EPSOM SCHOOL BOARD
PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD MEETING WILL BEGIN
AT
MINUTES OF MEETING
Present:
Board Members: Barbara
Doughty (Chair), Bill Yeaton, Gordon Ellis, David Goulet,
Tracey
Miner,
David Dziura - Assistant
Superintendent of SAU 53 Schools
Patrick Connors – ECS
Principal
Richard Dougherty - ECS
Vice Principal
Citizen/Staff: Chelsea
Jarest, Molly Todd, Megan Todd, Joy Rousseau, Alison Graichen, Lori Bryant,
Steven Patterson, Cindy Damelio, Robin Donovan, Heather Cato, Donald Harty,
Lisa Bauer, Andrew Turnbull, Joan Pozner, Judy Snell, Brian Nase, Lisa Strano
Agenda Item 1. Call to
Order by Gordon Ellis at
Agenda Item 2. Pledge
of Allegiance lead by Gordon Ellis
Agenda Item 3. Minutes
of Previous Meetings –
Accepted
by unanimous consent with edits as follows:
Under Agenda Item 4C, strike “the teams going to the playoffs”, and
replace with “an additional tournament in Bow and the boys took second place”.
Immediate Business
Agenda Item 4A. Agenda Review
There
were no changes.
Agenda Item 4B. Citizens’/Staff Comments
Don
Harty congratulated the newly elected Board members, and thanked the returning
Board members for their service. Don
expressed his concern about being an SB2 town, and coming to expect the vote to
return a default budget. Don was
especially disappointed to see the teacher contract get voted down. Don feels that Epsom has the best teachers in
the state, yet their pay scale is less than most of the districts in the
area. Test scores have been going
up. Don asked that the Board leave no
rock unturned in attempting to revisit the issue of the failed teacher
contract.
Lisa
Bauer welcomed the new Board members.
She was very disappointed that the teacher contract didn’t pass, and
that the town voted against the budget that the Board put together. Lisa cautioned the Board that if they decide
to do “pay-to-play” to not return money, because it sends the message that
there is plenty of money, and no problem with money and the budget.
Agenda Item 4C. Review of Election Day Results
Several
of the Board members expressed their deep disappointment in the failure of the school
budget and the teacher contract.
Possibilities for a resolution were discussed at length. Dave Dziura said that the Board could request
a special district meeting to have the teacher contract issue revisited, but
that this was time sensitive, so the Board would have to act quickly. Dave handed out a list of the steps that
would have to be followed in order to petition the court to hold a special
district meeting. The first step would
be to have the collective bargaining agreement renegotiated. Eventually, this would lead to a new warrant
article, a deliberative session and an election.
Patrick
Connors felt that the petition would be a positive move for the Board, in the
eyes of the teachers.
The
Board asked the SAU about other ways to compensate teachers, and what could be
done. The SAU agreed to check in to the
legalities of bonuses or other means of compensation for teachers, outside of
the collective bargaining agreement.
Patrick
Connors presented a list of 2006-2007 Proposed Budget Cuts, with the idea that
some of these items could be purchased with this year’s budget surplus, if any
remains.
Gordon Ellis made a motion that Barbara
Doughty and Andrew Turnbull begin renegotiating the collective bargaining
agreement as soon as possible.
Barbara 2nd.
THE
MOTION CARRIED ON A VOTE OF 5 - 0
Barbara
Doughty – aye
Bill
Yeaton – aye
Gordon
Ellis - aye
David
Goulet - aye
Tracey
Miner - aye
Legally,
the election for the warrant article has to occur by December 1st. However, since the tax rates are set in
October, the vote really needs to happen before that, so that the town has time
to adjust the tax rates, if necessary, based on the election results.
Tracey Miner made a motion to nominate
Barbara Doughty for School Board Chair.
David 2nd.
THE
MOTION CARRIED ON A VOTE OF 4 - 0
Bill
Yeaton – aye
Gordon
Ellis - aye
David
Goulet - aye
Tracey
Miner - aye
Budget
review will be done at next month’s meeting.
Dave Dziura handed out budget materials for review in preparation for
the next meeting.
Barbara Doughty made a motion to
nominate Bill Yeaton for School Board Vice-Chair.
Gordon 2nd.
THE
MOTION CARRIED ON A VOTE OF 4 - 0
Barbara
Doughty – aye
Gordon
Ellis - aye
David
Goulet - aye
Tracey
Miner - aye
Tracey
Miner resigned the secretary’s position, pending finding someone else to fill
the position.
Old/Unfinished Business
Agenda Item 5A. Assistant Principal Interview
Patrick
Connors said that three additional candidates are going to be interviewed tomorrow.
Agenda Item 5B. Assistant Principal Selection
This
agenda item will be moved to a future school board meeting.
Agenda Item 5C. Confirmation of Assistant Superintendent
of School Selection
The
Executive Board has selected Peter Warburton, current Barrington Middle School
Principal, for the position of Assistant Superintendent. One of his particular strengths is his grant
writing ability.
Barbara Doughty made a motion to confirm
the nomination of Mr. Peter Warburton as the Assistant Superintendent at the
SAU.
David 2nd.
THE
MOTION CARRIED ON A VOTE OF 3 - 0
Barbara
Doughty – aye
Bill
Yeaton - aye
David
Goulet - aye
Barbara Doughty made a motion to put a
full-page ad in the school yearbook for this year.
Tracey 2nd.
THE
MOTION CARRIED ON A VOTE OF 4 - 0
Barbara
Doughty – aye
Bill
Yeaton - aye
David
Goulet - aye
Tracey
Miner - aye
Tracey
Miner will come up with an ad for the next meeting.
Other Business
Gordon
Ellis discussed the cost to get power down to the Quonset hut. The poles will cost $1,600. There will be five poles.
Gordon Ellis made a motion that the
Board appropriate no more than $1,600 to get the poles set.
Bill 2nd.
THE
MOTION CARRIED ON A VOTE OF 4 - 0
Barbara
Doughty – aye
Bill
Yeaton - aye
David
Goulet - aye
Tracey
Miner - aye
Bill
Yeaton mentioned that the propane tanks should be buried.
Patrick
Connors discussed a new teaming initiative.
He’s going to shift one of the 4th grade teachers to 6th
grade to make a 3-person 6th grade team, a 4-person 7th
grade team, and a 4-person 8th grade team. This will allow the teachers to better know
the students. This will make it easier
for the parents to contact the teachers, as they will be contacting a team,
rather than an individual teacher. There
will also be a shift of one teacher to do both special ed, and regular
classroom work, to help out the 6th grade team.
Dave
Dziura asked about agenda items for April:
default budget, teacher negotiations, assistant principal, parent request
– non-residence attendance, school name, board reorganization (committees), EYAA
advertising policy, and, the well for the fields.
Patrick
mentioned that the phone system work is going to start over the April school
vacation.
Agenda Item 6A. Citizens’/Staff Comments
Lisa
Bauer commented and agreed with some of the Board members that it is hard to
not take it personally when the school budget and the teacher contract don’t
pass. Lisa is concerned about the newer
teachers that may decide to leave, and teachers that we may not be able to hire
when they find out what a lack of support exists for the school and the
teachers. The ETA executive board has
made a decision that the negotiating team would like to reopen negotiations for
the teacher contract.
Barbara
Doughty posed the question as to how the word can get out there so that the
teacher contract getting voted down would not happen again. Brian Nase discussed some publicity
strategies there were used in Weare.
Joan Pozner mentioned a phone tree that used to be at the school.
Steve
Patterson mentioned that the Board will be receiving a letter requesting that
his daughter Paige be allowed to continue at ECS.
Brian
Nase mentioned that he worked with Peter Warburton when he worked in
Agenda Item 7. Adjournment
Hearing
no call for further business, Gordon Ellis adjourned the meeting at
The
next scheduled meeting will be Thursday, April 6th, at