Westminster Meeting Nov 18

Actually a fairly substantive meeting (and even a few laughs). 1. Approved new HIV/AIDS policy dictated from the higher ups in Montpelier. Good cause and good intent. I have a bit of trouble with the provision for annual training for like every living being related to schools on Hiv/AIDS not because it isnt a good idea, but given how little time there is for teachers to talk about kids and learning, taking even another 30 minutes of the very limited in service time for this means that much less time to work on educational quality. An hour of required training for cause A here and idea B there and suddenly there is no time for the real focus of schools on student learning. We really had no say over this (it is essentially mandated by the state) so it passed as is. 2. Principals Report on Pre School grant that is helping us subsidize preschool attendance at pre schools that meet quality standards. Great idea to help families get high quality preschool for families. We have to decide if we want to fund this over time and if we want to be a provider of preschool ourselves. I am reluctant to add another program into our schools that will inevitably fall under the same sort of inefficiencies we face with other public school programs (inflexible contracts, constraints on hiring and firing, various mandates). It would be great if we had loads of qualified programs we could use for our kids, but there are too few programs in the area, so this will be an issue to think about over time. 3. Superintendent reported on SPED audit. I don't understand all the details, but someone seemed to screw up and our town is being billed for $64,000 for overcharges in some year past. Again, not much to do about this as admin has been fighting this with the state for a good long while. Hopefully, we have corrected this problem to not happen again. 4. Bought a new bus! $73,000. Yellow. A small victory in that we looked at used buses for saving money, but it didn't seem any used bus bids were so appealing. 5. Incentive Pay: An idea I like that was included in teacher contract this year. Gives boards and admin authority to offer financial incentives for teachers to "go the extra mile" in developing and implementing plans to improve student learning. On one hand, this means paying teachers more for what I think is what we would expect from all teachers. But, as one board member pointed out, if this actually improves student learning, it is worth the investment. At the least, this is one way of recognizing and rewarding teachers who do this hard work to really focus on improving learning for all students. We allocated up to $7000 for this for the year, with no more than $750 per teacher. Is this the right number??? 6. At 9:00+, we got to the first ever (when I've been on the board) look at school quality and what is the board role in promoting and overseeing this. We agreed to think this over and get to this again in one month. Would love community input on what we should and could do to focus on school quality. Send your ideas along. 7. Finished with a request from a family to keep their child at Westminster although they had to move outof town due to changing family circumstances. Apparently, this is is not allowed by state law and various precedents this threatens. I find this one of the great flaws of our public school system (or lack thereof). I can't understand how we can't figure out how to help a kid who is going through all sorts of family stress and upheaval when they have to move (often for divorce or death or loss of a job). The one thing that can remain stable in a kid's life is their school, teacher, and friends. I don't see how taking even this away helps anyone. It isn't much of a system if we can't figure out how one school can work with another to do what is best for a child given that we are all paying taxes somewhere and it all is part of a larger tax structure through the state. Very sad to me.