FACULTY MEETING MINUTES
PRESENT: Richard Anderson, Cara Berryman, Dennis Bonanza, Jim Candon, Jeff Cassarino, Diana Chapman, Al Clark, Wade Cole, Chris Colwell, Sheila Commo, Anne Cote, John Cross, Pauline Dwyer, Anne Emerson, Jenny Estey, Alan Frost, John Gorczyk, Barb Hagen, Lisa Harrington, Audrey Irons, Deborah Jaimes, Dan King, Sue Kuzma, Mark Lather, Dianne Lawrence, Tod Lessard, John Long, Bob Lucenti, Paul Major, Nikki Marabella, Eric Marchese, Mary McCallum, Mo McIntyre, Katherine Miller, Maryanne Murphy, Mary Nelson, Tom O'Toole, Broni Plucas, Mary Poulos, Gene Rembisz, Bob Salzman, Bobbi Shutts, Guy Smythe, Sharon Strange, David Strong, Claire Swaha, Peter VanWageningen, Bob Walsh, Tony Washburn, Tom Woods.
ABSENT: Kathi Cassidy, Mary Koen, Steve LaTulippe, Bob Sattelberger, and Scott Tomlinson.
Introductions and
Announcements:
Bob called the meeting to order at
Roll Call was taken.
John Cross made a
motion to accept the meeting minutes of March 30, 2006. Mark Lather seconded
the motion. The motion was called, and it passed unanimously.
School
Announcements:
Bob handed out a copy of the Habits of Mind participant rating form. The purpose was to become familiar with the HOM characteristics and practice looking for them in situations and people.
Dennis asked why the HOM curriculum hadn't been sent to each facility. John Gorczyk answered that control groups were still being studied before it is offered at all sites. The curriculum is available on-line at the DOE website under Work Force Development if anyone is interested in reading it.
Commissioner, Rob Hofmann visited with the CHSVT State Board at their April meeting and participated in the discussion between independent school approval with NEASC versus approval from the DOE. He was concerned with the fact that the DOE has not done anything with the approval application that they have in their possession for the CHSVT. The board is not concerned and is still interested in pursuing accreditation with NEASC.
The Agency of Human Services recently sent the Intra-Agency agreement via email for reading. This agreement is with the AHS and DOE pertaining to public schools and special education. The CHSVT is not part of this agreement.
The general fund budget for fiscal year 2007 has been
level-funded. We will be receiving $140,000 additional special education funds
to possibly add positions at the street sites. Currently a special education
position is being requested for the South East State Correctional Facility in
Thank you to all the staff who gave their input about the "Written Grievance Report" required of offenders. The school administration has decided not to recommend a change to the policy as it was decided that there was not a significant literacy issue involved when inmates file the reports.
There is a new policy on the DOC website pertaining to segregation and education. Feel free to look it over and send comments to Bob. Also, you may send your comments to author, Lynne Walther, for the next forty days.
Bob thanked the staff for their comments about Alan's work on the database website and a round of applause was given to Alan for all his hard work with changing and updating the database. It is an on-going project that needs everyone's patience.
Wednesday was Administrative Support Day. Audrey and Sheila were each presented with a gift certificate from central office recognizing their hard work.
Tony Washburn has been at Northern State Correctional Facility as a vocational instructor for twelve years and has decided to retire. Al Clark and Mary Nelson gave a wonderful slide show presentation to show our appreciation to Tony for all the years of hard work and dedication. The staff was then given the opportunity to say their goodbyes and Tony was presented with a plaque.
Bob handed out information about high school dropouts and the cost in lost wages and taxes per state. "It is estimated that over a lifetime, a high school dropout will earn about $260,000 less than a high school graduate." It shows the importance of getting a high school diploma.
Local
Announcements
Sue Kuzma had a graduation at White River Probation & Parole on Thursday, April 20th. She had six graduates and has brought an article about the graduation from the Connecticut Valley Spectator to share.
Cara Berryman's music class had a concert consisting of
security guards, inmates, instruments and voices. Her writing class, Vermont
Reads, was involved with the Vermont Humanities, including free books for the
inmates and
Mary McCallum also involved the Vermont Humanities program in her curriculum. Her class read Winter Dance, by Gary Paulsen, which is about Iditarod racing, and they had a dog musher visit with her sled and dogs.
Maryanne Murphy said the she also had a visit from the dog musher in the past and she gave a very inspirational PowerPoint presentation. Maryanne's students are also involved with the read with me series. The students get to keep the books and give them to their own children. They are also participating in a poetry reading group.
Paul Major is beginning a survival theme with Vermont Humanities. There are eight books in the series and they are very excited to begin.
Mark Lather's pottery class donated their pottery for a fundraiser for the local homeless shelter and food bank. The organizations raised over $1,000 with the pottery.
Guy Smythe has also had presenters from the Vermont Humanities program and has found them all to be excellent. The students like that they get to keep the books.
Bob announced that the State Legislature has given the Vermont Humanities Council extra funding to continue providing opportunities to the CHSVT.
Sharon Strange announced that
Old Business -
Survey Results
Bob L. handed out the student survey questionnaire results and Barb handed out a student questionnaire results narrative and the faculty questionnaire results. The results of both student and faculty surveys are positive in all areas. These will serve as a baseline for where the school could improve and what is working right now. Discussion lead to concerns that the faculty questions were all worded too similar and that maybe new questions could be developed in the future. Barb will be finishing the results of the alumni and stakeholder surveys soon and will share that information as soon as it becomes available.
Old Business -
Focus Groups
The focus groups met to finish the drafts for standards four, five and six. The final copies are needed by the steering committee before their next meeting on May 16th, so that the information can be gathered onto a CD for NEASC.
Report out:
Pauline and the science group will have their final narratives ready for the May 16th meeting.
Mark and the trades group made a lot of progress with the core concepts and have their standards draft complete.
Jeff and the math group finished the final edit on their report.
Cara and the fine arts/foreign language group will meet the second week in May to finish their report.
Sue and the social studies group finalized their draft and will be ready with the final copy for the May 16th meeting.
Katherine and the language arts group divided into three groups and each group worked on a standard. The final copy should be ready by May 16th.
Al and the technology group received an email from Bob Sattelberger stating that their draft is complete.
Jim would like to see a possible presentation from each group next month after which the steering committee will correlate the drafts and have it ready for NEASC by July. There may need to be a focus group meeting in July. The LSB draft has been started as well.
Old Business -
Evaluation and Assessment Committee
The steering committee established an evaluation and assessment committee last meeting to work on preparing standard 11 for NEASC. There was discussion at the faculty meeting about combining the evaluation and assessment committee with the Title I committee.
Mary Nelson made a
motion to combine the Evaluation and Assessment committee and the Title I
committee into one standing committee to be named Evaluation and Assessment
Committee. John Cross seconded the motion. The motion was called, and it passed
unanimously.
Jim Candon said that the By-Laws for the new committee would be the first task on the agenda.
Nominations for the Evaluation and Assessment committee are as follows:
Mary Nelson nominated
Sharon Strange. Chris Colwell seconded it.
Gene Rembisz
nominated Tom O'Toole. Dave Strong seconded it.
Maureen McIntyre
nominated Gene Rembisz. Dave Strong seconded it.
Barb Hagen nominated
Diana Chapman. Jenny Estey seconded it.
Sharon Strange
nominated Bob Walsh. Pauline Dwyer seconded it.
John Cross nominated
Cara Berryman. Lisa Harrington seconded it.
Dave Strong nominated
Tod Lessard. Tod Lessard declined the nomination.
Sue Kuzma moved to
close the nominations. Jim Candon seconded it.
John Cross made a
motion to form the committee from all who were nominated in addition to one
administrator from central office. Bobbi Shutts seconded it. The motion was
called, and it passed unanimously.
The decision was made to allow the committee to elect the chair.
Pauline asked who was writing the draft for standard nine which addresses faculty qualifications and the number of staff members. Jim is writing the draft for standard nine. There was a discussion about adjunct faculty and payment, gas prices etc. Jim will be addressing the concern at the next faculty meeting. Bob reminded that faculty that adjuncts are volunteers and that their pay is only a stipend.
New Business
FERPA (Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act) training was postponed due to Mary Koen's absence. Bob gave a brief explanation about student's rights and what kind of information can be given out and to whom without written consent. There was a discussion about how educational records should be copied for outside organizations. A FERPA training is on the agenda for next month's meeting.
Steve was not here for the final reading of the mission statement. Barb told everyone that they could view the mission statement that was emailed and if you have and questions or comments, you can contact Barb.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Local Standards
Board - Mary Poulos
Working on standard nine (Faculty) during the next LSB meeting on April 28th. LSB elections will be held at the next faculty meeting. Mary will let the staff know before the next faculty meeting which positions will be available.
Title One - Bob
Walsh
The pilot testing with the TABE has been expanded to more sites. There are Pre and Post test results from seven students. It is difficult to obtain results with students moving constantly but there were gains found with the results collected. Sixteen new students have been pre-tested and will be post-tested in 90 days. The committee is looking at the level of difficulty of the tests and is still using the WRAT as well.
Technology
Committee - Pauline Dwyer
The RM Math Framework training is being held on May 5th at the
Northeast Regional Correctional Facility in St. Johnsbury. The training begins
at
Curriculum
Committee - Barb Hagen
Barb thanked the staff for updating the student files. We
will be doing this update every six months to assure that all files are where
they say they are. The committee is working on standard three (student body)
and standard thirteen (communication).
Library Committee
- Mary McCallum
The Library Committee met on April 18th and now has a new chair and secretary. Peter VanWageningen is the new chair and Gene Rembisz is the new secretary. The library orders are complete. Thanks to all who got their orders in on time. There is a budget surplus but they don't know how much yet. Dictionaries were purchased for all of the facilities. The committee will be sending a survey to staff around September on how the library committee can improve.
Beryle Gardner
Committee - Cara Berryman
Cara reminded staff to send nomination letters for the
Beryle Gardner Award to the committee by May 25th. She will re-send the
criteria via email as a reminder. Another $1,000 has been donated anonymously
by a retired teacher. Bob told Cara that the state board was looking into a
501C3 account for the money.
Special Education
- Mary Koen
If you have any special education questions, feel free to
contact Mary. There will, hopefully, be a special education instructor hired at
Dennis still has the greenhouse from
Mo reminded everyone of the May 5th spending deadline.
Audrey has sent the inventory tags out for new items, so be looking for them in the mail. Please put these tags on the equipment it's intended for. It's all self-explanatory when you receive this information. Please remember to let Audrey or Mo know whenever you retire an asset (toss, send to surplus property, etc.) This will allow us to remove it from the inventory.
Mary Poulos made a
motion to adjourn the meeting. Dianne Lawrence seconded it. The meeting
adjourned at
Respectfully Submitted,
Sheila Commo