WNESU Board Meeting 3/25/09

The first meeting after town meeting is officially the “Reorganization” Meeting to vote in new officers and committee assignments. Apparently, at least one citizen complained that the chair is not rotated among the towns (as she claims was the original intent). The implication is somehow the chair has special powers and exercises them in the advantage of individual towns. I have certainly never witnessed either (any power in the chair (or not much in the board as a whole for that matter) nor any effort by the chair (or any board member) to particularly advantage their town). It always seems to me that we are of one community, representing the best interests of taxpayers and kids in this region (as it should be). So, we basically renominated the same folk for the same positions (such is the case that anyone willing to take on one of these titles is not opposed by a slate of competition). The Superintendent’s Report included a $3 million grant for Safe and Healthy Schools (loads of probably good ideas, slim chance of getting this competitive grant, but probably elicited some ideas that are worth pursuing somehow—of course, piece meal efforts can have limited impact, so this balance of trying small efforts (often costly in time and energy) versus either doing something comprehensive or not at all is the question of effectiveness and commitment of resources. Although it can look good to make any effort, no matter how small, I tend to be more concerned that these can have such minor (if any) results and lead to program creep and distractions that can lessen quality elsewhere. The school calendar was presented. Two big problems: 1) February break is tied to Springfield, making us, I think, the only district in the state who takes the week off when Vt is full of tourists instead of the following week when there are all sorts of deals for Vermonters and families. And all these families that have commitments with the rest of Vermont schools (or most of NH) have this annoying situation of having different vacations for kids and parents. We were told this schedule is determined by the regional superintendents (but why Springfield rules this and Brat doesn’t follow wasn’t clear to me) and we have no say in it. And the reason we go with Springfield is that we have about 25 kids at the tech center there and about 8 in Brat. So for a net of 17 kids, we are stuck with a vacation week that I heard countless complaints about and supposedly can’t do anything about this. Let’s encourage the state ed commissioner to make a statewide schedule to get Springfield on board with everyone else. The other schedule issue raised was the short lead time for break before Xmas. The schools are closed Dec 24, which can really cramp families who may need to travel to be together for Christmas eve. Again, we are told this is determined by the other superintendents (are these supes just powerhouses who roll over ours???). Not the best idea for families who may celebrate the holiday together. Other agenda items: Created a committee with reps from every board to look at spending of Medicaid moneys (I am on this committee but don’t get all the issue yet—somehow there is a chunk of money (like more than $400,000) that is sitting around and needs to be expended. I don’t get why this is sitting around but I guess I will learn. The other heads up was about new requirements from the state for early ed admissions. We are being directed to make admissions decided by a lottery to be fair to all kids. There are many questions about this, mostly what to do with kids who may live closer to one program than another or if need comes into the equation at all. Apparently, there are about 15-20 more kids who want to be in this program than we have space for, so the idea of adding a site would cover everyone (as we probably should, given the benefits of early ed for later success). Finally, the finance head presented this attractive idea of getting a consulting firm who supposedly can get super good prices for energy resources. These guys work with Dartmouth and GE and other big entities and advertise getting prices as low as like $1.78 per gallon for Springfield for next year. This idea of pooling purchasing and skipping middlemen seems wise and the pricing sounds like a potential big savings. But, given the recent economic surprises nationwide, I think whenever you hear about a deal too good to be true, you have to do pretty strong due diligence. I hope we check for assurances that the oil is guaranteed, the price is guaranteed, and the company has the resources to back up their promises. These guys seem very reputable, but so did Enron or Madoff or Lehman Bank. We can’t be so afraid of being burned to do nothing that is wise and saves money, but I think we hopefully have learned as a nation that you got to be pretty careful to check things out before jumping at an opportunity. And yes, the next meeting is planned (again) during school vacation. This is a continual struggle for board members (whom are almost non-existent) with kids in school who may actually use the time their children are off to spend time together as a family.