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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007_06_22 Board Minutes 6-22-07 Board Meeting All-Day Planning Retreat Creekside Counseling Conference Room Doug Nelson Facilitating Present: George Boland, Jerry Wixom, Ernest Jensen, David Lent, Tracie Miller, Mary Ann Smith, Cindy Ozaki, Caroline Meagher George opened the meeting thanking everyone for setting a day aside and coming. Primary purpose is to review plan and see if your issues are addressed in the plan as well as to address the issue of the superintendent’s evaluation. Doug Nelson: Professional volunteer—has taken planning and facilitating workshops. Experience tells me that this process normally takes 3-4 days. Gratefully, we already have more than 4 days invested in the current plan. Goals: planning processes start with brainstorming, then we need to refine. We already have a planning document; I am asking you to step out of it and brain storm. Create a synergy to identify all concerns, observations, and issue for our organization. Ground rules: 1)Identify issues and concerns (not prioritizing!) We will list all issues, concerns and post them around the room. 2)Then we need to walk through the summary process to date. 3)Does our plan really represent your goals for the school district? Understand what the plan is first. 4)Take your issues into a positive action statement. 5)Assignments—responsible party and timeline. Classified employee issues/transportation/educational requirements/extra curriculum activities/discipline/sports/ special education/facilities/volunteers-training, screening/technology. Start by issues that you think face the district from the classroom to the board. Mission Statement: very good. 1.JW—Wants to protect public education—wants to have us chosen over charter schools and private schools. Protect the public educational system. Keep a”cutting edge” in the delivery of education. Enhance D91 as a public education choice. 2.EJ—the many factors that we have no control over, like political decisions. Something always impacts us. Like the elections mandate. It is a concern and that is why he tries to be actively involved in the politic front. Manage external factors taxation, voting, political. Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 1 of 10 3.DL—80% of the jobs that our kindergarteners of today will have, do not currently exist. What is our role in preparing them? We need to have vision to prepare kids for the world they will live in. Leadership in preparing kids for changing and uncertain future. 4.TM—Are we flexible enough? Flexibility in addressing change in key areas and being positioned and prepared to meet change. 5.TM Communication of District goals, activities and challenges and key stakeholders. 6.MAS—wants D91 to be the one that people want to go to. We need to have that vision in order to make people want to send their kid’s here. School—community partnerships. We need to do a lot of building in the community in order to get levies passed. We need accountability—we need this to gain popularity. We need to be able to provide workable solutions that the public can participate. Communicating the excellence of district curriculum. 7.JW—The schools, principals and teachers need to be “user friendly.” IF our constituents understand that—we will be the choice of school district. They are our customers—We need customer focus. Client focus—how do we treat parents? Minor details that add up to a lot. (Where do you park your car?) Insuring a “user friendly” environment for patrons. 8.Why are we board members? Is it for d91? What is our agenda? Are we doing the right thing for the district? Is it right that we always vote five yes’? Are we really representing the community? Should we explain that there is a process for Board member representation on key and difficult issues? We need to communicate the role of board. Challenge good faith bargaining….communicating to your patrons and stakeholder your role as board member. 9.JW—we cannot accommodate one point of view and make a policy change. We need to rely on the administration to recognize trends and to make changes as they come. The Board Policy does need to be constantly reviewed. Should we consider amendments to the policy for George’s evaluations process. Is there something in policy that we can refine? References to procedure. 10. GB—we need to revamp the structure of the policy and add the adoption, revision and deletion dates. We are going to review current policy and how changes are historically documented and communicated. The policy is created by the administration. DN—do we have any master agreement issues? Many of these issues affect the administration and Human Resource mgmt. Do we want board dialog on this topic? No Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 2 of 10 11.Hiring a communication person is critical to create a communication culture. The website will be critical. Parents are younger; we need Web site enhancement— Information officer. 12.EJ—the board personality—and the trust among the board. A question was raised “Is it alright to vote differently?” Of course it is! Board governance and operation addresses this. “Best Practices” (A Board Training program may be useful) we need to be cohesive and respect one another even if they vote differently. We need to be independent thinkers—it is okay. The function of the board is not to vote alike. 13.Board Training—professional development. If there are things that you want to do—do you want the administration to find them? Or do you, as the board want to identify them? A Sub-committee of the board can take on the task to look for professional development. We don’t have a session set aside for professional development, political updates…work sessions are for that purpose. We can put it on the agenda. A setting for board discussion for new initiatives ---political updates and case studies. 14.Political connections—we need to talk to lobbyists at the state level. Can we have Bart Davis/Jerry Shivley come and meet with us? EJ—we will do that again in the regional meeting in October. We need to ask our legislators to come to and visit with our board. 15.Participation in a legislative forum. Have local districts get together—to create a forum with these legislators. We need to establish personal relationships. Creating legislative relationships. 16.EJ—we need to drive this; we can contact sister boards and meet with legislators. Which districts? Not too big. Probably three---invite legislators to service these districts. Leap frog to Madison (population center). Look for population centers that really support public education. 17.What is our relationship with higher education? We need to create a link between d91 with higher education. Relationships with higher education. 18.How to fund the plant facility? What will we do a few years? What do people in Idaho Falls really want? Does the plant facility level need to be increased? DN- Have you thought of hiring a Public and Charitable grants officer? This is someone who orients themselves to grant money available locally; someone who really understands grant writing. Learn how to research availability and how to apply for these grants. (The grants can even fund a portion of the salary of the grant person.) Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 3 of 10 19.JW--AH Bush is creating a magnet school. He is concerned. How do we nurture it? Magnet School consideration. 20.What are our major patron complaints?  academic rigor (parents do not feel that their kids are not being challenged)  the board operates in a closed room and no one knows what we are doing— people do not feel like they are involved in the process.  School safety. Emergency committee…(1—crisis management. We need a district wide crisis management committee. But there is also another aspect to school safety.) 21.Media interaction and communication. We need to have committees of the board. 22.Board property survey. We need to visit all the schools! MA—thinks we need to get out more. Take a public message—go to a PTO meeting and speak for only 5-8 minutes. Have board representation at the Back to School meetings. We need to stager back to school nights so we can visit with these parents. We need to let the PTO’s know that we want to go to Back to School night presentations. This will enhance our Public Relations. We have received a lot of positive response for the recognition of the 14 teachers in the May board meeting. Maybe we need to take more time to recognize our teachers. What about recognizing our students? Merit scholar…good job, we are proud of you. Getting involved with the students…maybe go to student council meetings, tell them what we do. Get involved with high school students. There are all kinds of opportunities to bring people together. This needs to be done continuously. Increase Board interaction opportunities with students and patrons. 23.Our minority population. A concern, are we doing a great job? Our Hispanic community is not as involved as we would like them to be. We need to get parents into schools. When the parents know the teacher and establish relationships discipline problems go away. Parent-teacher conferences are not a moment to get to know the teacher. Parent Teacher night in elementary school are well attended but parents complain that the kids lose a whole week in preparation for these conferences. That is when the community comes into our schools. Secondary Parent-Teacher conferences are not as well attended. High school teachers may not want to interact with the parents. They seem to prefer emails. (Teachers seem reluctant/afraid in the parent-teacher night environment) Should we consider the possibility of an in-service training for classroom governance? Our jobs revolve around customer service. Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 4 of 10  MAS—Calendar Committee—parents do not like the decisions/but they also do not understand it. Can we get some parents involved in some way? The way it is specified in the contract, three need to be teachers and three need to be appointed by the superintendent. The purpose is to educate them; here are our constraints. The current system is really best for the kids and we do get fewer complaints.  Parent-Teacher conferences—how much will parent access the information on Powerschool? What will happen to the attendance at parent teacher conferences? Especially in the secondary level? At this point we are not adding issues anymore because we really do have a lot. We want to make sure that the critical concerns are being addressed. The purpose to brainstorm first is to aid your thought process. Here are some areas that are not in your plan—but are in your issues. You as a board are remarkable—you spend a lot of time and a lot of commitment for no money—every one of you wants a meaningful and effective term to serve. 1)Review and adopt board governance and best operation practices……you are governed by the Idaho constitution and Idaho State Statutes, you can legislate; like the way you conduct your meetings. You need to come up with a rule of best practices and governance with decorum, policy making implementation. You have your own right to establish your own code of ethics. 2)Provide for initial and ongoing board training opportunities. Each of the board members accepts responsibility to learn and teach the others. 3)Provide mechanisms for internal and public board communications. Preparations of board meetings and the communication of your agenda to the public. These are public meetings and we need to share these schedules (we do). The web site doesn’t tell the board member’s responsibilities while on that board. We need to post our public meeting rules. The decorum of your meeting is really well done. 4)Provide a method for a setting for board training sharing for new initiatives and case studies. What environment do you have to share? If one board member goes to a conference, give them time to highlight key information—materials that they brought back. (This is an action step; you need to select your method or setting—it can be emails or through meetings.) ?? Does George become the forum for this? He is someone from administration to sound things off. **DN—be careful of the potential violation of the public meeting law. The sharing of general information gathered from meetings is okay. It is not okay to discuss Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 5 of 10 a vote. Do not email each other about cases and/or action items that will be discussed in the meetings. The IEA has been known to even try to set up a board member. The rule –if I am sharing statistical information, general information, sharing schedules or sharing concerns, but not asking for any actions, and not making a proposal you are ok. If you say ….we need to change policy to address this….then you have violated the public meeting law and that is illegal. Share only general information, time schedules, meeting or general concerns. 5)Provide opportunities for board connection to the legislature and political subdivisions through meetings, forums and shared information with key legislatures and other districts. 6)Provide a method for communication of board work and initiatives to patrons. Key activity listings of board members. Develops a connection between the board and the staff. A spotlight in the newsletter that shows successes with the board initiatives. Shows new initiatives to patrons. 7)Provide a method for board survey. If you have time/contact George and he will bring you around and make an appointment to see a building. Don’t worry about bothering George. Then you (as aboard member) can nominate people for emissary of excellence. We need to have board presence at the year end presentations. Create a template—a thank you note. The board member will sign it, then it goes out. Thank you notes to PTO presidents. 8) Provide a method of recognition for students and teachers. DL--What effect do recognitions of excellence have on excellence? Recognition of Excellence goes a long way in promoting in Excellence. Recognizing excellence creates higher personal expectations for that child. 9) Goal: To Create a safe environment with consideration and adoption of a crisis and emergency plan. We have evacuation and lockdown procedures. But if they need outside resources—who do they contact? Administrative binder tells the administrators who responsibility falls onto. **Need to have access to some facilities that will be targeted to bring kids to if there is an evacuation and they will be transported to this location for parents to retrieve their kids. 10) Provide an emergency response plan which is coordinated with access to community resources. 11) Consideration of a Superintendent evaluation process. (an area not in current plan) 12) Grants Officer/forging relationships between school and community resources. Federal Programs typically get their funding through grants. We end up with Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 6 of 10 secondary issues as a result of receiving the grants. Have someone explore the feasibility of a Grants Officer. Maybe the Ed Foundation can explore a volunteer—or maybe they could fund a part time grants officer. Promote the good will of our district by listing this on our web page. Acknowledge our joint use agreements. The public should know what we do. We have an annual report—and this should be our primary tool. There is a lot of misinformation—the public and our own employees who do not know what really happen. How do you gage community perceptions? What do people perceive and what do they want? What bits of information do we need to know? What questions do we ask to put in a survey to get this information? Natalie Barfuss ran a similar project for The Post Register. The BYU-I guys are really good at collecting data. The River City Weekly—would be a great medium. It is CRITICAL to design your tool well before you do this. (This is an expensive consulting fee). 13) Review and consider patron and key stakeholder constituent surveys. 14)Inservice training for classroom governance. Personal responsibilities. Teachers need to understand that whatever they do in the classroom needs to align with Board Policy which needs to align with state statutes. Because of the change in ISAT testing from NWEA to ? we no longer have a growth standard. We need a growth standard! Should we break away from the state? How can they force us into AYP jail? We are doing okay. If we were not we would be hearing about it. Principals need to spend more time with their teachers in their teacher evaluation and evaluate data models. High School Redesign—will we require more credits then we do now to graduate? Right now we require 49 credits to graduate, 42 are state requirements. Will HSR provide for fewer elective classes? We need to get principals into classrooms to make teachers accountable to how this relates to curriculum. They need a tool box of reflective questions. “Show me the Friday backpack” this ties into the “User Friendly” piece. Are the kids just bringing home coloring worksheets and word finds? How does their work tie into their curriculum? Are we going to develop an evaluation plan for the superintendent? We need clear targets and expectations. Are those tied to the Continuous Improvement Plan? If the SCIP is critical is George the Project Manager to make sure that the plan is implemented? What is the evidence of completion? We list the steps and the objective, but what is our measure that it is done? Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 7 of 10 Will we have an annual report of the progress made towards meeting goals in the CIP? This is very performance oriented. The board wants to use the SCIP as the tool to evaluate George’s performance. What evidence will we require? If we base the evaluation on the CSIP—how will you report these goals to the board? Tracie would like a summary of steps to reach each goal. Some will be very simple, yes this item is done. Some of the items will be more…then just one step…some items will be ongoing. How about just have George report on the Goals. Just give a summary of the steps, hit the highlights/good and bad. How do you know if the staff accepts and respects you? We need a step that defines what the outcome should be. Define it. So we can evaluate if it has been met. What is the status? George can address the objectives; he can provide specific evidence to show the correlation between staff and student achievement. A report to the board of accomplishments. Read/discuss and make an evaluation based on that basis. We do not want to know the evaluation of principals, etc…we would rather hear what he has done. The document SCIP is very procedurally oriented. Take your planning document and transport your key objectives into your evaluation document. There will be timetable and you will determine if all the objectives have been included in his plan. Would this planning document cover the past—or the future? Evaluation in January is good timing. Make changes in January to be implemented in fall. This way he knows what he will be working on the future year. This January we will get a progress report. The process is a circle, repeating itself. This will always be a work in progress. George does not perform these items-but he does manage them. As the manager of these people; it is your job to make sure these people have performed their jobs. There will be a lot that will bump into this. Safe Routes to School. Winter would be the big status report. Today we have identified the expectations. Board relationships—do we have the policies in place to make sure this work gets done. In this document the lead is the board. Monitoring and assessment mid august- spring This is a way of communicating, responding. Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 8 of 10 If we have an ongoing dialog it makes more sense. It makes more sense than just a one time, January evaluation. Is the district heading in the right direction? Renewal of the contract is a bi-product. The contract is a three year contract. It is two years out—as a three year contract. th Should we add a 7 goal to handle emergent issues? We do not want it to get too cluttered. Yet we need to know the priority of new issues. This will not be a new goal. This will just be a new category called “emergent issues.” Next year it will be incorporated into the plan—and worked in. What is the evidence needed to measure achievement and or progress. For every goal/objective/action there is a completion statement that equals success. We should have a scope. What equals success and a schedule to meet it. Dave really likes it. As a trustee he now knows the heartbeat, and feels better about things. We want our communications person to publish our goals. If parents knew that we were doing all of this they would be very happy. We need to let our patrons know how top notch we really are. These are very crisp clear objectives with clear focus. Do we want to have this retreat on an annual basis? Do you want to meet again? This would be when administration will report on the progress with the SCIP. Do we want to continue with the Large Strategic Planning meeting model? Or do we want to go back to smaller groups. We need a polished thing to send out. Do we want another forum with business and community leaders? It would need to be a breakfast meeting. What if the education committee contacted the chamber of commerce. Would we want those chamber members in that forum? Would the chamber executive committee be interested? Breakfast briefings…nice breakfast, free pens (toys). Don’t like too much information. They want meaningful information-communication. We would definitely need to taylor the meeting to the audience. George will take this process and customize it to our plan, make a reference of it in the policy. What about the board self-assessment? Are we doing things that are actively helping? Do we make too many requests? Where are we—what are we about. Reference this in the policy as a procedure. There is nothing to prescribe the process. He wants to add to this a reference to a procedure. This makes this legally binding to you and to the board. Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 9 of 10 Jerry thinks we need to see the documents you are talking about before we go much further. Our goal was to implement a procedure. Once you have that procedure in place and well defined it creates a culture. Everyone was very satisfied with the work done. Maryann wants a piece where the board does self-evaluations. Jerry wants MAS to write this up and present it. EJ commented that the process has been great. JW thanks the superintendent for coming up with this. The sprit has been great—spirit of goodness. GB-Caroline will send out notes Next steps—we will flush out details for evaluation components and add items identified today and send out to you for review. Adopt this as our Improvement plan for the next 18 months. November ISBA would be a natural. Use this in the work meeting in August. th July 24 district team will meet for the day to refine this. Will there be an Agenda setting meeting on 7/3? George will email out the agenda for 7/10. If you see a problem on the agenda, please call Jerry. George will be out of town all next week (6/25-6/29) and first week of July. He will also be gone 7/11, 12, 13 and gone again 7/19 & 20. MaryAnn Smith is changing her email address and she will email that out. Board will serve breakfast to the teachers August 7 or 8. George will communicate that to you in a Friday letter. Board Planning Retreat June 22, 2007 Page 10 of 10