Regular Board meeting - Oct. 15, 2009 

Board members in attendance:  Andrea, Alison, Tiffany, Shelley, Michael, Brad, Nicole.  Board members absent: None.  Others in attendance: Deb Odell, Stacy Younger

The meeting was called to order at 6:15

The Board approved the 9/15/09 meeting minutes.

Leonard from Barrett Ecological presented the results of his staff and parent surveys and the resulting garden plans that he had drafted.  He presented two options:  Plan A and Plan B.  Components of the plans included a kiosk at the entrance to explain what was happening in the garden, fruit trees and bushes, raised beds for both display and class experimentation, native plantings and/or espaliers along the back fence to block out weeds and wind, a raised bed for herbs/butterfly garden, etc.  The plans differed only slightly from each other in layout and design.

The Board discussed the necessity of hiring a garden coordinator, to both run the physical implementation/care of the garden, and to design and help to implement curriculum in the garden for each of the classes.  Andrea said that she would contact PSU to see if there were any grad students in a related program there who would be interested, as well as keep an eye out for grants to fund such a position.

The Board decided to post the plans in the school hallway and on the website to gather further input from families on the two options before deciding the final layout / composition of the garden.

Principal's Report:  Deb started with some great video clips of the kids in action in the classroom.  She then discussed progress to date on the middle school committee and next steps.  She updated the Board on the staff's work with the Teachers Development Group (year-long math staff development).  She asked the Board for input regarding how to conduct pizza days without so much class disruption, and updated the Board on steps made toward purchasing a defibrillator. 

The Board approved Springwater's participation in an OCSD senior's project to install solar panels at Springwater; the student would be responsible for fundraising and all aspects of the project, and the panels could be installed on a pole on-site, if installation on the building was not possible. The building would not rely upon the solar power, as relatively little power would be generated.

The Board then discussed concerns related to lunch recess, both in terms of adequate coverage/supervision, and related to concerns that there is too much separation of the River Otters from the rest of the student population.  The Board discussed its commitment to a K-8 model, and what that meant in terms of cross-age integration. 

The Board indicated its commitment to the K-8 community concept and to consistent behavioral expectations for all grades; Andrea indicated she would put together a white paper on Board commitments / priorities for the 09-10 school year for the Board to review, so that we would have a vehicle for communicating the direction we are going to parents.

Meeting Adjourned: 9:15 pm.