2010-QUASHNET RIVER SCHOOL COUNCIL

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Quashnet School Council Minutes of meeting held on Thursday, February 11, 2010 (3:15 PM -4:15 PM) Present: Patty DeBoer, Sheila Arnold, Cary Marshall, Jane Dolan, Calean LaCroix Absent: Jackie Rastallis, Kristen Boyd, Lisa Hettinger 1. Quashnet School Mission Statement We reviewed the proposed new mission statement for the Quashnet School. Council members had received the draft prior to this meeting. All council members support the draft mission statement as shown below. We will now move forward to gain input/feedback from members of the Quashnet staff(through their PLCs) and from our parents. The draft mission statement is being included in the Quashnet School weekly newsletter dated 2/22/10. Parents are asked to connect with Patty to provide their suggestions. Quashnet School—New Mission Statement (Draft-2010) Our mission at the Quashnet School, in partnership with parents, families, and community, is to empower all children to achieve excellence and to reach their full potential in a respect-filled, safe, and positive learning environment characterized by high expectations, quality instruction, continuous improvement, and civic responsibility. 2. Cameras in the Hallways We discussed cameras being placed in the hallways at the Quashnet School--an idea currently being proposed by the Town. Members present at this meeting are not opposed to this idea but would like to see the s,�of this proposal in writing. We assume there will be no audio included in the monitoring process. If this proposal moves forward, we would like a memorandum of understanding developed, spelling out specifically who will have the authority to view the hallway scenes in a real-time format, taped format, and under what circumstances? Other questions: Is additional hardware needed? Does our current Quashnet School computer system have the capacity to support this proposal without impacting other computer users/uses? Will school administrators have real-time access? Is video stored to allow us to view tapings from previous days? 3. FYI Budaet update Superintendent Bradshaw will be attending our March school council meeting to review the status of the budget planning process for FY'11. In planning for FY'11, all schools are being treated as cost centers. Each cost center represents a certain percentage of the whole budget. With the assumption that each cost center is currently fairly resourced, each center is responsible for cutting its percentage of the deficit. Round One's deficit is currently $600,000. The Quashnet School's share of the Round One deficit is $112,000. The deficit in Round Two is $400,000. Quashnet's share is $75,000. We are putting student learning needs as our first priority, and we are trying to keep cuts as far away from the homeroom classrooms as possible. We have made substantial cuts in our operating budget and have looked at ways to better utilize personnel in serving students. We plan to continue having 25 homerooms (6 at third grade, 7 at fourth grade, 6 at fifth grade, and 6 at sixth grade) keeping class sizes consistent with those of the 2009-2010 school year (22 students per room-average)