Mount Desert School Department
Mount Desert School Committee
Minutes
The Mount Desert School Committee held a meeting on Wednesday, 1 December 2010, with the following
members present: Chair Heather Jones, Laura Hendricks, Gail Marshall and Brian Reilly (via phone conference)
Also present were Scott McFarland, Joanne Harriman, and Marilyn Moore
CALL TO ORDER
Heather Jones called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Brian Reilly, and unanimously voted to accept the minutes of
November 3, 2010 as presented.
MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Laura Hendricks, and unanimously voted to accept the minutes
of October 12, 2010 as presented.
MOVED by Charlie Wray, seconded by Gail Marshall, and unanimously voted to accept the minutes of
October 6, 2010 as presented.
PUBLIC COMMENT
There was no public comment.
REPORTS
Principal’s Report - Principal McFarland presented his report (see attached Principal’s Report).
DISCUSSION ITEMS
• Update on District/School Goals – Principal McFarland outlined for the committee the staff
work that has been accomplished around the district/school goals via his Principal’s Report.
• Preliminary Budget – Principal McFarland presented the preliminary budget to the school
committee that included an anticipated carryover amount of roughly $150,000 (unaudited). A
draft of the entire 2011-2012 budget will be presented in January.
• Special Ed Reserve Fund Pool – MOVED by Charlie Wray, seconded by Brian Reilly and
unanimously voted to elect Laura Hendricks as the MDES representative for the Special
Education Reserve Fund Pool Exploratory Committee.
• 8th Grade Class Trip Proposal – Agreed not to make any changes to the existing guidelines at
this time.
OTHER BUSINESS
• Gym use – Principal McFarland pointed out how the existing practice regarding the need for a
staff member to be present when the gym is in use presents some limitations to the gym use due
to the expense associated with hiring staff. Agreed to put this issue on a future agenda and that
Principal McFarland will email the committee members the current policy and check with Nancy
about liability issues.
• MMA Risk Assessment Report – Principal McFarland reported out to the committee that a
recent risk assessment by Maine Municipal Association resulted in two minor recommendations
that are in the process of being implemented.
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
• Budget
• Update of District/School Goals
• Gym use policy
• Bullying programs
• Election of voting members for AOS meetings
DATE, TIME AND PLACE OF NEXT MEETING
Next regularly scheduled meeting January 5, 2010 at 4:00 PM
ADJOURNMENT
MOVED by Laura Hendricks, seconded by Gail Marshall and unanimously voted to adjourn the meeting
at 5:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Scott McFarland
Mount Desert Elementary School
Principal’s Report for
December 1, 2010
The fall winds are blowing (as evidenced by the loss of roof shingles on the garage) and winter is fast
approaching as we draw to the conclusion of the 1st trimester of the 2010-2011 school year. Things are
running very smoothly at school and I continue to marvel at the lack of behavior issues that allows us to
focus on the education of our students. I attribute this climate to many factors that starts with the value
that we place on our students and the implementation of proactive strategies such as Responsive
Classroom techniques, availability of high quality counseling services, and a dedicated staff that has
outstanding management skills (to just name a few). As a school we have had a couple of exciting
moments within our school family, namely the birth of a baby boy (Landon Michael Heniser) and Brain
Cote’s recent news that he has received National Board Certification. Congratulations to both Brian and
Becky and Michael Heniser, we are all very proud!
Within the realm of curriculum and instruction, Kate St. Denis is busily working with our students and
teachers with math interventions. Many of the teachers (including myself) are actively searching for an
opportunity to take a graduate level math literacy course. Our staff definitely has a strong desire for
becoming stronger math literacy instructors. For writing instruction our K-5 teachers spent an entire
afternoon working with Jeff Valance, who is helping is navigate the writing continuum in a way that ties
our Lucy Calkins writing program, Write Traits and Common Core standards together in a clear and
comprehensive manner. This work will continue for the next 2- 3 months and will involve more work
with Jeff who is a masterful facilitator for this type of work. Our staff has also been trained in the process
of the sharing of monthly units. Each month teachers are asked to go into FirstClass and fill out a
template for their units. This set-up allows for all teachers to view teacher’s units and the learning goals at
each grade level (and district wide) that provides an opportunity for the communication of curriculum to a
degree that has not been possible in the past.
On the garden project front, we are excited that we have received enough funding through the PTO and
private sources to hire Jasmine Smith to work on the details of the project that will include curriculum
development, garden design and greenhouse design. We are all very excited about this step forward with
this project. If all goes well we will have all of the details including cost estimates by this spring.
Maintenance wise, we have just completed the refinishing of the gym floor and will be re-shingling the
roof of the garage since we lost half of the shingles during one of the recent windstorms. We are also
looking at making changes in the tech closet that houses all of the network servers and switches that will
include the possible addition of a waterless fore suppression system.
Upcoming key dates, etc.
• December 3 – End of First Trimester
• December 3 – Frog Town Puppet Show 3:30 PM
• December 8 – early release for grading
• December 15 – Fall sports social 6:15
• December 22 – Island wide middle school movie at Criterion theater
• December 23 – Winter break begins
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