Scattergood Friends School Committee

Approved Minutes – December 4, 1999

The meeting opened with a moment of silence.  Members present included Joe Davison, Lucy Hansen, Richard Johnson, Burt Kisling, Jeff Kisling, Donnie Morehouse, Salome Raheim, Anita Richards, Bruce Rohwer, George Welch, and Lowell Wilson.  Staff members present included Nan Fawcett, Margie Figgins, Joey Giffen-Hunter, Will Hardy, Belle Hinshaw, Ken Hinshaw, Jan Luchini, Dena Miller, Eric Miller and Nancy Ryan.

The minutes from September 11, 1999 were accepted with two spelling changes.

Burt announced that Janet Lemmerman has resigned from the school committee due to her present work load and the poor health of her father.

Director’s Report – Ken handed out and then read the Director’s Report. He touched on a number of important areas to be discussed in greater detail during the corresponding reports from staff members.

Academics - Eric reported on the current academic situation at Scattergood this year.  The academic office this year has been restructured with Eric the Academic Coordinator, Sarah Giffen-Hunter the Registrar and Jennie Schmidt organizing the college work with the senior class.  Eric stressed how important the regular teacher’s meeting have been, allowing the teaching staff to discuss more philosophical issues, teaching methods and long range planning.

Anita read the minutes from the academic sub-committee which met the evening before this meeting.  The three major areas of import included introducing student learning portfolios, establishing technology competencies, and implementing chapter three of the Long Range Plan.

Spiritual and Community Life – This committee has yet to meet, but Ken spoke of the hurdles the Scattergood community has had to face this year.  There have been more than the normal amount of suspensions this year, and much testing of limits by the student body.   Nan spoke about her Dean’s Advisory Committee that has been a very helpful group to gain clarity on some hard situations.  The most recent student’s departure from Scattergood, while very hard on the community, has also created a sense of bonding.

Burt and Ken went into greater detail on the convolutions that occurred around the recent student departure that included threats of law suit, many consultations with the school’s lawyer and the legal counsel at ISACS and many, many hours of phone conversations and meetings that occurred over the Thanksgiving break.  Ken mentioned that while the usual protocol  is to inform School Committee member of student expulsions by letter, the nature of this past event left the final details uncertain until the end, which was then just a few days before this meeting.

Facilities – Will acknowledged the great help in having Joey as part of the facilities team.   All of the projects mentioned in Ken’s Director Report are being accomplished with the help of student involvement.  One van has been purchased with the other ordered and awaiting delivery.   The School Committee approved spending $40,000.00 to purchase two new vans, based on the decision of the facilities and consultation committees research into the issue.

Will reported difficulty in receiving bids for the building of the 4-plex.  One bid is in, but other companies will only guarantee bid prices for 60 days, and so are unwilling to submit bids until February.

Farm – Lucy read the farm report.  Belle reported that the farm committee met the evening before this meeting to discuss the long range plan of putting the farm into the education format, the future of the farm and the image of the farm.

Financial – Jan handed out the most recent financial statement for the School.  She noted that this year the department heads have more control over their own budgets.  The School has been asked by our health insurance company to determine a policy regarding retirement aged former staff (or spouses) being able to continue their coverage under the School’s policy at their own charge.  This could possible raise the School’s rates due to the statistical probability that older patients have higher claims.  Ken noted that there is currently no one who would be affected by this policy change.  The Human Resources subcommittee will look at the issue in greater detail and report back with a recommendation at the next meeting.

The report on the handling and investment of the large donations is included in the development report.

Admissions and Enrollment – Dena handed out a report showing the numbers of inquiries.  There is one very good candidate for second semester.  Dena is much more careful about accepting mid-year entries due to the difficulty of entering the community after relationships have been established and the fact that there is no mid year orientation for new students.  We still are not receiving many inquiries from Asia due to the economic situation and change of governmental policies in several countries.  Dena is making contact with Friends’ middle schools in the Midwest.

Development - Bruce read the development report, and the School Committee approved the following minutes from the report.  The School Committee of Scattergood Friends School approves opening an account with the Westwood Trust Group, Dallas TX.  Westwood Trust will act as agent and custodian of all stocks, bonds, securities and other properties from time to time deposited by Scattergood Friends School.  The services rendered by the Westwood Trust will be primarily for investment advice, and shall also include those of safekeeping and accounting.

The School Committee of Scattergood Friends School approves and directs that monies will not be invested in companies that are substantially involved in munitions, alcohol, tobacco or gaming.

The School Committee of Scattergood Friends School approves the following individuals as legal representatives of the School authorized to conduct transactions with the Westwood Trust Group:

Kenneth Hinshaw, Director

Jan Luchini, Business Manager

Burt Kisling, Clerk, Scattergood Friends School Committee

Burt voiced the concerns that the School lost money from interest due to delays and inefficient transactions and in the transition involving Edward Jones brokerage services.  Burt noted the importance of the accountability of these funds and that they are spent as directed.

Nancy’s position is taking greater responsibility to ensure that the money is handled and spent properly.  Nancy will also become the primary contact person for Westwood Trust.  Nancy, Ken and Burt met with the donors recently.  There will be some changes to the spending proposal that Ken presented last meeting.  This does not reflect a change in the donor’s wishes, but rather adjustments to more closely reflect the timing of expenditures.  Ken will update the spending proposal for the next School Committee Meeting.

Tuition Discussion – We discussed the need to put the tuition discussion on the September meeting’s agenda to facilitate serious prospective admission inquiries.  Ken recommended a five percent increase over the current year for full and five day boarding.  He recommended keeping day student tuition the same. It was noted that IYM wants Scattergood to be accessible to all. The Scattergood Friends School Committee approved the following tuition amounts for the 2000-2001 school year.  Full boarding will be $16,800.00, five day boarding will be $14,700.00 and day students $9,000.00.  The Committee also approved moving the tuition discussion to the September meeting. 

March Retreat – Pat Bassett, the head of ISACS is interested in leading our retreat, but is only available on a Friday. For those traveling long distances, Thursday night travel would be recommended.  Burt took a show of hands of those able to come on a Friday, and it was decided to proceed with plans to book Pat for Friday, March 24, 2000, pending availability of the other school committee members.

Long Range Plan – Nancy handed out binders with the latest Long Range Planning documents, noting that the farm and technology plans are not yet included.   Most pages in the binder have a date stamp on the bottom of the page.  Nancy urges everyone to throw out all old copies of the LRP.  Nancy reviewed that while the School Committee formulates the mission statement and sets the goals, the objective and implementation must come from within the Scattergood community.  Also that the LRP is a general roadmap to where the School wants to go.  Properly used it will be a living document with continually changing details. 

Eric reviewed the implementation steps in goal number one, illustrating for the School Committee members how the objective and implementation process has evolved and who is working on which areas.  Nancy reported that there will be a staff retreat on Saturday, January 8, before the arrival of students from winter break to discuss the Long Range Plan.  In March of 2000 we need to send the LRP to ISACS as part of the ongoing accreditation process.

There followed a quite lengthy discussion on the School Committee’s role with the LRP, staff roles, budget and cash flow considerations and timetables of implementing these steps.  It was suggested that we may want to pull the various buildings and facilities related objectives from the existing goals and combine them into their own goal.  Several members also suggested that the School Committee should on an annual basis review and approve the goals and philosophies of the current version of the Long Range Plan. The School Committee approved the overal philosophy, goals and objectives of the Long Range Plan.

The School Committee expressed appreciation for the enthusiasm of the staff, and for their work in the implementation portion of the LRP.

Meeting Critique – In general it was felt that we got a lot done, and that the meeting was productive.  Some felt that as the meeting progresses it becomes more important to take breaks.  Jeff noted that he really liked Eric going step by step through the implementation portion of Goal 1, but that stopping when we did was good.

The Scattergood Friends School Committee ended with a moment of silence at 2:45 pm.