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GES Board
APPROVED Minutes
December 7, 2005
The Board members in Attendance: Nina Simonowicz, Susan Miller, Patty Nordahl, Suzy Schweig, Dave Ingebrigtsen, Scott Pollock, Julie O’Neil
Others present: Peter James
4:00 p.m. Call to Order/Welcome and Introduction
Reading of the Mission: Peter James
Celebration sentences: All
Approval of Agenda: Patty moved to approve the agenda Dave seconded with a small change to the educator’s report. Ayes all.
Director’s report: Peter spoke with Cindy Murphey at the state regarding the federal grant. Peter reported that we can expect approval of the third grant by the end of January. Peter discovered that we can have up to 13 months to spend grant monies after approval, which is more time than we initially thought.
Peter also reported that there are some deficiencies in our teacher waivers. The teachers that need waivers are now completing the paperwork. In our next grant we are looking at joining MACs so that teacher re-licensure in the future goes smoothly.
The recent parent education night was about our school calendar and the director will have a recommendation regarding next year’s calendar at the January board meeting.
Peter and Nina visited Birch Grove and discussed issues of transportation, specialists (OT and speech), and discussed how we can combine needs. Birch Grove made the proposal that they use our bus while ISD #166 is transporting our students. Since Birch Grove has to bring 12 kids from the Silver Bay area and they would like our board to agree to work with BG and then the directors negotiate the details.
Suzy moved that the director negotiate a bus use agreement with Birch Grove if the need arises. Susan seconded. Ayes all
One staff insurance benefit issue was discussed. When first employed here this staff member chose to use her husband’s insurance. The offer had been made to this employee when she was hired by GES’s first director that by opting out of the insurance package she could be reimbursed monetarily. However, this was not GES policy at the time and that statement should never have been made.
The board is considering the staff request to be reimbursed for the time she was not enrolled in the school insurance program. A sub-committee was formed to work on this issue.
Lastly, Pete presented a list of bills for approval.
Patty made a motion and Dave seconded the motion that GES pay the bills presented. Ayes all.
Approval of Minutes: Dave moved and Susan seconded to approve the minutes as amended. Ayes all the minutes.
Treasurer’s Report: Nina first explained the budget and credits and finance report updates. Suzy and moved to approve the presented a list of bills for payment. Scott seconded. Ayes all.
Educator’s Report:
Suzy reported that educators are writing progress reports and they will go home Friday. K-6 uses same report format and 7-8 use a compatible form. Conferences will be before and after school the following week. The teachers feel the progress report is good product because these forms use a developmental checklists for each grade level.
Amy Brown and Pete spoke with Chuck at the pool and grades K-4 will be taking swimming lessons for two weeks starting January 24th. The cost is being negotiated and transportation costs are not yet known yet. Parents will likely be asked to contribute. Swimming Lessons will be in the late afternoons. Bussing has not been planned yet. Students are geared up to attend Northhouse Folk Scool on December 13th.
On the Wednesday following our visit to Northhouse there will be a fundraiser at the North House campus from 3-6 (bake sale and craft sale).
Committee Reports:
Development: Suzy reported that development committee has found a person interested in becoming treasurer
Suzy made the motion and Julie seconded that Scott Pollock become the new GES treasurer. Ayes all.
Board of Director members are as follows:
Nina Simonowicz…….Chair
Julie O’Neil………….Vice Chair
Scott Pollock…………Treasurer
Susan Miller…………..Secretary
The following are members at-large
Suzy Schweig
Patty Nordahl
Amy Brown
Dave Ingebrigtsen
Nina put together a school board director position description and has asked all board members to sign before Dec 16th.
Enrollment/Community Relations: Patty spoke with Kathy Hellner about the brochure . The only change in the brochure needed is the addition of our new board members. According to the school calendar, there are several days that we are in school and 166 is not. Patty asked that teachers be have classrooms open for visitors on those days specifically.
Policy Report: Patty said we need to look over the inclusive education plan. It is a state requirement and it tells how we handle being an equal opportunity school and how we teach our students about differences and diversity.
Patty made a motion to amend the inclusive education plan as presented Suzy seconded. Ayes all. The follow-up action is that teacher must address items in blue.
Patty also asked for board biographies to be e-mailed in and to include talents that each individuals bring to the board.
Food: Patty made a motion and Suzy seconded that the board take $ out of the operating budget to cover 04-05 and 05-06 food purchases that were not covered by the the food committee budget. The state requires these overages come out of operating budget. Ayes all.
Strategy: Nina reported that in January we will revisit our academic and non academic specific measureable goals. We will revise and send these goals to the state.
The GES Strategic plan is our guideline of what we are going to do. 1st step is to revisit our mission. We did this in July and Sept, but we still need a short 7 word tag line.
Pete suggested that we use something like “a nurturing community of learners”
Core concepts: in order to have a strategic plan we have to define the essential pieces of GES. GES Core pieces: multi-age classroom, differentiated instruction, allowing students to progress at their own pace, in a range of curriculum levels (flexible pace), teaching style, such as providing instruction by using multiple intelligences, small class sizes, a necessary piece to differentiated instruction/ multiple intelligences, social-emotional growth- growing as an individual and learning emotional intelligence is another core tenant.
Also the co-governance of educators/parents/and community is yet another. These core concepts will be further examined and honed at the upcoming staff retreat. At the January board meeting there will be a description of each of these core concepts.
Three viable strategic plan scenarios will be developed and then later revised at the January board retreat.
Committees and board members are invited to come to the Dec 20th 12-2:00 meeting to formulate the scenarios.
Meeting Feedback: All.
Suzy moved to adjourn at 6:40pm , Susan seconded. Ayes all.
Respectfully Submitted,
Susan Miller, board secretary
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