Kensington School Board
March 10, 2005
Mr. Flynn called the meeting to order at 7:04 PM.
Alice Mower moved to nominate Dana Donovan as the Kensington School Board Chairperson. Mrs. Camacho seconded the motion. The vote was taken and was in the affirmative.
Mrs. Mower moved to approve the minutes of the February 12, 2005 School Board Meeting. Mrs. Camacho seconded the motion with one correction. The starting time of the meeting to be changed from 6:50 PM to 6:05 PM.
Mrs. Switzer gave the Principal’s Report as follows:
· The KES Times and the monthly calendar were reviewed.
· Read Across America Day was celebrated on March 2nd and was a most successful day for staff and students. Many guest readers visited classrooms during the day.
· The Big Jump Rope Show was held on March 3rd with approximately 70 jumpers.
· Due to inclement weather, visiting artist, David Carroll’s visit was cancelled and is rescheduled for March 16th.
· The Wellness Fair is scheduled for March 17th. Mrs. Switzer thanked Lili Spinosa and Carrie McDonough for all of their hard work in organizing the fair.
· KES has three Destination Imagination Teams who will be competing on March 19th.
· The 4th and 5th Grade Chorus will travel to Timberlane High School for a music sharing event on April 2nd.
· The Microsociety Marketplace is scheduled for March 25th and is always a much anticipated event for students and their parents.
· The Proposed Gardening Project, sponsored by the Artist In Residence Program, needs to be changed from its original plan in order to accommodate the back yard.
· Relative to Literacy initiatives, Mrs. Switzer reported that all professional staff will be reading The Bee Season and discussing the book on May 18th. The discussion will focus on how to teach children to read.
· East Kingston, Newfields and Kensington teachers have participated in Grade Level Math meetings and have found them very informative.
· Brooke Petrucelli and Tammy D’Agostino have both offered computer workshops to staff.
· A Visioning Committee has been formed and have met several times under the direction of M.L. Hannay. There is an Open Forum on Visioning on March 29th.
Two field trips were unanimously approved by the board:
Grades 4H and 4K will travel to Concord to visit the NH History Museum in June
Grades 1M and 1R will travel to Shaw’s Supermarket on March 28th for a nutritional tour.
Mr. Flynn gave the Superintendent’s report as follows:
· Mr. Flynn gave the results of the voting for all of the SAU #16 towns reporting that all budgets passed as well as multi-year teacher’s contracts in East Kingston, Stratham and Newfields.
· Mr. Flynn stated that each of the towns in the SAU have at least one new School Board member on their boards and the COOP has two new board members.
· At the May meeting of the Joint Boards’ meeting the salary will be set for the Superintendent, the Associate Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendents.
· Mr. Flynn noted that the February vacation next year has been moved back to the last week in February.
· The new high school is 30% complete and is on schedule and on budget.
· Mr. Flynn suggested that the board develop a small group to investigate setting up the kitchen.
Mr. Flynn stated that the cause of the odor in the front of the building is linked to the windows and to replace them would cost approximately $15,000.00. It was suggested that the board could encumber the funds for the project from surplus monies at the end of the fiscal year.
Mr. Flynn noted that due to a change in the regulations for water testing for Arsenic, the school may have to spend some money for some modifications to the system.
Mr. Flynn shared the following enrollment figures for all of the SAU:
Brentwood 364
East Kingston 173
Kensington 198
Newfields 177
Stratham 641
COOP 1317
EHS 1597
Main St. School 498
Lincoln St. School 496
Mrs. Donovan welcomed Mrs. Camacho to the board.
The meeting adjourned at 8:25 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Margaret Ruggeri
School Board Secretary