HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017_07_12 Board Minutes
IDAHO FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 91
BOARD OF TRUSTEES -- ANNUAL BOARD REORGANIZATION MEETING
DISTRICT OFFICE BOARD ROOM -- 7:00 P.M.
690 JOHN ADAMS PARKWAY
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017
Present from the Board of Trustees: Present from the Administration:
Lisa Burtenshaw, Chair George Boland, Superintendent
Deidre Warden, Vice Chair Carrie Smith, Director of HR & Finance
Dave Lent, Trustee Debbie Wilkie, Recording Clerk
Larry Haws, Treasurer
Excused: Trustee Larry Wilson
Chairman Burtenshaw called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and called on Carrie Smith to lead the
Pledge of Allegiance.
SPECIAL ORDERS OF THE DAY
a. Reorganization of the Board of Trustees
Chairman Lisa Burtenshaw declared the Idaho Falls School District #91 Board of Trustees dissolved.
Superintendent George Boland then declared the office of chairperson for the 2017-2018 school year open
for nominations.
Trustee Lent made a motion nominating Trustee Lisa Burtenshaw as Chairperson for the 2017-2018 school
year. Trustee Haws provided the second. No other nominations were brought forward. Motion carried 4
ayes, 0 nays.
Chairman Burtenshaw reviewed the offices and duties of the board members. Chairman Burtenshaw called
for nominations.
Trustee Warden made a motion nominating Trustee Larry Haws as the Vice Chair. Trustee Lent
provided the second. No other nominations. Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays.
Trustee Lent made a motion nominating Trustee Deidre Warden as Clerk and Trustee Larry Wilson
as Treasurer. Trustee Haws provided the second. Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays.
Trustee Warden made a motion to appoint Carrie Smith, Director of HR & Finance, as the Deputy
Clerk of the Board. Trustee Lent provided the second. Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays.
7/12/2017 D91 Board Minutes Page 1 of 5
Trustee Haws made a motion to accept the slate of officers for the 2017-2018 school year. Trustee
Lent provided the second. Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays. Chairman Burtenshaw declared the
Board of Trustees reorganized.
b. Set Dates and Times of Regular Board Meetings
Chairman Burtenshaw reviewed the proposed 2017-2018 Board Meeting Schedule and stated that
additional meetings may be scheduled as needed. A discussion was held regarding the changes to the
August and November meeting dates that were moved to the third Wednesday of the month because they
conflicted with state level meetings.
Trustee Warden made a motion to accept the 2017-2018 Board Meeting Schedule as presented. Trustee
Haws provided the second. No further discussion. Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays.
ADOPT AGENDA
Trustee Lent made a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. Trustee Haws provided the second. Motion carried
4 ayes, 0 nays.
REPORTS/INPUT/INFORMATION
a. Superintendent’s Report – a written report is attached.
b. Patron Input – written comments, if provided, are attached.
Chairman Burtenshaw invited Mr. Gandhi to share his comments and warned him that if his remarks
become demeaning to the administration or teachers she would not allow him to continue. Mr. Suketu
Gandhi shared comments regarding involvement of the public in math and science curriculum adoptions.
Chairman Burtenshaw stopped Mr. Gandhi’s testimony after she found his comments to be inappropriate
to the public setting. Chairman Burtenshaw informed Mr. Gandhi he is welcome to submit his comments in
writing but would no longer be permitted to give verbal testimony during the Patron Input section of the
board meetings.
c. IFEA Report – no report.
d. High School ReDesign Project Information
Chairman Burtenshaw stated she had met with Steve Taggart, a local organizer, after seeing the numbers
our neighboring district had recently used regarding growth projections used in our district’s bond
scenarios. The Board Chair asked Carrie Smith to look at some different scenarios based on the actual
growth numbers put out by the county. Carrie reviewed that after talking with financial consultants this
week to see what amount could be bonded without a tax rate increase. A handout was provided and
discussions held regarding reserve fund balances, sale of the bonds, bond redemption fund and increasing
market values. The Board agreed that still be conservative with our estimates it looks like we would be able
to finance $110 million with no tax rate increase. Chairman Burtenshaw stated that the Board will meet on
Tuesday, July 25, 2017 to vote on a bond resolution and the potential site for a new high school.
Superintendent Boland also reviewed that the property adjacent to Skyline High School that the district
was looking at is off the table. The district submitted an offer which was rejected and they came back with
7/12/2017 D91 Board Minutes Page 2 of 5
a counter offer of $100,000 per acre. The property only appraised for $18,000 an acre and the owners have
already turned down an offer of $69,000 an acre.
e. Other Items
i. Committee Update – HS ReDesign Community Committee Meeting 6/27/2017
Trustee Lent and Trustee Warden stated they attended a meeting with the community group and
there was consensus within the committee that a $110 million bond election was the best option.
CONSENT AGENDA
Trustee Warden made a motion to adopt the Consent Agenda, including the late addition of staff actions that was
provided in the board packet. Trustee Haws provided the second. A discussion was held regarding staff actions and
clarification for a payment of claims item. Carrie Smith will review the voucher card purchase in question and get
clarification for the Board.
a. Approval of Minutes
i. May 6, 2017 – Board Retreat
ii. May 17, 2017 – Business Meeting
iii. May 24, 2017 – Work Session
iv. June 12, 2017 – Work Session
b. Payment of Claims
i. June 2017 Bill List
ii. June 2017 Checkbook List
iii. Idaho School Board Association Member Invoice
iv. Ehlert Solutions Group Invoice #1653
v. Ehlert Solutions Group Invoice #1654
c. Staff Actions
Retirements:
Name Position Location
William W. Cairns Assistant Principal Idaho Falls High School
Renee Portrey Speech/Drama Taylorview Middle School
Resignations:
Name Position Location
Jared Wilcox German Idaho Falls HS / Compass Academy
Kyle Van Genderen English Eagle Rock Middle School
New Hires:
Name Position Location
Elisabeth Tallmon English Eagle Rock Middle School
Nichole Clark Spec Ed Theresa Bunker Elementary
rd
Jessica (Nikki) Ramseth 3 Grade Temple View Elementary
Sherri Rupp School Nurse Skyline High School
Rourk Contor German Idaho Falls High School/Compass Academy
Phaedra Beddes Spec Ed Taylorview Middle School
7/12/2017 D91 Board Minutes Page 3 of 5
.50 FTE Spec Ed/.50 FTE Title I
Joan Oakey Interventionist Hawthorne Elementary
Emergency Hires: A hiring emergency exists, as declared by the Board of Trustees, for the following
positions:
Name Position Location
Walter Gates Content Specialist - Counselor Dora Erickson Elementary
Wade Leavitt Content Specialist - Counselor Edgemont Elementary
st
Sarah Leonard Content Specialist – 1 Grade Dora Erickson Elementary
th
Emily Luetzow Content Specialist – 6 Grade Linden Park Elementary
Phaedra Beddes Content Specialist – Spec Ed Taylorview Middle School
Nicole Clark Teacher to New – Spec Ed Theresa Bunker Elementary
Rourk Contor Content Specialist – German Idaho Falls High School/Compass Academy
Transfers:
Name Position Location
th
Tracy Brandstetter From: 5 Grade From: Hawthorne Elementary
th
To: 4 Grade To: Westside Elementary
rd
Diana Frickey From: 3 Grade From: Temple View Elementary
rd
To: 3 Grade To: A. H. Bush Elementary
d. Other Items
i. Discarded Items – obsolete secondary math textbooks
ACTION ITEMS
a. Maggie’s Place Onsite Program Agreement
Superintendent Boland stated we had a contract with Right at School, an organization who provided
afterschool childcare and homework assistance. There were no issues with the services provided, just
not enough families participating so they chose to discontinue services. Sheryl Gettings, owner of
Maggie’s Place and former area manager for Right at School, and her husband Dan Randall decided
they would like to continue being the local face of afterschool programs. Sheryl stated they would like
to add enrichment opportunities, such as Lego robotics, chess club, yoga, Spanish and other
opportunities that students could stay after school one day a week to participate in. Tutoring services
will continue to be offered at their office on Pancheri. Cheryl also stated they are pleased to continue
the 5% reference share. A brief discussion was held. Superintendent Boland stated it is the
recommendation of the administration to approve the contract with Maggie’s Place for enrichment
and tutoring services for the 2017-2018 school year.
Trustee Haws made a motion to accept the Maggie’s Place Onsite Program Agreement as presented.
Trustee Warden provided the second. Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays.
b. Third Reading – Board Policy Revisions, Section 208.0 – Administrative Travel Authorization and
Allowances
Superintendent Boland stated this is the final reading relative to Board Policy 208.0 revisions. No input
has been received to date. It is the recommendation of the administration to adopt the revisions as
presented.
7/12/2017 D91 Board Minutes Page 4 of 5
Trustee Lent made a motion to adopt the revisions to Board Policy, Section 208.0 – Administrative
Travel Authorization and Allowances. Trustee Haws provided the second. No further discussion.
Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays.
Trustee Warden made a motion to adjourn. Trustee Lent provided the second. Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays. The
meeting adjourned at 8:04 PM.
7/12/2017 D91 Board Minutes Page 5 of 5
7-12-17 Superintendent's Report:
• OSEP conducts annual review of nine federal compliance indicators(e.g. Discipline rates,
disproportionality of race, early childhood transitions, secondary transitions,fiscal audit).
Determinations are based on data collected the prior school year to ensure LEA's have an
opportunity to verify and correct data as needed. Determinations levels include Meets
Requirements, Needs Assistance, Needs Intervention, Needs Substantial Intervention.
Received notification that the district's Determination for school year 2015-16 is Meets
Requirements in all areas. Credit to Director of Student Services Dan Keck and his staff.
• June 27 & 28 was fortunate to participate in the ESGR "Bosslift" program at Gowen Field in
Boise. Spent two days rotating through various training exercised Guardsmen and
Guardswomen participate in during their one weekend a month and 2 week summer session.
Major Aaron Jarnigan, SHS principal,facilitated the invitation and met me upon arrival.
Interesting to note that Rick Amen (former EITC and now CEI acting president)was also
attending as an ESGR volunteer. Significant amount of VR training, highlight though was ride in
Blackhawk helicopter(even though crew looked like high school juniors). All branches of the
service with the exception of the Coast Guard have a presence at Gown Field. (reference
claustrophobia)
• Transportation Center plans were approved by P&Z last night clearing the way for final drawings
to be completed and bid packages to be developed.Tentative timeline would have bids out late
July and hopefully recommendations for board approval at the August 16 meeting with a start
date of August 22"d. Paving would be scheduled to be completed by end of October with final
completion the first week of January. Timeline is later than anticipated&will have a
contingency plan in place for plugging in busses should the need arise in December. Have a set
of preliminary plans for review if interested.
Sukettt Gandhi's Comments on Need to hn�olve Public in Math &Science July 12, 2017
There are many ills with the secondary mathematics and science education. Proven cures are
available, but the decision makers are preventing them from entering classrooms. The major
reason for this is that they lack the desire and capacity to mediate the ills. The past examples of
ills include middle school students failed to learn Algebra with the imposed curriculum in the
first three months of 2015-16 School year. Very few number of advanced mathematics students
in grade 11 score very high (700-900 range) on SAT Math. AP Calculus BC is accessible upon
completion of AP Calculus AB, instead of being offered upon completion of pre-Calculus, as
done in many high schools. In science, schools no longer offer regular full year Physics and AP
Physics C. The courses offered are AP Physics 1 & 2, but they lack the rigor as the regular and
AP Physics C courses, and not count for college credit for STEM majors.
Implementing miserable mathematics curriculum requires willful ignorance of contents and
practice of credible curriculum. To mediate these ills, a credible mechanism requires reduction in
the knowledge gap between the knowledgeable public and the decision makers. In the curriculum
selection process, Idaho statues explicitly state this. The Administration's inability to provide
credible solution can be judged from the fact that they cannot comprehend the language of the
applicable statue. It seeks guidance from the lawyer on how misinterpret the language under a
pretext that cumulates in denial of rightful public participating in the textbook selection process.
We note that the Administration does not seek any guidance on the content of mathematics
education from knowledgeable people, but eager to seek from a consultant who lacks the
knowledge of the subject. Thus it would be accurate to say that at the present, the decision
makers' knowledge of mathematics is at best modest, ways to stimulate students mind is
questionable, and knowledge of supplementary mathematics resources is a suspect.
The need to cure the mathematics illness occurs from the requirements of the STEM college
curriculum in the post 1990. Blurring of boundaries between traditional disciplines adds course
loads from different disciplines. This way, students complete rigorous STEM curriculum
requirements in 4 years. This places demands on high school students to have several AP math
and science courses to be STEM ready. Thus, the decision makers have a compelling need to
determine whether the public's perception on the mathematics and science education needs have
merits, and willing to discuss these issue thoroughly in a face-to-face meeting that may take
several hours.
Some may cheer in exclusion of the public from the instructional selection process, but in reality,
these cheers are directed towards students stagnating, denial of learning experience and being
unprepared to handle rigorous college STEM curriculum. It is natural to ask why public is here in
.first place? Yours truly takes the partnership in education very seriously, and it goes beyond the
classroom and the ballot boxes. Furthermore, the public's role in the government has been made
very clear, as articulated by Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (in 1950): It is not the
.function of our Government to keep the citizen from.falling into error; it is the function of the
citizen to keep the Government from falling Into error. We could justify any censorship only
tivhen the censors are better shielded against error than the censored In other words, the
decision makers should be better guarded against making errors than the public makes.
Idaho Falls School District No. 91
Summary Analysis
ScenarioI Scenario i a
Sale 1 $55,000,000 $55,000,000 $55,000,000
Sale 2 $42,000,000 $55,000,000 $80,000,000
Total $97,000,000 $110,000,000 $135,000,000
Plus interest Cost $48,267,763 $54,526,463 $78,446,863
Total $145,267,763 $164,526,463 $213,446,863
Equalization (@ 9.0%
of P&I)
Net Total $131,653,664 $149,719,081 $194,236,645
Combined TIC(1) 4.01% 4.01% 4.01%
Projected Growth
2018 6.00% 6.00% 6.00%
2019-2020 5.00% 5.00% 5.00%
2021-2029 2.00% 2.50% 4.29%
Tax Impact No Increase No Increase No Increase
(1) Sale 1 interest rates plus 0.50% cushion, Sale 2 interest rates plus 0.75%cushion.
GENERAL FUND BOND REDEMPTION FUND
General Fund Fund Balance 6/30/2016 13,259,812 Debt Service Fund Balance 6/30/2016 4,582,486
Revenues to date 58,610,028 Anticipated Property Tax 4,574,196
Estimated Expenses to date 56,177,104 Payment in Lieu of Taxes 190,461
Estimated Fund Balance 6/30/17 15,692,736 Bond Levy Equalization 390,641
9,737,784
Reserves on fund balance
Leadership Premiums 81,320 Bond Payments in 16-17 3,566,113
College and Career 55,616 US Bank and Arbitrage Expenses 2,050
K-3 Reading 96,719 3,568,163
State LEP 58,866
EL Learning 205,209 Estimated Fund Balance 6/30/17 6,169,621
Community Resource Workers 93,559
INOVA 50,000 Payment due 9/1/2017 2,740,056
Medicaid Revenue Shortfall Transfer 100,000 jAvailable reserves 3,429,565
Other Carryover 50,000
School Budget Carryover 75,000 PLANT FACILITY FUND- SPFF
Non-spendable Inventories 300,000 SPFF Fund Balance 6/30/2016 4,774,722
Less Assigned for Encumbrances 500,000 Revenues to date 2,445,742
Reserved for Land Purchases 3,100,000 Estimated Expenses to date w/encumbrances 3,071,185
Total Estimated Reserves 4,766,290 Estimated Fund Balance 6/30/17 4,149,279
Est Fund Balance less Est Reserves* 10,926,446 Budgeted Emergency Reserve 250,000
Budgeted Contingency Reserves at 5% 2,998,308 Transportation Hub 2,300,000
Liquid Fund Balance 7,928,138 jAvailable for projects 1,599,279
*We spend about $5 million per month, so this is equivalent
to 2.18 months of expenses.
TOTALS
GENERAL FUND 7,928,138
BOND REDEMPTION FUND 3,429,565
PLANT FACILITY FUND -SPFF 1,599,279
12,956,982
Surrounding School District Total Tax Rates (FY2017)
6.95
7.000005�-
6.00000 - — __— 5.80
a
0 5.00000 -
0 4.24 4.27
3 99 4.05
4.00000 -- — -------- - - ---- _- -- --
'" 3.06 3.24
¢' 3.00000
2.40
2.00000 —
s„
1.00000 - - - - -
0.00000 -
� `� �� ��� a��� p� Gp �� 4e ��� �ti°�
C,�o �pfi Q�°fi
10 Bond Plant Suppl. M&O ■All Other Levies
9
Piperjaff ray
C�I�S nYam
Onsite
After School Care
Maggie's Place Onsite will provide care onsite at the elementary schools from the
time school gets out until 6:00pm. We will open the afterschool program at any
D91 location with the enrollment of 8 or more kids.
The fees are:
5 Days after school $250.00 per month
4 Days after school $230.00 per month
3 Days after school $180.00 per month
2 Days after school $130.00 per month
1 Day after school $60.00 per month
Annual Family Registration Fee $65.00 upon registration
We will offer D91 staff a 50%discount of the regular OnSite tuition. The discount
will not apply to Enrichment Classes or Tutoring services.
Enrichment Classes
At select locations, we will offer Weekly Enrichment Classes, that are addition to
the regular OnSite Program. These Enrichment Classes will be offered during the
regular OnSite time and any child at the school can register.
The Weekly Enrichment Classes we are offering for the Fall Trimester are:
LEGO Robotics
Taekwondo
Yoga
ASL/Foreign Language
Chess Club
Weekly Enrichment Class costs are $49.00 per month, except for LEGO Robotics,
which is $98.00 per month. There is an In-Attendance Discount of $15.00 per
month for families that register for an enrichment class and attend the OnSite
Program. District 91 staff will receive an In-Attendance Discount of $7.50 per
month. Enrichment classes will be offered 15-30 minutes after school gets out and
last one hour.