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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-09-11 Board Minutes 1 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 1 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 th 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. 1 Board Meeting Minutes—September 11, 2007 The Foundation will be holding a Parent Organization Forum at Taylorview JHS on th 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  thth 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. 1 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 th 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.