APPROVED

WINDHAM SCHOOL BOARD

Public Session

Business Meeting

September 4, 2007 – Planning Department

School Board Members: Al Letizio, Barbara Coish, Beverly Donovan,

Beth Valentine, Bruce Anderson

Superintendent: Dr. Frank Bass

Assistant Superintendent: Roxanne Wilson

Business Administrator: Toby Eaton

Chairman Al Letizio called the Public Session of the Windham School Board to order at 7:15 p.m. All those in attendance stood for pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence.

Good News

Golden Brook School – Beth Valentine spoke of summer meeting with staff members to discuss a book they read call The First Six Weeks of School. Teachers will use the Responsive Classroom approach which allows everyone to feel respected and safe. A formal training session will be held on September 21^st.

Windham Center School – Beverly Donovan spoke of Center School passing the state assessment tests in the areas of reading and mathematics.

Windham Middle School – Bruce Anderson spoke of the M2M mentoring program and Rachel’s Challenge.

Minutes

Motion to approve as amended the public minutes from August 7, 2007 was made by Beth Valentine with a 2^nd by Barbara Coish. Approved 4-0-1

Amendment – Page 4 Line 23 add Searles School Anniversary.

Amendment – Page 4 Line 33 change Beverly Donovan to Barbara Coish.

Amendment – Page 5 Line 1 change August to September.

Motion to approve as amended the public minutes from August 21, 2007 was made by Beth Valentine with a 2^nd by Bruce Anderson. Approved 3-1-1

Amendment –Page 1 Line 43 change softball field to multipurpose artificial turf field.

Amendment –Page 3 Line 20 change getting our senior class to supporting our senior class.

Manifests

Building Fund Voucher #1018 $1,112,155.76

WSD Voucher # 1019 $491,976.23

WSD Voucher #1017 $452,247.16

WSD Voucher #6 $60,379.36

Motion to Accept Manifests was made by Barbara Coish with a 2^nd by Bruce Anderson. Approved 5-0.

Public Address

Tom Case addressed the School Board noting his desire to change the policy regarding Public Address to include the board replying during the meeting and not taking it under advisement. Mr. Case asked for clarification regarding the hiring of a Consultant and not a Principal at this time.

Chairman Letizio responded by stating in the past, they did not have a Public Address section at their meetings and now they do. He also noted the Board will work to improve upon it. Mr. Letizio asked Dr. Bass to respond to the Consultant/Principal question.

Dr. Bass explained the interview process with regard to hiring a high school principal. He noted any candidate would not be on board until January 2008 and that a lot of work needed to be done - thus, the hiring of a Consultant to assist the Superintendent. Dr. Bass further noted a planning team would be assembled and brought on in May. He also stated that each month the Consultant will give a PowerPoint presentation to the School Board in order for everyone to see the movement/progression of the project and how it will unfold.

Tom Case noted he would like to see an FYI in the newspaper regarding such. He also requested the Public Address portion of school board meetings be held at the end of each public meeting.

Barbara Coish noted she was on the interview committee and the three candidates were chosen. Mrs. Coish further noted she was very upset that Al Letizio, Bruce Anderson and Beth Valentine never met the three candidates.

Chairman Letizio stated the board discussed this issue at the last meeting in Non Public.

Cindy Hastings addressed the school board noting the color/mascot change is still on the minds of Windham children. She noted she hoped there could be a compromise and that the kids could be involved.

Bruce Anderson stated he was hopeful they could find some middle ground with regard to the high school colors. He suggested putting the color green in with the approved blue/gold scheme. He noted he would like to go forth with a proposal to discuss adding the color green.

Motion for reconsideration of high school colors was made by Bruce Anderson with a 2^nd by Beth Valentine. Approved 3-2.

Beverly Donovan stated they did look at this with the Integration Committee – noting they talked at length about it.

Dr. Bass discussed the rules pertaining to the reconsideration of a Motion.

Barbara Coish noted that every uniform has an accent color. She further stated she was for any color to be an accent color.

Beth Valentine questioned what the time frame would be for the Integration Committee to include an accent color. She questioned if it would only take a couple of weeks.

Stephanie Wimmer from the Integration Committee addressed the school board. She noted that it probably would take a couple of months to redo the color scheme. She further stated an outrageous amount of work has already gone into this – noting uniform work is very involved. She suggested getting help from the community regarding accent colors. She also stated that a lot of information about the work the Integration Committee has done can be found on the internet.

Glenn Davis, Owner’s Representative, addressed the school board. Mr. Davis stated the board probably would have until Thanksgiving to but green into the specs. He felt the only impact would be with the interior designer and whether she could accommodate that. He urged the board to come up with a decision.

Beth Valentine stated if timing fits, she would help out.

Motion for School Board to ask Integration Committee to present palates and uniform ideas for a three (3) color scheme for Windham High School and to ask that three (3) students from Windham Middle School and Salem High School join the Integration Committee in this task was made by Bruce Anderson with a 2^nd by Beth Valentine. Approved 3-2.

Beverly Donovan requested green to be the accent color.

Motion to amend previous motion was made by Beverly Donovan with a 2^nd by Barbara Coish. Motion failed 2-3.

Bruce Anderson questioned what would define an accent color. He noted it is a compromise.

Mr. Davis requested clarification – swapping blue for green. The consensus was no that they were not swapping blue for the color green. He noted he would go with a three color model.

Opening of School 2007-08

Dr. Bass spoke of a successful opening of the school year. He stated the Assistant Superintendent and he visited every school and they were excited by what they saw.

Opening day enrollment figures were discussed.

High School Partnerships

Dr. Bass spoke of exciting opportunities that would be available to high school students. He spoke of partnering with Boston College; Raytheon Corporation; Dean of Graduate Studies of UNH and private foundations. He noted he would be holding preliminary talks with Boston College Dean in the near future and how the entire Windham community could be involved.

Athletic Committee Presentation

Chairman Letizio gave an overview of the last meeting that was held with the Athletic Committee. Mr. Letizio spoke of an athletic vision with suggestions from the Athletic Committee. He noted the Committee had three (3) recommendations of what would be needed to adequately run athletic programs at the high school. Mr. Letizio also noted the high school site would also be the site of future middle school.

Recommendation #1 – Mike Hatem discussed the need for four (4) diamonds at the site. He noted if there was only one diamond, that there could not be a JV team. He stated the Athletic Committee felt the Junior Varsity opportunity was very important.

Mr. Hatem further noted that Babe Ruth League could also use the diamonds and that the town could use them in the summer. He also stressed the use of high school diamonds would alleviate some pressure on the town. Lastly, Mr. Hatem stated that it is not a big expense to create diamonds and that they are very necessary for the kids and the town.

Recommendation #2 – Chris O’Neil discussed the need for artificial turf field and track. He stressed that without artificial turf, there would be a very hard time supporting teams. He noted they would seriously have to consider cutting some programs because you cannot practice and play on the same field. He noted football may have to be cut.

Chairman Letizio discussed what the town currently approved for the high school site and what was being proposed by the Athletic Committee.

Dr. Bass noted Pat Corbin contacted him over his concern with the present number of fields at the site. He further noted that if football is dropped, students cannot go to Salem to play.

Mike Hatem noted one other advantage of artificial turf, is that the Pop Warner program can utilize it also.

Jerry Sipes with the Pelham/Windham Razorbacks Association and former Athletic Director from the state of Maryland addressed the school board noting that 52% of all football players on the Razorbacks come from Windham. He spoke of the need of a stadium as being necessary in the future. He also noted he was glad an athletic vision was being formed.

Chairman Letizio questioned Mr. Sipes, if he felt the current field allotment would be enough. Mr. Sipes responded by stating that he did not know how Windham would have JV teams. It was also noted that only 5% of athletes that play at the varsity level come from the 9^th and 10^th grade. He feels Windham will loose good students to private schools.

Beverly Donovan questioned why it was stated that there would be no football in year one.

Mark Charbonneau explained that according to the NHIA, you have to establish yourself during the first year and come in at a JV level. He also stressed that with the Razorbacks, you have a feeder program of athletes.

Recommendation #3 – Chris O’Neil discussed the need for a 2^nd gymnasium for the following activities: wrestling, gymnastics, full court basketball, indoor track and field events, volleyball, spirit/cheer practice, drum-line practice, color-guard practice, dance/aerobic fitness, lacrosse practice, spring sports practice, PE classes. Mr. O’Neil noted that without a 2^nd gym, wrestling would have to practice in the cafeteria.

Beverly Donovan noted she was happy to see the 2^nd gym be expanded to 100 feet, noting this size makes more sense.

Beth Valentine questioned if gymnastics would have to take place offsite if there were no 2^nd gym. It was noted that yes, it would take place offsite.

Dr. Bass stressed that they cannot lose sight of creating opportunity and participation for all students and not just the varsity level teams.

Chris O’Neil asked the School Board to adopt their vision tonight – noting they will then provide a strategy to get there.

Beverly Donovan stated that all along, she felt the athletic facilities were inadequate with what was presented, but now she was very happy to see the new vision.

Motion to adopt vision of Athletic Committee in report dated September 4, 2007 as presented to the Windham School Board was made by Beverly Donovan with a 2^nd by Bruce Anderson. Approved 5-0.

Bruce Anderson noted he would like data from the Athletic Committee as they move forward in their discussions.

Laura Bellevia spoke of a few changes to the written report by the Athletic Committee. She noted that male gymnastics/winter, JV tennis male/female and the addition of freshman football were excluded. The changes were noted.

Chairman Letizio noted for the record, that a copy of Mr. Corbin’s letter to Superintendent Bass was given to all board members.

Tim Kelleher addressed the board stating he felt Mr. Corbin would be a great source of information for the artificial turf field. He also stressed that it would make sense to do it now and not forget about a marching band program. He noted that in Pelham they cut the gym and that we should do it now.

Chairman Letizio stated that the high school project was the biggest expense to our community. He also stated that were we are now, is that the entire School Board and the Athletic Committee share the same vision. He stressed that now they will need to master plan the site and put it all together.

Beverly Donovan strongly urged the School Board to put a placeholder for items in the CIP.

Business Administrator, Toby Eaton noted they will be having a CIP meeting on Thursday night.

Bruce Anderson stated they need to seriously take an engineering viewpoint of the site and get a proposal from Appledore Engineering.

Motion that we request a proposal for site engineering for rest of high school property to include a future middle school and requests of the Athletic Committee was made by Bruce Anderson with a 2^nd by Barbara Coish. Approved 5-0.

AYP

Assistant Superintendent, Roxanne Wilson, addressed the board regarding Windham’s AYP report. She noted that all three schools had met AYP – which was based on the October 2006 testing. She also noted that the No Child Left Behind Act is the driving force behind AYP. The only place that did not make AYP, was at the middle school level in the area of math. She stated that the special education subgroup did not make AYP in math.. To that end, she explained that middle school administration, along with herself were taking a close look at each students scores and they felt they have a basis for an appeal. It was further noted that because test results were given at the opening of school, they only have about 6 weeks to turn it around before the next testing occurs.

Al Letizio stated he did not think this was bad news, as the testing helps improve people’s lives.

Beth Valentine noted that special education is difficult to test and decipher.

The Anderson Postulate: Why Things Are The Way They Are

Dr. Bass laid out a philosophical vision of the new high school in regards to curriculum and program opportunities that will separate Windham High School from all others in the state. He discussed how things connect and allow for discovery by the student through creative engagement. He spoke of unique collaboration between math and science that would allow for both types of teachers to be in the same classroom at the same time. Dr. Bass then spoke of community service through senior projects and how to build this into seminars.

Dr. Bass noted that High School Consultant, Amanda Lacaroz, would attend each meeting and give presentations.

Bruce Anderson spoke of his teachings at the college level and how teachings were designed to make students think critically.

Barbara Coish commented on visitors from Russia and how donations from the community would be needed.

Dr. Bass spoke of the possibility of the Russian Ambassador visiting Windham. Chairman Letizio noted that opportunity would be great.

Other Business Items

Toby Eaton informed the board that PSNH was requesting permission from the School District to trim back some trees on their property in front of the SAU building. Permission was granted to allow PSNH to trim trees on the SAU site.

Beth Valentine requested the collection of information regarding Center School’s 2^nd floor heat index. She requested that air-conditioning units be looked at.

Beverly Donovan noted that the district did take readings before and that it was discussed as a possible CIP item.

Mr. Eaton noted they were being proactive in this regard and that small air conditioners were being introduced into rooms where needed.

Mr. Letizio suggested looking into a ductless system. Beverly Donovan suggested teaching students the principles of cooling in rooms as part of their curriculum.

Bruce Anderson questioned if there would be spraying for EEE.

Barbara Coish responded by stating at the last selectman’s meeting, they voted not to spray due to dry conditions.

Mr. Eaton discussed treating the mosquito’s in the larvae stage.

Correspondence

Bruce Anderson noted the NHSBA requested clarification of the new Chairman, Al Letizio, for the Windham district.

Administrative Monthly Reports

Toby Eaton updated the board regarding the Project Budget Worksheet from Carl Dubois at Harvey Construction. He noted Glenn Davis was working hard to pull together the Harvey Contract. He also noted he will have the Citizens Bank report for the next meeting.

Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent Reports – were noted and distributed to board members.

Beverly Donovan questioned how Roxanne Wilson’s role would mesh with the new Consultant. Mrs. Wilson responded by stating they still have to meet and that she will be part of that process.

Mr. Eaton noted he was happy to report that he could contribute $65,000 to the field maintenance fund from year end surplus.

Barbara Coish questioned public legal notice regarding recording devices on school busses. It was noted that public legal notice was given.

Information and Proposals from Board Members

CIP – Beverly Donovan noted she had reviewed with Toby Eaton three items for the CIP: Phase 2 of WMS paving project and extra parking; relocatables at GBS and WMS ongoing placeholder. Mrs. Donovan noted that big expenditures are very important and need to put in as a placeholder in the CIP.

NHSBA – Beverly Donovan noted the meeting would be next week.

Salem School Board – Barbara Coish noted they recently honored state champion softball team. She also stated that Salem was surprised by their high school enrollment numbers. They are up 40 students and were not expecting that.

Beverly Donovan noted that sophomores had their class ring meeting and noted that at anytime any student who changes schools can have their ring replaced for free. She also noted that if a child of the class of 2010 wanted to stay at Salem High School, they would have to petition the school board and notify Salem this spring of their intention. She also noted that parents would be responsible for all tuition and transportation of that student.

Barbara Coish requested that all school board meetings be televised – noting some people were requesting it. Beverly Donovan also stated that she was getting a lot of requests for the same.

Motion to go back to schedule of doing workshop meetings on television was made by Beverly Donovan with a 2^nd by Barbara Coish.

Discussion of Motion

Bruce Anderson stated he understood the point and noted they are public meetings but that the present workshop meetings were a more casual round-table type of meeting.

Beth Valentine stated she hadn’t been asked to be on camera more often. However, people were requesting more targeted information – noting the board needs to do more in the way of communication.

Chairman Letizio noted the workshop meeting evolved into a 2^nd business meeting so essentially the board was holding two (2) business meetings. He noted the workshop meeting needed to be more informal and stated he thought they needed to give this type of meeting more time for adjustment.

Barbara Coish noted she withdrew her 2^nd of the previous motion.

Beverly Donovan noted she withdrew her motion.

Barbara Coish requested the school board re-enter into non-public session to discuss an issue.

Al Letizio noted he received this request from Mrs. Coish but that this item was not on the agenda for this evening. He stressed that if it was important to a board member to discuss an issue, then the board needs to decide together whether it would be entertained.

Barbara Coish stated the issue was name sensitive and felt it was important to discuss in non-public.

Beth Valentine stated she would like to see what Mrs. Coish has to say but that she felt frustrated that they do not abide by rules as the board can become dysfunctional.

Barbara Coish stated that any member can bring it up at any meeting.

Motion to return to non-public session at 9:50 p.m. under 91A:3(C) was made by Barbara Coish with a 2^nd by Bruce Anderson. Barbara Coish – aye; Bruce Anderson – aye; Beth Valentine – aye; Beverly Donovan – aye; Al Letizio – aye.

Respectfully,

Diane Figaro