PLAINFIELD SCHOOL DISTRICT
Plainfield School Board Meeting
Monday, September 11, 2006
Plainfield Elementary School
MINUTES

The meeting was called to order at 6:34 pm. Present were Board members Reynolds, Ferguson, Bucklin, Forman and Cogan. Also present were Superintendent Collins, Principal Langsner and members of the public.

 

Public Comments

Town member and PES Track coach Leslie MacGregor commented that she and her son were disappointed that soccer teams were not chosen by athletic ability this year. As a member of the Athletic Committee, she feels that selecting teams by grade level may be in conflict with the guiding principle of helping each student athlete reach their full potential…. As a parent, she feels that athletics are what keeps her sons excited about school and that taking away the chance to be chosen for the soccer team by ability may diminish the excitement for the sport. As a coach, MacGregor stated that she feels it is easier to coach a team that has matched skills. Board Chair Reynolds thanked her for the input and stated that the Athletic Committee will continue to discuss team selection in the future.

 

Town member Dennis Girouard asked if the Board would reconsider forming a Parent Advisory Committee since the Parent Council meetings that were run by former principal Mellow aren’t happening any more. Board Chair Reynolds replied that she thought the Board received lots of public input regarding the formation of soccer teams at the July meeting, but she sees his point.

 

Announcements, Communications

Board Chair Reynolds received a thank you from the PES staff for the breakfast. Board member Forman wanted to publicly thank Greg Hardy for his volunteer work on soccer field maintenance this year. Superintendent Collins indicated a copy of a letter from the Meriden Fire Chief regarding sprinklers in the school. He also has a letter from Brandon Feid which will be discussed later in this meeting. He also presented letters from Fran Hills and Fawn Goodrow on the intent to negotiate an agreement for the Professional and Support Staff contracts.

 

Consent Agenda

A. Minutes August 14, 2006

Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted unanimously to accept the public and non-public minutes of August 14, 2006 with the following revisions: to list the meeting attendees as, “Board members Reynolds, Ferguson, Bucklin, Forman and Cogan, Superintendent Collins and Principal Langsner”; change the second sentence under #3 to, “The Board needs to outline a clear plan of the need for and duties of an Assistant Principal”; eliminate the word “new” in the first sentence under #5; change the fourth sentence under #5 to, “Communication with the public will remain a goal for 06-07”; change the third sentence under #7 to, “The discussion centered around the pros and cons of using a professional negotiator including the notion that the negotiator would need to be able to save the District 20% in the next agreement beyond what otherwise could have been achieved in order to make this option financially feasible.”

 

Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted unanimously to accept the public and non-public minutes of August 21, 2006 with the following revisions: add the following sentence in #2 under Reports, “This is the estimated amount that will be returned to taxpayers.”

 

B. Nominations

Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted unanimously to accept the following nominations:

            Mary Cantlin                Athletic Supervisor (Fall)

            Sarah Davies                5/6 Asst. Girls Soccer Coach

            Gayle Schafer               7 Asst. Girls Soccer Coach

            Kurt Filiault                  8 Girls Soccer Coach

            Jan Smarsik                  8 Asst. Girls Soccer Coach

            Michelle Grald  6/7 Asst. Boys Soccer Coach

            Michelle Marsh 6^th Grade Class Co-Advisor

            Stephanie Berman         6^th Grade Class Co-Advisor

            Kris Brann                    7^th Grade Class Co-Advisor

            Robyn Hadlock            7^th Grade Class Co-Advisor

            Cindy Huett                  7^th Grade Class Co-Advisor

            Michelle Marsh 8^th Grade Class Co-Advisor    

            Annette Moore 8^th Grade Class Co-Advisor

            Cindy Huett                  Yearbook Co-Advisor

            Beth Bierwirth              Yearbook Co-Advisor

            Kate Mortimer             Art Club Advisor

            Jill Daley                       Book Club Advisor

            Mary McKernan          Math Team Advisor

            Fawn Goodrow            Math Team Assistant

            Jean Allen                     Spanish Team Advisor

            Christie Kuriger            Student Council Advisor

            Annette Moore Drama Club Advisor

            Laura Knight                Language Arts Curriculum Coordinator

            Mary McKernan          Math Curriculum Coordinator

            Deb Foltyn                   Professional Development Coordinator

            Deb Foltyn                   Reading Curriculum Coordinator

            Fran Hills                      Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator

            Laura Spratt                 Science Curriculum Coordinator

 

Reports

A. Principal’s Report

Principal Langsner reported the following:

§         Plainfield School received the Blue Ribbon Award again this year with more volunteer hours than last year.

§         Steve Beaupré gave a guided tour of the trail system to the staff on their first day back this year. The staff was very appreciative of Steve’s expertise.

§         A new elective system is in place this year for grades 7 & 8 to provide students with a variety of activities that teachers have expertise in such as digital photography, sign language, wellness and health, yoga, poetry, word puzzles, Big Brother/Sister as well as the traditional band, art and chorus. An evaluation of the program will occur after each quarter.

§         The website is not up-to-date this year because of a system software upgrade over the summer that is incompatible with the website software. New website software has been ordered.

 

B. Superintendent’s Report

Superintendent Collins will place an ad in the Valley News and the Spectator for the Negotiation Forum.

 

Superintendent Collins reported that Finance Director Linda Jacobs has resigned. After consulting with Principal Langsner and members of the office staff, he has decided to ask Beth Bierwirth to take over all the finance responsibilities unless the Board has reservations. Collins is in contact with Municipal Resources to find a mentor for Bierwirth and Collins will need to sign off on all reports. In order to give Bierwirth more time for finance, some of her other responsibilities will be distributed to Joan Nierenberg (who will add additional hours to her day as necessary) and to Annette Moore, who will relinquish lunch duty to other school staff. An occasional substitute may be necessary when the office is particularly busy. Collins feels that in the long run this arrangement is best for the school but in the short run some adjustments will be necessary to make it work. When asked by Board Chair Reynolds if he felt confident that Bierwirth can provide the level of expertise necessary for the job, he replied that getting a new person in that doesn’t know the accounting software would be just as difficult. He went on to say that Bierwirth has always had the numbers while former Finance Director Bill Moorman simply supplied the analysis. Board member Forman encouraged Collins to find a mentor for Bierwirth.

 

Superintendent Collins supplied the Board with a handout on the school’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and gave an overview on why Plainfield did not meet AYP in reading. Collins summarized by saying that the test definitely shows that we have students with educational disabilities that need additional support. Principal Langsner reported to the Board the actions that have been taken and that will be taken to educate the staff to help those children that did not make AYP, including:

• Five educational assistants went to two days of training during the summer to learn more specific strategies to help students with reading.
• The staff currently has a book study group on reading comprehension.
• Langsner plans to have the Stern Center assist her by looking at test information and giving suggestions for staff training.
• Langsner plans to have students become more familiar with reading different genres and with taking tests.
• Continue to try to match curriculum with test questions.

Langsner said that the difficulty is that the newest test results didn’t come out until August and Plainfield will be testing again in October. This doesn’t leave a lot of time. She said that the bottom line is that the school has a responsibility to help everyone make AYP and that she and the staff are taking this very seriously.

 

C. Committee Reports

Athletic Committee – Board member Chris Forman reported that the Athletic Committee met in September. They talked a lot about soccer team selection. Forman reported that Athletic Coordinator Brandon Feid has organized a soccer tournament for late October that will take place at PES and KUA. The Board received a letter outlining the event. Forman asked for direction from the Board on what they would like the committee to accomplish this year. After some discussion, the Board agreed that the Athletic Committee should work on the following:

• An end-of-the-season survey for athletes.
• A community-wide survey on athletics
• Coaches education and training

The School Board and the Athletic Committee will also meet with the town to discuss the possibility of creating a full-time, year-round position for athletics and recreation.

 

Facility Committee – This committee has not met recently. The Board discussed the letter from the Fire Chief indicating that action on a sprinkler system in the school needs to be taken. The Board considered the possibility that if a bond is necessary to complete a sprinkler system then maybe a bond for the sprinkler system and a new parking lot should be considered.

 

Bridge Update – Board Chair Reynolds reported that a wetlands permit has been received and that two-thirds of the money has been raised. A fundraiser at KUA in November is being planned and the group hopes to build the bridge this fall under the direction of Bill Knight. There is a trail on the other side now which will connect with the trails on the school side when the bridge is completed.

 

Health Insurance Committee – Board member Bucklin reported that the committee will meet soon to discuss some new information recently received.

 

Business for Discussion and/or Action

A. Job Descriptions

Superintendent Collins created job descriptions for the Principal and for the Assistant to the Principal by looking at similar descriptions from other schools. The Board suggested a few changes.

 

B. School Board Goals 2006-2007

The Board looked over the draft of the goals and suggested a few changes.

 

C. Agreement with Plainfield Police Department

Superintendent Collins presented policy JICD-R, Memorandum of Understanding Safe School Act. He received sample copies from the School Board Association and from the Lebanon SAU. The Superintendent will need to sign this agreement with the Plainfield Police Department.

 

Non Public Session

Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted unanimously to go into non-public session pursuant to NH RSA 91-A:3, II (c) at 9:06 pm. Discussion of a personnel issue took place.

 

Upon a motion made and seconded, the School Board voted unanimously to go back into public session at 9:22 pm. No action was taken.

 

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:23 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Annette Moore

Recording Clerk