Attendees:
Bob Goudreau
Maria McCormack
Patti Drew
Jill Reynolds
Barbara Hicken
Agenda:
• Survey sent out to parents of students in grades 5-8 to ask how their children are doing in the new school configuration. The results of these will determine in part if the school continues with the reconfiguration in the coming years and the timing of when the 6th grade students move into the middle school.
• H1N1 re-scheduled this Thursday. Students under 10 will receive a second shot.
• In June of 2009, the School Board asked HCS to reduce budget by $250,000. There will be a community wide forum January so the school budget can be voted upon by March.
• In approaching this budget challenge, HCS carefully reviewed all budgetary items, with a long-term historical perspective. Budgetary components such as transportation, building and operations, support services, technology, outsourcing and fixed cost analysis were all considered in this challenge.
• While faced with this budgetary challenge, HCS also had to consider the VT School Quality Standards, state recommendations which address overall school climate and quality such as general class size, teacher staffing and special education staffing.
• This budgetary challenge will remain as the state continues to challenge schools across the state to tighten belts and review instructional spending.
• HCS is in the early stages of a multi-year re-configuration plan. The propsed shift will produce three-year continuums: K-2, 3-5, 6-8 teams across the school.
• While facing the School Board challenges as outlined above, HCS must also consider future Enrollment Projections 2008-2013. (Click here for report).
• Recently, the School Board and the state challenged HCS to achieve a 0% increase in the budget. In order to achieve this new objective, the school must creatively look at all the components of the school budget. Some Intervention Programs will be cut next year, such as the after school academic intervention programs which will now be integrated into the classrooms during the regular day. The school will also save $22,000 by combining one route next year. The school is also considering saving additional funds by combining CVU and HCS routes in the mornings. The school will also save money in Technology Hardware ($35,000.00). Conversion of heating system to natural gas gives the school an additional saving of $20,000.00/year.
