MSAD #58 director Alan Morse, the new chairman, leads a school board meeting last Thursday. (David Hart photo) SALEM –- The MSAD #58 school board of directors held a workshop Thursday, July 15 with representatives of Maine School Management Association. MSMA director Dale Douglas and Sandra MacArthur facilitated the meeting.

The workshop was designed to outline what the roles and responsibilities are for school board directors. Douglass and MacArthur discussed issues such as policy making, regulation and other aspects of board procedure.

Douglass pointed out that individual members of a board do not have power or say in school management business. It is the board itself that makes decisions as a board.

“You have to learn to work as a board,” Douglass explained. “The primary use of regulation is through policies. Policy is your voice of the school board.”

After the workshop, directors held a meeting which started with some typical annual business such as swearing in new members and reelected directors.

Sarah Strunk became an official member of the board representing Eustis. Reelected to the board and also sworn in were Judy Dill of Kingfield and Ellen James of Avon.

In the next order of business a chairman had to be elected. Several nominations were made and withdrawn. Ann Schwink, Dill and Sue Fotter withdrew from voting consideration after they were nominated. It came down to a vote between Alan Morse of Phillips and Mike Pond of Strong. Morse requested a secret ballot which created some debate whether that type of voting style was appropriate. Morse argued that policy specifically suggests that a re- quested secret ballot was allowed. Board members voted and agreed with Morse to conduct a secret ballot.

In the end, five board members voted for Alan Morse as the new chairman and four voted for Pond. Morse immediately took over the meeting as chairman.

Superintendent Quenten Clark said that Craig Boone of Bunker & Savage will be available Aug. 5. Boone has been doing an analysis on the condition of the district schools and developing a report for board assistance should they decide to reconfigure or close a school building.

Clark nominated Natasha Smith to work in Strong in special education. The board backed his nomination for hiring Smith.

Clark explained that communication with the MSAD #74 school board was moving forward.

“This is just a discussion at this point. We are just talking about ways we can save money by working together or sharing services,” Clark said.

Clark also announced that the pellet boiler project in Phillips has begun. He also told directors that the two pellet boilers in Kingfield and Strong are being replaced with new boilers. It was determined that the two boilers failed to be ASME certified and they will be replaced at no cost to the district. The size of some boiler bolts were the reason for the rejection, Clark explained.

Members talked in great detail about the committee that was looking into fundraising to maintain middle school sports. Strunk explained that some fundraising had already begun. She thought that $700 was earned from a yard sale in Stratton and the recent little league tournament donated $600 toward sports. Members agreed to discuss the issue in greater detail at their next meeting.

Junior varsity sports were discussed with the potential of a shortfall of additional money needed after “pay-to-participate” fees were collected.

Clark said he did not want to discuss fundraising for JV sports at this time. “I think maintaining a little tension is a good thing. There may not be enough kids,” Clark said.

After discussions of the elementary and high school student handbooks, it was determined that no food will be allowed in any district bus, but electronic devises such as IPods and cell phones were allowed.

Lastly, board members allowed Clark to retain a shortterm loan until revenue comes in from the district towns. This is typical procedure, Clark noted, when revenue is typically received in December. It was expected that Clark would borrow about $1 million from Camden National Bank.