Lucy Hansen opened the meeting with some moments of silent worship.
We accept with great appreciation the evaluation of the Director, done by Debbie Galusha and Sharon Haworth for the Human Resources Committee. We have considered their recommendations, and encourage the Director to have a support person not involved with the governing of the school. Debbie and Sharon will review the evaluation with Jan in the coming weeks. We appreciate Jan's work as Director, and very much enjoy working with her.
Jeff Cox expressed uneasiness about decision of the Scattergood Foundation Trustees to not accept responsibility for the $1.5 million donated by an anonymous contributor, due to the restrictions requested by the donor. The result is that the administration has more endowment funds in hand than do the Foundation Trustees. We acknowledge the irregular circumstances surrounding this donation and are satisfied with the administration's current management of the funds. However, we are uneasy about setting a precedent of having endowment funds managed by the school administration. We ask Lucy Hansen and Dan Treadway to request a meeting with Jan Luchini, Margie Figgins, and some of the Foundation trustees to discuss the management of endowment funds.
We approved the minutes of the last meeting on May 20, 2006.
Scattergood Friends School Committee meetings. We suggest the following dates for our meetings in the coming year:
We will decide in our September meeting whether to hold a meeting on March 31, 2007 or April 7, 2007. Likewise we will determine the date of the July meeting when we know the date of the yearly meeting sessions next summer, but aim for July 21, 2007, if the schedule continues as it has been.
We appreciate the annual SFS Report to Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), and thank Jan and her staff for its careful preparation.
We approve the financial report with much appreciation to the Director and staff for their careful management of the budget. We agree to change names of staff authorized to sign accounts, removing Shannon Pingenot, and adding Loren Wehmeyer to all school accounts. Lucy Hansen and Callie Marsh, convener for the Consultation Committee, will sign letters of authorization to the banks and Westwood Trust. Debbie Galusha, Bob Yeats and Callie Marsh are willing to be appointed to new terms on the School Committee, if the Yearly Meeting approves. The Consultation Committee will suggest individuals to the Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee to consider for nomination for open seats on the school committee.
We discussed the sabbatical proposal again, and agree that it is well-designed and planned. It may be an effective way to encourage retention of staff. The committee does not have unity on making the decision at this time, as some would like further dialog among us between now and the next meeting. We will discuss the plan more fully at the September meeting.
The Academic Committee has asked us for clarification about the need for the School Committee to approve changes in requirements for graduation. We researched this question and confirm that we must approve these requirements.
The Academic Committee requests our approval to increase the requirements for humanities from three credits to four, and to require three math credits, including geometry, and algebra II, for graduation. We approve both recommendations. We commend the Academic Coordinator, Jennifer Warneke, and the Registrar, Sarah Giffin-Hunter for their excellent work in this area.
We appreciate Mark Quee's Farm Report, and recognize Mark's readiness to think about how to lighten the summer farm work. We look forward to talking about this in more depth at the September meeting.
Nan Fawcett, Dean of Students, presented a report from the Spiritual & Community Life Committee, who requested approval for policy changes to be included in the student handbook. We approved a body piercing policy, requiring written parental approval for a student to pierce her or his body. We also approved the committee's recommendation that students must use current-limiting power bars instead of extension cords for all electronic equipment. This does not apply to lamps.
We agree that this year's trial guidelines for the use of cell phones among students was successful and now approve it as policy.
We commend and appreciate Nan's careful and thorough work with students and parents, and are so glad to have her back with us again as Dean of Students.
We appreciate the many improvements in the facilities. Joey reported on recommendations from the fire marshal. In the next month he will work on goals and a time line for the coming year's improvements.
We encourage the staff to continue to explore issues of sustainability. We approve a sixth goal for the long-range plan that we work collectively toward greater sustainability as a school.
Margie Figgins reported to us on the work of the Development Office. Jan Luchini, Lucy Hansen, Carrie Marsh and Margie attended a training conference for charitable nonprofit excellence, which they found helpful. Margie shared highlights of the conference that she thought of particular interest to us.
We appreciate Rachel Thompson's work in Admissions. 42 are currently enrolled for the coming year. More are in the application process now. The school hopes that we will meet or exceed last year's enrollment.
Jan gave us a report about the state of technology at the school. We appreciate Adam Kurth's work to prepare for the fall, and we welcome Riley Lark as our new technology coordinator.
We will meet again on September 30, 2006 God willing. Lucy Hansen closed the meeting with a period of silence.
Callie Marsh
Recording Clerk, Scattergood Friends School Committee