Mount Desert School Department
Mount Desert School Committee
Minutes
The Mount Desert School Committee held a meeting on Wednesday, 3 December 2008, with the following members present: Chair Heather Jones, Charlie Wray, Laura Hendricks and Brian Reilly. Gail Marshall was absent.
Also present were Scott McFarland, Rob Liebow, Jane Fenno-Vaux and Kelly Dean
CALL TO ORDER
Heather Jones called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Minutes of 5 November 2008 will be approved at the December 17th meeting.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Principal McFarland introduced Kelly Dean, the new president of the PTO to the committee.
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
Principal McFarland presented his report.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
• MYDAUS Survey Results: Principal McFarland presented the 2007-08 MYDAUS (Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey) results to the committee for last year’s 6th, 7th and 8th grade students.
• Updates to Support Staff Salaries and Policies: Superintendent Liebow presented proposed changes for support staff salaries and policies which included an increase of .15 cents on the base, the elimination of category I, moving Head Cooks up one category and various language changes associated with policies
ACTION ITEMS
• Sabbatical Request –MOVED by Charlie Wray, seconded by Brian Reilly and unanimously voted to approve Jane Fenno-Vaux’s sabbatical request for 2009-2010 using the 50% salary and benefits model as stated in the contract. The committee tabled the request for tuition reimbursement until the January school committee meeting.
• Selection of Voting Members for Next High School Board Meeting – MOVED by Brian Reilly, seconded by Charlie Wray and unanimously voted to approve the slate of Charlie Wray, Heather Jones, and Brian Reilly as voting members for the next high school board meeting
Other Business
• Principal McFarland informed the committee that he would like to use funds to install a silent alarm (approximately $800-$900) in the main office as recommended by a recent multi-hazard inspection conducted through the Hancock County Sherriff’s Office. Funds would come out of one of the maintenance budget lines and may need to have funds shifted from the building reserve fund at the end of the year.
• Brian Reilly discussed with the committee if the committee should take an official stand on the high school funding formula issue. MOVED by Brian Reilly, seconded by Charlie Wray and unanimously voted to support a careful re-examination of the high school funding formula.
• Heather Jones informed the committee that she would like to pursue exploring ideas for moving the committee in the direction of being more paperless.
DATE, TIME AND PLACE OF NEXT MEETING
Budget meeting: December 17, 2008 at 5:00 P.M. at Mount Desert Elementary School
Next regular School Committee meeting: January 7th at 4:00 P.M. at Mount Desert Elementary School
Future Agenda Items
• Tuition request?
• Funding formula
• Budget
Adjournment
MOVED by Charlie Wray, seconded by Heather Jones and unanimously voted to adjourn the meeting at 5:31 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Scott McFarland, Principal
Principal’s Goals
For
2008-2009
1. Continue to create a school atmosphere that fosters student physical, social and emotional “wealth”.
2. Continue to implement the concept of “Whatever it Takes” to the degree that every student that does not meet the standard in literacy and math is identified and appropriate strategies are planned, implemented and assessed to determine their effectiveness. Specifically, this year I plan to focus my attention on math instruction through a combination of data analysis, classroom observations, and discussions with teachers and grade span teams.
3. Support curriculum implementation and provide teacher classroom support. As a follow-up to Rob’s professional plan, I have blocked out Fridays on my calendar that I am committing to working in the classroom with a different teacher/class each week.
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