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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022_10_25 Board MinutesBoard Members present: Administration Present: Elizabeth Cogliati, Trustee Dr. Jim Shank, Superintendent Hillary Radcliffe, Vice Chair Kelly Coughenour, Assist. Supt. Elementary Education Larry Wilson, Treasurer (remotely)Dan Keck, Assist. Supt. Secondary Education Paul Haacke, Clerk Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance Lara Hill, Chair Jessica Cushman, Deputy Clerk, Recording IFEA Present:Margaret Wimborne, Director of Communication Julie Nawrocki, President Ralph Frost, Director of Transportation Jessica Donnelly, President Elect Kevin Klingler, Director of Maintenance and Operations Tito Paredes, Director of Technology Services IDAHO FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT #91 BOARD WORK SESSION (Tuesday, October 25, 2022) Generated by Jessica Cushman Work Session called to order at 4:00 PM by Chairwoman Lara Hill. ADOPT AGENDA Chairwoman Hill requested a motion to adopt the agenda. Trustee Radcliffe made a motion to adopt the agenda. Motion by Hillary Radcliffe, second by Elizabeth Cogliati. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke WORK SESSION A. Finance Report Auditor, Theresa Flannery provided an overview of the Audit for FY2022 to the board. Theresa reports that the differences on the report from last year's report is due to the ESSER II and ESSER III funds. She states there was enough of the funding to move them to the front page to be included in the five major funds. She then reports there was a decrease in the Debt Service, refunding almost $6 million worth of debt b y getting rid of bonds and putting them into an escrow account. She states this is the second year in a row there is a decrease to prepare for new bonds and projects for the District. Theresa provides a summary of the expenditures and revenues, which include Covid related funds. She states the amount of Covid dollars that have come through have almost doubled the amount of funding that was received from the Federal government. She states she is cautioning all districts that the Covid funds have two more years to run and some districts are using them at a faster pace. She advises starting to look now to make sure as requirements reset and as funding stops coming, the district has all the policies and procedures in place. She states during Co vid lots of these policies and procedures were more lax and now need to be reinstated. She states this will help with the single and state audits. Theresa states the general fund has about $15 million however once you look at what is already allocated, there is not much that is spendable. She reviews the general fund and breaks down the fund by inventory, pre paids, and restrictions. She states after all of that, there really is only about $6 million that is available for the general fund. Theresa states that $6 million is almost one payroll for the district. Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance, states one payroll is $6.5 million. Trustee Haacke states most people think that is a lot of money, but it will not even cover one payroll. Theresa asks the Board if they have any questions. Trustee Haacke asks for a clarification on the ESSER funding. Theresa answers that is Covid funding that has actually been spent and may be waiting for reimbursement. Trustee Radcliffe states ESSER II is already spent and asks how much of ESSER III is available. Angela answers that ESSER II is already encumbered and ESSER III is also encumbered depending on projects going forward. She states that it is essentially allocated over the next two fiscal years but we will see what happens with the projects and she states learning loss was built into this funding also. Theresa states that many people have been asking how districts spend the Covid funding, she states on the expenditure section there is a breakdown for ESSER II and ESSER III. These items include instruction, support services, and more detail will be in the budget report. She then states the go verning board made changes to what is reported. This change is that any lease, was referred as operating lease, has to be on the balance sheet. She states the leases with Verizon towers are listed and explains the amount shown is over a 20 year span of time. She states it is a little misleading, but they wanted it presented on the report. B. Technology Services Update Tito Paredes, Director of Technology Services reports an overview of his department. He states it is Cyber Security Awareness month. He states that the biggest security issue are social engineered emails getting out to people. He states the system that we have in place repel over a 1,000 of those emails on a weekly basis. He then states that around 50-60 emails a day do get through and we will continue to be attacked. He reports every single year in the month of October they do penetration testing. He explains a third party sets up a server in our environment and it attacks us like crazy. They look for all sorts of vulnerabilities, all sorts of holes, and phishing attacks. They look at the services we have in place and provide a big detailed list of recommendations to harden our network. Tito thanks ev eryone in his department because in the last two years they have passed with flying colors and the recommendations are very minimal. He states they mentioned that the district is better prepared for a cyber attack than most Fortune 500 companies that have the budget three to five times bigger than ours. He states in October they run through all cyber protocols, response plans, and do tabletop ex ercises. Tabletop exercises are when the response team meets and plan if there were an incident to happen, all the measures are put into place. Tito also states they do this procedure twice a year. Tito explains that his department is going through a philosophical change, modernizing IT operations to meet the demand. Tito discusses the growth of technology due to Covid and he has had to audited the services and procedures provided. He states that the technology department was in a reactive way of managing IT operations. He explains with the recommendation of Dr. Shank, they aligned their goals with HRS goals, although it looks different for the IT department. Tito states he started studying Top Performing Organizations, which is basically HRS for IT. He explains that they have been refocusing efforts and become more proactive to follow TPO. He explains all the moving pieces in technology, focus on school safety, and projects throughout the district. He states IT is continually doing walk throughs in all the schools to ensure the safety and security. Tito talks about the disparity in funding for technology and staffing. He then explains due to the loss in the budget, he has lost a few positions and the required services are increasing. He asks that while meeting with Legislation if the Board could nudge the need for funding in IT and staffing. He further explains the non competitive pay we have and lose many quality people to other places. C. Maintenance and Operations Update Kevin Klingler, Director of Maintenance and Operations provides an overview of his department. Overview is attached in board agenda. D. Boundaries/Split Session/Year Round School/Modular Classrooms Margaret Wimborne, Director of Communications reports about survey results and comments from parents and staff regarding year round school and split session. She states with the parent survey about 1100 responses with 51% preferring year round school and 49% preferring split sessions. The biggest concern was family disruptions and siblings being on the same schedule. She reviews the summary of parent survey results from parents all over the school district. She states with the staff survey about 483 responses with 54% that prefer split sessions and 45% that prefer year round school. She reviews the summary of staff survey results and comments. She states that she is working to review and catalog the results and comments. Trustee Haacke starts the discussion by asking about the logistics in year round school being able to alleviate crowding. Superintendent Shank answers that an example would be to have four tracks going year round and every track is off set, so at any given time only three tracks are in school. He states that 25% of students not in school will alleviate o vercrowding. Trustee Haacke states split sessions sounds like a much better option. He then states both options will require more teachers. Trustee Radcliffe adds even if the bond passes we will need more teachers, however the year round school option seems to need a lot more teachers. Superintendent Shank states lots of work would be needed to create a master schedule for either option. The Board discusses the year round school option. Superintendent Shank states it is rare that you see a high school go year round school due to the scheduling constraints and course completion. He then states that year round school is not his recommendation for secondary schools to help with the capacity. Trustee Cogliati states that the year round school option is mostly made for elementary school. Superintendent Shank states yes, it is usually meant for elementary schools. He adds some of his research found year round school for high schools but with the same enrollment of students y ear round. The Board discusses what year round school looks like in elementary schools. It is discussed that it is used usually as a preference to have year round school not to help with capacity. Trustee Haacke asks the Superintendent if he has a recommendation for elementary schools. Superintendent Shank states there are man y factors that need to be weighed, for instance some schools are over crowded and some are not. He states at this point he does not ha ve a recommendation. Trustee Radcliffe states if the bond passes the over crowding and under crowding will be differently addressed than if the bond does not pass. Superintendent Shank states with the projected growth, if we are unable to open new schools, our answers will need to be different and these changes may be the only answer. Trustee Haacke states that there are another 1000 doors or more not included in the 4000 doors that have been reported to be built. Trustee Haacke adds that he thinks the Board needs to consider all options and the bond is a potential solution. Trustee Radcliffe states possibly looking into short term rentals of facilities, if needed. Trustee Cogliati asks on the logistics of classrooms and states that in year round school, traditional classrooms look different. Superintendent Shank answers that yes, one classroom would be utilized by more than one teacher. Trustee Haacke asks about staffing for both options. Superintendent Shank states additional staff would need to be hired, we would need to modif y the contract, and a master schedule would need to be developed. The Board states that all of this needs to be developed even if the bond passes. The Board also discusses the history of when the district needed to do split sessions due to a school burning down. Trustee Haacke asks about staffing and steps needed to produce a master schedule. Superintendent Shank states it takes a level of expertise of the staff and no one has done this before. The Board continues logistics of creating a master schedule, this includes timing, teachers, and students. Trustee Haacke asks about modulars. Superintendent Shank there is no update with modulars, due to in ventory this is not a possibility because none are available. Trustee Cogliati asks what the Superintendent how he would answer the parents/patrons that say our projections are incorrect. Superintendent Shank discusses houses being built near our schools, having 2 or more children in them, and needing to look beyond the numbers that Cooperative Strategies projected. He states it is more detailed and more specific that what was provided in the graph. He then states that Cooperative Strategies was challenged by the Board and the information they provided. Superintendent Shank talks about the growth in the student population in our schools growing. Trustee Haacke comments that our high school enrollment has continued to increase o ver the last 10 years. Trustee Haacke states he tells people that this information from Cooperative Strategies, was work done prior to Covid and to please drive around and see how the community is growing with new homes, condos, apartments being built everywhere. Trustee Radcliffe adds that we have needed these high schools for years, so beyond the growth we have a problem right now, let alone what is coming with growth. She states just because it wasn't addressed before, it doesn't mean it wasn't a problem. Trustee Haacke states that if we would have addressed the high schools the last time we went to bond, then we could be looking to only address two elementary schools. However, he states we did not and now it includes the price tag as it is. Trustee Haacke asked that the planning of a master schedule move forward. Trustee Cogliati asked we keep this an open discussion on the agenda. Chairwoman Hill states it is a talking point that will not go a way that will effect the community in every way shape and form. She states she appreciates the work that has been done to prepare for th ACTION ITEMS A. Reading Skills Development Plan Superintendent Shank recommends approval of the Reading Skills Development Plan. He states this plan needs to be submitted to the state, as it is a new requirement they have made. Trustee Radcliffe makes a motion to approve the Reading Skills Development Plan. Motion by Hillary Radcliffe, second by Paul Haacke. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke EXECUTIVE SESSION Recommended motion to go into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho Code §74-206 (1) (b) Personnel and Student. Trustee Radcliffe makes a motion to move to Executive Session. Motion by Hillary Radcliffe, second by Paul Haacke. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke ACTION ITEMS A. Employee 2022-2023 C Superintendent Shank recommends Employee 2022-2023 C be released from their contract as requested. Trustee Haacke makes a motion to release Employee 2022-2023 C from their contract. Motion by Paul Haacke, second by Hillary Radcliffe. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke ADJOURN A. Adjourn Chairwoman Hill requested a motion to adjourn. Trustee Cogliati made a motion to adjourn. Motion by Elizabeth Cogliati, second by Hillary Radcliffe. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke