HIGHGATE SCHOOL BOARD MEETING Minutes

HIGHGATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LIBRARY

May 14, 2015
6:15 PM
Present:
Connie Beyor, Chairperson, Nola Gilbert, David Roddy and Richard Flint.
Chad Larivee is absent from the meeting.
Others Present:
Marcel Choquette, Principal, Karen Casavant, Assistant Principal,
Winton Goodrich, Superintendent, Lora McAllister, Assistant Business Manager,
Channel 16 Cameraman, Pierrette Bouchard, School Board Secretary
Visitors from the community and staff
: Vickie Machia, Stacey Bennett
Connie Beyor called the Meeting to Order at 6:17pm.
Agenda Amendments:
Public Comments:
Vickie Machia introduced herself as a community member for
35 years, a teacher at MVU and travel group communicator. She meets with mostly
Highgate students once a month from September to May. She would like to use the
Highgate School Library once a month. The group is a non profit, she is a volunteer
and is not paid for this travel group. Her concern is that she will be charged
$50.00 an hour to meet. Connie recommended that Vickie fill out a building use
form for the Fall and meet with the principal first, then continue to follow protocol
by consulting with the Superintendent next and if she is still not satisfied, then she
can come to the board.
Connie Beyor requested the board enter executive session for an employee leave
request. Richard Flint moved, seconded by David Roddy to enter executive session
for employee request at 6:30pm and invited Karen Casavant, Marcel Choquette and
Winton Goodrich. Board Approved 4-0.
The board exited executive session at 7:15pm.
Motion to not grant the leave that

was requested by Stacey Bennett. Direct the Superintendent to draft a letter of

leave denial and deliver to Stacey Bennett on May 15, 2015 was moved by Richard
Flint and seconded by Nola Gilbert. The board approved 3-1 vote.
Business Report:
Check Warrants
: The bills and check warrants were reviewed by the board
committee. Motion to approve the check warrants made by Richard Flint and
seconded by David Roddy. The board approved on a 4-0 vote.
Financial Report
: Lora McAllister explained that she met with Marcel Choquette
and Connie Beyor and had a thoughtful discussion about the year end spending. She
is reporting $40,000 more revenue than last projection due to higher intensive
Special Education reimbursement. There was some savings on staffing positions
not filled, equipment and supply lines that have not been expended. There were
spending overages in speech, long term substitutes, increased change in
participation of health insurance and plant. Winton complimented Marcel and Lora
for working closely together and bringing a financial report with a positive
carryover. David Roddy moved, seconded by Richard Flint to approve the financial

report on a 4-0 vote. Win explained that when the Supervisory Union transfers
over to VSBIT for their general insurance policy, the SU will receive $8500 to be
used for a surveillance system. Win added that they will look at obtaining dampers
to gain more control over the temperatures in the rooms.
Approval of Minutes:Nola Gilbert moved, seconded by Richard Flint to approve
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the April 9
minutes with revisions. Board approved 3-0 with David Roddy
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abstaining. Nola Gilbert moved, seconded by David Roddy to approve the May 4
minutes with the addition of the executive session and the adjournment times. The
board approved the motion 4-0 vote.
Buildings and Grounds Report:Terry Brace reported that one of the smoke alarms
went off in the white building. They have found that the wrong smoke detector is
being used. After Terry Brace has a Simplex conversation with Lora McAllister, he
will contact a vendor to make the change in the smoke detectors. Terry has been
working with Marcel Choquette and had a roof consultant look at the roof valleys to
determine why there has been leaks. The consultant will be coming on Monday to
provide a recommendation on how to best repair this issue. Richard Flint suggested
that they arrange a date to do a walk around to determine the summer work. Terry
Brace left at 8pm.
Principals Report:
Updates Announcements Celebrations:
Ted Sheu came in and worked on poetry
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with all our grade level students and teachers on May 13
& 14
. This project was
organized by the school librarian Kelly Thomas and was completely funded by the
collection of box tops. Edna Iannaco and Kyle Ashton organized a Literacy and
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Math night on May 13
. This evening was funded by Title I funds. The evening
started with pizza and salad and moved to the library for poetry writing activities
with Mr. Sheu. Families were given the opportunity to share their work at the end.
The evening concluded with a raffle for free books, educational materials, parent
educational materials and a Kindle. The evening was a huge success. Marcel
thanked Mr. Ashton, Mrs. Iannaco and Ms. Thomas for organizing the event.
SBAC:
Karen Casavant reported that the students have completed the testing
with 100% participating. The SBAC SWAT team were Edna Iannaco, Kyle Ashton,
Heather Larivee and Karen Casavant. Marcel thanked Ms. Casavant, Mr. Ashton,
Mrs. Iannaco and Mrs. Larivee for their great leadership from start to finish. The
Science NECAP will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Summer School: Linda Rixford will be the director of the summer school. Mrs.
Iannaco, Mr. Ashton, Ms. Ormerod and Mrs. Vanslette will be the teachers. They
will have project based learning with hands on multi-age groups. The summer school
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will take place 5 days a week for four weeks starting on July 6
. They will be
actively recruiting more kids to participate. Marcel has emailed the board a
summary of the end of the year field trips.
Grant:Krista Tatro has received a Presidential Youth Fitness Program grant for
the school and our students. The grant will include Fitness Gram/Activity Gram
software for the FY16, FY 17 and FY18 academic years. This is a web based site
for students to record their scores. It will included the Presidential Youth Fitness
Program virtual training package for four courses, physical best teacher and

activity guides, Brockport Physical Fitness Test which is specifically designed to

test the fitness of youths with disabilities. There will be Presidential Youth
Fitness Awards and for K-3-Presidential Youth Fitness Program Fitness Club items.
Professional Development
: Marcel and Karen Casavant attended the Hunger Free
Vermont Council. They meet with other groups on how to better support our
families and brainstorming on how to provide them access to resources such as food
shelves, food kitchens etc.
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Marcel has organized professional development for staff from June 15
-19th on
supporting children who have emotional disturbance. Katherine Spense from the
AOE will provide a bullying seminar, Alex Gibson on mandated reporting to DCF,
Gillian Boudreau-90 minute segment on supporting students on the Spectrum; Joelle
Van Lent-4 hour workshop with staff to work with kids who have been affected by
some form of trauma; Para-Educators-Learning community planning time for
2015-2016. Anxiety discussion-building experts in our building. PLC training
activity. PLC grade level and unified arts meeting times, vertical PLCs. Smart
board share and workshop; Grade level unit planning in math and literacy for the
Fall of 2015.

Marcel is working with NCSS on filling some of the roles of Jen Ormerod and
provide some counseling as well. The Staff is working on a school vision. He passed
it out to the parents at the Math and Liter3
Superintendents Report:
PLC Conference: Win attended the National PLC Conference with Marcel
Choquette, Libby Bonesteel, Brent Coon and Mike Weber. It was a fabulous
conference with top speakers on professional learning communities work and
culture. One speaker talked about 90-90-90-with 90% of the children from
different ethnic backgrounds with 90% poverty but with the right expectation and
culture-90% met or exceeded standards. With laser like focus on student
achievement, they have a no excuses approach that all kids can succeed.

Next Meeting Dates:

Next Highgate Board Meeting-June 11th 2015 @ 6:15pm
FNWSU Board Meeting-June 3, 2015 @ 7:00pm in Sheldon
Executive Session and Adjournment:
On a motion by David Roddy, seconded by Richard Flint, the board entered
executive session for negotiations update and staff contract at 8:45pm inviting Win
Goodrich and Marcel Choquette. 4-0 vote. (Pierrette left) The board exited
executive session at 9:47pm.
Action: On a motion by Richard Flint, seconded by Nola Gilbert, the board denied
Kristy Knotts leave request. 4-0. Richard Flint moved, seconded by David Roddy to
direct the principal to expand both office assistants contract days as needed. 4-0
vote. David Roddy moved, seconded by Nola Gilbert to renew Karen Casavants

contract on a 4-0 vote. Due to an evening conflict, the board decided to change
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the next board meeting to June 10
.
Connie Beyor declared the meeting adjourned at 10:15pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Chad Larivee
Highgate School Board Clerk