Great Expectations School Board Meeting
April 27, 2005
Approved Minutes
In Attendance: Suzy Schweig, Patty Nordahl, Kathryn Nelson-Pedersen, Nina Simonowicz, Tom Resek, Amy Brown, Susan Miller, Alan Stone
Others Present: Ilena Berg, Jeri Person, Mark Pedersen, Mica Harju
4:10 p.m. Call to Order
Reading of the Mission: Mica Harju
Celebration sentences: All
Approval of Agenda: Nina moved to approve the agenda with the addition of Tech Report Susan seconded Ayes all
Approval of Minutes: Tom moved to approve the minutes from the board meeting on March 23rd with four small changes, Patty 2nd , Ayes all
Treasurer’s Report: Nina presented the current budget, Nina Simonowicz moved to approve the bills. Katherine seconded Ayes all.
Educator’s Report: Suzy informed the board that conferences will be held Tues-Thurs of next week and Patsy will help scheduling these student participation conferences after school.
Susan reported that Mica and Susan will be attending the MN Autism state conference in St. Paul on Friday and Saturday, May 6 and 7th and shared plans for a sensory integration workshop being held in June.
Next year MCA’s will be given to all students grades 3 through 8, this year the 3rd, 5th and 7th graders took the test.
The educators are working on curriculum mapping and are all reading a text designed to teach the integral skills needed to design and map out curriculum. The group of educators will meet with Laura Medvetz on May 13th.
Nina made a motion to accept Amy brown resignation as board secretary and approve Susan Miller as board secretary. Amy seconded Ayes all
Tom Resek moved to approve the minutes as amended Patty N seconded Ayes all
Old Business
Suzy presented old business that the high school decision is up for the vote today and that the decision to add 9th and 10th grade at this point is a decision to go ahead with investigation/negotiations with EdVisions and not a vote on HOW the 9th and 10th grade will be configured/or how it will work .
High school committee and Finance Committee: Nina and Katherine reported that the committee met to discuss the criteria (for 9th and 10th grade) needed to meet the mission of GES…after looking at what EdVision offers, the committee came to the decision that although project based learning meets most of our mission, GES would still need to offer the social and emotional growth opportunities that take place here at school. It was recommended that the high school students would work cooperatively for some part of the day engaging in project based learning, and integrate with other GES students for some portion of the day for their social and emotion growth. Opportunities like morning meeting and class council would be example of some of the social/emotion growth opportunities.
The committee also reported that to meet the standards for content, that a half time advisor would be necessary,
The finance committee does not have exact dollars to work with because the negotiation process has not yet taken place. Finance committee does feel that we need at least 5 students to make it work, in order to break even or have negligible draw on GES financial resources.
Nina moved to add 10th grade, work with Edvisions and anticipate a min of 5 students…Amy seconded it:
Discussion regarding implementation and staffing issues relating to adding 9th and 10th grade.
Discussion about how the charter is written stating we will add a grade each year and the obligation to the students already enrolled at GES that will be going into 9th or 10th grade Katherine stated she feels the need to meet the obligation to grow with our students
Nina made a motion to negotiate with EdVisions to provide an academically and financially sound high school (9th and 10 grade) education for GES students for the 05-06 school year at the GES campus and to work with EdVisions to find the best way to provide an academically and financially sound high school for the 06-07 year.
New Business
Food Committee: The last hot lunch served 31 students and 19 adults. It was a great success! The food committee now has a bank account of approx 100$ Next scheduled lunch is May 6th . The lunch will be soup salad and breadsticks. The goal for next year is to have 2 meals per month and invite the community once per month. .
Finance report: Alan reminded everyone that we still need to get a handle on P.O.s because it is too easy to go over budget. The Finance Committee may have a purchase order workshop. Hopefully the PO system will be on the computer in the future.
Alan also reported that we now have a line of credit in town at both the state bank and the credit union. In order to plan for classes next year, the committee we needs a quick reference sheet showing the exact teaching license each educator currently holds.
Enrollment: Tom Resek reported that right now we have a waiting list for grades3-5 and we have room in K-2 and 6-8 We will be organizing another open house. We will continue to recruit new students.
Suzy requested an ad regarding opening dates and closing dates for enrollment,so those dates need to be decided by the enrollment committee. Discussion followed about capping the number of students in any classroom when we still need a higher population. Committees agreed to brainstorm way to reconfigure classrooms and teachers so that we need not put any students on the waiting list.
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Personnel: Suzy reported that Samantha is no longer teaching art. The decision was made to use our resources differently and other opportunities and being pursued.
Tom said we should have done a proper send off to show how much we appreciated her help.
Matt Anderson has been hired to be our technology person. Mark has agreed to be on the technology committee with Matt. Mark suggests the front desk write down all the computer problems and keep an accurate log on that.
Katherine asked if there has been an ad for a math teacher and asked who is responding to the inquiries for math and director employment. Suzy stated she needs more help responding top applicants.
Patty suggested we need a board retreat.
Meeting Adjourned: 7:08pm