Pat and George Parizo sent this picture to me while I was gone, but I thought everyone would still like to see it. Pat thought perhaps these were the same Canada geese Fred and I saw on Monday when we went to Cabot to vote. I think this picture was taken the next morning.

I'm slow at getting caught up on mail - both e-mail and regular mail - but making some progress. Below are a couple more announcements about what's going on in and around Cabot.

CABOT SCHOOL BOARD

MEETING MINUTES

Monday, October 20, 2008

Present: Chris Tormey, Gemma Yamamoto, Roman Kokodyniak, Niall McCallum, Tim Gochey, Regina Quinn, George Burlison, Jese Feltus, Cecilia Gulka, Patrick Campbell, Mike Cookson

1. The meeting was called to order by Chris Tormey, Chair at 6:05 p.m.

2. Approval of Minutes

a. The minutes of October 6, 2008 were approved on a motion by Roman Kokodyniak, second by Chris Tormey. So voted.

3. Public Comment

Cecilia discussed with the Board booster seats on the buses. Cecilia has approximately 14 children this year but not all ride the buses. Maybe it would be good to have booster seats in the first three rows of each side of the bus to accommodate them? Patrick said that he believes if we have the booster seats, we would have to have a second adult on the bus because the seats would be difficult to buckle and unbuckle for a four-year-old child. Do we need staff to buckle little ones on the bus? What about asking parents to buckle their kids in and to give a release of liability to the school? The Board asked if anyone knew of any districts that use them and how they deal with the buckling and unbuckling. Chris suggested that before we decide on these seats that we find another school that has had the experience of using the booster seats and whether they have been successful or not. It’s a great idea but can it be done safely? George will look into other districts to see if they use booster seats and what their policies are by the next Board meeting. The Board will revisit this topic at their next Board meeting in two weeks.

4. Student Report: Lillian Alexander & Jese Feltus

There was no student report this evening.

5. Principal's Report: Regina Quinn

a. Update on Academic Programs – Regina said that before school began there were issues with scheduling (classes, recess, and lunches). One of the suggestions was to have lunch brought over to the first and second graders. There are aides that will help. They are not sure if this will work once winter comes and may have to do something different. Most of the problems have been solved that deal with the scheduling. Others are being worked on as we go along.

b. Update on Behavior Support Person – One of the biggest problems we seem to have with behavior is on the buses. We are working with the bus drivers to solve these problems. Jessica is very vigilant when she hears about a problem and sends home a bus ticker and/or calls home. If there are three minor bus problems, then the student is off the bus for a little while. More major infractions may justify harsher discipline. Regina has ridden on the bus to see how things were going with the students. If students started to something they shouldn’t all she had to do was give them a look in their direction and they settled down as they should. Regina will continue to pop in on the buses now and again to see how things are going.

c. Soccer playoffs are coming up. The boys will be playing Danville at Cabot and the girls will be playing Williamstown at Cabot.

d. Evaluation Process – Over the course of the next few months, Regina will be scheduling time to meet with each certified teacher/faculty member to discuss goals, observe two classes, and meet to refine goals for the remainder of the school year. She would like to plan an additional evaluation component for January/February/March that would involve teachers who are relatively new, teachers of “specials” and anyone else who’d like to do a formal evaluation this year. There are three major goal areas Regina would like everyone to focus on. They are:

1. Engaging all students in rich learning experiences.

2. Use of systematic, ongoing, formative assessment that is used to guide instruction.

3. Integration of technology to promote high-level thinking among all students.

6. Superintendent's Report: George Burlison

a. Bus Leasing Proposal Update – The Board again discussed at length the bus leasing information presented by George at the last Board meeting. Chris asked George if there was a rush in deciding on whether to lease the buses or not. George said no but they may not hold the low interest rate forever. At this time, DATTCO has guaranteed their price, etc. but for how long we don’t know.

Tim Gochey invited Mike Cookson to the Board meeting to discuss his thoughts on leasing buses. Mike talked about past and current maintenance on our buses. If we lease a couple of buses, we should keep a couple of our best buses but rotate their use. It’s not good for them to just sit there. Maintenance costs on our buses have been approximately $70,000 over the last three years.

Chris said that it looks like we should lease two buses and keep two of our best buses. (See Board Action)

b. Woodchip Project Update – We received some bids for wood chip fuel. George is recommending two companies: Limlaw Chipping & Land Clearing Inc. (hardwood “bole” chips @ $70 per ton with possible surcharge, if necessary) and Claire Lathrop Band Mill Inc. (paper-grade hardwood “bole” chips @ $67 per ton). The Board decided to go with Limlaw. (see Board Action)

George and Patrick also gave a brief update on the woodchip project.

c. FY2010 Budget Schedule/Budget FY2010 – George distributed to the Board the FY2010 budget development schedule. The Board reviewed the dates and approved them.

They also discussed the budget for FY2010 at length and the impact of expenditures on the tax rate including the actual homestead tax rate, FY2010 educational spending/equalized pupil increase, tax bill increase for $100,000 Homestead (based on Homestead value), tax bill increase for $100,000 House site (based on income), and tax rate increases.

The Board talked about having a meeting with the community before the middle of November to discuss the budget and get their input. Maybe we could have a meeting the first week in November. Chris suggested we present the community with different scenarios starting with the worst case and so forth. We could say that this is our starting point, what does the community think our objectives should be for building the budget this year? We can tell them that this is what we have in our budget this year and if we kept it the same, this is what it would look like next year. The Board decided to have a special Board meeting on Thursday, November 6^th at 7 p.m. to discuss budget related items with the community. The Board also decided to start their Board meeting on Monday, November 3^rd at 5:30 p.m. to give them time to prepare for the special meeting.

On November 17^th, the faculty/staff will be invited to the regular school Board meeting to give their input on budget related items.

d. Salary Index Update – George gave the Board a copy of the updated salary index. The Association has ratified the new contract inclusive of the salary index. It’s been a long challenging process but we think we are at the end of it. We are aiming for the payroll of October 31^st to update salaries retroactive to July 1^st of this year.

7. Board Discussion

a. Performing Arts Building Update – The weather has been really good. Our biggest challenge coming up will be the trusses. They will arrive in approximately three weeks from now. Ideally, the trusses will be here by November 10^th and then a roof would go on during the following ten days. As long as the weather holds, we should stay on schedule. Patrick spoke about the walkways and the excavation.

b. Superintendent Position/Governance Committee Update – Chris updated the Board on the work the committee has been doing on the Superintendent’s position. At this point, the committee has recommended to the WNE Board that we hire an interim Superintendent for FY2010. During that time, we will explore where we want to be as a district, write a job description, advertise and hopefully, be able to hire someone to begin July 1, 2011. A representative from the VSBA will be working with the committee to help us through this process.

8. Board Action

a. On a motion by Chris Tormey, second by Tim Gochey the Board approved a lease to purchase two buses from DATTCO (one handicap and one 71 passenger). We will keep bus #5 and bus #1. So voted.

b. On a motion by Chris Tormey, second by Tim Gochey the Board approved the wood chip fuel bid from Limlaw Chipping & Land Clearing Inc. as our primary supplier and Claire Lathrop Band Mill Inc. as an alternate supplier. So voted.

Executive Session

On a motion by Tim Gochey, second by Chris Tormey the Board entered Executive Session at 9:25 p.m. to discuss

a contract issue and personnel. The Board returned to open session at 10:01 p.m. on a motion by Chris Tormey, second by Tim Gochey. So voted.

9. Adjournment

On a motion by Chris Tormey, second by Tim Gochey the Board adjourned the meeting at 10:01 p.m.

So voted.

Respectfully Submitted,

Joanna Brickey

Transcriber

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If the poster doesn't show up large enough to read comfortably on your screen, you can click it to enlarge it just as you would a picture.

I don't know the Wacky Worm Sisters, but composting is a great idea for lots of reasons.