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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022_08_10 Board MinutesIDAHO FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT #91 BOARD BUSINESS MEETING (Wednesday, August 10, 2022) Gener ated by Jessica Means Board Members present: Administration Present: Elizabeth Cogliati, Trustee Dr. Jim Shank, Superintendent Hillary Radcliffe, Vice Chair Kelly Coughenour, Assist. Supt. Elementary Education Lara Hill, Chair Dan Keck, Assist. Supt. Secondary Education Larry Wilson, Treasure Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance Paul Haacke, Clerk Heather Wade, Director of Human Resources IFEA Present:Margaret Wimborne, Director of Communication Emily Eichele, IFEA Rep. Jessica Cushman, Deputy Clerk, Recording Kris Smith, Director of Curriculum and Professional Development Andrea Williams, Director of Student Services Gail Rochelle, Director of Federal Programs Ralph Frost, Director of Transportation Tito Paredes, Director of Technology Services Board Business Meeting called to order at 6:00 PM by Chairwoman Hill. Chairwoman Hill celebrates the year anniversary of Superintendent Shank being with our District. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Superintendent Dr. Shank. ADOPT AGENDA Chairwoman Hill requested a motion to adopt the agenda. Trustee Radcliffe made a motion to adopt the agenda, second by Trustee Cogliati. Final Resolution: Motion Carried, Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke REPORTS/INPUT/INFORMATION A. Superintendent's Report Superintendent Shank reports that we have received three responses for the District's request for a local attorney. Superintendent Shank and Director of Finance, Angela Pendlebury are recommending that the Board interview two of three at the next meeting, which will be the Board Retreat. He then states we would ask for an action item at that meeting to engage with the chosen attorney to start work in September. Superintendent Shank shares a draft agenda for the Board Annual Retreat and asks the Board to consider what they would like to discuss. He states that we have arranged for ISBA to come and train the Board. Then he explains items E through G are reports from Directors to provide a brief summary of work they have been doing for the past year and over the summer. He adds that as well as working with ISBA, we would like to get Richard Schroeder to come and speak about the Administration Retreat and Strategic Planning with next steps for staff and the Board. He shares that we had a lot of good feedback from our principals regarding the Retreat and the things that were accomplished. Superintendent Shank asks that at the Annual Retreat we engage in Board goals for 2022-2023. He states at the Administration Retreat they set HRS goals for the year as a whole and he is pleased to report that all the schools remaining for lev el one have stated they would like to to be level one by the end of the year. Then 5 schools have set the goal to move to level two and one school that will seek level three, four, and five. He states that there is excitement with moving forward with HRS. Other goals that he would like to discuss with the Board will be part of the Continuous Improvement Plan. He shared at the Administrative Retreat the Continuous Improvement Plan goals were set with all the principals to meet or exceed the state average in each of the growth goals. He continues to speak about the recommendations for the agenda items for the Board Annual R etreat to possibly include Section 1 for Board Policy review from ISBA for a first reading for approval and then end the meeting with a Board tour of our facilities for efforts with the bond. He would like to tour Skyline High school and Idaho Falls High school to see what areas are of concern and the progress made at the CTE Center. He also stated the Board could also go see the progress with Ravsten Stadium, if they have not already done so. He said a walkthrough was done today with Hellas and the few minor items needing to be addressed have already been completed. Superintendent Shank states these are all recommendations for the Board Retreat and asked the Board to share any ideas they might have. He states the Board Retreat is scheduled from noon to four. Superintendent Shank turns the time over to Kelly Coughenour, Assist. Supt. Elementary Education and Dan Keck, Assist. Supt. Secondary Education to provide an update on enrollment numbers. Kelly Coughenour provides a breakdown of the enrollment for each grade level district wide and lists the grade levels and schools of concern due to the high enrollment. He provides a total enrollment as of today for K-6 is 5142 and the first day of school last year we were at 5297 students enrolled. He explains that tomorrow is the last day of registration, however we will continue to receive enrollments up until the first day of school or first couple of weeks of school. Dan Keck, Assist. Supt. Secondary Education provides a breakdown of the enrollment for each of the secondary schools by grade and the comparison to last years enrollment numbers. He states the numbers in the secondary schools look good and will continue to grow. Superintendent Shank invites Luke Mayville from Reclaim Idaho to join us via video conference to provide a summary of the Quality Initiative Act. Luke explains how Reclaim Idaho was started in 2017, spear heading the campaign for the expansion of Medicaid. He also explains other items Reclaim Idaho has worked on. He states starting in June of 2021 they started collecting signatures for the Quality Initiative Act. He then states the Initiative was officially certified to be on the ballot in November as Proposition 1. Luke explains the basic contents of the Initiative Act is to increase funding for K-12 education in Idaho by an estimated $323 million a year. He states that money is distributed to public school districts and public charter schools on a per student basis to be about $1000 per student and the money must be spent on a list of the permitted expenses. He speaks to the two straight forward changes to the tax code that this act will impact. Luke states number one being it restores the corporate income tax rate that it used to be, which is 8%. He states that currently the tax rate for C-Corporations is 6% and it would be restored to 8%, which is the rate it was from 1997-2000. He then states the second change is it would add an additional income tax on an individual that earns over $250,000 in a year and for a married couple earning over $500,000 in a year. He explains that the additional tax at 10.95% is only added to the amount over the $250,000 or $500,000 earned. Luke explains the big picture is strengthening K-12 programs and keeping more teacher and our support staff in Idaho and in education. Luke speaks about the current funding for education in Idaho and non competitiv e wages offered to teachers. Trustee Haacke asks Luke if this is passed what would prevent the legislature from reducing funding $323 million to just an equal amount to where we are today. Luke states they anticipated that possibility and clearly stated in their initiative that all funds generated by this initiative shall supplement and not replace existing funds. He states the main goal of this clause is to make very clear to Legislatures and to the public what the intention of the initiativ e is and the intention of the voters if they vote for it. He states the only real answer to the Legislature if they decide to do that will be that the supporters of the initiative and more education funding in Idaho are going to need to speak up about what they v oted for. They will need to state they did not vote to keep funding flat, we voted to increase funding by $323 million. Trustee Haacke asks Luke and his organization to look into addressing the supermajority requirement to keep up with the growth and build new schools. Trustee Haacke states that Idaho and Kentucky are the only two states that require a supermajorit y, about 67% to approve a bond to build new schools. He states districts need help funding the building of new schools. Luk e thanks Trustee Haacke for the information but includes he has already met with several people regarding this issue. He states in the state of Idaho that supermajority is not only Idaho law but it is also part of the Idaho Constitution. Luke states the Constitution can not be changed with a voter initiative and the only way to change the Constitution in Idaho is for the Legislature to propose an amendment and then it will go before the voters. He states the does think this an important issue, but can not be addressed with an initiative. Luke states for event or any other information, it can be found on the their website qualityed.org. Trustee Hill thanks Luke for the information and his time. Trustee Haacke states he has a couple of things he would like to talk about in the Superintendents report, one item regarding a parent concern process. Dan Keck, Assist. Supt. Secondary Education states that was addressed in the opening athletic meetings and ask both athletic directors if they did so. Both Athletic Directors are present at the meeting and agree. Pat Lloyd, Athletic Director at IFHS states the parents are also given a form they electronically sign and acknowledge the parent concern process when they register their student for sports. Trustee Haacke then asks about his second item regarding facilities usage. Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance states we do have rental agreements for usage of the buildings which include waiver for liability insurance or they need to provide liability insurance. B. Bond Outreach Trustee Radcliffe states that Trustee Haacke and her will be the campaign liaisons for the campaign committee. She states they will be doing backend work, getting things going, and once they have the final numbers then they will present to the Board. She states as they are moving forward and asking people to donate time, the Board needs to make sure that everyone is still on the same page with the Bond and that everyone is feeling like we are heading in the right direction and focused. She states as the Board, everyone will need to be 100% committed to what we are asking the communit y and the people working on outreach. She then states once the committee is formed they will be reaching out to each of the Board members individually. Chairwoman Hill states she is starting to see some of the educational pieces at registr ation with bond informational flyers and hopes that this will help with educating on what the District needs are. Trustee Radcliffe states she thinks that is really the key for the outreach, to explain this is not a want. She states that the District is at an apex where sadly all these things are now needs and requirements and we missed the opportunity four years ago to ease into somethings. She states where the District is will not remedy itself and we need to figure out a w ay to make it work. Superintendent Shank states he thinks the plan is a good plan and there is no question that is what the community said that they need for our schools. He states that is what we need to continue to present to our public, the plan and how much it will cost and w alk through each of the questions that they may have. Superintendent Shank then states he thinks the public needs to get into our schools and see Idaho Fall High School and Skyline High School. Trustee Radcliffe states at Skyline High School they might be able to see needs without students present, however to show some of Idaho Falls High School's greater issues they may need to be seen when students are present. She does state that may present security risks and asks for suggestions for people that would like to experience it fully. Superintendent Shank states that Principal Dr. Powell of Idaho Falls High School and his staff are already preparing tours and they would be happy to entertain people that would like to tour the school. Chairwoman Hill stated that during registration for her freshman, she had to direct her student and others to classes in the modulars behind the school and in the stadium across the field. She stated ha ving drones or a go pro on students to provide that real experience in the schools would be a great idea. C. Finance Update Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance provides a handout to the Board that was given by the State. The document is attached in board agenda and covers how we are funded. She added they are going to ask for an additional appropriation for the additional students in Idaho statewide and it is 508 units, that is the anticipated growth. She stated they did that for the first time last year to ensure no budget shortfalls. Angela then stated the only sad news we have received is that with the economic disadvantage numbers statewide is very, very low compared to previous years. She states that number is based free and reduced lunch applications of which we were not required to provide. She adds that people that were directly certified through Health and Welfare of course showed up, but we have been feeding kids for free for two years regardless of filling out the application and obviously there is a shortage of applications. She states they are giving the District until September 15 to try and get that number where it should be. She adds that Margaret has done a great job about getting the information out to get the applications filled out to help and after back to school nights they will reach out to families that ha ve not filled it out the free and reduced application to try and get as many as we can. She stated with all day kindergarten we really want that piece to stay to be well-funded. Angela added that kids will not get to eat for free this year if they do not have the application filled out or they have a lunch count. She states they hope to present a fee policy in September to give parents a chance to ease back into fees and not immediately have their child get a cheese sandwich. Angela states the last item is they are asking the District to report how much we are spending on health insurance since they divided the discretionary and traditional discretionary health insurance, with our opt in the state pool. Angela states the auditors will be with us one more time in August and then a audit report will be given in October and so far everything is looking really good. D. Patron Input (Sign-in required) No comments provided. E. IFEA Report given by Emily Eichele, IFEA representative . Documents are attached in board agenda. CONSENT AGENDA A. Approval of Minutes July 13 , 2022, Board Business Meeting July 26 , 2022, Board Work Session B. Review of Payment of Claims July 2022 Bill List $6,763,505.59 C. Staff Actions New Hires: Name Position Location Emergency Hires: A hiring emergency exists, as declared by the Board of Trustees, for the following positions: Name Position Location Dovie Williams Special Education – Alt. Authorization Templeview Elementary Taylor Holcombe Special Education – Alt. Authorization Idaho Falls High School McKenyan Howell Math – Alt. Authorization Idaho Falls High School Resignations: Arik Durfee English Compass Academy Retirees: Transfers: Corbin Cook To: English From: CTE From: English From: Emerson D. Surplus Property IT to recycle listed technology items Fox Hollow Elementary to discard old student desks. E. Matching Funds Compass Academy - photography equipment $6,950.00 Eagle Rock Middle School - Yearbook computers $2440.00 Eagle Rock Middle School - Yearbook computer monitors $599.96 F. Approval of Consent Agenda Chairwoman Hill requested a motion to approve the Consent agenda 4A through 4F. Trustee Radcliffe makes a motion to approve the consent agenda and Trustee Wilson provides a second. Trustee Haacke asked about the matching funds request for Compass. Jessica Cushman responds with the amount they have requested for their matching funds and a breakdown of what the request entailed. Trustee Radcliffe and Trustee Cogliati further explain Compass is requesting for a photography class with additional camera supplies. Motion by Hillary Radcliffe, second by Larry Wilson. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke PROPOSALS A. Special Education Math Curriculum Proposal Andrea Williams, Director of Student Services presents an overview of the proposal document that is attached to board agenda. Trustee Cogliati asks if this is a supplement program. Andrea answers that this will be both a supplemental resource and an adopted curriculum for special education resources, if the general education math curriculum does not meet the needs of students on IEP's. She states this will be the resource for the teachers to use, if the general education math curriculum does not meet the needs of the special education students, as opposed to the teachers finding other resources that are not research based or vetted. Trustee Wilson asks what the time frame is to add this curriculum. Andrea states as soon as October, if approved. B. New Course Proposal Ethan Wilford, Principal from Eagle Rock Middle School presents an overview of the proposal document that is attached to board agenda. He states results from surveying students at the school stated the students did not feel that they had a voice in the school. This proposal will allow for a student leadership class period to be taught much lik e student leadership classes in high school. Ethan explains the curriculum book chosen and the number of books that will be needed to allow enough for the 7th and 8th graders with extra for wear and tear. Chairwoman Hill thanks Ethan for his time. ACTION ITEMS A. Employee 2022-2023 A Superintendent recommends Employee 2022-2023 A be released from their contract as requested. Trustee Wilson make a motion to approve Employee 2022-2023 A be released from their contract. Motion by Larry Wilson, second by Paul Haacke. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke B. 2022-2023 Safety Bussing Zone Recommendations Superintendent recommends approval of the 2022-2023 Safety Bussing Zone Recommendations, as presented. Trustee Radcliffe made a motion to approve the 2022-2023 Safety Bussing Zone Recommendations. Trustee Cogliati asked about the crossing guard at Dora Erickson. Director of Transportation, Ralph Frost stated he would check with the principal at Dora Erickson, but thought they would be. Motion by Hillary Radcliffe, second by Elizabeth Cogliati. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke C. 2022-2023 Transportation Agreement with American Heritage Charter School Superintendent recommends approval for the 2022-2023 Transportation Agreement with American Heritage Charter School, as presented. Trustee Wilson make a motion to approve the 2022-2023 Transportation Agreement with American Heritage Charter School. Motion by Larry Wilson, second by Paul Haacke. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke ADJOURN A. Adjourn Chairwoman Hill made motion to adjourn. Trustee Radcliffe made a motion to adjourn. Meeting adjourned at 7:27 pm. Motion by Hillary Radcliffe, second by Larry Wilson. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Voting Aye: Elizabeth Cogliati, Hillary Radcliffe, Lara Hill, Larry Wilson, Paul Haacke