MINUTES OF THE CORNWALL BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING

HELD ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2009 AT 5:00 P.M. AT

CORNWALL CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL

Board members present were: Becky Hurlburt, Phil Hart, Wynne Kavanagh, Thomas K. Levine, and Rachel Matsudaira. Irene Hurlburt was absent. Others present were: Patricia Chamberlain, Superintendent of Schools; and Robert Vaughan, Principal.

Mrs. Hurlburt called the meeting to order at 5:04 p.m.

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On a motion by Mr. Hart, seconded by Mr. Levine, the agenda was amended as follows: under Old Business add e) Presidential Address Policy and f) Geometry; under New Business, add b) Special Education Discussion.

On a motion by Mr. Levine, seconded by Mrs. Matsudaira, the minutes of the November 19^th meeting were approved with the following correction: 2^nd paragraph from bottom of page 1, …They voted to hire recommend only one broker…

Both Mr. Hart and Mr. Levine noted that they have had numerous communications regarding the issue of front door security and involvement by the PTA.

Mr. Hart gave the Region One Board report – Judge Manning remains chair, Mr. Hart is Vice-chair, and the new Board member from Salisbury is Jill Hammond Thorney. The Long-range Plan was presented on December 1^st and is close to completion. Two prominent themes of the plan are engaging all students in their classes, and high expectations. It was made clear that the Region One Board invested $35,000 in the new Science and Technology Center. The gym floor is complete and should last for many decades.

Board of Finance – no report.

Standing Building Committee – no report.

Ms. Chamberlain – Superintendent’s Report

• The December report was reviewed.

• AlertNow is a web-based program for emergency communications that is being tested. Parents would sign up ahead of time and could be contacted via telephone, cell phone, and the web. This would be used for school closings as well and could be targeted to individual schools as well as the whole region.

Mr. Vaughan – Principal’s Report

• The Upper Grade Holiday Concert was enjoyed by all and music teacher Alicia Simonetti-Shpur was congratulated.

• The solar panels should be operational on December 18^th.

• Both basketball teams are playing hard.

• Board members were invited to attend the 6^th graders’ Pollution Project presentation on Monday the 21^st.

Old Business

1. Life-threatening Allergies Policy – Second Reading

On a motion by Mr. Levine, seconded by Mrs. Kavanagh, Policy 5141.24 with the Management Plan was approved pending review and potential minor changes by Martha Bruehl, school nurse.

2. Budget information will be available to Board members by January 14^th and the first Budget Work Session will be held after the regular meeting on January 21^st.

3. Clarify Region One Representative Appointment – Phil Hart appointed November 2006 – November 2010 and Wynne Kavanagh appointed alternate November 2006 – November 2010.

4. Mr. Vaughan has met with various people regarding front door security and noted as many viewpoints. He researched school violence over the past 40 years, categorized by the type of school. Of the 147 incidents, 46 occurred in elementary and middle schools. It was determined that seven might have been prevented in some fashion by locked doors. Board members discussed various combinations of security, i.e. locks, video cameras, buzzers, motion sensors, visual field, signage to remind visitors (parents included) that they must check in in the office, simply enforcing the practice of having everyone wear a visitor’s badge, and empowering staff to question someone without one. Four of the six Region One elementary schools have a locked door policy.

5. The following statement was read into the minutes:

All decisions regarding the live airing of future presidential addresses will be made by the Cornwall Consolidated School principal, in consultation with the faculty. The principal will consult with the members of the Cornwall Board of Education regarding this decision.

6. Mr. Levine said that half of the elementary schools currently offer geometry to 8^th graders, taught in conjunction with algebra. Ms. Chamberlain suggested that the math coordinator, Bob Kanehl, speak with Board members about possibilities. Mr. Vaughan had spoken with Scott Fellows at the high school, who didn’t recommend the addition of geometry before entering high school. More information is needed before recommending this change.

New Business

1. Classified Staff Negotiations will likely begin in mid-January. Mr. Levine will represent the Board, along with Mrs. Hurlburt and Mr. Hart.

2. Special Education Discussion – Mr. Levine asked about the procedures used to identify Special Education students. Ms. Chamberlain suggested that a meeting be set up in her office with the Special Education teacher and the Pupil Services Director to discuss guidelines and individualization. Mr. Vaughan noted that for the first 30 of the last 35 years, Special Education students were often identified after they had been in school for a long time (using a “wait to fail” model), but that the methods used now (SRBI/RTI) can identify need much earlier.

Mr. Hart asked that all Board members be notified of anything of widespread significance to the school community.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:24p.m.

Susan Gingert

Board Clerk