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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021_08_24 Board Minutes IDAHO FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 91 BOARD OF TRUSTEES – ANNUAL BOARD RETREAT DISTRICT OFFICE BOARD ROOM 690 JOHN ADAMS PARKWAY IDAHO FALLS, ID 4:00 PM TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2021 Present from the Board of Trustees: Present from the Administration: Lara Hill, Chair Dr. James Shank, Superintendent Hillary Radcliffe, Vice Chair Dan Keck, Assist. Superintendent Secondary Larry Wilson, Treasurer Kelly Coughenour, Assist. Superintendent Elementary Paul Haacke, Clerk Margaret Wimborne, Director of Communications & Elizabeth Cogliati, Trustee Community Engagement Tito Paredes, Director of Information Technology Heather Wade, Director of Human Resources Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance Gail Rochelle, Director of Federal Programs Jessica Means, Recording Clerk Chairwoman Hill called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. ADOPT AGENDA Trustee Radcliffe made a motion to adopt the agenda. Trustee Cogliati provided the second. Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays. Trustee Wilson joined the meeting at 4:03 pm. ANNUAL BOARD RETREAT: I. Facility Planning Superintendent Shank starts by stating we have Cooperative Strategies on stand by and they will be answering some questions that the board expressed a few weeks back in terms of renewing our plan and he would like to build some context around it. He then explains that the SPFF fund levy will be coming up in March so we will need to think about that work as well as the plan of attending to our facility needs and having the levy that will support that. He is looking forward to the other projects that we need to take care of. a. 5-10-year plan Superintendent Shank has asked Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance to provide the SPFF expenses over the last 10 years. He states the importance to look at what we have spent and to try to project ten years out or what it is we will need to do. Also think about how we will fund things in the environment of inflation, he spoke to a financial expert today that stated we were at about 5% right now in the country. He also stated he was unsure on where the inflation percentage will end for the year and that information does make people nervous about committing to projects. Trustee Haacke asks for a clarification of non-student occupied and student occupied, in reference to the SPFF expense report provided by Angela. Superintendent Shank answers that a student occupied facility is where a student would go to school and non-student occupied facility would be where students are not at, for instance the maintenance building. Angela adds to keep in mind, it also includes outside of the school 08/24/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 1 of 8 building. She states the state requires specification of non-student occupied. Superintendent Shank states in preparation for the levy we will provide more detail to the board and the public to be transparent with our expenses. b. Cooperative Strategies Webex @ 4:15 pm c. Supplemental Facilities Levy March 2022 Superintendent Shank welcomes Cooperative Strategies and asks them to join us vis Webex. We are joined by Karen Daniel-Hamberg and Scott Leopold from Cooperative Strategies with a presentation. Karen starts with how much she loved working with our district in the past and is excited to work with us again. She explains that they will be presenting the facilities master planning in general and what was previously recommended and their process. She introduces Scott Leopold as the partner and Executive Director in planning services. Together they go through the Power point presentation provided. They mention the process includes heading a steering committee that are involved. Scott states he does not believe the process will need to include a complete retread of this and they can pick up the process with changes to recommendations from the past and have a bridge process of conditions that have changed. Then engage the community with those changes and updates. Scott asks if the Board has any questions. Trustee Hill asks about the previous birth rate projection, if it was a 5-year or 10- year projection? Scott answers that they provided a 10-year cohort survival projection that looks at historical births that reside within the district. This information is recorded by the state public health department and audited. This information feeds our kindergarten enrollment and track the ratios from grade to grade and project for 10 -years. Trustee Hill states during the pandemic we have seen an influx of move-ins to our area and then asks how they track those numbers. Trustee Haacke also states how does the data provided three years ago compare to now. He also asks what data do they feel like they will need to redo to present to us. Scott answers that they will need to look at those survival ratios and move-ins will affect those ratios. He also said they would look at housing and other data points pre- pandemic to make better projections. Trustee Haacke asks for clarification when preparing the proposal would it include the redoing the projections. Scott answers yes, it would be a good start with past recommendations. Trustee Hill asks how soon they can have a proposal to us, hopefully in time for our next board meeting. Scott answers that it should not be an issue. Superintendent Shank asks if the previous work from Cooperative Strategies was geared towards the last bond or SPFF levy. Trustee Haacke stated it was to see what our needs were and then based on the needs to present information to bond. Margaret Wimborne, Director of Communications & Community Engagement, states after the last bond failed the board had made the decision to stand back and look at creating the 5- and 10-year plan with the recommendations made to develop a bond proposal but then the world shut down. Trustee Hill stated that she thought the proposal was written or close. Margaret stated it was close with conversations of rough estimates from Bateman Hall. Scott states they can include in their proposal’s options for funding plans with structure and the potential impact on tax payers. Superintendent Shank agrees that it is necessary and something the Board has requested. He states that it can serve dual purpose with the expenses spent on the levy and if we are engaging in a 5 to 10 year plan we need to have that as a funding source so that we can communicate that out to the public. He also states that it will help with the planning to prepare for March. Scott asks what the deadline is for the plan to be finalized. 08/24/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 2 of 8 Superintendent Shank states that we need a good 5 to 10-year plan by December or January. Trustee Hill asks if there are any other questions for Karen or Scott and also thanked them for their time. II. High Reliability Schools th a. First Schools to Report on Sept. 8 Board Meeting 1) Templeview Elementary 2) Edgemont Elementary Superintendent Shank states the first two schools to report at the next board meeting will be Templeview and Edgemont Elementary. Superintendent Shank states that Kelly Coughenour, Assist. Superintendent Elementary Education, has prepared the items to expect for the schools to report on and has a focus on the accomplishments on the HRS (High Reliability Schools) work, school goals, student achievement data, and celebrations, as well as any Q&A the Board has for them. Superintendent Shank states that the reports should be quick and concise without a competitive nature going on between schools. Kelly asks the Board if there is anything else that they would like added to the reports. He also states the schools are excited to present to board. Superintendent Shank states they have done a little research and to certify to be an HRS school it will cost $2000 per school. He goes on to say Moodle is the platform process that Marzano group will share with us that schools can go on and check the items they need to be working on, we will want to get that available to them. thth b. Professional Development January 17 & 18 Superintendent Shank states they have been in discussion with the Marzano group to roll out a professional development across the district and they will need to be trained at the same th time. He would like to propose January 17th and 18 and hope that the Civic Auditorium is th available, however we are not sure about the location yet. He states January 18 is a school day, so we would need to have students stay home that day to offer the two full days of training. This will build a strong foundation across the district for teachers and para educators with instructional assignments. Trustee Hill asks about how many would be in attendance. Superintendent Shank states we figure to be about 1000 people. Trustee Hill states she will check the Colonial Theatres calendar as well, to see if it is available. Trustee Cogliati asks what th day of the week January 17 is. Superintendent Shank answers that it is a Monday, Martin th Luther King Jr. day, so there is no school and the 18 is a Tuesday. Superintendent Shank th states if we do not have a snow day to use for the January 18 date, we might have to plan for an online learning day and prepare for that. He then states that the criticality around the vison and clarity of what we want to accomplish makes sense and in preparation for that day with learning opportunities for the students. Trustee Radcliffe asks if we will vote on that at the next board meeting to get it on the calendar and let parents know. Superintendent Shank states yes, it will be an action item. Trustee Wilson asks if there is a plan in place teacher that will come on board after the Professional Development is done. Superintendent Shank responded with he was not sure that Marzano has that available. He mentions there is about 85 new staff members currently that would need to be trained and we would put together a training on additional days for those new members with compensation. He states we will need to be proactive with providing the training before school starts. Trustee Hill states we could possibly have a trainer within the district to provide the training or someone to be 08/24/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 3 of 8 groomed. Dan Keck, Assist. Superintendent Secondary Education, states that there are a lot of training videos available, some that they have used recently with the new teachers and principals and would be easy to set up for new staff. Trustee Radcliffe asks how do we get HRS information to the community and why it should be important to the community. She states knowing a lot of this information will come from the school level, are we helping the schools identify how the parents will find out and what we are hoping to accomplish. Superintendent Shank states he has an answer, first we need to go out and talk about so his plan is in the th State of the District addresses, around September 20 he will start going to various community groups to share the HRS process, where it is that we are, what it is we are working on, and where we want to be. He also states that we have to give people the opportunity to ask, so the system has to be known throughout the district. For instance, our food service and bus drivers need to know what the HRS process is so if they are asked from the community they are able to share their understanding, so we will need to provide training to them also. Superintendent Shank also states that will do some specific Facebook lives about the HRS process and try not to overwhelm people with this information, rather give them the sense that this is something the district is doing. He then refers to a draft handout that Margaret has provided, the HRS and PLC (Professional Learning Communities) resolution. He asks that the board to consider, this resolution as an important piece that will be placed in policy that this is the work in the district and therefore becomes a non-negotiable. It will then be a public document that will go out to everybody and very clear of what we are trying to accomplish in terms to a strategic plan and how we will go about the systems works with board approval. Trustee Hill asks if there is an infographic available to help people understand. Margaret Wimborne states she is currently working on an infographic to hopefully be finalized by end of the week to share on the Facebook live. Trustee Hill brings up that understanding the PLC piece and late start Fridays was important so if people understand the HRS process it will help with them understanding the bigger picture. Trustee Haacke states in the Facebook lives he recommends to be thorough with lots of explanation what HRS is, why we want to be HRS certified, what it means to be certified, how it impacts the children, and what it means to our district, teachers, and students. Trustee Radcliffe adds we had talked about Phil from HRS come help the Board develop a mission and vision, so it might be a good opportunity and time to start that process. Superintendent Shank then presents the book “Professional learning communities at work and high reliability schools; cultures of continuous learning” and mentions the directors have started a book study and shared the book with the principals. They are also waiting for a shipment to share with all teachers. He states that in the book study there is a good explanation and understanding of high reliability schools and the purpose behind it and why it is effective. He also states that we asked the principals questions at their open meeting to find out what really is our understanding of what it is we are asking everyone else to understand, because if we do not know it then who does. Superintendent Shank states his intent is to create clarity around this initiative. He also states the HRS is the framework for Continuous Improvement and PLC is the vehicle by which we will arrive and there is much to do around this and is not a simple thing. He asks the Board if there are any questions on implementing this process. Trustee Wilson states he is glad to here there is a plan to let to get the word out and it will be imperative for parents to have a basic understanding and realizing what it is and what it can do for our district. Trustee Radcliffe 08/24/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 4 of 8 states she is hoping this can be a sense of pride in our schools. Trustee Hill states this all is about continuous student achievement. Trustee Wilson adds we need to advertise the success with the HRS program to help people understand the importance. c. Continuous Improvement Plan 1) Strategic Planning Gail Rochelle, Director of Federal Programs, states the annual Continuous Improvement Plan is legislative for LEAs in the State of Idaho. She presents a PowerPoint on the Continuous Improvement Plan with requirements, components, changes, and next steps. d. HRS and PLC Resolution Discussed previously when talking about Professional development days. Superintendent Shank asks the board for a recess to be taken for dinner at 5:02 pm. Returned from recess at 5:25 pm. III. State Performance Data a. IRI b. ISAT c. SAT/ACT d. Learning Loss/Learning Fund Grant Superintendent Shank presents a State Performance Data PowerPoint prepared by Renee Nelson, Assessment Coordinator, that shows a comparison with the state and district scoring levels. Trustee Haacke asked for clarification for Juniors taking the SAT and state requirements. Superintendent Shank said it is still scheduled for Juniors to take but the state does not fund it anymore, the district will have to pay for it. Superintendent Shank thanks Renee Nelson for her help providing the PowerPoint information. Superintendent Shank states that there are funds to improve the learning loss and will report the spending of those funds. IV. Community Engagement a. State of the District Presentations Superintendent Shank reports again he will start the State of the District Presentations around th September 20 and ask various community groups around Idaho Falls who would like to entertain us. This will also be on the Facebook Lives and the information will present, this is where we are at, this is what we are doing, this is how we are doing, and this is what we are doing to get where we need to be. Superintendent Shank states that HRS will be part of the presentation and facilities planning and will provide a great opportunity to engage with the community. b. Board/ Superintendent Walk-throughs Superintendent Shank asks the board if they have interest in doing Board/Superintendent walk-throughs of our schools. He states usually it would be one or two Board members with him to visit the schools to learn and see the schools in action. Trustee Hill recommends that Superintendent Shank put together a schedule that meets his needs and the Board members can filter in as they are available. Superintendent Shank asks how soon they would like to start the walk-throughs. Trustee Hill states to possibly wait till after the next board meeting th on September 8 so the schools can be more prepared. Superintendent Shank says he will work on a schedule and get it out to the Board. c. Director Engagement 08/24/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 5 of 8 Superintendent Shank states he would like to report, per Board request, the Directors have all reported their involvement with a community group or looking into a community group to participate in. He also reports that many have already been out and about participating in the community events and it’s exciting to see. Trustee Cogliati asks about the communications on the back to school night and the websites not having the proper information. She believes that we are lacking in the outreach to parents. Superintendent Shank states that we will work on it and be better with the communications and processes. Margaret Wimborne stated that there was a lot of communications from schools and on Facebook that was sent out and there was a lot of coordinating with the vaccination clinics with the EIPH. She also apologized if the information was not clear. Trustee Hill reminds the Board that normally the school is in charge of updating their own school website and it is registration time, a busy time of year, so to please show patience and if the information is not found to just call the school. Margaret Wimborne states we are changing our school messaging system to Blackboard and they offer lots of new features that will help with outreach to our families. V. Superintendent and Board Development a. Update on Board Docs 1) Tentative training date for board members- th October 26 Board Work Session 2) Tech will provide instructional video for Board Docs for the community to access Superintendent Shank states that there is a tentative training date for board members of th October 26 for Board Docs. He then states Jess Means will be lead on Board Docs because she prepares the Board information for us. He asks Jess about the training she will have. Jess Means, Assistant to the Superintendent and Board Clerk, states that there are three training sessions that she has scheduled for the last week in September, that is the earliest they can be scheduled. She also states she asked if the October date will be ok to train the Board and is waiting on a response. b. Professional Development 1) ISBA Region 6 Meeting – Sept. 29 Rigby, ID @ 6PM 2) ISBA Annual Conv. – Nov. 17-19 Boise, ID 3) NSBA Annual Conf. – April 2-4 San Diego, CA Superintendent Shank asks who of the Board would be available and interested in attending the ISBA Region 6 meeting on September 29th. He asks the Board to respond in an email if they are interested in attending. He also asks who of the Board would be available and interested in attending the ISBA Annual Convention in Boise, November 17-19. He states that registration opened up on Monday and need to get account on who might be able to attend. Trustee Hill asks Jess Means when the Early Bird registration deadline is for the Boise th Convention. Jess states Early Bird registration ends September 30. Trustee Haacke states he feels differently about the convention if it is in-person or virtual. Superintendent Shank states at this point in time it is in-person. Trustee Haacke states the fee for virtual convention should be less. Trustee Radcliffe proposes that Jess Means should attend the convention if possible because of her new position. Superintendent Shank asks who of the Board would be available and interested in attending the NSBA Annual Conference in San Diego in April, so please check 08/24/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 6 of 8 your calendars. Superintendent Shank provides information to the board on Idaho Board Standards for board work, Boards of distinction from Washington, and Master Boards from Utah for them to review. He states this will provide information on how we look as a system and what it is we want to do around PD for the group in addition to going to conventions. VI. Board Policy Work Superintendent Shank states that the Board should have a copy of the table of contents for model policy from ISBA. He asks where the board would like to start with board policy work. He states if there is no need to change a policy we add the new date of review to update older policies. Trustee Hill states we need to look at the oldest policies first. He also states that Dan Keck has been working with a committee on the attendance policy because of things from last year that do not pertain to things this year. Superintendent Shank is asking for direction on how the board would like to start. Trustee Hill states that we should start with the first series and update the oldest ones. Trustee Wilson asks if Board Docs provides easy access to update board policy. Superintendent Shank confirms that it does but will require some work in Word Documents. VII. Full day Kindergarten Superintendent Shank states that we currently have a few schools that have full day kindergarten and have some good results from it. He also states we have learning loss funds and last year the legislature talked about full day kindergarten and this year they have more money. He states he thinks that now full day kindergarten maybe more of an agenda item to discuss. He states that in Washington the legislature funded full day kindergarten, however only a third of the schools had room for it so that is all that got funded. He states he hopes that the legislature doesn’t decide to fund full day kindergarten and we do not have plans for it and are not ready for it. He states that we should start discussion about it to prepare and because it gets results. Kelly Coughenour states that he spoke with all the elementary schools and the only schools that did not have space for all day kindergarten was Sunnyside and Westside. He also states another issue would be staffing of teachers, right now there are not enough people to hire for teachers, some teachers only want to work half day. Trustee Haacke asks Superintendent Shank if he has any idea if legislature will pass for all day kindergarten. Superintendent Shank states there has not been discussion but it was part of the agenda last year. He states that it is a cultural issue and a financial issue that the state has chosen not to fund in the past. He states part of the discussions is the importance of first grade readiness and the return on investment with those students. He then states that parents will have choice to send their students to all day kindergarten. VIII. Financial Update Superintendent Shank invites Angela to speak on the financial update. Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance, states that we are up on finances with the enrollment because we have budgeted conservatively, if all the students show up to school with our projections for the first day of school. She states we still have K-3 and learning loss money to utilize. IX. Trustee Rezoning Census Superintendent Shank states just an update that we received information the census is complete and the trustee rezoning that ISBA was contracted to do will be reported back, so it will be coming. 08/24/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 7 of 8 Chairwoman Hill called for a motion to adjourn. Trustee Wilson made a motion to adjourn. Trustee Cogliati provided the second. Motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. The meeting adjourned at 6:31 p.m. 08/24/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 8 of 8