DEER ISLE – STONINGTON CSD SCHOOL COMMITTEE
SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES
January 31, 2006

Board Members Present: Jim Adams, Aimee Eaton, Walter Kumiega, Skip Greenlaw, Mark
    Cormier, and Joe Babbitt
Staff Present: Penny Wendell, Catherine Ring and Robert Webster
Citizens and Guests Present: None
 
1.      Call to Order/Quorum
Chairman Kumiega opened the meeting and declared a quorum at 6:36 p.m.
 
2.   Moment of Silence
A moment of silence was observed.
 
3.   Citizen’s Comments
There were no citizen comments.
 
4.   Approval of the Agenda
Motion by Greenlaw, second by Eaton, to approve the agenda as presented. Vote: 6 Yes; 0 No.  
 
5.   ACTION ITEM
            A. Corrected Warrant for the Town of Deer Isle School Committee Election Warrant
                 The superintendent explained that the new warrant now included the correct spelling of the Deer Isle town clerk’s name Deborah Eaton and the new polling hours for Deer Isle from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Motion by Eaton, second by Greenlaw, to approve the corrected school committee election warrant for the town of Deer Isle.  Vote: 6 Yes; 0 No. All school committee members signed the corrected warrant.
                
 6. DISCUSSION ITEM
            A. Long Range Planning Committee Draft Goals
                 Principals Catherine Ring and Penny Wendell provided a detailed review of draft documents outlining goals and strategies for implementation of the school district’s new vision and mission statements. The content of the draft was developed over the past thirteen months from the work of the Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC), a community forum and workshops facilitated by Linda Nelson, and discussions with the staffs at both the high school and the elementary school. The school committee asked many questions and discussed a wide range of issues and implications raised by the content of the goals and strategies. In the next two months the principals will continue discussion and refinement of the documents and the school committee will include continued discussion of the documents on subsequent board agendas.
 
                 Greenlaw offered to take on the job of distributing the LRPC staff/community survey by preparing and bulk mailing the survey. This will be part of a discussion item at the regular February board meeting.
 
                 Babbitt reiterated the idea of changing the focus of school committee agendas so that agenda items could be categorized under the LRPC goal headings of Academic Preparation, School Climate and Community and School Relationships. Webster suggested the school committee analyze its current agenda format so that changes to the format might allow board members to focus more on educational governance and leadership and less on operational details.
 
There was discussion and agreement on changing the policy development process to provide for input from school committee members before the policy subcommittee reviews policies. Once the policy committee forwards a policy to the full board for review and action, much less time might be spent editing and rephrasing policies. Webster noted that the board’s policy on policy development will need amendment to change the process.
 
                 Ring, Wendell and Webster requested school committee support for a paid consultant/facilitator to lead the continuing work on implementation of the LRPC goals and strategies. The consensus of the school committee was to search for a volunteer until the February board meeting. If informal contacts did not succeed in finding a volunteer facilitator, the school committee agreed to consider selection of a paid facilitator.
 
7.  Adjournment
Motion by Babbitt, second by Greenlaw, to adjourn the meeting at 8:54 p.m.
Vote: 5 yes; 0 no.
 
      Respectfully Submitted,
 
___________________________________
Superintendent of Schools