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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009_11_10 Board Minutes IDAHO FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT 91 BOARD OF TRUSTEES BOARD MEETING DISTRICT OFFICE BOARD ROOM November 10, 2009 7:00 PM Present from the Board of Trustees: Present from the Administration: Dave Lent, Chairman George Boland, Superintendent Jerry Wixom, Vice Chair Guy Wangsgard, Director of Business Deidre Warden, Clerk Gail Rochelle, Director of Secondary Karla, LaOrange, Director of Elementary Excused: Debbie Wilkie, Recording Clerk Ernest Jensen Lisa Burtenshaw Board Chair, Dave Lent called the meeting to order. Pledge of Allegiance was led by Wade Lenon. SPECIAL ORDERS OF THE DAY: Dave Lent took a moment to remind everyone that tomorrow is Veteran’s Day and challenged them to personally thank a veteran for the sacrifices they have made and for protecting our freedoms. a.Emissary of Excellence: Tammy Utter, Principal at Linden Park Elementary introduced Angelica Rubio, an ELL Tutor at Linden Park, the recipient of the Emissary of Excellence Award for this month. Mrs. Utter stated that Angelica works tirelessly for their students. Angelica primarily translates English and Spanish but over the past year she has worked extra hard helping two new Korean students. Angelica has gone out of her way to find resources that help the students feel more comfortable and at home in their classrooms. Dave Lent thanked Angelica for being a valuable employee of the district and presented her with a certificate and gift card. 09-10 BRD MINUTES Idaho Falls School District 91 Page 1 of 6 b.Volunteer of the Month: Natalie Peters, Principal at Temple View Elementary introduced Gina Waite and Jennifer Drake as recipients of the Volunteer of the Month Award. Natalie commended them for the work they have done, especially this past year, putting together the school’s annual Fall Festival. Now in its sixth year, the festival is an important fundraiser for the school’s PTO. Under the direction of Waite and Drake, the festival this year raised twice as much money as the year before. Waite has been a tireless volunteer in her children’s classrooms for years. Drake, who has a second-grader at Temple View, is just starting to volunteer at the school and is following in Waite’s footsteps. Dave Lent and the other members of the Board thanked them both for all of their hours of volunteering and presented them with a certificate and gift card. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA: Jerry Wixom moved to adopt the agenda as presented. Deidre Warden seconded the motion. Three aye votes, motion carries. REPORTS/INPUT/INFORMATION: a.Student Reports i.Ethan Hansen, representative from Skyline High School reported:  Red Ribbon week was recognized by giving presentations to elementary students about making positive choices.  Multicultural Week included something different every day, lots of food and music from a variety of cultures. Ethan stated that this years’ celebration was the best one yet at Skyline High School.  Student government participants will be attending the IASC Conference in Boise later this week.  Skyline students are gearing up for the “Souper Bowl,” a can food drive competition with Idaho Falls High School, and hope to continue the winning tradition. ii.Wade Lenon, representative from Idaho Falls High School reported:  The Turkey Trot Dance will be held this Friday night and Wade personally invited the board and administration to attend, Wade also brought cookies for the Board.  The College Fair was held at Skyline, 70 colleges and technical schools were represented and over 1300 students attended.  Halloween week was recognized with a scary story reading with Mr. Clifford, the theater teacher, a donut-on-a-string contest and pumpkin painting.  th IFHS football team went to state but lost in the quarter finals. Austin Kunz placed 5 in the State Cross Country Meet last week.  Student Government will be attending the Fall Leadership Conference in Nampa later this week. They have also been reviewing the Mission Statement to get a feel for what we are trying to achieve which is developing life long learners through academic excellence, vocational productivity and civic responsibility. 09-10 BRD MINUTES Idaho Falls School District 91 Page 2 of 6 b.Patron Input i.Andrea Chambers, patron, stated that it seems to her that the board and administration think semesters are the best option for core classes then why wouldn’t they think it’s the best option for all classes. Call it what it is, a semester schedule, and have all classes on a semester based schedule. Andrea feels that if electives courses are offered on a trimester schedule, it will be a scheduling nightmare for counselors to sort out. Andrea also expressed that she really liked calendar option #2, starting after Labor Day, the first week of September is gold to her family. ii.Mr. Gandhi, patron, commented that the high school graduation requirements and the proposed instruction delivery model have improved from the existing instruction delivery model. However, these improvements are not optimal. Mr. Gandhi feels the alternate view presented to the Board, reduction of class period from 60 minutes to a 40 or 50 minute class period, would be better as he has pointed out on several occasions. Mr. Gandhi asked if the Board adopted this policy that it be reviewed in five (5) years to see if it is working as intended. Five years is recommended because it will take that long for future ninth grade students to go through this delivery model. c.IFEA – Michelle Sakota reported:  Michelle thanked Superintendent Boland for speaking at a recent IFEA Representative Council meeting to explain about the upcoming Bond Election.  st This month is Nationwide American Education Week, Nov 15-21. Michelle read an article about the important role the Educational Support Professional plays in education. The IFEA will be th recognizing all ESP’s in the district with a special thank you on Wednesday, November 18; other special recognition days are Parent and Substitute Education Day. d.Education Foundation – Terri Frickey reported :  Terri provided the Board with a list of the new IFEA Board of Directors.  th Dual Credit and College Prep Forum Luncheon is scheduled for November 17 at noon, at the Shilo Inn, Superintendent Luna is scheduled to be the guest speaker.  th College Prep Forum will be held at Hillcrest High School on the evening of November 17 from 7:00 – 9:00, featuring workshops and training to help parents and students prepare for higher education.  Mini Teacher Grants were awarded at the end of October, a list of recipients were given to the Board and Administration. Ten grants in the amount of $4,677.00 awarded to nine different area schools in the fields of science, reading, physical education and technology.  Maeck Family Foundation Grants were also recently awarded, fifteen schools received grants for a total amount of $27,000, and a list of the recipients was given to the Board.  Science Consumable Kits for grades 7-9 were completed with the help of the Education Foundation. The Ed Foundation obtained all of the necessary items for the kits and then turned the distribution of kits over to Brant Smith to complete as his Eagle Scout project. Brant reported to the board some of the details of the project and how the kits will be used. Brant also provided them with a folder containing documentation of all of his hard work. 09-10 BRD MINUTES Idaho Falls School District 91 Page 3 of 6 e.Superintendent’s Report  Superintendent George Boland reported that Linda Brock, Powerschool Support Specialist for the district, has spent a tremendous amount of time taking the current students at Idaho Falls High School, with all of their course requests, and built a sample to plug into the current Powerschool scheduler to see if it would work. We now know that the scheduler will work with the proposed schedule, there are still a few things to work out, but it does work. An earlier pre-registration timeline in the spring would be helpful for the technology center to work things out.  Dave Lent, Board Chair, asked about putting the five year review into the policy to make sure it will be done.  Superintendent Boland suggested including the review time period at the end of the policy rather than rewriting the policy. When the action item is voted on the board agreed they would like to have this listed and a review date included. CONSENT AGENDA: Deidre Warden moved to accept the consent agenda as written. Jerry Wixom seconded. Three aye votes. Motion carries. Items approved include: Meeting Minutes October 13, 27 and November 4, 2009 Payment of November 10, 2009 Claims $ 3,195,963.94 Staff Actions: Transfers: Hayley Jones To: Assistant Principal, Idaho Falls High School From: Choral Music, Taylorview Jr High Kathy Wells To: Choral Music, Taylorview Jr High From: Elementary Music Specialist New Hire: Linda Grace Jones Elementary Music Specialist 09-10 BRD MINUTES Idaho Falls School District 91 Page 4 of 6 Military Leave: Aaron Jarnagin Assistant Principal Idaho Falls High School Retirement: Walter Neal Scott Photography and Construction Idaho Falls High School Emergency Hire: A hiring emergency exists, as declared by the Board of Trustees, for the following position: Carolyn Howard - Provisional Contract th 4 Grade Fox Hollow Elementary PROPOSALS: a.2010-2011 School Calendar – A discussion was held regarding the three calendar drafts submitted by the calendar committee. Discussion regarding the calendar starting after Labor Day, with Labor Day being on thth September 7 next year, makes for a late start and ending on June 9. Superintendent Boland shared information regarding the fall and spring testing dates, which are set by the State Department, and from an academic standpoint the time after testing is completed can be a bit of a struggle for students and teachers. Therefore, the balance in Draft 3, with the latest possible start, still getting out the first week of June, adequate breaks at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring Break, is the recommendation of the administration at this time. The calendar options are posted on the district webpage for patron review and feedback. The th calendar proposal will be placed on the December 8 agenda as an action item. ACTION ITEMS: a.Third and final reading for revision to Board Policy 107.6 - Order of Business for Board Meetings Jerry Wixom moved to accept Board Policy 107.6 as proposed. Deidre Warden seconded. Board Chair, Dave Lent, called for discussion, no comments we brought forward. Three aye votes. Motion carries. 09-10 BRD MINUTES Idaho Falls School District 91 Page 5 of 6 b. Third and final reading for revisions to Board Policy 603 - Graduation Requirements Deidre Warden moved to accept the Graduation Requirements as currently written with the addition of a provision for a review date in 2015. Jerry Wixom seconded. Board Chair, Dave Lent called for discussion: Deidre Warden thanked Gail Rochelle, Director of Secondary Education, for her role in helping this policy come together to help meet the needs of all students. Jerry Wixom commented that this policy change has been quite a process over the past two years. Several community members along with the administration have worked really hard and he feels very hopeful that the changes are a move in the right direction. Dave Lent shared that he feels the solution has been met with great success; numerous people have put in countless hours to help the board and administration get to this point. Mr. Lent stated the solution is about increasing the quality of our students and better preparing them as they move forward from District 91. Mr. Lent also shared that he feels the solution has three legs to it: preparing and reinforcing the core fundamentals in education, increasing effectiveness in the classroom and facilities. Dave thanked everyone who contributed to help achieve the vision of raising the bar of education in District 91. Jerry Wixom agreed this is why the board is moving forward with the facilities issues, it takes a delivery system, a schedule of requirements, and the facility together to make this work. A vote was taken. Three aye votes. Motion carries. c.Student 2009-10A Jerry Wixom moved to expel Student 2009-10A and to authorize the re-admittance into District 91 if this student petitions the Board during the month of May 2010 and meets all requirements set forth in the letter from the administration. Also, during this expulsion period the student may receive educational services at the Transition facility. Deidre Warden seconded. Three aye votes. Motion carries. Jerry Wixom moved to adjourn. Deidre Warden seconded the motion. Three aye votes. Meeting adjourned. 09-10 BRD MINUTES Idaho Falls School District 91 Page 6 of 6