Wentworth School Board

Monday, May 23rd, 2005 – 6:00 pm
School Board Meeting Minutes
Wentworth Elementary School

Members Present: Michelle Clark, and Deborah Gelsi

Administration Present: Jeff Keene - Principal WES, Ethel Gaides – SAU 48

Also Present: Barbara Loughman, attorney representing SAU48 and WES; Tamara Burrows, Laurie Dustin, Melody Gaudette, Lee Morrison, Mark Parson, Vinny Samson.

 

Michelle Clark moves to open meeting at 6:00 pm

Deborah Gelsi 2nd’s. There are no objections, motion carries.

Deborah Gelsi moves to amend the agenda to move Non Public Session as the first order of business and reflect Student Issues.

Michelle Clark 2nd’s. There are no objections and the motion carries.

Non-Public Session.
Non Public (RSA 91-A: 3) Exclusive allowable purposes are: personnel issues, nominations and hiring, reputation, sale or acquisition of property, litigation, 91-A: 2 (non meetings) consultant with legal counsel or negotiations, 91-A: 5 student records or information deemed confidential, personal or invasion of privacy.

Michelle Clark motions to move to Non Public at 6:05
Deborah Gelsi 2nd’s. There are no objections, motion carries.

Michelle Clark motions to return from Non Public at 7:05 pm.
Deborah Gelsi 2nd’s. There are no objections, motion carries.

There was no action taken in Non Public.

Deborah Gelsi motions to accept as written the recommended policy on “Change of School Assignment”
Michelle Clark 2nd’s. There are no objections, motion carries.

Michelle Clark motions to accept the minutes of May 3rd 2005 as presented. Ethel Gaides informs the board that there was not enough time to advertise the open board position in the Record Enterprise as requested by the board at the May 3rd meeting.
Deborah Gelsi 2nd’s motion. There are no objections, motion carries.

Principal’s Report – Mr. Keene gave his end of year report and is attached to these minutes.
Deborah Gelsi motions to accept report as presented.
Michelle Clark 2nd’s. There are no objections, motion carries.

Ethel Gaides informs the board that there are 4 applicants for the position created by the resignation of Scott Vien. The applicants are, Laurie Dustin, Scott Goodale, Lee Morrison and Douglas Muzzey.

Deborah Gelsi asks the SAU who the 4th applicant was, as she had been advised two days after the deadline that there were 3 applicants. Mrs. Gaides confirms that Douglas Muzzey was the 4th applicant and that his application had been forwarded by a third party a few days after the deadline and SAU Superintendent Halloran approved the inclusion of the applicant.

Deborah Gelsi motions to have the SAU set up interviews with the candidates.
Michelle Clark 2nd’s. There are no objections and motion carries.

Enrollment Update.

Deborah Gelsi as chairperson of the Enrollment committee informs the board that she has spoken with the Selectmen and the Inventory forms are available for public viewing. Mrs. Gelsi requests again, that the research used by the previous board to determine enrollment, which led to the discussion of closing the school, be provided to the committee to save time and effort and avoid duplicating research.

Tuesday June 7th at 6:30 at the WES, the board will hold a policy work session to discuss what policies are needed to bring WES current with state and federal guidelines.

Ethel Gaides led a discussion on curriculum – specifically the Math, Language Arts, Science and English Language Arts Curriculums. The curriculums are posted on the SAU website. The board congratulates the SAU and the committees for all of the hard work in aligning and developing the curriculums.

Michelle Clark motions to accept the curriculum guides as written.
Deborah Gelsi 2nd’s. There are no objections and motion carries.

Miss Bagley is the authorized representative for the 8th Grade Class trip to Montreal.
Chaperones are Mrs. Mack, Mrs. Dustin, Mrs. Bagley, Mrs. Borger, Mrs. Bixby and Mrs. Toomey. There are 29 students in all attending with 12 from Wentworth and 17 from Rumney.

Deborah Gelsi motions to authorize the trip to Montreal.
Michelle Clark 2nd’s. There are no objections and motion carries.

Destination Imagination update.

Total Cost of trip was $7,692.40
REAP Fed. Grant was $5,543.62
Donations received was $1,952
Balance remaining for trip is $196.78

Ethel Gaides provided copies of the thank you letters she sent on behalf of the WES to the private donors

Michelle Clark motions to authorize Deborah Gelsi to research mutually beneficial educational issues and options with the Warren School Board.
Deborah Gelsi 2nd’s. There are no objections and motion carries. Further, Mrs. Gelsi states that she has no plans at this time to meet with Warren until the study committees have completed their research

Recognition and Awards.

The Board wishes the DI team luck and congratulates them for their achievement.

The Board congratulates the teachers and staff of WES for staying with their ambitions and agenda to improve instruction at WES.

Privilege of the Floor.

SAU to put out bids for boiler. The facilities committee is requesting that these be done immediately as they had requested them at the last meeting and the bids have not gone out. Mrs. Gaides confirms that Jon Francis, director of Facilities for the SAU is charged with the bid responsibility and she will speak with him the following day to get an update. Mrs. Gelsi asks that the chair of the facilities committee, Mr. Hinckley be updated as soon as possible. Mr. Morrison asks why we are seeking bids for the boiler when the article was reduced at town meeting? Mrs. Gelsi and Mrs. Clark advise Mr. Morrison that the article was reduced to reflect the installation of the boiler first and foremost and the air handlers at another date.

Mr. Parsons asks if we currently have space for a kindergarten. He is advised that this is one of the agenda items for Facilities and Enrollment committees.

Deborah Gelsi motions to adjourn at 8:37 pm.
Michelle Clark 2nd’s. There are no objections and motion carries.

Respectfully,

Deborah Gelsi
School Board Member and Secretary.