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CESU Governing Board &
MMMUSD School Board 3/16/15 Draft Minutes
1
Chittenden East Supervisory Union
Governing Board Meeting
&
Mt. Mansfield Modified Union School District
School Board Meeting
March 16, 2015
CESU Governing Board meeting called to order at 6:34 pm
In attendance: Kevin Campbell, Megs Keir, Breck Knauft, Dave Clark, Lucinda Preston, Andrew
Pond , Jon Milazzo, John Alberghini, Diane Kirson-Glitman, Les Kanat, Chip Noonan, Beth
Racine, Susan Lillich, Andrew Davis, Peter Geiss, Edye Graning, Anna Chaffee
Public in attendance: Andrea Ogilvie, Diane Wasser, Marie Thomas, Jennifer Botzojorns
1. Community Comments: Andrea Ogilvie. In her “past life” she was an auditor. Likes to
make sure t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted. Is not sure that the proper procedure is being
followed with the transition to the new board. Feels that it would be cleaner if the old CESU
board petitions the government that we’d like to change to this new structure as opposed to
the new governing board saying that we are now making the change. Suggested that the
old board should be reconvened at the Annual Meeting to make the petition so it is a clean
switchover. Andrea also said that by state statute, unless a board petitions otherwise, each
member district has 3 representatives on the board and a district that has no school and no
teachers can only have 1 member.
2. Review and potential approval of the 2015-16 school calendar.
The administrators have looked at the calendar and have come up with a proposed 2015-16
calendar that meets the needs of students, teachers and financial matters.
Required by Law:
- must be approved by April 1
- 175 common days
- Vacation and non-common days can be used for inservice/professional development or
student days.
In CESU:
- 178 days
- 8 inservice
- Total of 186 work days
The significant change is that the proposed calendar has a 2 hour delayed start, once per
month, for students. This would be used for Professional Development time for teachers . Why
do we need more professional development time? Because of these 5 new requirements or
mandates:
-The new Education Quality Standards (EQS) requires school systems to embed professional
learning into the school day.
CESU Governing Board &
MMMUSD School Board 3/16/15 Draft Minutes
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-The implementation of Personal Learning Plans (PLP) at middle and high school (mandate),
-Implementing proficiency based graduation requirements (State mandate in EQS)
-Implementation of common core
-K-12 Data teams (in EQS)
Board Discussion, Questions and Comments about the 2 hour delay on the 2nd Wednesday
each month:
- This could be a stressor for families but this conversation needs to be had in light of all
the new requirements listed above
- Has there been any feedback from parents on this? No, we have not garnered feedback
from families to date. Looking at it as a Board first.
- Who is going to watch the kids? Would an early release be better? Some said yes.
- Are other SU’s making this change? Yes, there are a number (South Burlington, CVU,
Washington West, Burlington).
- There is an impact with early release relating to after school activities and athletics.
- Issues are different around younger and older students.
- One board member liked the consistency and that it would be able to be planned for.
- Is a day that is 2 hours short still counted as one of the 178 days? Yes.
- A survey said that one of the top issues for teachers is not having enough time to
effectively implement requirements and expectations coming from the State and CESU.
- Is this a one year thing or will this be the new standard going forward? It will be
addressed annually. Maybe some of the mandates will be reduced but not likely.
- A suggestion that a summary of accomplishments is shared with community when this is
introduced.
- There is a massive amount of work that has to be done in the next five years and without
raising costs, this two hour delay could be a way to handle it.
Peter Geiss moved to approve the 2015-16 school calendar. Susan Lillich seconded.
- A Board member wondered how we are engaging the community.
- Dave Clark brought up the community reaction to calendar 2.0 several years ago,
understands that we need to move forward but would like time to think about it, we need
to do our due diligence, this feels rushed to vote on tonight - we just got the calendar 15
minutes ago.
- Kevin Campbell agreed that it was a bit rushed.
- Beth Racine asked if it was voted down would we need to hire additional staff? No, we’d
have to look at different ways to utilize subs or defer work.
- Diane Kirson-Glitman said that having the consistent time for PD would be a big benefit
to our teachers. Preferred the two hour delayed start once a month over several one
day meetings. Thinks this is a sound plan for moving education in the right direction for
the whole district.
- Andrew Pond thinks it is worth trying. If it turns out that it is horrible, we will do
something different.
- Susan Lillich - if we defer the vote to the next month, what would we do in the interim?
Would we try to engage the community? Would we discuss it more amongst ourselves?
CESU Governing Board &
MMMUSD School Board 3/16/15 Draft Minutes
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-
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Jon Milazzo - people need to get their head wrapped around the change. This issue finding the time to follow the mandates in the working day - comes up in negotiations. If
it is not in the working day it costs money.
Megs Kier- has this calendar been shown to the principals? Yes, and they are
unanimously in favor but are aware that there will be challenges.
Call on the Motion to vote . Most Aye. 2 Nay. Calendar 2015-2016 is approved.
3. Approve Golden Apple Award Nominations. The Golden Apple Award goes back about
20 years and is a tradition that honors volunteers in the school that go above and beyond. The
names of nominees were passed out to board members who were told not to say any of the
names out loud so it would remain a surprise.
Edye Graning motioned to approve. Lucinda Preston seconded. All in favor, motion
passes.
Dave Clark strenuously objected to receiving things at the meeting and being asked to vote on
them within minutes (ie 2015-16 Calendar and Golden Apple Awards). Does not want to rubberstamp issues.
Jon Milazzo said you have to trust that people and committees have done their job.
Breck Knauft said that he agreed the process should provide materials ahead of time.
Chip Noonan- should this (Golden Apples) even be brought to the board then? Can it be
handled at a committee level?
Jon noted that every effort will be made to make sure the board gets material in advance.
All in favor. Motion carries
4. CESU Annual Meeting date: John Alberghini recommends that the Board schedules the
CESU Annual Meeting on May 13 and that is the date that it is tentatively scheduled for at 6:30.
This is when the Golden Apple Awards will be given. The Board agreed and the meeting date
for the CESU Annual Meeting is May 13, 2015 at 6:30 pm at Browns River Middle School.
5. CESU By-Laws Update: John Alberghini has been working with an attorney and the AOE
to put together a draft of by-laws that are consistent with the Articles that passed on November
4, 2015. He will forward a Draft to the board this week to consider approving on April 6. The
guidance from our attorney and the AOE says that this board needs to approve the by-laws and
get them to the State Board of Education. If we approve on April 6, they will be forwarded to the
State Board of Education on April 7.
6. Pursuant to Title 16§563(1), the following policies are hereby warned for review with
tentative approval in April 2015. This pertains to the MMMUSD and Huntington.
The policies that are proposed to be rescinded: 320 - Health services; 325- HIV/AIDS; 330Immunizations; 400 - Student Medications. The reason for rescinding these policies is that they
CESU Governing Board &
MMMUSD School Board 3/16/15 Draft Minutes
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do not need their own “stand alone” policy and the way they are written, and when they were
written, makes them out dated.
The policy up for approval in April - School Health Services Policy - covers all of the above in an
up to date manner.
Les - should the policy have #12 added after CESU? Yes.
Chip - The links need to be updated. Edit Note: Remove the external links from the policy.
A Motion to Approve the School Health Services Policy was made by Breck Knauft.
Seconded by Kevin Campbell. All in favor. Motion passes.
Policies to rescind have been warned and will be voted on at the next meeting.
Other business:
Breck stated that it is important to make clear that Huntington should be referred to only as
“Huntington” or as a “non merged educational district”. He has heard Huntington being referred
to as an “Independent District” several times over the past month and this is incorrect.
Megs affirmed that Huntington still very much feels a part of CESU. She concurs with what
Breck is saying and stated that her community also feels this way.
The CESU Governing Board Meeting concluded at 7:45 pm.
MMMUSD School Board Meeting
In attendance: Same as above. Megs Keir moved to the “public seating area”
7. Community Comments:
No comments
8. Annual meeting and budget vote results:
- For the $42,904,392 MMMUSD Budget: 1842 in favor/948 opposed. John Alberghini
commended Kevin Campbell for a job well done with the many budget presentations.
He and Kevin will be meeting to discuss what they learned from the process. John
opened the floor to discussion on the process.
- Dave Clark thought the change in the flyer was a good change.
- Edye felt that the flyer was short on the data
- Breck - asked if there were any themes to the comments made at the various budget
presentation forums? Kevin - Overall, the attendees did like the way the data was
presented. There was very little question or challenge on how things were budgeted.
- Les would like to see historical per pupil spending displayed in a more obvious way.
- Jon encouraged the board members to send any additional comments to Kevin or John
Alberghini.
- Jon recommended that next year there be 2 machines to count the votes so the results
can be reported faster.
CESU Governing Board &
MMMUSD School Board 3/16/15 Draft Minutes
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9. School Board Governance Framework. John Alberghini presented a primer on the various
governance structures used by organizations. This is to begin the discussion and provide
guidance on what additional information may be needed as the board determines how it wants
to govern itself. Several governance models:
- Traditional
- Policy Governance
- Corporate
John Alberghini went through the Traditional and Policy Governance models and how they
work.
Dave - Do you have any information on other organizations that have used the Policy
Governance structure that he can share with the Board? No, but there are some local people
that can come in and present about their experience with Policy Governance. Also, John
suggested looking at South Burlington, Randolph and Essex Town policies and meeting minutes
since they are using the Policy Governance structure.
Andrew Davis- With all the other work we have, why are we talking about this now?
John - As the board is forming, it is a good time to decide how it will govern itself.
The Board agreed that they are willing to continue this discussion. Les would like to hear pros
and cons for each structure (Policy and Traditional).
Further discussion on Governance Structure will be on the Agenda for the next meeting.
10. Student Representative’s Report: Anna Chaffee.
- MMU Blood Drive a few weeks ago. Goal was surpassed. Lots of student involvement.
- Spring Musical Young Frankenstein is coming up on March 26-29.
- Spring Sports starting up- pre-season begins March 23.
- NHS hosted a Dodgeball tournament. 16 different teams. Big success.
- SBAC testing for Juniors is coming up soon
- The Winter Carnival. There was a contest with Essex High School to see who could
bring in the most items for the food shelf. MMU won! Lots of fun and student
participation plus an enormous amount of food was raised.
The student representatives reached out to students at various other CESU schools and asked
them to contribute a report for them to share with the board:
BRMS:
- I-did-a-run event. On the Friday before February Break, the BRMS students formed
groups of different ages for this fun school wide event that consisted of making a sled
with your team and then testing it out.
- In January participated in Penguin Plunge and raised over $10,000 for Special Olympics.
- The Spring Musical Once On this Island was performed this week.
CESU Governing Board &
MMMUSD School Board 3/16/15 Draft Minutes
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SMILIE:
- Some classes are working on superpower writing pieces
- Smilie Reads- school read over 2,000 books or chapters
- Smilie Days - whole school went to Bolton Valley to Ski
- VYCC coming to school (for the 3rd time)
- The 4th grade is taking a class trip to Arbor Trek for some zip lining
11. Superintendent’s Report:
- The H361 Education Reform Bill is moving quickly through the House. VSBA is strongly
opposed to the spending cap proposed in the Bill. John Alberghini thinks it is important
to contact your Representatives if you think it is not a good idea. Andrew Pond said that
you should also contact your Senators if you feel this way.
12. Committee Reports:
a. Finance: no report
b. Policy: We are required to have a Title 1 Comparability Policy. It is a requirement
because we receive Title 1 Funds and we need to make sure that all our schools are
offering them in a comparable way. It will be voted on at the next meeting.
c. Negotiations: We have reached some TA’s with both the teachers and support staff at
this point. Monetary issues still being looked at with both parties. FYI tomorrow’s
meeting with the support staff has been cancelled.
d. VSBA: Continue to read the alerts as they come out to stay on top of the issues.
13. Approval of previous meeting minutes: February 16, February 26.
Andrew Pond moved to approve the meeting minutes from February 16 and February 26,
2015. Seconded by Les Kanat. All approved. Motion passes.
14. Other business:
Preschool Update. Right now we have school based programs in Richmond and Smilie. There
will be Partnerships at UID (Saxon Hill), UCS and JES. (YMCA) beginning in August 2015. We
are going to provide ALL eligible students from ages 3-5 EEE services. It is not a good model
or best practice to offer a preschool in the north end that is only made up of EEE students (as it
has been for years). Support personnel will be working with eligible EEE students. These
partnerships were formed based on a survey of what type of preschool parents would like to
see. The results were:
92 school based preschool
99 private preschool
45 undecided
15. Set next meeting agenda:
Peter Geiss reminded the others that he would still like to see a presentation on the checks and
balances on how the money is spent as discussed at the meeting on December 20.
CESU Governing Board &
MMMUSD School Board 3/16/15 Draft Minutes
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Other agenda items:
Decision about our identity. Our letterhead, design….establish some consistency.
John said that there is already a new letterhead and that there still needs to be both a CESU
letterhead and the MMMUSD.
- checks and balances to fiduciary responsibilities
- roles and responsibilities of finance committee
- policy : comparability - approve, rescind the 4
16. Executive Session: No Executive Session.
Multiple motions and seconds to Adjourn. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 9:15 pm
Respectfully submitted by Andrea Sandy.