April 2 Board Meeting Minutes-Gail Buchanan

Living Springs Lutheran Church Preschool/ASC Board

Minutes of Meeting

April 2, 2007

 

In attendance: Pastor Chris Stoxen, Andrea Berry, Gail Buchanan, Joe Canterbury, Cindy Day, Jeff Day, Brenda Grohman, Amy Penfield, Steve Padgett , Joan Podd, Burgin Riley, Craig Stoxen, Jennifer Wiggins. and Noelle Yingling.

Guests:  Jill Avery,  Karen Stewart, Chuck Williams

 

The meeting was called to order by Cindy Day.  Pastor Stoxen opened with prayer.

 

Minutes- The minutes were approved as written.

 

Treasurer's Report - Craig Stoxen distributed copies of the draft financial reports.  The reports are projections since he has not received bank statements.  New signature cards have been completed with the co-chairs, treasurer and acting director having signature authority.  Craig Stoxen also reported that a new payroll company is being considered.  It is a little more expensive but easier to use.  It has online reports and employee enrollment can be accomplished online in a more timely manner.  A decision is expected to be made at the next council meeting.      

 

Director's Report – Amy Penfield reported following:

o      Ms. Rebecca Irwin's (Mother Goose) last  day was today and Ms. Tyanna Dover's (floater) last day was Friday.

o      Advertisements are being placed in the Gamecock and State paper.  

o      Ms. Cathy Williams has been hired as the new co-teacher in Backyard Buddies.

o       Enrollment is at 99%

o      She has talked to NAEYC and First Steps and been advised it is best to wait for the new director to be hired to begin the annual report.  The PS has until June 30, 2007 to submit the report. 

o      Activities are being planned for the Week of the Young Child, April 23-27.  Board members are invited to be participate.     

 

Parent Relations Committee Report -Steve Padgett reported that the committee met last Wednesday regarding the policy on biting.  They did research through First Steps, NAEYC and other quality programs.  The consensus was the steps we currently use are appropriate.  The committee will take the former director's letter and develop it into guidelines and make these part of the parent handbook.  The age of the child will dictate the course of action.  For example, it is age appropriate for two year olds to bite but not for a five or six year old.  Some ideas that will be included are redirecting the child and looking at environmental factors that might influence the behavior.

Steve Padgett reported that he would send out the minutes of their meeting to the board.

         

Personnel Committee Report – Brenda Grohman reported the personnel committee met and asked that Gail Buchanan present the recommended changes.  Gail presented the following:

Board Operations Manual-Update the Steering Committee to include all officers.  Currently the secretary and treasurer are not included.

 

Parent Handbook-Update the paragraph under Communication to recommend that parents use the proposed parent concern form to put their concerns in writing.  The chain of command remains the same:  teachers first, director second and board as a last resort.

 

Personnel Policies-Update Section III. C. to change the reporting or workplace violence from the director and assistant director  to the director, assistant director or the board.

                               Update Section X. Grievance procedures to remove the limit on the number of days an employee has to report a grievance and to shorten the time a director has to meet with the employee from 5 days to 2 days

                                Added Section XI. Administrative Leave to provide an option to place an employee on administrative leave while an investigation of serious allegations are investigated.

 

Craig Stoxen asked that the board hold off on changes to the Board Operations Manual and

look at making changes to the document as a whole. He commented that procedures are needed to make changes to the bylaws.

The changes to the Parent Handbook and Personnel Policies recommended by the committee were seconded by Cindy Day.  The motion carried.   

 

Council Report – Gail Buchanan reported:

• Craig Stoxen, Kim Shark, and Jon Peterson are gathering resumes for a bookkeeper.
• Kim Shark is researching other payroll services due to recent problems
• The electronic sign for the corner of Clemson and Hardscrabble Roads is funded
• The budget, including the PS budget is still not approved.  Another congregational meeting has been scheduled for April 22, 2007.

 

Special Events – Noelle Yingling reported that she is working on a bake sell.  Events coming up are graduation and teacher appreciation.

 

Staff Representative-Allison Sims reported staff is working on the events for the Week of the Young Child.  They plan to take a sheet and have each classroom decorate it with children's art  work.  This will be put on the playground fence so that traffic going by can see it.  It will be placed there on Monday and will be taken down on Friday. 

Postcards will be sent to incoming students and their families to invite them to celebrations for the week.

Ms. Sims reported that four staff are interested in attending the national NAEYC conference in Chicago and they would like more information on assistance for the conference.  Funds were recently raised by the PTO to help staff with cost associated with the conference.  MS. Sims stated that some may also be interested in attending SCAEYC.  Joe Canterbury recommended that  the PTO decide how much money can be allocated toward this and that the director decide who can go.  Mr. Canterbury recommended that staff submit requests to the director.  Ms. Sims will provide more details on the cost of attending these conferences.

Follow up needed:

PTO notify Craig Stoxen of amount allocated for staff to attend conferences

Ms. Sims to provide details on cost. 

    

 

 

Old Business 

·      Search Committee- Andrea Berry reported that 18 people applied for the director's position.  The committee used the NAEYC guidelines to score the candidates.  The guidelines look at education, experience and relevant training.  Two candidates have been invited to a second interview with the board.

 

New Business

·      Policy Manuals- Joe Canterbury presented a proposal prepared by the Institute for Organizational Leadership (IOL) to develop and revise the Employee Handbook, Parent Handbook, Board Governance Manual and Discipline Handbook.  The cost is $2,500 plus any necessary travel and lodging for one consultant.   He asked that members review it and discuss at the next meeting.  Mr. Canterbury wants to ensure the manuals are in compliance with state and federal laws.  Craig Stoxen commented that the payroll company we are currently looking at, ADP (Automated Data Processing) offers a service to keep clients informed of changes that could impact personnel handbooks. 

 

Executive Session-The board then went into executive session with ex-offico members, Pastor Stoxen, Amy Penfield and Allison Sims, and council members, Bill Franck and Jim Lentz invited to attend.

 

New Business Continued Following the End of Executive Session

·      Craig Stoxen made a motion to extend an offer to Tammy Mancuso as the next director.  Jeff Day seconded the motion.  The motion carried.

 

Next Meeting- Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 6:30 PM  

 

The meeting was adjourned.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Gail Buchanan, Secretary

Response to unofficial minutes

 

Just to make sure everyone understands, these are not the official minutes.  Our secretary sends out the minutes pretty quickly so you may want to wait on the official one.  I do want to go ahead and clear up a few things.

 

1)  A staffing letter was given to all parents on March 5th indicating what teachers would be in each room and when.  The only difference is the name of the new teachers being hired. 

 

2) #5 below, we did not state that we follow Richland 2 policies.  A comment was made that our policies are similar to Richland 2 and that our policies are based on Richland 2's policies.  This does not mean that our policies mirror Richland 2. 

 

3)  Joe Canterbury - #2 - he did not say he would like to hire IOL, this was just a proposal he received and wanted everyone to take a look at it.  We will do more research and discuss it at the next meeting. 

 

 

School Board Meeting April 2, 2007

April 2, 2007 Living Springs Pre-school Board Meeting

There was a Board Meeting at the Preschool last night. Here are some highlights (in my words)

Amy Penfield reported:

Rebecca Irwin (co-teacher Mother Goose Room) and Tyanna Dover (floater) are no longer with the pre-school.


The Backyard Buddies will have their 4th teacher since February. Cathy Williams has been hired as the co-teacher for the Backyard Buddies room. Dina will be a floater until the end of May and Tanya Duddley will be the lead teacher until the end of May with Cathy as the co-teacher. Starting in June Teretha will move over to be the lead teacher in Backyard Buddies from Forest Friends and Yommi will move from Jumping Jungle to Forest Friends to be the lead teacher with Mary Ann the co-teacher and Dina will be the lead teacher in Jumping Jungle with Tanya Anderson as the co-teacher.


Marcia Bacon from First Steps is assisting the pre-school with the NAEYC paperwork. She recommended holding off on completing paperwork until the new director is in place. The deadline is June 30.


The school is at 99% capacity.


The board looked at some revisions on the current Board Operations Manual, Parent Handbook and Personnel Handbook. Recommend: Add 2 members to the Steering Committee (to reach a quorum???). They looked at Richland 2’s Personnel policy for filing complaints and grievances. Proposed a changed in the current policy (didn’t they say they followed Richland 2 with the firing of Lionel so why are they getting in line now). The policy is different than what they followed. Formal paperwork to be filed to the Director for complaints to have documentation, proposing a chain of command type system for grievances and investigations, administrative leave for the alleged suspect while the investigation is being conducted, the school board has final authority.


Steve Padgett reported:



The school has been looking at the their policies on biting children. According to literature and Marcia Bacon and NAEYC the school is handling the situations in accordance with the guidelines and suggested literature. A more formal guideline is being produced.


Andrea Berry reported:



1. They had eighteen applications for the Directors job. Of those eighteen, only six scored high enough to warrant an interview. (The eighteen applicants were put to the NAEYC scale to determine if they ranked high enough to get an interview. Applicants needed to score 100 to get an interview and there were several ways to get there. Ex. Were 70 points for a BA and 55 points for an AA and different points for different experience). Of the six selected for the interview only four accepted an invitation with two withdrawing their names for consideration. Interviews were conducted on March 26 and 27. Of the four interviewed two were asked back for second interviews that occurred last night at 7:30 and 8:00.



Joe Canterbury reported:



1. That they would like to update the policies and manuals to get them in compliance with SC and Federal Laws.



2. Joe would like to hire the Institute of Organizational Leadership to update the policies and manuals with the boards input at a cost of approximately $5,000 including travel and room and board.