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Jaclson School Board Minutes -- 11/16/2015
MINUTES OF MEETING
JACKSON SCHOOL BOARD
Jackson Grammar School
November 16, 2015


  • Call to Order:  The Nov. 16th meeting of the Jackson School Board was called to order at 6:00 p.m. Present were Jerry Dougherty, Daniel Mahood, Jessica DellaValla, Genn Anzaldi, Keith Bradley, Supt. Kevin Richard, Asst. Supt. Kadie Wilson, and Principal, Gayle Dembowski.  There were eight members of public/ staff present.  
                        
  • Approve Minutes (10-19-15) – Mr. Bradley noted that Pg. 2, Item B., Skis on Buses, should reflect that he reported Mr. Voci told him it should not be a problem.  Motion was made by Mr. Bradley, seconded by Ms. Anzaldi, that the minutes of the Oct. 19th meeting be approved as amended.  Motion carried by unanimous vote.  
  • Citizen Comments:  None.   
  • Presentation of School Programs/FYI Items:  
  •  SAU – Other School Board Reports – Mr. Richard deferred this to later on
the agenda.

  • Old Business:  None.
     6.        Instructional Issues:  
    
        A.  Consider Second Reading and Adoption of Revised Policy KG – Use of School Buildings - Motion made by Mr. Bradley, second by Ms. Anzaldi, to approve revised Policy KG, Use of School Buildings, at second reading, with policy changes as discussed.  Mr. Mahood questioned whether it would have a link to the website regarding the cost.  Ms. Dembowski stated it is on the sheet that people fill out on the website.  It was agreed Board policy would contain the form from the WCC webpage.  Motion carried by unanimous vote.

  • Consider First Reading of Policy ID – Video and Audio Recording in
School Classrooms - Ms. DellaValla questioned whether the form attached was the one that parents had already signed.  Mr. Richard explained a public hearing was held, a policy was developed - it is a new policy with a new form.  Ms. DellaValla expressed concern that we already had a couple of hearings on a document that people had signed a different form for.  It was reported that the new form is the one that parents signed.  Mr. Dougherty stated what parents signed was not official until we approved the policy.  Motion was made by Ms. Anzaldi, seconded by Mr. Bradley, to adopt Policy ID – Video and Audio Recording in School Classrooms, as written.  Motion carried by unanimous vote.  

      7.        Consider Personnel Actions:
        
  • Consider Change in Health Insurance Waiver Language for Contracted and
Noncontracted Personnel - Mr. Bradley noted all the other Districts in the valley are paying people cash when they do not take the insurance offered by the school.  He noted we do have a policy which is only $100.  Mr. Mahood said basically we avoid paying $13,000 and instead would pay the waiver amount which is less.  Ms. DellaValla said the idea is to offer the same amount of waiver that Conway is offering to be competitive.  Mr. Bradley said if we match what other Districts are doing, technically, they are still better off coming with us because of the debit card.  Mr. Richard stated the debit card is the same from school to school.  Ms. DellaValla asked for clarification of the debit card.  Mr. Bradley explained that they can use it toward a variety of medical related items.  Mr. Richard said it was cheaper to go with a higher deductible.  Mr. Bradley stated it would only ever save us money.  It was noted that Conway and Bartlett also have debit cards.  

Motion was made by Ms. Anzaldi, seconded by Mr. Mahood, to change Jackson School District’s health insurance waiver language for contracted and noncontracted personnel to offer up to 50% of the District’s share for a 2-person plan.  Motion carried by unanimous vote.  

8.    Business Affairs:  

  •  FYI – 2015-16 Budget Status Report – Mr. Bradley questioned that we pay our
share of the bond this early in the year.  Mr. Richard said we do.  Mr. Dougherty said at the December meeting we will see the operating budget and warrant articles, will discuss those numbers and then schedule a January public hearing.  Mr. Richard said we met preliminarily with Ms. Dembowski, Ms. Wilson, Becky Jefferson and Jim Hill; December 3rd we will come back together with recommendations and will develop a proposed budget for the Board in December.  A budget hearing will be tentatively scheduled for Feb. 4th.  He advised that anyone having any concerns about the budget should contact Messrs. Bradley or Mahood, or Ms. Dembowski, or contact the SAU Office.  Mr. Bradley said it should be approved no later than the January meeting.  

  •  Consider Approval of Bartlett/Jackson Tuition Contract for the 2016-19
School Years - Mr. Bradley said he would prefer to table this.  Mr. Richard said the contract does say the second year of the agreement should be when it is renegotiated.  You have the ability to reopen with Bartlett and they would have the same opportunity to do that as well.  He provided information on noncontracted tuition rates for the Conway schools, noting there are different options.  Mr. Richard said the way it is set up, you cannot accept outside students for anything less than what the highest rate is; for instance, Hales’ Location has to pay whatever rate is the highest, based on equalized value and average daily membership.  Mr. Bradley suggested tabling this, noting looking at the current budget, we have $360,000 budgeted for Bartlett for 12 to 15 kids.  

Mr. Dougherty questioned as regards this contract, which expires in June, is this no longer valid?  Mr. Richard said you could go to Bartlett, they would make a recommendation that they would continue this contract.  The current contract expires June 30th, 2016, it was not renewed last year at the second year.  Mr. Dougherty said we could renew this one.  He said he would like to take a closer look at the numbers and see what we are paying for, noting he likes the contract, but if there are some concerns, we have to open that up with Bartlett.  He said he does not see us being obligated to do anything with it at this time - he would like to look at it in Dec. and contact Bartlett School Board’s Chair.  Mr. Mahood questioned whether it is the same wording as the contract for the last three years and was told it is.  Ms. DellaValla said she would like to look at it more closely herself.  It was agreed this will be on the agenda for the December meeting.

  • Consider Formal Vote on Expenditure of School Bus Capital Reserve Fund
Monies – Mr. Richard explained this is a request by Jackson Trustees to expend the money to buy the bus.  Motion was made by Mr. Bradley, seconded by Ms. Anzaldi, to withdraw $40,000 from the Capital Reserve Fund for buses.  Mr. Dougherty wished to know how much the bus will cost, noting if we withdraw the $40,000 we do not have to expend it – what does not get spent from the other $57,000 (approved at the annual district meeting) goes back into the budget.

Mr. Richard said the Trustees have not previously made this request.  It was noted the Board has already voted on this previously, as has the town - this is just a formality.  The motion carried with 4 votes in the affirmative and 1 abstention (DellaValla).

9.     Administrator’s Reports:

  •  Superintendent – Mr. Richard deferred to Ms. Dembowski.  
  •   Principal –
  •  Preschool Follow-up - Ms. Dembowski thanked Ms. DellaValla, Ms. Benson,
Ms. Yalenizian and Ms. Kelemen who were present, for the work they have done on the proposal for public preschool.  She reported it has been decided by Bartlett not to go forward with it and she would hope, as a Board, we would continue to keep preschool education in the forefront of our minds.  Ms. Anzaldi questioned whether the Committee has any recommendations for something in Jackson.  Ms. Dembowski stated they did not, the option they looked at was to use the space in Bartlett which seemed the most cost effective way for both communities.  Mr. Anzaldi said she would not be opposed to hearing another recommendation.  Ms. Dembowski said we could explore putting together another group to look at options for Jackson independently.  

Mr. Dougherty said what he got from the Listening Post was everyone there was open to the idea of discussing it and questioned “why can’t we do it in Jackson for publicly assisted preschool?”  He feels we should continue some effort toward that.  Ms. Benson said she has had conversations with someone interested in looking at other locations in town for a day care.  Another idea was doing a collaborative partnership with others in the community.  She said we have great programs within the MWV; there is the aspect of determining what the criteria would be for the town of Jackson to provide a quality preschool - presently there is not a rating.  The conversation is not over.  She said if people would like to be part of the work that needs to be done, please come forward.

Ms. DellaValla said she was in touch with a Jackson resident; she heard there is preschool available locally, but for some finding a way to pay for it is a challenge.  She said the biggest issue is daycare; the 0-5 community has a lot of actors doing a lot of good things.  She said it would have been helpful to have those people at the table.  There are families here who would qualify to receive assistance, but do not know how to go about getting it.  Ms. Benson said she is working presently with Jackie Sparks on a coalition.  We are looking at the quality aspect, home training programs, etc.  

Nancy Kelemen stated we asked Mr. Voci to bring the Committee back together – it was not ready for this March meeting.  We are hoping to bring them together in the spring time to answer the questions that we had to see if there is another way of revamping it.  Ms. Benson said the question is “do we want to continue working together or does Jackson want to go on their own?”  

Peter Benson said if this is a priority for the Jackson School Board, then we need to articulate that.  If it does not work with Bartlett, we need to think about can we, or should we, be doing it ourselves?  He said from an educational perspective, in this community this might be a survival tactic – necessary to keep this building and this school running.  Mr. Dougherty agreed if the Board is interested we need to be articulate about it.  There is no program that we would be looking at for this year - the best thing to do is to continue the conversation for next year.  Mr. Richard said NH does not have a voucher system – we cannot use publicly raised tax dollars to support a private preschool.  

Ms. Anzaldi said we need to continue the conversation in earnest and have it ready for the next budget cycle.  Mr. Dougherty said he is willing, noting if Jackson were to offer public preschool that would attract families to our town – we should have serious dialogue about it.  Ms. DellaValla said we want to work with Bartlett if we can.  It would be good to give direction to Ms. Dembowski to get some people together to explore it.  Ms. Dembowski said she is not sure what those questions were at the Bartlett Board meeting.  She has heard strongly that people want Jackson kids to say in Jackson.  Mr. Bradley said if we want to have a preschool we need to have a “Plan B.”  Mr. Dougherty felt at the hearing, overwhelmingly the idea was do it here and he would like to start looking at that.  Ms. Dembowski suggested maybe start with a survey and gather ideas from the community and have another Listening Post.  Ms. Benson proposed that Ms. DellaValla head up a preschool committee on behalf of the School Board.  Ms. DellaValla and Ms. Dembowski agreed to meet to begin to articulate a process.

Ms. Anzaldi agreed we should move ahead.  Mr. Benson said with what you have collectively, and as a Board, you can create the leadership and the vision - if it is just a Jackson thing that’s a lot easier.  He said getting out there and giving people the vision gets it on their minds.  Ms. DellaValla said the idea would be to have a subcommittee, more of an informative thing.  Ms. Anzaldi suggested the subcommittee gather all the information that is out there and say “here is what some of our options are so far.”  She stated Bartlett would be more than welcome to attend and share the information.  

  •  Blizzard Bags – Ms. Dembowski said she did an overview with PTO.  A
handout was provided on how it would work:  On a day that we have a school cancellation, Mr. Richard would call with a cancellation notice, she in turn would notify the teachers in the Jackson School that we are having a Blizzard Bag day.  She would get the automatic message out, there would be teachers on duty from 8 to 11 a.m.  The children would do their work for that day at home and would be required to hand it in the next day or be marked absent.  If a child were ill there would be a call from the parent to that effect.  She stated it would not be a presentation of new material.  

Ms. Dembowski asked teachers present to share things that are in their Blizzard Bags.  Joan Heysler reported she had created a Blizzard Binder specific to her class.  She said if there is no electricity and the child cannot get on line, he/she could do such things as observe the weather.  Each day there is a Unified Arts assignment, reading assignment, there would be fractions and math to do, etc.  She has included a deck of cards in the binder which will accommodate math games.  She noted these are all things they can do pretty independently.  She noted kids in Madison and their parents felt they had to do everything right – she does not expect it to come back 100% correct, She said the children will have access to their teacher from 8 to 11 a.m.  Ms. Heysler noted that Margo Robert’s packet is basically the same thing – math games, science, reading, etc.  

Kristen Grove said hers includes a color coded checklist.  She stated the teachers will be available if kids need them.  She suggested it will be a nice window into the school day for parents.  She said she looks at the first one as a test, if after the first one she gets reports from parents that it took 7 hours, she will modify it.  

Upon question of what will take place if it is necessary for a cancellation to last more than one day, Ms. Dembowski said everyday there will be a new phone call.  Mr. Dougherty said we look at this from the standpoint of let’s try it and see what happens - it is about continuity in the classroom.

10.      Citizen Comments:   

            Peter Benson thanked all for continuing to be open about the preschool question.  He noted when Jackson started having kindergarten they were one of the first to have all day kindergarten and have been commended for doing a good job at this school in education.  He noted kids from Jackson and Bartlett dominate the honors awards and honor society.  
        
11.     Board Member Issues:  
A.  Set Date for Next Meeting – December 21, 2015, 6:00 p.m.
B.  Set Date/Time for School District Meeting – March 3, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
C.  Set Date/Time for Budget Hearing – February 4, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
D.  Date/Time for January Meeting - January 19, 2016, 6:00 p.m.

Mr. Bradley said we have two maintenance trust funds – one for the school and one for the Whitney Center, and he questions whether we should look at combining them.  He noted the way it is we are keeping more money in there than we need to.  Mr. Dougherty cited the aspect of ease of use, noting with the Whitney Center we have to have a separate fund and appropriate money every year to go into that; the maintenance fund for the school we can spend on the Whitney Center, but cannot spend the money from Whitney Center fund on this building.  He said he would prefer to track the money than to open up that can of worms.  Mr. Bradley stated it is over $100,000 for the two funds.  Mr. Richard agreed to research this to see if it is feasible.

Mr. Bradley noted we have a technology trust fund with $4,000 in it.  He suggested asking whether Ms. Dembowski has a use for it and to put it into a Warrant Article to be able to spend it.  Mr. Richard will look into this as well.  

12.     Signing of Manifest:  Manifests were duly signed.

13.     Nonpublic Session:  None.   

14.     Adjourn:   Motion made by Mr. Bradley, second by Ms. DellaValla and carried by unanimous vote, that the meeting be adjourned at 7:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

                                                Gail T. Currier, Recording Secretary