Mount Desert School Department
Mount Desert School Committee
Minutes
The Mount Desert School Committee held a meeting on Wednesday, 3 March 2010, with the following
members present: Chair Heather Jones, Brian Reilly, Gail Marshall, and Charlie Wray.
Absent: Laura Hendricks
Also present were Scott McFarland, Rob Liebow, Sumner Rulon-Miller, Cathy Abraham, and students
Samantha Luck and Ronnie Musetti
CALL TO ORDER
Heather Jones called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
MOVED by Brian Reilly, seconded by Gail Marshall and unanimously voted to approve the minutes of
February 3rd 2010 as written.
Public Comment
Sumner Rulon-Miller asked several question which will be addressed as a part of the school committee
meeting.
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
Principal McFarland presented his report (see attached Principal’s Report)
DISCUSSION ITEMS
• 8th Grade Class Trip Update: 8th grade students Ronnie Musetti and Samantha Luck presented
their 8th grade class trip plans to “Historic Boston”. At this point they have raised a total of $7200
and will need to raise an additional $3200 with the upcoming 8th grade dinner/auction.
• Update on Investments of Reserve Funds: Chairperson Heather Jones informed the committee
that she has met with the town clerk about the reserve funds and the general school account. In
regard to the general fund, the town clerk would like to see the school budget more “visible” for
accounting purposes. At this point it will be left to him to make the type of structural changes that
would allow this to happen. The other item that Heather met with the town clerk about was the
status of the school’s reserve funds. Currently they are not in any type of investment fund but the
committee would need to make a request to the town in order to change this status. Will be
discussed at a later meeting once the budget and town meeting process was over.
• Solar Panels – Charlie Wray spoke with Skip Strong about the Pemetic project that currently has
12 panels at a total cost of about $17,000. Biggest benefit of this project is the educational
component in terms of students monitoring electrical use, etc. Payback for the project is projected
to be about 15 years.
• NECAP Presentation: Principal McFarland presented the results of the 2010 NECAP test
scores. In summary 84% of MDES students in grades 3-8 met or exceeded the standards in
reading compared to 70% for the state average. In math 77% of the students met or exceeded the
math standards compared to 62% for the state average.
Action Items:
• Second Reading and adoption of Policy IHBAA – R – Referral/Pre-referral Administrative
Procedure: MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Charlie Wray and unanimously voted to
approve Policy IHBAA – R – Referral/Pre-referral Administrative Procedure as written.
Other Business:
• PolyCom Equipment: MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Charlie Wray and unanimously
voted to pursue a 2010 RUS-DLT grant, and to authorize the Superintendent, Rob Liebow, to sign
all related documents and to commit matching funds on behalf of the school district.
• Budget update: Superintendent Liebow advised the committee that the increase for BC/BS has
just been announced with a 2% increase (compared to the 10% that was budgeted) and that our
fuel cost was locked in at a lower cost than budgeted. Additionally we have also received good
news that our loss of subsidy will be less than anticipated which all translates into a lower budget
than was approved earlier. These changes will be voted on Monday evening.
• Unpaid leave request: MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Charlie Wray and unanimously
voted to approve 2 unpaid days of leave for Heather Graves as requested.
• Warrant Committee meeting: Warrant committee dinner and meeting will be held on March
17th at 5:30 PM at the NEH town meeting hall.
DATE, TIME AND PLACE OF NEXT MEETING
April 7, 2010 at 4:00 P.M. at Mount Desert Elementary School
Future Agenda Items
• Solar panels
• Reserve funds
EXECUTIVE SESSION
MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Brian Reilly, and unanimously voted to enter executive session
at 5:40 p.m. pursuant to 1 M.R.S.A. § 405(6)(A) for the purpose of discussing a personnel issue.
At 6:00 p.m. the committee came out of executive session.
ADJOURNMENT
MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Charlie Wray and unanimously voted to adjourn the meeting
at 6:01 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Scott McFarland
Mount Desert Elementary School
Principal’s Report for March 3, 2010
Presented by Scott McFarland
1) Our PTO group is sponsoring a program “Kids Can Grow”. This is a program
designed for 2nd and 3rd graders that teaches and promotes gardening skills through
a home garden.
2) The Science Fair this year has an invention theme and will be held in May. As a kickoff
to the project, Brian Cote had several local inventors come in and present the
invention process to the middle school students
3) As a way to help fill the gap between basketball and baseball/softball season, the
middle school team has come up with a series of afterschool activities for students
that include floor hockey, ecology walks, ice fishing trips, ski trips and robotics
4) The annual Lip Synch/Talent Show occurred this month. This event has evolved
from primarily a lip synch event to one that is primarily a showcase of student
talents and interests. Personally I revised my award
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