MINUTES OF MEETING
JACKSON SCHOOL BOARD
Jackson Grammar School
December 18, 2006
1. Call to Order:
The meeting of the Jackson School Board was called to order at 6:35 p.m. Present were Angus Badger, Bob Thompson, Peter Benson, Dr. Carl Nelson, and Anne Kebler. Also present was Kennett Principal, Jack Loynd. There were two members of the general public present.
2. Approval of Minutes: (12/6/06) - It was suggested that copies of the Minutes of the Dec. 6th Special Meeting be provided to John Pepper, Bill Kelley, Tim Scott, David Laurin and Jay Poulin. There was some question as to submission of the Nov. 20th Meeting Minutes, and approval of the Nov. 20th and Dec. 6th meeting Minutes was deferred until the Jan. meeting.
3. Citizen Comments: None.
4. Presentation of School Programs/FYI Items:
A. SAU – Other School Board Reports - Dr. Nelson reported there will be an SAU Board meeting on Jan. 11th at 6:30 p.m. at Granite State College which is intended to be a workshop on the Superintendent’s evaluation.
B. High School Start Time – Dr. Loynd was invited to discuss proposed new start time. Scheduling options were provided. Dr. Loynd explained the issue of later start time came up about five years ago after research showed that students’ sleep, health, and learning in high school was better with a later start time. He noted that parents from all towns were invited to a meeting and a Bartlett parent requested looking into a later start time. The Committee did the research on sleep, health and learning. Staff were asked for responses to strengths and weaknesses, students did a formal survey and brought back student opinions.
Dr. Loynd reported that last year a committee was formed to include SAU #13, the Chairman of the SAU Board, parents and teachers, and people were invited from sending Districts. They looked at flip flopping high school schedule with elementary. Elementary Principals did not want to start before 8:00 a.m. They met with the Transportation Coordinator and Athletic Director. There were many objections and obstacles, it did not seem logical. Then they were asked to move high school start time to 8:00 a.m. Transportation Coordinators were asked to come up with plans.
There were two options – #1 – Drop off at middle school at 7:20 a.m., high school at 7:35 a.m., dismissal 2:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. #2 - Drop off at middle school first (about 7:05 a.m.), then at the high school (about 7:20 a.m.); dismissal at 2:15 p.m. for middle school, high school 2:30 p.m. Dr. Loynd felt it was not up to transportation people to decide when school would open and close, but when to drop off and pick up. They then looked at drop off at 7:35 a.m., pick up at 2:52 p.m., still starting school at 8:00 a.m. (Presently there are students who are there for 25 to 30 minutes prior to school.) Drop off at 7:35 a.m. would still be feasible.
Dr. Loynd noted they were asked to solicit input from the ski coach – his opinion was that the 2:30 p.m. dismissal would have minimal impact on the ski team and would not impact the ski jumping team or cross country team which would start ten minutes later, down hill would probably lose out on ten minutes of practice. They talked about a location where there were lights. Mr. Broomhall felt the 2:45 p.m. dismissal would have a greater impact. However, with rotating schedules it does not mean skiers could not be dismissed earlier.
Dr. Loynd stated the first condition is the academic schedule; adding one minute into class times also was a consideration. The school day would be compressed by five minutes. That could be comfortably met for the students with option A and B. Dr. Badger questioned whether they considered having homeroom at the end of the day. Dr. Loynd stated that would be a problem because of taking attendance and contacting parents.
Mr. Thompson pointed out that schedule A coincides with school bus option #1. Dr. Loynd said it is closer to Option #2. Dr. Loynd favors Option B, starting at 8:00 a.m., dismissal at 2:45 p.m., noting it would fit within the transportation parameters. Dr. Nelson commented that some of the concern was the late dismissal of the elementary school. It was noted that the three Conway elementary schools like 8:00 a.m. for elementary, 9:00 a.m. for high school; this was also of interest to the southern towns.
Dr. Badger said you are talking about the most successful team sport at the high school, and it is his sense that if we were talking about basketball or football it would be a different process. Dr. Loynd said if the priority was skiing they could be dismissed early. Dr. Badger said he would like to see an option that the people involved in the ski program either approve or do not approve. Dr. Loynd stated that process does not make sense to him – he would not go to every special interest group - if you need to accommodate the ski program then you do that.
Laurie Kinsey questioned the rotating schedule. Dr. Loynd stated it is best academically. Ms. Kinsey said she does not want to see something changed specifically for sports; it effects all sports because they are getting out earlier, because the other schools are not in that same situation.
Mr. Thompson questioned the schedule for the late bus. Dr. Loynd said part of the transportation committee’s issue is whether they can get back at a certain time. He said the current system is not really what we would like, offering the scenario of a student who wants help for math for 45 minutes and has to wait around until 5:00 p.m. for the late bus.
Dr. Badger said he feels skiing is the sport that is most effected. It was noted that Kennett has tremendous advantages over any other school – a $35,000 ski budget, a cross country coach, Alpine coach, ski jumping coach and a coach coach – no other school has that level of coaching. We have tremendous support of the mountains and community. Dr. Loynd stated you start with what you are going to do academically, and then figure out the co-curricular around that. Mr. Benson said in regard to skiing, the success of the ski program in the valley is because of the snow time they get. He noted also in this school we have a longer school day and questioned how it is going to impact our longer day? Ms. Kebler did not think there would be much of an impact, noting
if they have drop off at 9:00 a.m. they will come right into class.
Mr. Benson asked Dr. Loynd if accommodations would be made for that 25 minutes if they were on a rotating schedule? Dr. Loynd stated they have that now with the MWV skiers – Jackson could make the same kind of arrangements, but would want to make sure they maintain their academic level. He noted there are 8-12 days when they have meets and do not go to school at all. Mr. Benson said in this valley some of your most successful academic students are also skiers and can probably make up that work and do well in school; in general they are the motivated kids who are going to be able to ski, and we want to be able to foster that. Dr. Nelson commented that we are only talking about the downhill skiing because eventually the long range plan is that cross country will be held at the
site of the new high school.
Mr. Thompson questioned impact on Conway after-school programs. Dr. Loynd stated they would want the early dismissal. He said everything he has read says “do not start high school students earlier than 8:00 a.m.” [Option B]. Ms. Kebler stated staff is supporting the research, but they do not want to lose the extra half hour that we have that other schools do not have. Their concern is outdoor extra curricular activities.
Mr. Benson questioned whether there are going to be changes that will ripple through the valley that we do not even know about yet and will have to shift schedules accordingly. He does not feel the trip from the new school will be as long as contemplated. Ms. Kebler said she feels gaining the extra half hour in the morning for staff time is valuable; personally, she feels the staff will still be here at the time they come anyway, but will gain quality staff time with parents and working together.
Dr. Badger noted the 2:45 p.m. dismissal and option of rotating class Dr. Loynd
does not favor, and asked what he would propose. Dr. Loynd said he would prefer that we had situations where they skied where there were lights, would like to look at other options. If they have rotating schedules where they do not miss the same class every time, that helps. Dr. Nelson stated Steve looked at the option of keeping the lift open longer. Dr. Badger stated going to King Pine for skiing is a very long way from here; keeping lifts open is expensive. He asked that a representative from the ski program be on that committee. Dr. Loynd stated they are invited; Ann Kantack represented the skiing concerns, the faculty was invited and given a chance for input; if people do not respond you have to move ahead – that is what’s happening.
Dr. Loynd feels they should schedule academic first, go back to the scheduling committee, look at these two options and others – some would involve the union – look at minimum standards for the State and teacher contracts, and then make a recommendation. Ms. Kebler said there is a parental piece to this – if a child is not doing well the last period of the day, there is an open communication between parents and teachers with regard to the ski program - when they are not succeeding academically you pull the reins in. Dr. Loynd left the meeting at 6:25 p.m.
Letter to Conway School Board: Ms. Kebler and Ms. Grady met – they felt they needed to hear tonight’s presentation before they could go further. Ms. Kebler said she thinks the concern from parents at the elementary level is the 3:30 p.m. dismissal; there are organizations that are used to kids being at (for instance) their dance class at 3:15 p.m. She said her guess is the parents will welcome a later start, but not be as excited about the early dismissal. Also, her staff likes the 6.5 hour school day and are not willing to give up that half hour.
Mr. Benson said he wants to make sure all the information is out there, guidelines provided, standards we are trying to maintain. Ms. Kebler suggested developing a survey (to be shared with the Board before it goes home). It was agreed. Dr. Nelson noted the three southern towns tend to want to stay with the current schedule. Ms. Kebler said when talking about it there was the question of whether Kennett was really gaining that much time? It was noted that Dr. Loynd favors the B/#1 option. Dr. Nelson said the way the Board might approach that after the survey, is if you as a Board favor the earlier start time, that might be part of your communication - it is not a foregone conclusion. Dr. Badger said he is interested in practical impact on parents, for instance,
some start work at 8:00 a.m.
Mr. Thompson feels the A/#2 option is at least a middle ground and gets elementary dismissal earlier. Dr. Nelson said Bartlett supports a flip flop, starting elementary at 8:00 a.m., high school at 9:00. He feels flip flop is off the table. Dr. Badger said because of contingencies involved in the after school programs, he sees Option A/#2 as the one to choose. Mr. Benson agreed that it is a kind of compromise position; his opinion in trying to find a middle ground would be that 15 minutes is not going to impact the schedule that much. Mr. Thompson felt the same way.
5. Old Business: None.
6. Instructional Issues:
A. Consider Second Reading and Adoption of Policy JECD (Admission of Nonresident Students) – Motion was made by Mr. Benson, seconded by Mr. Thompson, to remove from the table draft policy JECD second reading.
Mr. Thompson said in November there was discussion that this piece should actually be in JECB. Dr. Nelson said originally there was discussion about a separate policy, but offered to include it if the Board wants to do that. Dr. Badger said it was his understanding that there was only one sentence that was different. The Board gave the Superintendent direction to incorporate the one sentence in the current draft policy into JECB so we would only have one policy.
7. Personnel: None.
8. Business Affairs:
A. 2006-07 Budget Status Report - Dr. Nelson reported the District is in good shape at this point.
B. Review 1st Draft of Warrant Articles – It was decided to consider the articles out of order:
Article 3: To raise and appropriate $15,000 to be added to the Capital Reserve Fund (School Buses) with these funds to be offset, in part, by National Forest Reserve Funds. Motion was made by Mr. Benson, seconded by Mr. Thompson and carried by unanimous vote, to adopt Article 3 for the Jackson School District Warrant.
Article 4: To approve the 3-year tuition contract with the Bartlett School District for the Jackson seventh and eighth grade students to attend the Josiah Bartlett Elementary School. Motion was made by Mr. Benson, seconded by Mr. Thompson, to adopt Article 4 to be placed on the Jackson School District Warrant. Discussion: It was noted there is an article on Bartlett’s warrant for a three year contract as well. Dr. Badger said he would prefer to go with the 3-year contract for now as we are already too far along in the process. It was suggested this be put on the May agenda for the joint Board meeting for further discussion. Motion carried by unanimous vote.
Article 1: To raise and appropriate $3,180,111 for renovations and addition to the Jackson Grammar School, and to authorize the issuance of a 2-year bond or note in the amount of $2,800,000, and to authorize the School Board to issue and negotiate such bonds or notes, and to determine the rate of interest thereon; and to invest monies and to appropriate up to $300,000 in interest for said project, and to appropriate $80,111 for the first payment of the bond. (Total offsetting revenues would be $3,100,000). Motion was made by Mr. Benson, seconded by Dr. Badger, to adopt Article 1 for the Jackson School District warrant for 2007. Discussion: Mr. Benson questioned whether these numbers can be amended at our annual meeting. Dr. Nelson stated yes, but he will
not be able to provide the tax impact figures unless he knows somewhat in advance. Mr. Benson said the Whitney Trust will have their year end numbers in January, and numbers may be slightly different. Dr. Nelson suggested if that is the case, that we hold a special meeting to change this Article in order to be totally accurate when it is discussed on the floor.
Dr. Badger said his concern is “Have we presented an article that is a mature proposal that has a good chance of passing muster by a 2/3 vote?” the reason being if we do not pass this the school then becomes probably up to two years behind in any renovations. He said there continues to be a number of people who have innumerable concerns; there are things that we need to move forward on to help people be aware of the process of the school portion versus the community portion; for instance, they want to know what the rules are for using the building. He said he does not feel the actual dollars are the stumbling block for this community. He questioned if we were able to be more efficient with space or more aggressive, could we shave $3,000 or $4,000 off the cost, and would that meet
the majority approval? He said he is in favor of putting this concept on the table – the question as a School Board is, is this the one we think will move us in the right direction for a town vote?
Mr. Benson said he thinks for some it is design, some the dollars, and for some it would not matter if it were free. He said whether it passes or fails is not his primary concern - his primary concern is that we provide people with an option. Whatever we put before them will have its detractors and supporters. He said it is up to us to bring these types of issues before the voters. This was the best effort that was made by a group of people to satisfy a lot of different criteria. The biggest challenge to him is not even providing the alternative.
Mr. Thompson said now more than ever it is important to have a Plan B in place, how will we provide for these students if it does not pass? Dr. Badger said his concern for the school is if it does not pass we will have a delayed renovation process. If this does not pass, he feels there will be an attempt to build the community center on the Gray’s Inn property and will result in the Town Hall not being given to the Historical Society, and the school will end up without any play space at all, it will end up being a school that is no longer the center of the village. He feels building a small gym would not be as meaningful to the town. He worries about it not passing. He is interested in doing things to this article that will get a few more votes.
Mr. Benson said it is a step by step process. The do nothing option is the easiest. Anything that is going to happen will require a vote. Dr. Badger said he questions whether anyone here feels there is anything in the building design that could be reduced or modified to save any significant amount of money. Dr. Nelson said he does not think they can and come up with the requirements that the Whitney Foundation requires. He said you can do the school portion if you just wanted to do that – the Facilities Committee recommendation was to work on a joint venture. Dr. Badger said he is nervous about taking off the conference room, especially if there is not a community center attached to it.
Mr. Thompson stated all summer we talked about ways to reduce the size – every time we came up against a wall because there are so many different pieces to the puzzle. The biggest room is the cheapest part, when you lose that room you lose some functionality. He said he does not feel we can change this warrant article - play spaces and community functions all pale in comparison to meeting student needs. We need to focus on that.
Dr. Badger questioned whether there is any way to separate it into two articles, noting in terms of considering the student needs, the best way to meet the student needs to meet the school portion is to have the town vote on the school portion only. Dr. Nelson said if you want to put off doing the article you can; however, sometime by January 16th you have to have this done. He said there would be one hearing for feedback, by the Feb. bond hearing the presentation of dollars and cents you are going to go after will be decided. Dr. Badger said the things he has heard about since the hearing are parking, how the place will be run, the operational structure, what is the access going to be? And there is some concern with the roof line (some think the taller roof looks better). Dr. Nelson advised that there are always going to be other opinions that come, what you have to do is say “Have we given everybody the chance to speak, collected those thoughts, and do we now have in front of
us the best we can possibly put together?” Dr. Badger said we had a hearing, a lot of questions and feedback – at what point are we integrating that feedback into a proposal? Ms. Kebler asked whether there was a significant change with the 20% reduction. Mr. Thompson said he thought it was about $300,000.
Mr. Benson said what he was looking for at the public meeting was was there something we missed? There were not a lot of questions, mostly just people expressing their opinions. He said we can ask David Laurin to make some changes to reflect what we heard at the public hearing. If it passes it passes, if it fails it fails, but if we get 55% or 58% of the vote where do we go from there? He felt we have attempted to do our due diligence.
Dr. Badger said he has the index cards that were given out at the hearing and there has been suggestion of making a fact sheet and answering those questions. Are people understanding that it is not the school that is driving the cost of this project - $4 million for 57 students? Also he feels the Selectmen need to make a statement about the town hall. He is interested in whether Mr. Laurin feels there are legitimate changes. There is a saving to be had in stretching the building instead of adding to it. If there is any consensus to feedback we are getting, that should be incorporated. Dr. Nelson stated next month we should adopt our budget.
Vote on Motion to include Article #1 on the 2007 warrant carried with two votes in the affirmative and Mr. Thompson voting in the negative.
9. Administrators' Reports:
A. Superintendent – Meeting date for second public hearing - January 18th at
6:30 p.m. Budget Workshop – Jan. 4th at 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Badger said depending on the outcome on the vote on Article 1 he might be in favor of asking the court to approve a special school meeting; he is concerned that we will not have meaningful discussions until the vote takes place. Mr. Thompson said he thinks we could choose to go with an attempt for an emergency meeting. He said we will have about $240,000 in our maintenance trust fund in the event this article does not pass. He noted there has been talk at Footprint Committee meetings about going upstairs, bringing everything up to code. When the JSFC met we were faced with the question of two floors or one? We wanted to know the dollar difference and were told it is about $50,000 just to get the structure on the front squared away – about $250,000 less to go with a
one-floor building. It was expected that something would come back at a lot less money. He volunteered to have a conversation with David Laurin to give him the direction he believes is coming from the JSFC.
Mr. Thompson questioned what if people say we want to provide for the needs the students have currently - the staff recommended needs and those we have been cited for, then if we say mothballing that is an even better idea?. Dr. Badger stated we did do that and it came in at a very high price. If we are disagreeing mostly with the dollar figure, what is the work to be done by the Committee? Mr. Thompson made reference to a presentation which had a large addition out the back – he does not think we have done the work. Dr. Badger said he thinks the work has been done, we just have not had the architect bring it back.
Mr. Benson said his sense is that the Footprint Committee did not think it was feasible to do a renovation within the existing footprint; they did not feel the need to meet again as a committee because there was a plan on the table. If the community center does not pass, a renovation for the school is an open book. He said he does not know whether the Committee would be willing to go through that exercise. It was Dr. Badger’s opinion that if this does not pass we are back to the drawing board with regard to the library and the Trickey Barn. He said he is not sure that spending more architectural money is good at this point. Ms. Kebler stated the Library Trustees’ Minutes say they have decided to not do anything until the March vote. Mr. Benson said we have
ready to go options on the table if we want to dust those off; knowing how the last two years went, it would probably take us another 11 months to get to a point, and we would not be in agreement then either.
B. Principal – Ms. Kebler said the staff has talked about presenting the math curriculum and would like to do that at the January Board meeting.
She announced that Dec. 19th is the holiday concert at 7:00 p.m.
10. Citizen Comments: None.
11. Board Member Issues – Board Discussion:
Dr. Badger said he would be interested in having a meeting with the staff about how the Board and staff can work together, to discuss what the Board is looking for, what kind of program we want to develop with the Principal and Dr. Cray. Ms. Kebler said she sees staff review as the staff reviewing data to identify their professional development plan. She would be happy to coordinate that meeting with the Board and staff. She noted Feb. is a better time to do it. Dr. Badger said with respect to the governance issue, we need to spend some time thinking about how we will relate as a large group before the bigger Board comes into being.
Mr. Benson questioned when to start advertising for long term substitute teachers. Ms. Kebler has discussed it with a group of people and will get the ad in the paper this week.
Mr. Benson noted performance pay needs to be addressed at our next budget workshop. Dr. Badger would like to have a better sense of a teacher applying at Conway versus Jackson - what is different, what’s the same. Ms. Kebler said there is some policy language that is different – Jackson has a better professional development package. Mr. Benson pointed out that we ask more of our teachers here than they do in other schools, and made note of our test scores in the last few years. He sees need to open it up for conversation, noting recruitment and retention are two different issues. Dr. Badger said incentive should be talked about also, we have no bell curve – we not only want to attract people that are excellent and retain those we have, but provide incentive
to be able to adapt to the diverse environment and perform well. He said the idea is to come up with a merit pay that rewards people for going above and beyond.
Dr. Nelson noted within your evaluation system you have a distinguished category, it might be worthwhile to see the rubrics that are involved with that. It could be a discussion at the Jan. 4th budget meeting. Dr. Badger said he is interested in regional salaries and State-wide salaries. Ms. Kebler commented that could take an hour in itself to understand. Mr. Thompson suggested having the material ahead of time. Ms. Kebler stated regarding the rubrics, in general when we hire in Jackson our criteria is pretty tough: basic, proficient, and distinguished - when hiring in this building we have only hired two basic in the last two years, the rest were proficient.
Mr. Thompson questioned how Board meeting Minutes and Facilities Committee meeting Minutes end up on e-News and others do not and would like them all posted on e-News when they become available to the school district. He would like to post the public hearing Minutes on e-News as well. Dr. Badger said we send home commercial notices on a regular basis – if we send one we have to send them all. Ms. Kebler advised this is not a commercial notice.
12. Signing of Manifest: The manifest was duly signed.
13. Nonpublic Session: At 7:50 p.m. Motion was made by Mr. Benson, seconded by Mr. Thompson and carried by unanimous roll call vote, that the Board adjourn to non public session under RSA 91-A:3,II.
14. Adjourn:
Respectfully submitted,
Gail T. Currier, Recording Secretary
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