FACULTY MEETING MINUTES
South Royalton House
South
PRESENT: Richard Anderson, Cara Berryman, Jim Candon, Jeff Cassarino, Kathi Cassidy, Diana Chapman, Allen Clark, Wade Cole, Sheila Commo, Anne Cote, Pauline Dwyer, Anne Emerson, Jenny Estey, Alan Frost, Barb Hagen, Bob Holt, Audrey Irons, Anna Jeffrey, Dan King, Sue Kuzma, Mark Lather, Steve LaTulippe, Dianne Lawrence, Tod Lessard, John Long, Bob Lucenti, Paul Major, Mo McIntyre, Katherine Miller, Mary Nelson, Mary Poulos, Gene Rembisz, Barb Rintamaa, Bob Sattelberger, Mary Jo Scott, Bobbi Shutts, Guy Smythe, Dave Strong, Peter VanWageningen, Bob Walsh, Tony Washburn, Tom Woods
ABSENT: Dennis Bonanza, John Cross, Kris Degenhardt, Mary Koen, Mary McCallum, Maryanne Murphy, Bob Salzman, Lynn Sibley, Claire Swaha, Scott Tomlinson
Introduction and
Announcements:
Bob Lucenti called the meeting to order at
A discussion about what to do for our last faculty meeting of the fiscal year took place. The staff talked about a possible pot luck luncheon and where we might hold it. The staff is invited to email Sheila with their ideas and thoughts.
Bob gave an update on the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. We are considering applying for accreditation with them. A representative will be coming to tour the facilities, in the Northeast area, with Steve LaTulippe. Joining the NEA would eliminate most of our interaction with the DOE. The DOE would still be providing funding for Special Education. CHSVT State Education Board member, Dwight Davis, is working on the accreditation process and a lot of the prep work is already complete.
Mo told the staff that Bob had been nominated for Outstanding State Employee of the Year and he was the DOC employee who was selected. Congratulations Bob! Mo will email his nomination to the staff for everyone to read.
The Personnel office is concerned with employees not following the Department of Human Resources policy 11.0 & 11.1. The policy states that all employees are required to take an "unpaid" half hour lunch. The only exceptions are security staff. A copy of the policy can be obtained from central office by request.
The Agency of Administration is trying to reduce the use of
in-state mileage reimbursement. They have a large number of fleet vehicles
available for personal use. Vehicle pick up is available in
Mary Koen is still ill. She was hospitalized with another bout of pneumonia but is home now. She is expected to be out for at least six to eight weeks. She would appreciate cards and emails from everyone.
David Luce was appointed as a new member to the CHSVT State
Education Board by the Governor's office. David currently serves on the Dale
local advisory board. Betty White from
Central Office is getting ready to set up interviews for the
Newport Special Educator position. We are still accepting applications for the
Special Education position in
The Special Education monitoring team from the Department of Education has completed their tours of the facilities. The exit interviews have been conducted. The DOE had some good things to say about our Special Education program. They understand our process of taking our students off their IEP's and mainstream them into our "regular" program of instruction.
Bob gave a brief legislative update. A Vocational/VCI
building is being considered for
Steve is administering our first SAT on June 3rd in
Breaking Ranks has been ordered. We will get them out to staff as soon as they arrive.
NWSCF's greenhouse project/flower distribution to the National Guard families was a huge success. They had a total of eight trucks take away the marigolds, and the ceremony was covered by the Channel 3 News.
Audrey handed out a new Table of Contents for courses on the Intranet for staff to use when filling out course descriptions.
Dave Strong made a
motion to approve the meeting minutes of March 31, 2005. Jim Candon seconded. The
motion was called, and it passed unanimously.
Local Site
Announcements:
Jim Candon presented information for the Victor R. Swenson
Humanities Educator Award. The Vermont Humanities Council is seeking
nominations for an excellent
Bob Sattelberger had a recent graduate who is sitting on their
local advisory board. They have also had a case worker from the facility who
has recently returned from
Mary Nelson has started an electrician apprenticeship program to certify students as a Level I electrician. It is a four year program that her students will complete in six months. In August, they will begin state certification for plumbing. These programs are funded through VSAC. Tony Washburn has certified his first welder.
Tom Woods will have two graduates on Monday. The writing/art contest is going well; they have had 15 entries so far.
Anne Emerson went to a conference where CHSVT was recognized
as an alternative school in
Dan King talked about their Digital Divide program and how Richard Jones, a Burlington CCSC student, has received his first paycheck for teaching the course. They also attended a two day conference at the Stoweflake Inn in Stowe. The conference made Richard feel really special, he was treated with respect from everyone and got to enjoy lunch.
Dan also commended Kris Degenhardt on the great work he is doing getting jobs and housing for the Burlington CCSC students.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Handbook Committee
- Jim Candon
Jim handed out a summary of comments from staff regarding the handbook. Some discussion about the comments produced some editing of the handbook. The hazing policy was discussed at length. Mary Poulos motioned to have the hazing policy in the handbook with a sign-off sheet in back for students to sign. The motion was seconded and passed. Jim will work on the adding that portion to the handbook.
Business Office -
Mo McIntyre
Mo reminded the street sites that there are still four AA-14 Byrne contracts that have not been received. She will not be able to process payments for these four adjuncts without these forms. Because May 1st is a Sunday, the spending deadline for FY05 has been changed to Monday, May 2nd. If you are unsure of your operating balance, please check with Mo or Audrey. Please don't forget to include mileage when spending your final amounts.
Technology
Committee - Dave Strong
The Tech. Committee is having difficulties with the Internet
Researcher Company and is currently working on getting that order for the
facilities. The committee is working on two recommendations for purchasing LCD
projectors for each site and the RM Math Framework software. Central Office is
reviewing the request. You can go to the website for more information on the
software at rmeducation.com. Alan Frost has a new aide from the VCI office;
Micheline Trottier will be helping Alan to trouble shoot computer problems.
There will be three Intel trainings this summer. There are two incentives for
taking the trainings. Each person will get a 512mb flash memory stick and will
be entered in a drawing for an LCD projector. Pauline gave the information
about the first course beginning on May 24th at
Curriculum Policy
Committee - Barb Hagen
Barb shared information from Kay Charron, Assistant Director of Career and Workforce Development at the DOE about information on the GED and approval for CHSVT credit. We have received approval to use the GED test scores for Prior Learning credit. Students will also need to take one course from CHSVT in order to use the GED for credit. Barb will forward more information. The GED score sheet needs to be attached to the transcript request form. The GED does not include a prior learning for U.S. History. Please contact Barb H. with any questions.
Each educational site will receive a CD of the Curriculum Policy as soon as it is done. Please contact Barb by the end of May, if you have any concerns regarding the policy.
Curriculum Content
Committee - Katherine Miller
The committee has not met. Katherine would like to see the focus groups divide up at the May faculty meeting to begin to cull out Course Descriptions and review the By-Laws.
Special Education
- Bob Lucenti
After talking with the DOE Monitoring Team, the DOE is impressed with the dedication of our faculty. They interviewed approximately 12 students of Mary Nelson's, and the students gave the DOE great reviews about CHSVT.
Library Committee
- Paul Major
Paul asked the staff how the library forms are working. He knows that they need "tweaking" and ideas and guidelines are being mailed to the staff. The committee is looking at other options beyond the Internet Researcher as placing an order may not be an option. It is a possibility that a book repair tape applicator could be ordered for each site instead. There was some concern about the design of the applicator being allowed in the facility due to security issues. The committee will look into the design and see if it is appropriate to have at the sites. It was also mentioned that putting the book orders in earlier next year would help.
LSB - Mary Poulos
Next meeting is tomorrow, April 29th in Middlebury. Working on IPDP and will be reviewing May 2006 renewals.
New Business
Mo handed out the first draft of the Budget and Purchasing Procedures Manual. The staff looked it over briefly and offered some suggestions. Please contact Mo with any comments and questions, within the next week. The plan is to have this manual finalized and ready for the May meeting.
Old Business
Bob Lucenti provided a PowerPoint presentation from Bud
Meyers at UVM about the drop-out data in
Bob also handed out an enrollment report done by Alan Frost. This report shows the number of students we currently have enrolled at CHSVT and the last grade completed before enrollment.
Bob discussed meeting options with the staff. The two options discussed were monthly faculty meetings with half the day dedicated to the staff meeting and half of the day dedicated to committees. Concerns were discussed about lack of space to break into committees, not enough time for either half of the day to get everything done, making the meetings later creating weather concerns in the winter months, and staff who are on double committees. The other option was to have meetings all year round and alternating between faculty meeting one month, and committee meetings the alternate months. This brought up concerns of running into summer vacations. The positive side is that the committees could happen at individual facilities, and there would be more time for the committees to meet. Another possible suggestion was to send committee reports to staff via email, making faculty meetings shorter. A vote was taken as to the preference of changing or keeping faculty meetings as is. There were only three votes to change the present meeting structure. Faculty and Committee meetings will remain as is.
New Business
Bob gave an overview of the school budget process for the upcoming fiscal year. He broke down the funding sources of the 3.5 million for the school. He explained how the General Fund comes from our state taxes and is approximately 3.1 million, which is where our FTE money comes from. The operating budget is approximately $395,000 and about 2.7 million is for payroll and personal services such as adjuncts. Special Education funding is received by a transfer from the Department of Education and is currently $163,000. Carl Perkins and Title I funds are also a transfer from the Department of Education. Approximately three and a half percent of the corrections budget goes to education. Please begin thinking of your site's budget request for operations in FY06. You will receive the packet for closing out FY05 and requesting for FY06 in Mid-June.
The meeting adjourned at
Respectfully Submitted,
Sheila Commo