SALEM - - The MSAD #58 school board met last Thursday under a fairly new format in regards to the agenda and the policy that determines how meetings are conducted. Superintendent Quenten Clark requested that they do business a little out of the norm and created a discussion format under the "Superintendent's Report."

The purpose for this was to publicly discuss specific issues that were brought up during the month by directors. Clark said he'd update the board's meeting agenda policy format to the way agendas should appear.

He said he was hopeful that no one would take an issue of discussion and vote to make a change as a first order of business.

The first had to do with a conversation he had with chairman Mike Pond about the district nurses and the hours and days in which they work.

Currently there are four half-time nurses at the four elementary schools and one fulltime nurse at Mt. Abram High School.

The nurses currently work two-and-a-half days a week and all meet on Wednesdays to share information, resources and collaborate on ways they can best assist each other throughout the district. Although Pond said he understood that the nurses are heavily burdened lately with a huge responsibility in handling an upcoming vaccination campaign at the schools, he questioned if their hours best served the students' needs.

Discussion points led to whether the nurses need to all meet every Wednesday for the balance of the school year after the immunization process is complete. He also asked if there was a coordinated effort to make sure that there was a nurse in at least one of the elementary schools each day of the school week. He lastly asked if it was possible to have nurses work half-time by working half-days, five days per week. "It just seems like the children will get sick or hurt when the nurses are most likely not in the buildings," Pond said.

Clark said that many of the nurses have other jobs and work many more hours and days than they're paid for. He also warned members that if too much control was exerted at this time, it may lead to losing some of the nurses. Members agreed that this discussion can continue when the nurses are present at a future board meeting.

Another discussion led to how much control the board wanted in hiring individuals or creating new positions and how much control there was or should be with the superintendent or the principals. Members agreed that they wanted Clark to present the board with different levels of employees and classifications for hiring procedure.

It was noted that a part-time coach hired by the district will likely not need to go before the board for approval, but Pond pointed out that sometimes coaches become the most contentious debates between parents, faculty and administrators.

It was noted that a policy needed to be created on the hiring process.

Clark said he'll develop a categorical type document for the board to discuss further.

The use of communication radios was the last discussion point under the new agenda format.

Stratton Elementary School wrote a grant and has a radio in every room of the school. Other schools use radios to communicate with their bus drivers only.

Members asked maintenance supervisor Dan Worcester to develop a list of who uses what type of radio in each of the schools so that discussion can continue. The question of how valuable these radios are in school operations and how much is too much became a debate. "Radios are useful in the district," Clark said.

Clark provided a hypothetical example. If three staff members are searching for a particular student at Mt. Abram —one teacher goes outside to the left, another goes back toward the ball fields and the other goes right and finds the student-- it would be nice if the three staff members can quickly communicate with each other that the student was found, Clark explained.

Clark said that he received a response from the Maine Department of Education saying that Coplin Plantation would not be allowed to consolidate with the district as a new district town. "Right now, they can not join with us no matter how much they want to," Clark said.

The MDOE reason, he said, is that the consolidation effort does not result in the minimum student standard of the law set at 2,500 students.

Clark also updated the board that the immunization process is underway at all the schools. He said he believes they'll start in Phillips on Sept. 28. Clark explained that although the state CDC thought that they'd get about 40 percent participation, he felt that in Phillips it would be over 70 percent.

Members agreed to a request to extend a bus route up the Echo Valley Road for a new kindergarten student in Avon.

Pond made a motion to allow this to happen for only one year because the child is a kindergartener. After that, he said, he does not support it. That motion passed.

The parent and the young student were present at the meeting.

Members also agreed to hire a superintendent's nomination. Rebecca Wood was hired for a one-year federally funded Chapter 1 teacher's position at the Kingfield Elementary School.

Three policies were adopted with slight modification from the board. These policies had to do with student cell phone and other electronic device use, student and teacher internet use and the schools web page administrative procedure.

Lastly members approved a fourth through sixth grade field trip for Stratton students to go to the Museum of Science in Boston. This trip happens every three years and is funded by the local PTC.

After the meeting Clark said he forgot to tell the board the frustrating news that Mt. Abram did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress part of the federal No Child Left Behind initiative. All of the four elementary schools met AYP this year and last year MTA met the requirement for its first year only. Clark was hopeful that they met AYP again for the second consecutive year so that they are removed from a watchful list.

Unfortunately, with the news MTA will now have to meet AYP for two consecutive years ahead to get off the list.

MTA met the requirements in participation and academic achievement in mathematics, but did not meet the federal standard in reading.