MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING, February 4, 2021
A meeting of the Board of Directors was held virtually at Noble High School on February 4, 2021 at 7:00 pm, with all members present virtually and in person except Mr. Doiron.
Ms. Neubert shared the public input statement.
Public Input:
Mr. Hutchinson of North Berwick: We haven’t gotten a clear answer on Power outages vs snow days: if a section of one town is w/o power for more than a day, how is it fair for those kids to be accounted for the same work as the others? It is the absence of the SCHOOL Not the child.
The Superintendent assured the board that a student who is unable to tune in due to power outages, etc., will NOT be held accountable.
Ms. Potter made the motion and it was seconded by Ms. Neubert to accept the minutes of January 21, 2021 as amended. All members voted in favor and the motion passed.
Ms. Erin Kinsey, student representative (a junior at Noble High School) was introduced and shared an update regarding activities that are occurring (and those NOT occurring) at this time. Sports are just getting underway. An online gaming club has started up as well. She expressed her thanks for being asked to join the board as the student representative and shared that she was looking forward to being a part of the process.
Denise Van Campen, Business Manager, shared a financial update for the district. She gave an overview of all of the grants regarding Covid Relief.
She wanted to thank her office staff, specifically Maryellen Bourbon and Kathy Vancour for their incredible dedication and work that provided at the end of the year to help finalize the CRF funds and documentation necessary.
Ms. Van Campen then reviewed the financial summary for December for the district.
She then reviewed further financial information. There will be a revenue shortfall due to the lack of sports this year, no sports fees were collected. There is a shortage in the interest earned as well (due to very low interest rates these days).
However there have been some areas of savings due to the circumstances surrounding the pandemic. Technology, building maintenance, transportation, athletics.
School nutrition has been particularly up and down this year due to a variety of factors. Ms. Van Campen shared that the federal government approved an emergency “summer program” modality of providing meals which has caused a shortage.
The Superintendent shared with the board updates regarding Covid-19 and our responses:
Attendance for staff 96-98%
Attendance for students 92-98%
Ms. Amy Creighton, Director of Nursing, shared that Indoor band practicing has been given the green light to come indoors with fairly strict requirements. Ms. Creighton shared the process leading up to setting this up going forward.
Chorus regulations have not been lifted for indoors yet. Hoping that will change in the near future.
She shared updates from the CDC.
Ms. Mallett asked about any changes in the masking regulations/requirements. We are working from the current CDC guidelines. Two layers, fitting snugly around nose and mouth is considered to be the gold standard.
Ms. Mallett also asked about potential testing in schools. We currently have no plans for that nor is the state recommending it at this time.
Ms. Schaeffer asked about providing N95s for all staff and Ms. Creighton shared that they would need to be fitted by a professional for each teacher. If staff wanted to provide their own N95s, that would be perfectly fine. We have a large supply of masks still available to staff and students.
Ms. Creighton shared that if vacation travel is planned, staff and students should plan on either a 10 full days quarantine or provide a negative test within 72 hours of returning to Maine. Look at the Maine CDC site for specific information. Maine, NH and Vermont are open travel.
Our families have been incredibly supportive and responsive to the travel planning necessary.
Athletics… we had our first official set of practices this week (although only Wednesday and Thursday due to the snow earlier in the week).
Transportation...We have recently hired a driver to fill the route that was vacated in November.
To manage the students at that time we combined that route with several others. With the additions of students for the new semester we made more adjustments including shuttle buses, which caused a bit of a challenge with notifications.
With The addition of this driver we plan to move forward with putting that particular route back in place, alleviating the need for the recently added shuttle buses in Berwick at the Hussey school. The bus #5 route will be back in operation after February break and we have procedures in place to address the notification issue that occurred when we added the shuttles. We continue to add students for extra days at the High School for additional help. The list of new students and students going from remote to hybrid seems to be static at this time at around 60 students.
Employment: Ann Marie Roy, longtime educational technician at North Berwick Elementary School, has put in a letter of retirement effective at the end of the school year. We thank her for her years of service.
Other : Ms.Mallett urged the other board members to go to the Maine School Board Association meetings.
Ms. Potter made the motion and it was seconded by Ms. Neubert to adjourn. All members voted in favor and the motion passed.
Adjourned at 8:30 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Audra Beauvais