Scattergood Friends School Committee

Approved Minutes – January 22, 2000

 

The Meeting opened with a moment of silence.  Members present included Joe Davison, Barb Garlinghouse, Lucy Hansen, Richard Johnson, Burt Kisling, Jeff Kisling, Ron Knight, Salome Raheim, Anita Richards, Bruce Rohwer, Bob Rye, Dan Treadway, George Welch and Ted Welch.  Staff members present were Nan Fawcett, Margie Figgins, Joey Giffen-Hunter, Ken Hinshaw, Eric Miller, Nancy Ryan and Dee Thompson.

 

The minutes from the December school committee were approved with one correction.

 

Director’s Report - Ken handed out and then read the Director’s report.  He touched on a variety of issues that will be discussed in greater depth during the subcommittee reports.

 

Academic – Anita reported on the Academic Committee’s recent meeting and the discussion then focused on rubrics, a scoring guideline that is very useful for grading more subjective subjects and is becoming more common in academia.  Anita shared her sense of urgency to prepare students for the world of technology that will be essential in their workplace.  Dee shared several examples of using resources on the internet in the classroom.  School committee members agreed that there are many opportunities for teachers to integrate the internet into the curriculum.

 

The academic committee is also recommending that Scattergood consider the goal of a laptop computer for each student.  Although it is an expensive path, research points towards greater integration into students’ everyday lives of computers and technology when the students have unlimited access to their own mobile computer.  The academic committee will keep the School Committee apprised of ongoing discussions on this topic.

 

 

Technology – Jeff further discussed the documented benefits of computer access for students, specifically through laptop computers.  He also stressed the importance of teacher training to help teachers learn to incorporate technology in the classroom.

 

Spiritual and Community Life – This committee has not met since the last School Committee meeting.  Ken added some greater details from the Director’s report regarding the recent suspensions of four students and noted that while there has only been one expulsion this year, there have been more suspensions than last year.  The student body this year is testing limits more and the resulting consequences have been hard on the community as a whole.  Scattergood will be working closely with these four students in an effort to address the behaviors directly, utilizing resources available in the surrounding community.

 

 

 

Development – Bruce read the development report.  Nancy noted that donated amount is actually higher due to some recent donations not included in the figure.  She also mentioned that Scattergood’s donation pattern is unique from the norm, with the first half of the calendar year heavier in both number and amount of donations.

 

Nancy handed out additional pages and dividers for the Long Range Plan notebooks.  She also handed out notes that were taken at the staff retreat during the small group discussions.

 

Financial – Copies of the latest financial report were handed out and we are midway through the year and less than 50% spent on the expense budget.  Ken noted that at the next school committee meeting there will be big decisions regarding new building and existing building modifications (4-plex, art building, auditorium, etc).

 

Human Resources – Richard reported on his investigation regarding whether to allow retirees and/or their spouses to remain on the School’s health insurance plan.   Richard is to be applauded for his thorough research into the matter.  The School Committee accepts the subcommittee recommendation not to offer group plan participation to retired employees and their spouses.  Let it be noted that Anita, George and Bob wish to stand apart of the decision.  Anita urged the Human Resource Committee to look into other available options for retired employees.

 

Richard reported the human resources subcommittee is also considering changes for conducting the Director’s yearly evaluation.  This would be a move away from the past method of gather personal narratives from people working with the director.  Richard noted that the rest of his committee’s report, dealing with exit interviews, would follow the closed executive session.

 

March Retreat – The School Committee retreat is scheduled to take place on Friday, March 24th at the Radisson Hotel in Iowa City, followed by a regular School Committee meeting on Saturday, March 25th.  The speaker for the retreat will be Pat Bassett, the President of ISACS (Independent Schools Association of the Central States).  His plane is scheduled to arrive in Cedar Rapids at 9:30 am and leaves at 3:30 pm the same day.  The topics are as follows.

  1. the importance of planning, the implementation of plans and follow up
  2. the responsibilities and etiquette of Board and staff working with each other
  3. communication between the Director, staff, and SFSC, as well as parents and other constituents. 

 

Ken brought up the topic of student cars.  More and more students have requested being able to keep a vehicle on campus for transportation to and from school.  Scattergood  currently does allow this for 5 day boarders and day students.  Discussion followed touching on a variety of issues including when allowed to leave (just vacations, weekends away, etc), the transporting of other students, where to store the vehicle, the problems of locked storage within the vehicle, parental letters acknowledging permission and insurance implications.  The School Committee approves a very restricted situation allowing full boarding students to drive themselves and their own vehicles to and from school for summer and holiday breaks and to store the vehicles on School property.  Any further details will be worked out with Ken, Nan and the Spirituality & Community Life subcommittee.

 

Long Range Planning – Joe spoke on how the previous evening’s meeting showed how clearly how much everything is interconnected.  Nancy reported on the staff retreat that occurred on January 8th, 2000.  The morning session (in small groups) focused on different aspects of the LRP, which generated a great many ideas.  Nancy passed on copies of the notes and commented how much she appreciates how the LRP is being owned and implemented by the staff.   It was noted that the enthusiasm that was experienced by the participants could not be accurately reflected in the brief notes, and that at times the note takers were carried away by the discussion and forgot to take notes!

 

Announcements – Nan announced that Sandy Springs Friends School is offering a Quaker youth leadership conference the first weekend in February.  Twelve students have expressed an interest in attending.  Six students and two faculty members will be going in one of the new vans.

 

Ken mentioned that he feels very good about the current group of staff members.  Ron also expressed his support as a father of a current student. 

 

Executive Session - The School Committee went into executive session for the decision to renew the Director’s contract.  Following this session, a contract for the following year was offered, and accepted by Ken.

 

Human Resources – The Human Resources subcommittee interviewed five former staff members on several topics relating to their satisfaction with employment at Scattergood.  Richard shared their responses with the School Committee.  From this there was a discussion on new staff orientation including length of orientation, content and new information overload.

 

In Review – George had the following comments on how the meeting went.  He liked the format of the director’s report, and appreciated the comment regarding technology in the curriculum that “students need to learn to think.”  He asked people to speak clearly, without hands in front of the mouth for those hard of hearing and also to get to the point!  Lastly George urged us not to use ‘Quaker process’ as an excuse to not get things done.