WINCHESTER SCHOOL BOARD WINCHESTER SCHOOL LIBRARY SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

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1 WINCHESTER SCHOOL BOARD WINCHESTER SCHOOL LIBRARY SEPTEMBER 3, 2015 Board Members Present: R. Horton, K. Bazan, J. Cardinale, T. Croteau Administration Present: Jim Lewis, Beth Stevenson and Elisha Jackson The meeting was called to order by Chair, R. Horton at 6:31 pm. CITIZENS COMMENTS: Frank Linnenbringer asked if his daughter could start pre-school now rather than wait 23 days. J. Lewis she is two? The State won t allow it. Frank Linnenbringer advised he spoke with Laurie Temple at the State who said it was a local decision. J. Lewis will gladly research it. He will check with Laurie Temple. R. Horton advised Frank Linnenbringer he could work with J. Lewis. MINUTES: J. Cardinale MOVED to approve the public minutes of 8/6/2015 as printed, SECONDED by: K. Bazan, VOTED: 4-0 MOTION PASSED. GUEST SPEAKER: Two people are interested in the School Board position; one is here, Steve Thompson. The other Colleen Duquette, wasn t able to be at the meeting, but sent a letter with interest and qualifications. The Board and administration asked questions of Steve Thompson. K. Bazan MOVED to go into non-public session under RSA91-A (c); SECONDED by: J. Cardinale, VOTED: T. Croteau yes, J. Cardinale yes, R. Horton yes, K. Bazan yes, MOTION PASSED. J. Cardinale MOVED to leave non-public session at 7:00pm; SECONDED by: T. Croteau, VOTED: J. Cardinale yes, R. Horton yes, T. Croteau yes, K. Bazan yes, MOTION PASSED. R. Horton advised in non-public session the Board discussed the vacant Board position. K. Bazan MOVED to nominate Steve Thompson to fill the open School Board seat until March, 2016; J. Cardinale recused himself from the vote because he personally knows Steve Thompson; VOTED: (T. Croteau abstained), MOTION PASSED. R. Horton advised Steve Thompson could sit with the Board, but he couldn t vote or go into non-public session until he is sworn in. OLD BUSINESS: Last week J. Lewis, R. Horton and K. Bazan visited with the Education Committee at Pioneer Valley to discuss options. They are very interested in our district and our students. K. Bazan advised there was an editorial in the Greenfield newspaper that was very positive. R. Horton advised he has received very positive feedback. R. Horton advised they talked a lot about a possible split of students between Keene High School and Pioneer. K. Bazan MOVED to authorize the Keene Contract Committee to open negotiations with the Keene School District regarding modification of the current tuition agreement and/or, if necessary, terms regarding termination thereof and to begin negotiations with one or more other school districts concerning future tuitioned placement of Winchester students; SECONDED by: J. Cardinale, VOTED: 4-0, MOTION PASSED. R. Horton asked J. Lewis to touch base with Will and tell him that we made a motion to revisit the contract and renegotiate. R. Horton advised Pioneer would be ready for our students next year. Helmet Policy: The Board advised kids are still riding without helmets; haven t seen anything in any paperwork that went home. J. Lewis advised it is in the newsletter going out tomorrow. Some are wearing them; feels positive about it. J. Cardinale feels a staff member could write names down of those students without a helmet. B. Stevenson advised the resource officer has been in touch with the Department of Safety requesting more helmets.

2 K. Bazan advised it is a new rule. It will take a while to get it in place. How can the Board help? Sue Rice advised the support staff is having a booth at the Pickle Festival. They will be raffling off three helmets. K. Bazan feels having helmets readily available for students will help. R Horton doesn t think it is because kids don t have them, but because they don t want to wear them. J. Lewis distributed an organizational chart as requested and reviewed it with the Board. Explained they are currently in a state of transition. At this moment in time, this is the way they run the school. E. Jackson feels it is a good idea to discuss/have a new organizational chart. It is important to keep everyone in the loop and things going in the right direction. Advised Nancy Dziedzic is now Supervisor II for the Lunch Program; there is no Director. Mel Harrison feels it would be nice to have a name associated with staff positions. J. Lewis advised that is the next step. E. Jackson And extensions. NEW BUSINESS: D. Chamberlain advised they will be cleaning the duct work; got three bids. One was much lower and the other two were close in price. K. Bazan feels they should wait for an itemized list of what we would be doing and get references before we make a decision. T. Croteau feels the money should come from the Capital Improvement Fund. K. Bazan advised if D. Chamberlain doesn t hear back, they would want another quote. D. Chamberlain advised he got a quote for five doors with card swipes, but prices jumped again, so he wants to wait to present it to the Board. The company who originally put them in hasn t responded with a quote. D. Chamberlain thought the tank was going to be buried. He now understands they will be burying the line. Thinks they need to put a barrier around it. R Horton advised Dale and his crew are paving in front of his house, so he asked him about burying the line. Dale advised he would come over with a backhoe. He got a number where they can get barriers at a great price. D. Chamberlain will check with Osterman. T. Croteau asked that when D. Chamberlain talks to Dale, ask him to put two stop signs back up. E. Jackson talked with Chaney Stevens. He advised Henry Parkhurst was handling that. D. Chamberlain advised during the Summer they replaced carpeting, the playground structure and paint on the gym floor, R. Horton feels the gym floor doesn t look as good as it did last year. Wondered if there was a thinner coat put on it? D. Chamberlain advised there are new people doing it. B. Stevenson and V. Carey advised the weather plays a part; it was very hot. D. Chamberlain advised the elevator inspection and asbestos inspection were done and we passed with flying colors. Distributed prices for scissor lift; would help change lights in the gym. It would fit through the doors. J. Cardinale asked about putting a snow blower on the roof. D. Chamberlain That s the plan. R. Horton advised he is in favor of the scissor lift. Where would the money come from? D. Chamberlain advised he would be willing to take the money from the Maintenance/Repair budget. The Board would be okay with under $5,000. J. Cardinale would be willing to go with D. Chamberlain to look at them. E. Jackson Painting would have been more efficient if they had a lift. R. Horton advised the parking lot looks great. The Town has offered to salt it again this year. D. Chamberlain feels there is not enough salt around the back where the busses come in. He thinks they need sand there. The Board feels they should put the plowing out-to-bid. R. Horton Do we need an outside maintenance person or share one with another district? D. Chamberlain advised he would like a full-time night person to do things they can t do during the day. J. Cardinale advised the walkway to the SAU should be sealed too. FINANCIAL E. Jackson: The Board reviewed the Manifest and asked questions. T. Croteau asked that the Board see credit card information in the future.

3 E. Jackson Angel Jackson is the only signer on the account. She needs to appoint a deputy treasurer. It is up to her whether or not she does, but the Board thinks she needs to. K. Bazan MOVED to put into the minutes, the Operating Manifest of 8/28/15 in the amount of $3,630.00; SECONDED by: J. Cardinale; VOTED: 4-0, MOTION PASSED. K. Bazan MOVED to approve the Operating Manifest of 9/1/15 in the amount of $139,386.88; SECONDED by: J. Cardinale; VOTED: 4-0, MOTION PASSED. *E. Jackson advised Grants are 100% up-to-date. Worked with Mel Harrison, Marie Braley and Jeremy Miller; $93,000 is pending. No funds were lost at all. *E. Jackson met with all direct reports; D. Chamberlain, the Kitchen Supervisor and her staff and Julian Stanway. Advised it is a good start to the year. She has scheduled computer training with NHASBO. There are lots of classes coming up. *Auditors were here today and Monday. Made a lot of progress gathering information. The earliest they can come back is October; she scheduled two dates. They anticipate at the end of the year they should have the oldest three years done. *Received the Health Trust funds rebate. It will take two to three weeks to receive a list of beneficiaries and the percentage for each and then she can cut the checks. *CEP E. Jackson advised she talked with the Department of Revenue; the applications have a soft deadline of Monday. They understand there have been changes. It hasn t been approved yet. It was a little confusing the first day, but they handled it. E. Jackson and R. Horton spoke with the Keene Sentinel about CEP. Winchester is the first and only school in NH participating. *Oil Received bids in August. J. Lewis advised oil prices are down. E. Jackson will get new quotes. T. Croteau advised E. Jackson how to handle it is up to her. The Board feels they need to get bids and lock in soon. *E. Jackson had a visit from the company that handles the building and workers compensation coverage. They are going out-of-business. They will no longer be covering us as of June 30, The only other company for property insurance is Primex. *E. Jackson advised she has no idea where we stand for this year or last year s budget. The MS-25 is due to set the tax rate. E. Jackson received a call from Sherry at the DOR, she returned her called, but hasn t heard back. The DOR needs to give E. Jackson access to information. V. Wilber advised they won t talk to you unless you go through the training. *E. Jackson advised she is working on unpaid bills; getting caught up. J. Lewis advised they have reached out to other business managers in the area. ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL s REPORT: *It was a great first week, despite the heat. Kids came back ready to learn and the staff was great. She was a little disappointed with the number of surveys completed at open house. Sue Rice advised some families don t have access to computers to complete the surveys at home. Val Carey advised the School can put on Facebook that parents can use a computer here. *Working on discipline; referrals are minimal. Parents/students have been responsive and nice. R. Horton would like to see the ISS room shrink and go away. *Met with J. Stanway and Ryan on a plan for the website. Step 1, is what do we have now and what do we need to fix? If the Board has any information, B. Stevenson. T. Croteau feels there is a lot of information on the website. It is overwhelming. *Nature s Classroom is a go; almost wasn t as the person in charge advised the number B. Stevenson had wasn t the number quoted. She advised them that we will want to continue and understand if they need to go up a bit in the future. The cost is $ plus transportation. B. Stevenson advised the lowest transportation number is $ each way; the PTA is willing to kick in. J. Lewis advised there is a possibility the ACCESS bus could take the luggage. B. Stevenson advised the trip would be October 5 th 9 th. Mel Harrison advised they haven t even had a PTA meeting yet, so she hasn t heard about this. Maybe she needs to have an issue with the PTA. Feels to promise something like that is a poor decision. B. Stevenson doesn t think those were the exact words. J. Cardinale asked what staff would be going. J. Lewis and B. Stevenson are unsure now. R. Horton asked with the savings from oil, could we do this? B. Stevenson Were thinking parents pay $ and the school pays $67.00 minus what is fundraised.

4 Val Carey advised part of the reason for the deal was they had a cancellation and the late booking date. After discussion, J. Cardinale MOVED that if parents pay $ before the day the students leave, the School will pay the balance; NO SECOND. T. Croteau MOVED to pay tuition and bussing for Nature s Classroom out of the Field Trip and Transportation lines; SECONDED by: K. Bazan, after discussion, VOTED: 3-1 (J. Cardinale no), MOTION PASSED. E. Jackson was asked to be kept in the loop on nature s Classroom. Sue Rice feels they should start early with any raising of funds for next year. SUPERINTENDENT S REPORT: The Board received J. Lewis report. *Staff Luncheon went well. *Opening day went smoothly; current census is 429. *Next Selectmen s meeting is September 9 th. *Sent home orange form to be completed by parents for CEP. *Need to add two more handicapped parking spots; one for the van. *Thank-you to Sarah Lounder for doing lice checks. There were minimal issues. *First fire drill was today. Everyone was accounted for in nine minutes. *Medicaid money to be secure is $30,000. Not all paperwork has been completed. COMMITTEE REPS: Finance: J. Lewis has been in contact with members; need one more. Will set meeting dates at the next Board meeting. Legislative Action/Policy: K. Bazan thinks they should look at a policy for bed bugs. J. Lewis Need to review other policies, too. Negotiations: Meeting will be held next Friday. Energy Conservation: R. Horton advised they have information on a gentlemen to talk to about energy conservation. R. Horton advised at the next Board meeting they will review committees and see if everyone is happy with what committees they are on. R. Horton advised he received a call from Matt Nanci from the Keene Sentinel about CEP, E. Jackson as the new business manager and the new assistant principal role and how it works. He also asked about the previous principal, the audit and the new science lab. J. Cardinale MOVED to go into non-public session at 9:12 pm; under RSA91-A:3 (a) SECONDED by: K. Bazan yes, K. Bazan yes, R. Horton yes, J. Cardinale yes, T. Croteau, MOTION PASSED. J. Cardinale MOVED to leave non-public session at 9:35pm; SECONDED by: K. Bazan, VOTED: T. Croteau yes, K. Bazan yes, R. Horton yes, J. Cardinale yes, MOTION PASSED. R. Horton advised while in non-public session the Board discussed transfer of hourly wage to a salary position. J. Cardinale MOVED to seal the minutes of non-public session; SECONDED by: T. Croteau, VOTED: 4-0, MOTION PASSED. J. Cardinale MOVED to adjourn the meeting at 9:37 pm; SECONDED by: T. Croteau, VOTED: 4-0, MOTION PASSED. Respectfully submitted, Peggy Higgins School Board Secretary

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