HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008_11_25 Board Minutes
IDAHO FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT 91
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
BOARD MEETING
DISTRICT OFFICE BOARD ROOM
November 25, 2008
12:00 Noon
Present from the Board of Trustees: Present from the Administration:
Mary Ann Smith, Board Chair George Boland, Superintendent
David Lent, Vice Chair –via tele-conference Gail Rochelle, Director of Secondary Education
Ernest Jensen, Treasurer Guy Wangsgard, Director of Business
Jerry Wixom Karla, LaOrange, Director of Elementary
Deidre Warden Caroline Meagher, Recording Secretary
Board Chair Mary Ann Smith called the meeting to order.
Pledge of Allegiance was led by Marin Crapo, Patron.
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA:
Jerry Wixom motioned to adopt the agenda as written. Ernest Jensen seconded the motion. Motion
passed.
WORK SESSION
a.Junior High School Athletics Proposal: George Boland presented the proposal. The Upper Snake River
Valley Conference has been discussing moving the ninth grade athletics program into the high school
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athletics. The 7 and 8 grade athletics would be the only athletics at the junior high school level. Kerry
Martin, Director of Athletics at Skyline High School has been the lead of a committee to research this.
The recommendations are to move the remaining four ninth grade sports to the high schools and then
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expand the 7 and 8 grade programs. It appears that the cost savings will make up for the additional
costs.
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Are the parents in support of this? Yes—there has been input from parents, and they would prefer this
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separation. The net result will be higher participation for the 7 and 8 grade teams.
What are the negatives implications? – That will happen in the high school. There will be a lot more
transportation involved. There will be freshman teams at our high schools. Some of the other districts
are considering providing freshman teams.
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Would 7 and 8 grade kids miss classes as a result? – They will miss no more than they do now.
High Schools are on a three sport season; junior highs are on a four sport season. It is a challenge to
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manage bringing in the 9 graders now because of the different seasons. This proposal will help to
manage this.
Are the administrators at the Junior High’s in support of this? – Yes, they support this proposal.
Eagle Rock thinks that the ninth grade moving up will be fine in most sports. There is a concern that
moving the football kids up is a not good choice. There is a question of whether we will get higher
participation when they are in the school that they are playing for. Another consideration is gymnastics.
Participation varies in gymnastics. There are no other schools in the area that sponsor gymnastics. The
costs associated with gymnastics are not very high. A lot of the kids who participate are kids who would
not normally participate in sports because of the costs. It is really good for these kids—it gives them a
really good boost in self esteem as well as other skills. These kids have to maintain their grade point
average; they have to maintain their behavior and attendance in order to participate.
If these program changes are adopted, we will need to make a change to Board Policy 1003.4c for
eligibility for the sports program. Eligibility is currently based on where students live and where they are
zoned to attend. We would revise this to allow kids to declare their high school in the ninth grade.
There will be first reading of the change to Board Policy in the December meeting.
This will be presented as a proposal in December and an action item in January.
Kerry Martin requested that this be an action item in December because scheduling for the fall is
currently in process.
This does not give three readings for public input—but that is not required since the proposal is a
program rather than a policy change.
b.High School Revision: George Boland: When the high school graduation requirements were proposed as
a first reading, the Board of Trustees directed the administration to decrease the options from the five
that were presented to two. We have reduced that to two options; one that is a trimester and one is a
semester.
Questions and discussion:
As I continue to look at the trimester (60 minute 6 period day), I think about combining that with
a block of semester core classes – I want further discussion on a six period trimester with the core
classes being offered as a three semester, or a full-year option.
Q. What is the required seat time for classes?
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A. The state requires 990 hours of instruction in the calendar year.
Q. What are the total number of teaching opportunities that will occur?
A. It will be 72.
We really have two major populations that we are considering – 1) those who have failed one or
more courses constitute which is 44.5%; and 2) The kids who are enrolled in release time. We have
to provide more opportunities to meet their needs. This is the majority of our school population.
Q. If we do blocks of three trimesters for core – do we still have the magic 17 or 20 for electives?
What are we defining as a core? With the trimester system we will have far more opportunity for
electives.
A. We need to consider the planning part of this for the counselors too. The block of cores at a
particular time of day would be a scheduling nightmare.
- If you do that – you will wipe out the ability to take concurrent credit classes.
A lot of studies show that for core classes a full year is best and we also believe that it is important
to offer electives. High School is the time to take electives. This is not much different from Option
E.
With Option E we will make English, math, science and social studies core courses.
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Under option E the required credits are 57. Two of those credits can be received through 9 grade
advisory and one from the senior project. We are considering allowing an additional option for
kids to earn an additional credit with the Wellness class by logging other activity. We don’t want
too large of a discrepancy between what is required and what kids take. As much as I hate to say
that it is about the money—that does play a role. We cannot offer classes when we have no
funding. We need kids to attend school. When some kids see that they can meet their
requirements and not “have” to attend a full day of school – they won’t. When that happens, we
lose ADA money.
Q. If we are looking at rigor and depth, can we extend some of the class times?
Q. Could we have a World Cultures study? We should start thinking about this.
A. If you notice, modified Option E does require World Perspectives.
We should not be afraid to add this rigor into the curriculum.
The concern is not adding the rigor—the concern is how to put it together so that it functions in
the industrial model that we are stuck with in the agrarian calendar that we have.
I believe that all the options provide the rigor—what they do not provide for are the opportunities
that you are asking for. The rigor is in these options. The recommendation for students to be
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prepared for college, which is the same as ready for the 21 century workplace, is that they have a
solid core. These are the academic classes that we are talking about. Students can then take
electives that will lead them into a career or a path of study in a post secondary institution. There
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are 17 electives provided by the state. The piece that is not here—is what we do as instructors to
increase rigor in the classroom. There are many things we can do to improve instruction. One of
those things is to allow teachers to be with their students all year long in their classes. That is
provided for in the recommended options.
Q. When you talk about increasing the rigor, has anyone considered English classes and those
teachers? Are you talking about larger class sizes—or number of classes for teachers? English
teachers have a lot of grading; it takes time to give real responses.
A. The difference is that you will have the same load of students, instead of new students every
trimester. This way you know them, you know their strengths and weaknesses. We do know that
students learn better in smaller portions more frequently.
The math problems that you received earlier are the first three problems on the Algebra I- end of
course assessment at the high school level. I wanted to show you that sometimes with a trimester
students cannot be proficient on the most basic skills. On item number one only 52% of the
students got this problem correct. This is this year, first trimester. These are not the students who
will go into calculus, but these are the students that are getting left behind.
2) The second very basic algebra question – 40% answered this correctly/60% got it wrong. This is
across the district. Every kid has to take and pass Algebra I and Geometry. We are in our third year
for not meeting AYP in mathematics and our fifth year in language. Teachers who work with
struggling students say that if they could have those students all year, they could make a
difference.
Q. Shouldn’t we hold the higher achievers to a different standard? They should be allowed to run if
they get it. We should make this a year long class for those struggling kids.
A. The universities are saying that our kids are failing basic math their first semester in college.
A. Core classes like Algebra I and Geometry need to be a full year. We can make Algebra II and
higher courses two trimesters. They don’t need to be tied into a full year.
The AYP status is still there. We are in corrective action. Next year we are in restructure. What
this means—we don’t yet know.
Q. Colleges are saying that they take our students and place them directly in remedial classes.
How much of the bell curve is not being served?
A. Approximately 50% do not meet placement standards and need to be placed in remedial classes.
Q. Do we need to prepare our kids to take the ACT, and not so much prepare them to get an “A” in
their classes?
We also need to consider that some kids really don’t like math—they are more right brained. They
took their 4 credits early and never refreshed before they take the ACT. This is not because they
are not bright—it is because they have not had it for a while because it is not important to
everyone.
Our students need to be mathematically literate.
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Q. Should we be skeptical of putting six periods in 12 weeks? If we keep loading additional
subjects in a twelve week period- how successful will students be?
A. A six period day is better for that elective choice. This is to educate the whole child.
I think that we all need to thank Gail for considering all the options. She deserves applause for all
the work she has done.
Q. Back to the 72 spot Trimester hybrid. Those will be 60 minute periods, six per day = 72
opportunities for the full four years. Do we come close to having the teaching staff to cover these
opportunities?
A. We will have to run through this and see. We will have to put together a mock schedule to see
how that plays out.
Q. Is the legislature giving us more money for teachers?
A. The legislature has promised us things in the past and not delivered.
Q. What about extra teachers for zero and seventh hour?
A. No we would shift their day – we are just reallocating them.
Q. What about wheels of electives?
A. Our problem is not having enough core teachers during those same periods of times.
A. We have to consider what the state will certify as “highly qualified teachers” –this is just
another constraint.
Q. What is the cost?
Q. With the apparent indecision and struggling; what are we going to talk about at the public
meetings? Are we talking about trimester vs. semester?
A. We came up with the public meetings at the request of the Board of Trustees. Our intent is to
go there with the new graduation requirements and what we are trying to do – focus on better
preparing students for the workplace and post secondary. That information will be given and then
parents can see how options E and F will look with their student’s needs. They can see how this
will affect them personally.
I feel like we were prematurely narrowed to D and E. It feels like we are not ready to present this
to the public.
Please explore Option E with a 60 minute class.
Q. What is the target? You are not ready to accept the committee’s recommendation and what
we have decided as professional educators. That is no longer the target. What is the target?
A. We really appreciate what the committee has done—but we need to explore one more option.
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The IDLA talks about preparing students as life long learners. We cannot predict as educators what
will be happening in five years. We need a solid core as well as a broad education.
We have a box with an industrial model, with an agrarian calendar and a lot of wants. There are
more requests than will fit in the box. The intent of D was to look at online learning (to get out of
the box.) Look at before and after school (look at above the box and below the box). We are trying
to hit a moving target.
Things have gotten so broad that we have no focus. We don’t have consensus on what we should
do. We will have to have a series of compromises. What will the impact be on teachers? Will we
have a structure to prepare a well rounded person who is prepared for college? There are two
compromise positions with these two options—they can be tweaked. We can also look at a new
option.
Right now option E as a hybrid seems to be the most likely to meet all needs.
To expand opportunities we need to look at zero hour, seventh hour and IDLA classes. Maybe we
need to incentivize these classes by paying for the online classes. We are trying to create enough
flexibility to capture the whole bell curve. A reality of life is that we have to make choices. There
may some kids on the high end of the bell curve that will not be able to do everything they want—
they might have to do other things. Those kids on the lower end of the curve will have to work
harder to make up failed classes. These are choices that we all have to make. The administration
would recommend that we stick with these two options—that we make changes to the trimester
hybrid to try to accommodate as many of these needs as we can.
Many high school students and parents have called with concerns about what program we are
offering.
We have two foundational models that we present. To try to develop a third model between now
and Monday is too short of a time.
We will email out and post the meetings on the website. We will allow public input.
I really like your earlier comment. It is very true. We are in an industrial box and we are preparing
our kids for yesterday—not today. We need to make people aware that we would like to get
outside of that box. We have constraints that put that box around us. We are trying jump out. If
we cannot break that box down - we are going to keep going down because the world is breaking
that box—they never had that box.
To keep doing the same thing and expect a different result is stupidity.
Q. With option E will there also be zero hour?
A. There is nothing that will preclude the need for a zero hour, a seventh hour and IDLA.
Q. Do we get ADA for IDLA?
A. Yes we do
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What we do not have is a lab for IDLA classes. It would be very costly. These are all options that
are on the table.
This lends itself to more opportunity for electives.
We meet on Monday night at 7:00PM at Clair E Gale for our public meeting.
Deidre Warden motioned to enter executive session. Jerry Wixom seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Ernest Jensen motioned to enter Open Session. David Lent seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Jerry Wixom motioned to adjourn. Deidre Warden seconded the motion. Motion passed.
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