HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-09-11 Board Minutes
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Board Meeting Minutes—September 11, 2007
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Idaho Falls School District No. 91
Board Meeting Minutes
September 11, 2007
Administration Building
Idaho Falls, ID
7:00 P.M.
Present from the Board of Trustees: Present from the Administration:
Jerry Wixom, Chairman George Boland, Superintendent
Mary Ann Smith Gail Rochelle, Director of Secondary
Ernest Jensen Caroline Meagher, Recording Secretary
David Lent
Cindy Ozaki
Chairman Jerry Wixom called the board meeting to order.
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by George Boland.
I. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
Mary Ann Smith moved to adopt the agenda as written. Ernest Jensen seconded the motion.
Motion passed.
II. CONSENT AGENDA
Cindy Ozaki moved to adopt the consent agenda as written; David Lent seconded the motion.
Motion passed. Items approved include:
Board Meeting Minutes
: August 14 and August 28
Payment of June 2007 Claims: $ 1,571,706.67
Matching Funds
: Skyline High School $ 5,879.54
Fox Hollow Elementary $ 5,900.93
Theresa Bunker $ 3,534.50
Total Matching Funds requested: $ 15,314.97
Staff Actions:
New Hires:
Camille Barger Patrick Lloyd Marie Elser
Science Health Counselor
Eagle Rock JHS Eagle Rock JHS Ethel Boyes Elementary
Kara Maughan Jennifer Hanekamp Lisa Thomas
rdrd
3 Grade 3 Grade Resource Room (.5 FTE)
Hawthorne Elementary Hawthorne Elementary Longfellow Elementary
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Board Meeting Minutes—September 11, 2007
Retirements:
Debbi Gerard (effective September 28, 2007)
Speech/Drama
Skyline & Westview
Student Travel:
Skyline High School Royal Blue Choir
Heritage Festival of Gold San Francisco, CA
III. REPORTS:
Westview High School
a) Student Reports: Wendy Cavan, Principal of introduced Jake
Williams as the Student Representative. Wendy chose Jake because he is an outstanding
senior in both day and night school, and he is employed by the school district as a student
custodian. After he graduates, Jake will join the Army and pursue higher education.
Jake reported that the changes at Westview have been for the best. He said that changing
the model to two daytime classes and one night class has resulted in less stress in a
smaller environment. There is less homework because there is class time to complete it.
Having six weeks of classes helps to keep the students focused and engaged.
Skyline High School
Mark Christensen is the student representative for . Mark said that
the 2007 school year started off smoothly. The first day of school they had a pep
assembly. Homecoming was last week and they unfortunately lost the game. The
activities were well attended. Mark reported that many students at the school do not like
the new cell phone policy and would like the board to reconsider this decision. Mark also
thanked the Board of Trustee for being in the Skyline High School Homecoming Parade.
b) No Patron Input
IFEA Report
c) : Nancy Caldwell, President of the IFEA wanted to take the time to thank
the entire office staff at the District Office. They have been available and very helpful,
especially during the start of the new school year when things were very busy. We
should be proud of the staff here; they are always polite and willing.
Education Foundation:
d) Daryl Schneider, President of the Education Foundation
reported that the Foundation will again sponsor the Idaho Falls Regional Education
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Conference to be held October 4 at Skyline High School. The Foundation has already
raised $5,500 with the help of Cami Smith, Director of the Education Foundation.
Sharon Rankin will be donating door prizes for the event. Daryl passed around a Room
Host Sign-up sheet if any members of the board of trustees would like to participate.
Donations that the Foundation has received recently include a $10,000 donation to The
Mayor’s Scholarship Dinner. They are also very excited about a new partnership with
VisaPlex. This company will sell tickets to local movies and the foundation will earn a
large percentage of the profits. This company would also to arrange to “Teacher of the
Week” through their web page—giving the winning teacher $100.
The Education Foundation had invited two community partners to speak at the recent
Principal’s meeting. Jeff Benson from BEA presented their “Mini-grant” and the new
“Speakers Bureau”. Bowen Hunstman, also from the INL explained the “Safe Routes to
School” grants and other activities to encourage our youth to become more active.
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Board Meeting Minutes—September 11, 2007
The Foundation will be holding a Parent Organization Forum at Taylorview JHS on
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September 27. The PTO presidents will all be invited.
e) Superintendent’s Report:
Superintendent George Boland mentioned that the ISBA Regional Meeting will be held
Thursday, 9/13 at Rocky Mountain Middle School at 7:30 P.M.
The district has donated several desks to the Trinity Methodist Church. These are old
desks that had been stored in the New Sweden School. Several Years ago, the district
had an auction of old items; these are the items that did not sell. The Church will come
out and get them; the estimated value is less than $500.
1) Elisa Saffle, Assessment Coordinator handed out a copy of her presentation. She
first wanted to make sure that everyone know that the only reason our ISAT works
is because of Ellen Close and all the long hours she spends making it happen. Her
presentation explained the scores the schools in district 91 received from last
spring’s ISAT testing. District 91 did not meet Average Yearly Progress (AYP)
last year, but some schools are testing above state and district averages. She
explained to the Board why some schools are failing and in what areas; she
explained sub populations and showed graphics to see which schools have sub
populations large enough to be tested in those areas. These graphics helped to
show those demographics affect scoring. Overall, as a district, we are doing very
well.
Our concern is Elementary Reading. We have a new reading adoption that was
adopted last year. It takes time for teachers to get used to the new curriculum. We
also have a large population of Hispanic LEP (Limited English Proficient) and
Economically Disadvantaged students within the district. We are training our
teachers in SIOP (Sheltered Instruction OP?) SIOP has been proven to be very
effective and works for all levels of students.
Fall testing starts Monday. We give over 25,000 tests in any given testing period.
Changes:
This season we will only use one ticket per subject area as opposed to up to
four. This means that we have to be very careful to give the kids enough
time to complete the test in that testing period. These tests are not timed,
but they cannot be resumed at another time.
The second grade will not be tested
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11 and 12 graders may have to retake the test for graduation. The new
test would be a grade-level test that is not adaptive.
January 1, 2008 new cut scores will be released.
There was discussion from the board about SIOP and that they are glad that our district is using
this model. The board also asked about using growth data instead of AYP to determine how
effective we are teaching the kids. The State has announced that the requirements to meet AYP
will grow. This means that as the target keeps moving, it will become harder and harder to meet
AYP; so maybe we need to choose another indicator of our progress.
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Board Meeting Minutes—September 11, 2007
V. ACTION ITEMS:
Skyline sport field sprinkler system bid award:
Superintendent George Boland presented that
the school district received only one bid for the sprinkler system for the sports fields and that bid
came in over $50,000 which is much higher than we projected. There are another two potential
bidders that did not bid because they learned of the job too late. The Administration
recommended that the board reject the bid and repost it tomorrow (9/12/07). Then the
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superintendent will hold a phone poll to award the bid on September 19.
Ernest Jensen motioned to follow the recommendation on the Administration and reject the bid.
Cindy Ozaki seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Mary Ann Smith motioned to adjourn. David Lent seconded the motion. Motion passed.