Chebeague Island Transition Education Subcommittee
Meeting Minutes
November 14, 2006
In attendance: Carol White, Sam Birkett, Suzanne Rugh, Althea Dugliss, Jen Belesca, Donna Colbeth, Marty Trower, Tina Runge, Sue Campbell, Beth Dyer, Jerry Wiles, Virginia Tatakis, Ken Pelton and Phil Jordan.
1. Minutes from October 24 were approved.
2. Althea volunteered to take minutes. Phil was time-keeper.
Carol reiterated that a draft budget needs to be ready by the end of the year.
3. Summary of November 8 meeting with DOE:
Carol, Jerry, Althea, Sam, Tina and Virginia met with Jim Rier on November 8 in Augusta. Jackie Soucheck could not attend but we may be able to get her to come down here to meet with us.
Carol explained that we will be a “School Administrative Unit” and that we’ll have to have a superintendent. We could share a superintendent with some other SAU or form. We may want to combine the superintendent and principal positions.
We need to define our personnel needs and see where collaboration could come somewhere down the road. Could collaborate with a district on the mainland, possibly with the Casco Bay Alliance or form a collective with other island school. Jim Rier offered to facilitate this.
There was a long discussion about EDS (Essential Programs and Services) and LD1. Because of our mil rate, we will not likely ever get any financial help from the state but they will fully reimburse us for Special Education. There are 290 schools in Maine and 80 are “minimum receivers” like us: coastal areas or inland, lakefront areas.
We can incorporate pre-K into our program. We would not get any additional funds from the state for this (except for special ed). It has to be incorporated into the school - would require a certified teacher. (In the past, there was an ed tech who taught the preschool – maybe we can do something like that).
We need to deal separately with school lunch and adult education. There was no special consideration for Transportation.
We can discuss Title One, No Child Left Behind and Staffing problems with Jackie when we meet.
Chapter 125 and 127 contain the laws we need to follow. Can view online. Maine.gov then Department of Education and Rules and Regulations.
We did receive some information from Jim Rier which will be put into a binder at the library rather than having copies made for everyone.
We are working as a de facto school board. We will need some kind of letter of intent for the person we want to hire for Super and get that person on board before July, for practical reasons. Then the elected school board can ratify it.
Brief Status Reports:
Facilities (Tina): the group met. Carol reiterated the need to get the inventory done and verified by SAD51. We’ll need to know what it costs to run the building: heat, electricity, etc. for the budget. Use SAD51 and Long Island budgets for this.
Curriculum (Sam): Sam has collected curricula from several public and private schools and would like to visit a few schools. Suzanne said she thought Sue Williams could come out and do a workshop on Everyday Math.
Carol suggested we may want to sit down with David Galin to review the last ten years of student performance at the Island School just to make sure students have been getting what they need – particularly in regard to math. This has been impossible to get to date.
Transportation (Sue): Sue is working on getting information on bus maintenance and on what to do about the requirement that school buses be inspected twice a year and we don’t have an adequate “lift” on the island to do it. She also got a copy of all the relevant employee contracts – they are all different.
CTC hasn’t yet started their 2006 –2007 contract with SAD51.
Compliance (Bob): Bob was not present.
Budget (Carol): We need a draft by the beginning of January. We need to work from the bottom up. Salaries will be the biggest part (Bill Shane said we’d should add 50% onto the salaries for the benefits).
4. Discussion of Administrative Structure:
We need to come up with options and a sense of what’s reasonable for administrative structure. Jerry met with David Galin on November 1 and Jerry felt the most pressing issue is special education. One third of Island kids need some form of special education help, but currently the special ed teacher comes out for part of one day a week. There is a real need here.
Do we want gym, art, music, language, speech, guidance? Pownal’s Mr. Feeney is a combined superintendent, principal and special ed director. What about administrative assistant?
Do we want to combine the superintendent and principal in one? Jerry will meet with the Maine School of Management for more information on this. (Only Jerry should have contact with the Maine School of Management).
Could we hire a fulltime Special Education Director? This is a question for the state?
After a long discussion, it was determined that we need to gather more information. Carol asked people to research comparable schools (with no more than 100 students) and see what they have. Use the website. Swan Island is similar is size. Peaks lists all personnel and qualifications on theirs. Don’t just stick with island schools; also look at small rural schools.
We need a description of the superintendent’s duties. We need to meet with Long Island. Look at School Administrative “Units” not SADs.
Status Report/Recommendations to Transition Committee November 29:
Carol will give the status report. It will be 7:15 at the Parish House. We need to start getting other parents of school-age kids involved. Perhaps send them minutes. We need them invested for future support.
Phil will contact the state regarding Special Education.
We agreed on future meeting dates for Tuesday, November 28 at 7:00 p.m. and a workshop on Saturday December 16 at 7:00 a.m.
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