Mount Desert School Department
Mount Desert School Committee
Minutes
The Mount Desert School Committee held a meeting on Thursday, 5 February 2009, with the following members present: Chair Heather Jones, Charlie Wray, Gail Marshall and Brian Reilly
Also present were Scott McFarland, Rob Liebow, Owen Craighead, and Sumner Rulon-Miller
CALL TO ORDER
Heather Jones called the meeting to order at 4:03 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Brian Reilly and unanimously voted to approve the minutes of 21 January 2009 as amended.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Sumner Rulon-Miller thanked the committee for its leadership throughout the consolidation process.
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
Principal McFarland presented his report to the committee.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
• Blended Classrooms: Principal McFarland informed the committee that the staff has been holding some planning meetings regarding the blending of some classes for the 2009-10 school year. A presentation will be available for the March meeting.
• Math Intervention: tabled until March.
• Service Learning Presentation: Principal McFarland presented a short PowerPoint presentation on service learning strategies.
• Paperless Communication: Heather Jones will continue to explore ways of facilitating paperless electronic communications with the board.
• Residency Issues: The board discussed ways to help create effective policies and guidelines with regard to those incidences that involve parents who are not meeting the intent of the residency laws. Heather Jones will continue work on policy and guidelines language.
• High School Funding Formula: Short discussion about the fact that the Selectmen recently voted to end the funding formula debate.
ACTION ITEMS
• High School Voting Members: MOVED by Charlie Wray, seconded by Gail Marshall and unanimously voted to appoint Gail Marshall, Heather Jones and Brian Reilly as the high school voting members for February, March and April, with Charlie Wray being the first alternate and Laura Hendricks, the second alternate.
• 2009-2010 School Budget: MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Brian Reilly and unanimously voted to approve the 2009-2010 school budget for the amount of $3,106,255
• 2009-2010 School Calendar: MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Charlie Wray and unanimously voted to approve the 2009-2010 school calendar as presented. Brian Reilly asked if the early release day scheduled for October could be revisited once a decision regarding fall NWEA testing has been made.
Other Business
• Principal McFarland informed the committee that one of the boilers might need a major repair. Money for this project will come out of the maintenance line but the committee may need to transfer some money from the reserve fund should it be necessary at the end of the fiscal year.
• The committee had a short discussion about fund raising for the class trip and the need for some clear guidelines for the future in regard to the scope and costs of these trips. Topic will be added to the March agenda.
DATE, TIME AND PLACE OF NEXT MEETING
March 4, 2009 at 4:00 P.M. at Mount Desert Elementary School
Future Agenda Items
• Math intervention update
• High School voting members
• Residency policy
• Principal’s self assessment
• 8th grade class trip policies and guidelines
• Negotiations (executive session)
ADJOURNMENT
MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Brian Reilly and unanimously voted to adjourn the meeting at 5:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Scott McFarland
Mount Desert Elementary School
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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