Mount Desert School Department
Mount Desert School Committee
Minutes
The Mount Desert School Committee held a meeting on Wednesday, 4 March 2009, with the following members present: Chair Heather Jones, Charlie Wray, Gail Marshall, Laurel Hendricks and Brian Reilly
Also present were Scott McFarland, Rob Liebow, Kate St. Denis, Paula Moody, Judith Cullen, and
Jackie Wheaton
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 February 5, 2009.
PUBLIC COMMENT
There was no public comment.
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
Principal McFarland presented his report to the committee.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
• Blended Classrooms: Principal McFarland, along with a group of teachers, presented a plan for a partial blending of the 2nd and 3rd grade classes and for creating some blending opportunities for the other grades. The school committee gave their approval for continuing the process that will include an opportunity for parent feedback. The committee will be provided with an update at the April meeting.
• Math Intervention: Kate St. Denis provided an update on the math intervention program that she is leading. The program is focused on early intervention and Kate reports that all of her students demonstrated gains with their math skills.
• Residency Policy: Heather Jones shared a draft with the committee – to be continued.
• 8th class trip policies: Discussion about the status of the current class trip which demonstrates the need to establish policies and guidelines for the future – to be continued.
Other Business
• The committee was informed that there will be two school committee seats become vacant this year along with 2 MDIHS Trustee seats.
• The committee was presented with a revised 2009-10 school budget due to a change in the state subsidy and a new fuel oil price that the town will be locking into. MOVED by Charlie Wray, seconded by Laurel Hendricks and unanimously voted to approve the revised 2009-10 school budget of $3,080,755.
DATE, TIME AND PLACE OF NEXT MEETING
April 1, 2009 at 4:00 P.M. at Mount Desert Elementary School
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
• Residency policy
• Principal’s evaluation
• 8th grade class trip policies and guidelines
• Probationary teacher contracts
• Blended classroom update
EXECUTIVE SESSION
MOVED by Gail Marshall, seconded by Brian Reilly and unanimously voted to enter executive session at 6:03 p.m. pursuant to 1 M.R.S.A. § 405(6)(A) for the purpose of discussing a personnel issue.
At 6:33 p.m. the committee came out of executive session.
ADJOURNMENT
MOVED by Brian Reilly, seconded by Charlie Wray and unanimously voted to adjourn the meeting
at 6:35 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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