February 15, 2018 Meeting Notes

Attendance: Jeff O’Hara, Suzan Locke, Aimee Frost, Elisabeth Garvey, Kim Gordon, Kristin Miskavage, Jen Lunquist, Tanya Jones, Jim Goldsmith, Anita Howard, Nancy Wood, Ray Mainer, Julie Zack

Call to order: 6:35pm

CVSD Budget Presentation

●      CVSD Board Presentation-Ray Mainer presented the proposed 2018-2019 CVSD Budget. Link to presentation:  https://www.cvsdvt.org/domain/321

●      Ray spoke for 45 minutes reviewing the deck and opening the room up for questions.

●      Questions included:

○      What are examples of how consolidation has resulted in cost savings?

■      Jeff shared a recent examples when there was significant savings on ground maintenance work.

○      During the discussion is was also shared that when there are staff openings, schools are able to open the position within the district before publically advertising for positions. 

■      If a staff position is eliminated (RIF’d, Reduction in Force), they will be offered an equivalent open positions within the district before other candidates, within or outside the district.

HCS 2018/2019 Planning

HCS is already planning for the 2018/2019 school year.  There are 70 days of school left, so staff and administration are balancing the need to proactively plan and stay focused on this year.

Update on Co-Principal Search

●      Suzan Locke updated the group on the candidate pool for the co-principal search (approx. 30 applicants), the committee and the interview process. 

●      The committee included Elaine Pickney, Suzan, HCS middle schools staff, as well as other staff members and a parent rep (Aimee Frost).

●      CVSD superintendent, Elaine Pickney, will recommend the HCS co-principal candidate at the 2/20/18 CVSD board meeting.  This is a public meeting.

●      If approved by the board, the new co-principal announcement will happen in the following weeks.

●      June 30, 2018 will be Principal O’Hara’s last day. 

Grade Level Configurations

●      Suzan spoke on this topic; they are still working on teacher placements for the upcoming school year.

●      A 7th or 8th grade teacher will be added.

●      The incoming 5th grade class, will move from 4 to three 3 classrooms.  The per class student count is within the acceptable standards for classroom size. 

○      The 5th grade teachers are proactively planning and discussing ways to serve the needs of this student group.

■      Under discussion is the of intervention blocks for additional math and literacy instruction.

■      Another idea is to shift 5th grade teachers to focus on one subject area.

●      At this time, a fourth classroom is not planned for the 2nd grade (in coming third grade class).

Other Planning Updates

●      In 2018/2019, the two World Language teachers will move to 1.0 FTE up from 0.8 FTE.

●      In 2018/2019, a 0.5 Proficiency Based Learning coach will be added.  This position will have a literacy focus.  With the addition, HCS will have two dedicated 0.5 PBL coaches, one with a math focus (Monica Carter) and one with a literacy focus.

●      HCS administration is waiting for confirmation on the addition of a 0.5 Guidance Counselor for the 2018/2019 school year.  It is confirmed that a 0.5 Guidance Counselor will be added for the 2019/2020 school year.

PiE Updates

HCS & PiE Family Dance- Friday, March 9th

●      Theme is “Under the Sea”

●      Advance ticket sales the week before the dance (the first week back from Feb break) in the mornings before school (7:30-8a)

●      PiE now has a square for credit card purchases at the dance and possibly for before school advance tickets.

●      We’ll have a basket raffle, no auctioned items.

●      Free light appetizers and  root beer floats and a cookie/brownie with ice cream for sale.

●      There are 3 main sponsors:  NRG, River Cove Animal Hospital, Timberlane Dental.  Middlebury Bank may also be a sponsor. THANK YOU to our SPONSORS!!!!!

●      DJ, Photo Booth, Crafts by Wiggle Room

●      Fundraising goal is conservative at $3500

○      Proceeds from the Family Dance in previous years are as follows:

○      SY15      $4,385

○      SY16      $4,022

○      SY17      $3,975

Seed Sale Fundraiser- NEW this year

●      March 19 - April 4 . With everything delivering by April 20.

●      Online only

●      The group discussed how the Seed Sale Fundraiser could support HCS Garden needs.

●      Hoping to raise $500; since this is a new fundraiser, our projection

Fundraising Update

●      60% of what PiE raises goes directly back to teachers

●      The Spring teacher allocation ($6000)  will be distributed in late February

●      To date PiE has raised $12,308 towards goal of $18K
Assuming $3,500 for Family Dance and $500 for seed sale, there is a shortfall of $1,700 to meet goal of $18,000.

●      Fundraising Team is looking for ideas for a final fundraiser to meet goal.  The team is leaning towards a parent event, similar to the Comedy Diva event held at Cedar Knoll last spring.

●      If you have ideas or suggestions, contact Tanya Jones, tanyaandcj@gmavt.net

HCS Garden

●      An HCS Garden Committee (GC) has been formed. We met for the first time this week to discuss plans for this year's gardens and to divide tasks. Anyone interested in joining the GC is welcome to sign up! Contact Amanda Wheeler, wheeleramanda45@gmail.com.

●      Have met and Deb Bissonette to discuss the cafeteria's desires for this year's crops.

●      Before holiday break, HCS received a very generous, large donation of seeds from The Vermont Wildflower Farm. This puts us in wonderful shape with many of the seeds we will want for this year and beyond!

●      Plans are in the works to resume "Seed & Sample Day," an event organized by the garden coordinators in the past. This school-wide event allows students to have an opportunity to get involved early in the growing process by planting seeds that will become the veggie plants that we grow in our gardens. Students also get to sample some vegetables and prepared dishes that contain vegetables like those that we'll be growing in the gardens each year. Many hands will be needed to make this day happen: keep an eye out for Sign-Up Genius e-mails that will go out over the next few weeks looking for volunteers and donations. An exact date for Seed & Sample Day has yet to be determined, but we do know it will be held shortly before Spring Break week.

●      The GC is researching options that can be implemented to ensure the sustainability of our garden program for years to come. Currently, we are reaching out to local schools who have a partnership between their gardens and the UVM Extension's Master Gardener Program. A partnership with the Master Gardener Program would connect us with many expert gardener volunteers who could help maintain our gardens - particularly during summer months when school is not in session. No decisions have been made yet; we are still in the process of collecting information. We are also researching the Farm to School funding and whether that could/should be an option for HCS in the future. More on this to come... stay tuned!

●      The Garden Committee decided that it would be great to give our gardens an official name. To do so, we'd like to ask students to submit their ideas for garden names. More information on this will be provided after winter break.

○      Jeff suggested that the garden naming honor Susan Lepple and Heidi Simkins, two parents instrumental in creating the garden.

Connection Youth & PiE Partnership

●      Michael Nerney will be speaking at CVU on Tuesday, March 27th on adolescents and their brains.  The name of his talk is "Risky Business, Why Adolescents Love Risk-Taking, And How We Can Help Manage It"  He's an engaging and well informed presenter, clinician, and parent.  This is not to be missed!  PIE and CY are planning to collaborate on organizing a meet up for parents after this talk. 

●      We are still pulling together a panel on marijuana, we have a couple of confirmed presenters and are working on getting a couple more!  It will be called "Parents: Be IN the Know About Marijuana" (as part of the ParentIN campaign).  Dates are still TBD.  Meanwhile, Burlington is hosting something similar on Saturday from 11am-1pm at the Fletcher Free Library.  It's free and light snacks will be served.  Childcare is available upon request.  To register for the Burlington program visit: parentin.eventbrite.com.  Stay tuned for the CVSD presentation!

●      CY and CVU are working on scheduling Cindy Pierce in April for Sexual Violence Awareness Month.  She will be meeting with the freshmen and sophomores as a group, the juniors and seniors as a group in the morning and then will be presenting to parents only (!) that night.  We are still nailing down the date, it will be April 11 or 12th.

Meeting adjourned 8:00pm