made to post the resolution on the District’s website with links
to other sources of information.
Superintendent Wilhelm will contact the Times Record, Forecaster, and
5.3 To review Board sub-committee memberships
Minor adjustments need
to be made to the list.
6. NEW BUSINESS:
6.1 To approve the submission of a grant to use theater to help children
prevent bullying
Sue Shaw, Manager of the Orion Performing Arts Center, asked the Board to
authorize submission of a grant to the Francis Hollis Brain Foundation to pay
for training for “Playback Theater,” an interactive approach to teaching the
effects of bullying to prevent it.
The trainer would do an intensive three-day
training, after which time Ms. Shaw could continue with the project.
Ms. Shaw envisions asking the middle and high school Civil Rights Teams
for suggestions on likely participants.
A presentation has been made to social workers and guidance staff, and
approaching that group for suggestions for student volunteers is another
possibility.
In response to Mrs. Gardner’s question of when the Board could watch a
production, Ms. Shaw admitted that the process doesn’t “film” well, but that
the understanding and empathy comes from actually watching a production.
It was moved by Mrs. Carrier, seconded by Mr. Johnson, and VOTED (unanimously) to approve the
submission of a grant to use theater to help children prevent bullying {as
outlined above}.
6.2 To hear a report on the status of Adequate Yearly Progress for District
elementary schools and the middle school
Assistant
Superintendent Sally Loughlin presented this report. Ms. Loughlin explained “AYP” and answered
Board members’ questions.
She
is preparing a “State of the Schools” report, which will be disseminated to the
public. The District is awaiting
information on the high school’s AYP.
In
closing, Ms. Loughlin stated that the District should be proud of its
accomplishments and reiterated that the District has great staff, students and
leadership.
6.3 To consider a request from Katie
Benner, .5 FTE special education teacher, for a leave of absence without
pay effective 12 weeks after the birth of her child until the end of the school
year
This
proposed agenda addition was TABLED until
the next meeting.
7. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
7.1 Cooperative Board meeting – Ms. Najarian
reported on the September 20th meeting, at which a delegate was
elected to attend the MSBA Assembly.
Director Shirley Hartwell also shared her goals at this meeting. Superintendent Wilhelm added that the Cooperative
Board heard a presentation on the CNA program.
7.2 Facilities Committee – This report
was presented earlier in this meeting.
8. SUPERINTENDENT’S
REPORT:
8.1
8.2
Citizenship Education Task Force –
On September 25 and 26, representatives from the District attended the
Civic Learning workshop.
Those attending were Mike Wilhelm; Sally Loughlin; Josh Ottow (high school history teacher); Sarah Bohlman (middle school social studies teacher); Michael Barrett
(elementary counselor); Lindsy Mayo (Jobs for Graduates
teacher at the high school); and students Carter Blease
and Ashley Rood.
The goal is to form a larger leadership team and move forward with a
District plan for the four areas of civic learning: positive social interaction, serving
learning, understanding citizenship, and the democratization of schools.
8.3
Correspondence – Board members received a copy of
correspondence thanking the District for its support of Grant Connors’
participation in the National Science Foundation-funded project EcoScienceWorks:
Exploring and Modeling Ecosystems Using Information Technology. Superintendent Wilhelm stated that the
District is fortunate to have Mr. Connors in the program, especially as service
learning is integrated into the project.
Board members also received copies of a letter from Diane Stahl and one
from a Bowdoinham parent regarding the distribution to Kindergartners of a book
which has questionable value. The book,
Schoolyard Rhymes, contained inappropriate text; and parents were advised to
read the book and to use their discretion, including throwing away the book.
8.4
Federal Department of Education – Superintendent Wilhelm updated Board members
on the process to dispose of property to be vacated upon closure of BNAS. Dr. Wilhelm is in receipt of a lengthy survey
to be completed prior to the District’s making formal application.
Mr. Russell believes some of the confusion may lie in that the federal
government perhaps doesn’t realize there are two LRA’s
– one in Topsham and the other in
8.5 Mr.
Johnson thanked those who attended the September 26th informational
meeting on the Harpswell Withdrawal process.
Mr. Johnson distributed copies of a document generated by Scott Lemieux, leading the drive to stop the withdrawal process.
9. ADJOURNMENT:
The
meeting was declared adjourned at 7:55 p.m.
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