PLAINFIELD SCHOOL DISTRICT
Plainfield School Board Meeting
Monday, January 7, 2008
Plainfield Elementary School
MINUTES
The meeting was called to order at 6:33 pm. Present were Board members Reynolds, Ferguson, Forman and Bucklin. Also present were Superintendent Collins, Principal Langsner, Special Education Director Nancy Brogden, Finance Director Beth Bierwirth, and members of the public.
Announcements, Communications
Board member Ferguson said she is going to out of town most of February and wondered if someone else could write Blackhawk Happenings for PlainFacts. Either Doug Cogan or Audra Bucklin will write it.
Superintendent Collins announced that the Plainfield School Profile has been mailed to the community. He also said that he has information on a conference in Concord on January 28 to learn about school grants. He will be attending and Board Chair Reynolds and Board member Bucklin were both interested in going with him.
Consent Agenda
A. Minutes December 17, 2007
Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted 4 in favor to accept the minutes of the December 17, 2007 meeting with the following changes: in the first sentence of the first bullet under AREA meeting, change “affect” to “impact” and change the second sentence to, “In fact, the tuition rate is down $234 per student next year because the average daily membership for Lebanon students is up”; in the second sentence of the second bullet, change “eight” to “eighth”; in the third sentence of the second bullet, delete “typically”; under B. Budget, in the second sentence of the fourth paragraph delete “use”; in the last sentence of the fifth paragraph delete “but”; in the last sentence of the sixth paragraph replace “the” with “that”.
B. Nominations
Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted 4 in favor to authorize the a contract to Margaret Kogut as an Education Assistant
Business for Discussion and/or Action
A. 2008-2009 Draft Budget
Superintendent Collins distributed a draft of the warrant articles, advising the Board that he is still working on some of the language. He requested that the Board consider start a Retirement Reserve Fund because the NH Retirement is under-funded, which may cause a significant increase in the required employer contribution to the Retirement System. Board Chair Reynolds suggested a warrant that would take money from surplus. Board members Forman and Bucklin agreed.
Community member and Plainfield Technology Group member William Daugherty explained to the Board what the additions are in the Technology budget and how they will benefit the school and what impact they will have on the education of the students. He went into a detailed description of problems with the existing system and how risky the system is as it stands today. Principal Langsner explained that she has been negotiating with Systems Plus computers to hire them to provide technical support to the school. Superintendent Collins reported on some investigations he has made into what comparable area schools are budgeting for technology and what technology they have available for their students. He feels that the results of his investigation show that area schools are seeing the need to stay up-to-date with technology and that their budgets reflect this.
Board member Cogan arrived 7:20 pm.
Special Education Director Nancy Brogden presented a slide show for the purpose of showing the Board how time is used by the Special Education staff at Plainfield School. She gave a detailed description of IDEA and what it is comprised of and outlined NH’s Special Education law and the steps a SPED (Special Education) teacher must take to code a student for the program and subsequently follow the student through the program. She also reported the results of the following questions that she asked each SPED teacher: How many students do you see? How many hours per week of direct contact do you spend with your SPED students? How many hours per week do you spend in regular education classrooms or meeting with regular education students? How many hours do you spend evaluating and writing reports and IEP’s? The Board spent time questioning Brogden about the role played by the Education Assistants and how their time is spent. Brogden described the program that will be taught by the new half-time SPED teacher and how the program is necessary for a particular SPED student to keep the student from being tuitioned out of the district for a similar program.
Superintendent Collins described cuts that were made to the budget from the last meeting. When he described a cut made to the money formerly earmarked to help fund the Arts Enrichment Program, several Board members asked for further details. This started a discussion on the Arts Enrichment Fund and how it has been funded in the past (private contributions) and how it might be funded in the future.
Superintendent Collins reported that the final word on the Bond is that the Board can choose to keep it open until March 2009. If they decide in that time to use bond money to replace the old fire panel then state aid would still honor the 30% refund up to that date. The Board discussed the pros and cons of using the money to purchase the fire panel or using the remaining bond money to pay the first principal payment. No conclusions were made.
Superintendent Collins went over the Revenue Report with the Board. The estimated tax increase over last year is 5.72%. Collins mentioned that if the Board chooses to put the $60,000 remaining on the bond back into revenue, it would drop this number to approximately 4.24%.
Board member Forman thanked the administration for bringing in the speakers tonight. He feels that the technology presentation showed him that a mobile lab is not a “want” but a “need”. Forman submitted the following idea to the Board: to put a mobile lab into the budget and to warrant an additional lab for junior high use only. He feels it is important and would like to see how the community feels by submitting a warrant.
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Annette Moore
Recording Clerk