HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012_01_10 Board MinutesJanuary 10, 2012
6:45 PM The Board of Trustees met in Executive Session pursuant to Idaho Code §67-2345(1) (b), Personnel.
Present from the Board of Trustees
Dave Lent, Chairman
Lisa Burtenshaw, Vice Chair
Jerry Wixom, Treasurer
Deidre Warden, Clerk
Larry Haws, Trustee
Present from the Administration:
George Boland, Superintendent
Trina Caudle, Director of Secondary Education
Karla LaOrange, Director of Elementary Education
Carrie Smith, Director of HR & Finance
Camille Wood, Director of Technology Services
Dana Wood, Director of Operations
Gail Rochelle, Director of Student Achievement & School Imp.
Margaret Wimborne, Coordinator of Communications &
Community Engagement
Debbie Wilkie, Recording Clerk
Dave Lent, Board Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm.
Pledge of Allegiance was led by patron David Warden.
SPECIAL ORDERS OF THE DAY:
a. Emissary of Excellence
This award will be presented in February.
b. Volunteer of the Month
Natalie Peters, Temple View Elementary Principal, introduced Kayla Adamson as the Volunteer of the
Month. Chairman Lent thanked Kayla for her contributions to the students and the community and
presented her with a certificate and token of appreciation.
c. Energy Educator's Energy Pacesetter Award Presentation
Dana Wood, Director of Operations, expressed sincere appreciation to the entire faculty and staff of District
91 for their efforts in helping to make this award possible. Dana wanted to especially thank Mike McGuyer,
D91 Energy Manager, for his ability to work with the principals and staff to continue the energy savings
program in the district. Dana introduced Dan Cropp with Energy Education Incorporated who presented the
Energy Pacesetter Award for setting the pace for others in the country to Chairman Lent. The second award
01/10/2012 District 91 Board Minutes Page 1 of 4
presented to the District was the Energy Star Leader Top Performer Award for averaging over 36% savings
annually and over three million dollars since beginning the program in March 2006.
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA':
Jerry Wixom moved to adopt the agenda as presented. Lisa Burtenshaw seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
REPORTS/INPUT/INFORMATION
a. Student Reports —
i. Lexie Polson, Idaho Falls High School Student Representative, reported on the following items:
• Multicultural Week is January 16-20, with the assembly on Tuesday, January 17 at 9:00 AM.
• The Food Drive will be held January 31- February 10, starting with an assembly on January 30,
a dance on January 27 and movie night on February 4 to help raise money for the event.
• Gender Week will be held January 30 — February 3.
• Tiger-Grizz Wrestling Tournament is on January 20-21.
• Girls Basketball District Tournament starts on January 30.
ii. Hannah Peterson, Skyline High School, reported on the following items:
• Student Leadership is currently working on the Star Project which is a way of acknowledges good
qualities of individual students and faculty members.
• A New Year's Bash Dance will be held on Saturday, January 14.
• The Annual Soup-er Bowl Canned Food Drive will begin on January 31.
b. Patron Input —
Suketu Gandhi provided comments regarding math education.
c. IFEA Report — Mitzi Ellingson reported:
A written report is attached.
d. Education Foundation — No report.
e. Superintendent's Report —
Superintendent Boland shared that the added flexibility within buildings to set their own schedules for Parent
Teacher Conference has produced some positive results. The lowest rate of attendance reported for any of the
elementary schools at conferences in December was 91%, the best we've seen in the past six years.
The Superintendent shared that he received a memo from State Superintendent Luna indicating the State
Department of Education has elected to deploy the 1:1 mobile technology device on a school by school basis. He
added that districts will need to submit a letter of interest to be one of the first third to receive the devices and
stated that this is an opportunity our district does not want to miss out on.
The Superintendent also reviewed information regarding the proposed bond scope and provided handouts
prepared by Seattle Northwest regarding bond analysis and the average home sale price in Idaho Falls for 2011.
He also provided a handout showing the comparative tax rates of surrounding districts and that even with a 53
million dollar bond District 91 would still have one of the lowest tax rates compared to our peers. A discussion
was held. A resolution would need to be to the County by January 27, for a March 13 election, this will become
an action item on the agenda for the January 24 work session.
01/10/2012 District 91 Board Minutes Page 2 of 4
Superintend Boland stated that the appraisal for the New Sweden property came back at $108,000. The specifics
of the report indicated that the 5.4 acres of land was evaluated at $20,000 per acre with no value to the
building. The sale of the property is an action item later on the agenda but to be in compliance with statute the
appraisal must be entered in the meeting minutes.
CONSENT AGENDA:
Deidre Warden made a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Larry Haws seconded. Motion carried
unanimously.
Items approved include:
Meeting Minutes: November 8 & 15, 2011
Payment of November 2011 Claims: $1,251,843.51
Staff Actions: New Hires:
Michael Keyes, Science
Clair E Gale Junior High
Bryce Andrews
English/Career Ed
Taylorview Junior High
Matching Funds: $25,887.00
PROPOSALS'
a. Second Reading of Board Policy Changes
Service Animals in Schools
Superintendent Boland stated that no public comments have been received to date regarding this policy.
The third reading of the proposed policy is scheduled for February 7, 2012.
Lactation/Breastfeeding
No patron input or feedback has been received to date regarding this policy. The third reading of the
proposed policy is scheduled for February 7, 2012.
ACTION ITEMS
a. Approve 2012-2013 School Calendar
Superintendent Boland reviewed that Labor Day is early enough this year allowing a post Labor Day start. Based on
previous surveys this is one of the preferred calendars. It is the recommendation of the Administration to approve
the late start calendar draft for the 2012-2013 school year. A discussion was held.
01/10/2012 District 91 Board Minutes Page 3 of 4
Jerry Wixom made a motion to approve the late start calendar option for the 2012-2013 school year as presented.
Lisa Burtenshaw seconded. Motion carried with a vote of four (4) ayes to one (1) nay.
b. Approve Notice of Sale for Surplus Bus Property
Carrie Smith, Director of HR & Finance, reviewed that the district has nine older buses ready to sale. The estimated
value is under $1000 per bus, most of them have been salvaged for parts.
Deidre Warden made a motion to approve the sale of the surplus buses by sealed bid as presented. Lisa
Burtenshaw seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
c. Approve Notice of Sale for New Sweden Property
Carrie Smith explained that the Board could decide whether to sale the property by a sealed bid or in a public
auction for a minimum bid of $108,000 which is the appraised value of the property. It is the recommendation of
the administration to try a sealed bid process first. If the minimum bid is not met then it is at the discretion of the
Board of how they would want to dispose of the property. A discussion was held.
Lisa Burtenshaw made a motion to proceed with the notice of sale using a sealed bid for the New Sweden property.
Deidre Warden seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
d. Teacher 2011-2012D
Jerry Wixom made a motion to release 2011-2012D from their current contract. Deidre Warden seconded. Motion
carried unanimously.
e. Teacher 2011-2012E
Deidre Warden made a motion to release 2011-2012E from their current contract. Jerry Wixom seconded. Motion
carried unanimously.
Jerry Wixom moved to adjourn. Deidre Warden seconded. Meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM.
01/10/2012 District 91 Board Minutes Page 4 of 4
There is still concern about the Middle level Bell Schedule for next year. Even though you have
not yet received it, please look it over carefully.
Class size numbers district wide are not equitable. Edgemont 5t" grade is a 3 by school with 29,
29 and 27 students in each respectfully. These numbers are over the cap and hard to
contemplate when some schools have classrooms sizes of 17 to 22. 1 would like you to consider
getting trailers to Edgemont, hiring more teachers, busing excess students to building that have
room or change the boundaries.
IFEA will publically support the $53 million bond.
RIF committee is working hard, and it is very emotional
Mitzi Ellingson
President IFEA
Freshman Physical Science
HONORS Physical Science
Clair E Gale Jr High
208-525-7720
01/10/2012 IFEA Report - Ellingson
IDAHO FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT #91
PUBLIC INPUT SHEET
Guidelines for Patron Involvement in School Board Meetings
School Board meetings are meetings of the elected Board of Trustees held in public for the
purpose of conducting the business of the Board. Patron input is invited during board meetings
on the following basis:
To request to speak to the Board of Trustees:
In order to be recognized, the patron must sign and complete the Public Input portion below prior
to the beginning of the meeting. The Public input Sheet should be located on a table at the back
of the boardroom.
Patrons will be recognized by the Chairman of the Board. Public input should not exceed three
minutes. The Board will listen to public input without comment except to ask germane questions.
Expressions must be appropriate to the public setting. Discussion of personnel matters or
personal attacks are not appropriate.
Board Policy 506.0 item 5 states that complaints against a particular teacher or District
employee shall be in writing. The contract between District 91 and the teacher's
association, as well as traditional concepts of the due process of law, require that the
affected employee be notified of a written complaint.
The Chair has the authority to control the meeting whenever necessary.
PUBLIC INPUT SHEET
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Ad d ress:
Address: 1� l { 7 9e, lve/i fr Phone:
E -Mail Address:
Do you have children attending School District #91 schools?
If so, which schools do your students attend: t X24 �5 <<
Topic:
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Suketu Gandhi's Comments on Math Education January 10, 2012
On December 13, 2011, we passionately heard on the District's vision for students to get
hands on experience with mathematics education. The vision need not remain a distant dream.
Singapore Math curricular material provides the exercises that are taken in every day living
experiences. This sets students on the trajectory to learn complex math starting in grade 7.
Strong mathematics education is for everyone, and one may utilize it in every day living
and working experiences. It is for people who may eat in restaurants and wants to leave a 15%
tip. It is for shoppers who want to compute discount of 25% on a top of another 25% discount.
With mental math, they can make fast computations without use of a calculator!
Having fluency with geometry helps with a number of professions such as installing
carpets & floors or painting walls, or working on roofs. To make credible bid on a potential
work, they need to determine a relevant surface area by measuring pertinent dimensions. This
allows them to determine the material required. In grade school students learn how to determine
area of triangles and trapezoids. However, measuring the dimensions as prescribed in the
textbook may not be convenient. Instead, one may measure, for example, all three sides of a
triangle to determine its area. The knowledge from high school trigonometry makes it possible to
convert the measured dimensions into those needed to determine the area.
Professions, like machinist, that may not require formai college education, but utilize
math that includes trigonometry, analytical geometry and calculus. Their work orders are
accompanied by a drawing. They need to translate the dimension provided in the drawings into
that used by specific shop tools. In those events where a need arises to fabricate a complex
shape, like a camshaft in an internal combustion engine of an automobile, they will need to shave
off certain amount from the surfaces at specific angle with respect to the center. They are easily
handled in polar coordinates. In other words, they need to convert the dimensions made in one
coordinate system (such as Cartesian) into another one used in their tools (such as cylindrical).
They need to know the distance and the slope to make this happen. With analytic geometry and
calculus, they can handle this task.
In real life, students may need access to money through loan. The terms of the loan would
be defined by each of the lenders. Those students who can handle exponents and logarithms, as
taught in Algebra and calculus are in a position to convert the terms of the loan into the
parameters that they need to make meaningful comparisons. This leads them to make an
informed decision.
Schools may not teach every task that students may experience in their lifetime. When
students have the strong fundamentals and the knowledge to solve complex problems through
assignments, they develop skills to handle more complex problems as they may encounter in
their future years. If we accept the fact, in the words of Gary Phillips, "Chance prefers well
prepared mind", then students must have an opportunity to access high caliber mathematics. For
students to gain mastery of mathematics in grades 7-12, they need to have strong foundation in
grades KG -6. Graphical approach in teaching mathematics provides the hands on experiences
and the intuition on a strategy to solve complex problems with ease and speed. Singapore Math
curricular materials teach mathematics graphically, and are full of complex problems that require
thinking to determine the answers. A decision to implement Singapore Math curricular material
in classrooms may inflict pain on students, teachers and the decision makers and many parents,
but without pain there is no gain!