Draft: Feb. 2, 2006

Approved: Feb. 8, 2006

School Committee meeting February 1, 2006

Under Report of the Secretary

Business Meeting

Ms. Alcorn called the meeting to order at 7 p.m.

Members present: Ellen Alcorn-Chairperson, John Coyne, Lori Gramlich, Stephen Spring (arrived at 7:05pm), Jonathan Radtke, Susan Hopkins, Otis Thompson, Jason Toothaker, Joshua Waxman, Sarah Muzzy

Members not present: Benjamin Meiklejohn

Report of the Chair

Ms. Alcorn:

• Mentioned that February 1^st is the first day of Black History Month
• Strategic Planning group will meet on Thursday, February 2^nd at 4 p.m. and will be bringing information to the Committee in the near future.
• Indicated that she would be away the week of February 6^th and that Mr. Thompson would chair the meeting on February 8^th.

Report of the Superintendent

Superintendent O’Connor:

• Announced the winners of the Grade 5 and 6 Math Meet held at the Expo on January 26^th : Grade 5 team from Presumpscot placed second out of 27 teams and Kevaghn Hinckley received an individual third place award; Grade 6 team from Moore Middle School placed 8^th out of 25 teams and individual awards went to Quinn Murphy- first place and Sean Perry- fourth place.
• Introduced Grace Valenzuela who was joined by Don Bouchard and Catherine Siegel providing updates on ACCESS test results as well as the increased intake numbers. Ms. Siegel indicated that registrations have shown an increase of 44% over the same period last year; housing trends are changing from families living mostly on the peninsula to areas in North and East Deering as well as the Riverton area.

Superintendent O’Connor noted that with the requirements of ACCESS testing as well as the increasingly large numbers of incoming students that this is going to cause a shifting of priorities that will impact the budget. Mr. Thompson asked that this information be provided to both the City Council and School Committee.

• Introduced Tom Lafavore, Director of Educational Planning, who provided a brief overview of the local assessment system and mentioned the moratorium on the assessment system that the Governor mentioned in his State of the State address. Superintendent O’Connor indicated that increased staff development time is needed to continue the work on the local assessment system.

Reports of Committees

1. Policy Committee – Mr. Radtke indicated the Committee met prior to the evening meeting. Reviewed the LAU plan, which will be on the next agenda as well as continuing to review the policy manual.
2. Finance Committee – Mr. Thompson indicated that the Committee met prior to the evening meeting to discuss issues regarding the FY07 budget.
3. Legislative Affairs – Ms. Gramlich indicated Committee met prior to the evening meeting where they discussed Glenn Cummings bill, a tax relief bill, and other bills going before the legislative.
4. Riverton Building Committee – No report.
5. Elementary Facilities Task Force – Mr. Toothaker indicated that the next meeting will be on Wed., Feb. 8^th, 4 p.m. in Room 340 and that a workshop will be held with the School Committee to discuss their work to date.
6. Other Committees and/or member concerns – Mr. Thompson spoke about two articles appearing in the Forecaster - one on students being bussed on the Metro and the other on the 2023 task force that the Committee voted to have go before the Policy Committee.

Consent Items

Superintendent O’Connor reviewed the donation and thanked the contributors.

Report of the Secretary

1. Consideration and action to approve the meeting minutes of the January 25, 2006 meeting.

Mr. Radtke moved, seconded Mr. Spring and voted unanimously to approve the meeting minutes of the January 25, 2006 meeting. (Students voted with the majority)

Old Business - None

New Business - None

Personnel

1. Consideration and action to approve the following personnel item:

Leave of Absence: requesting to continue leave for the 06-07 school year

Sally Reagan Social Studies Teacher 1.0 Childrearing

Portland High School

Mr. Toothaker moved, seconded Mr. Radtke and voted unanimously to approve the personnel item as listed. (Students voted with the majority)

Committee Focus on Educational Issues - None

Public Comment Prior to 11:00 PM - None

Adjournment

Mr. Coyne moved, seconded Mr. Spring and voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 7:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Jo O’Connor

Superintendent of Schools