HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021_10_26 Board Minutes
IDAHO FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 91
BOARD OF TRUSTEES – BOARD WORK SESSION
DISTRICT OFFICE BOARD ROOM 690 JOHN ADAMS PARKWAY IDAHO FALLS, ID
MOVE LOCATIONS TO IDAHO FALLS HIGH SCHOOL CAEFTERIA AROUND 4:45 PM
4:00 PM TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 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 Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance
Elizabeth Cogliati, Trustee Heather Wade, Director of Human Resources
Tito Paredes, Director of Information Technology
Julie Nawrocki, IFEA President Jessica Means, Recording Clerk
Special Guest:
Jimmy Horsley, IT
Dawn Adams, Board Docs
Senator Dave Lent and Senator Kevin Cook
Legislatures Barb Ehardt, Marco Erickson, Wendy Horman, and Gary Marshall
Chairwoman Hill called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. Trustee Radcliffe made a motion to adopt the
agenda. Trustee Cogliati provided the second. Motion carried 4 ayes, 0 nays.
WORK SESSION:
a. Board Doc Training
Chairwoman Hill welcomes Board Docs Trainer Dawn Adams via Webex. Dawn Adams states she has
been working with Jimmy Horsley, IT, and Jessica Means, Board Clerk and Executive Assistant to
Superintendent, to get Board Docs set up. She explains that historical documents and board policies
are in the process of being moved over to Board Docs. She shares her screen to show the district
website and states that Jimmy has added a Board Docs tab under the Board of Trustees page. She
tells the Board when they login they will need to login the authenticate side. She navigates through
board docs to find meetings under the meetings tab and on the featured page. She explains the
home button takes you back to the district website. She explains the avatar profile dropdown is
where you can change your password. She also explains under that dropdown is Board Docs help that
has support and videos to help with navigating in Board Docs. She walks the Board through the Test
Board agenda, that we can view the time, location, and livestream information on the Test meeting.
Next, she clicks on the agenda and walks through each agenda item with content fields and any
attachments that are available. She does state not to use the back browser to go back, but to use the
buttons in Board Docs to navigate. Trustee Radcliffe asks if there is a capability to make notes in the
PDF’s or attachments. Dawn’s response is no there is not a way to do that.
Dawn then logs in to her training site of a practice district. She navigates the highlights and shortcuts
that can be available. She shows what it looks like to see the years of meeting agendas and minutes.
She shows us the search bar and how to search in Board Docs. She searches the word textbook and
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Board Docs brings up all agenda and policies that have the word textbook in it. She navigates through
the options so the Board can see all the different ways we can see items with the word textbook in
them. She states this brings up any search within our district that anyone can look up, including the
public. She then moves to META search that is for District Administrators and Board members that
searches all districts that use Board Docs. This is very useful for research on what other districts are
doing on certain topics. She then shows us the META search for therapy dogs. She navigates to
several agendas and policies from other districts about therapy dogs so we can see what the search
brings up. She states the possibility of narrowing your search to Idaho districts by adding the word
Idaho to your search.
Superintendent Shank asks if she would go over Executive Content in Board Docs. Dawn shows that
on the agenda items if there is anything added to the Executive Content the Board will be able to
view in confidentially. These are also areas that are held for executive session that the info is not
shared with the public by law. Superintendent asks about showing the voting and motions so the
Board can see how that looks. Dawn shows that under any action items the motion shows the
statement of motion and if it was approved with the count of ayes or no’s. She then shows the detail
of the agenda items that shows more detail including dollar amount, budgeted items, where the
funds are coming from, and the Superintendent’s recommendation would be on the agenda items.
This area also included the motion typed out for the Board to refer to when making the motion.
Trustee Haacke asks how the search works in pulling information in relevance. Dawn states she has
been told it pulls the most relevant but she would ask for more information from the developer on
that question. Dawn states you can include in your search a month or date to pull the search
relevance. Trustee Hill thanks Dawn for the training she has provided. Jessica states we will move to
Board Docs to use in our Board meetings once the documents we need are moved over from Board
th
Docs. Jimmy Horsley adds that our district is 5 in line to have our information imported to Board
Docs.
The meeting is moved to Idaho Falls High School Cafeteria for the remainder of the meeting.
b. Financial Audit Reporting FY2021 –
Theresa Flannery provided the FY2021 Audit to the board for their review. Theresa reported the
district’s financial statements were fairly presented, in all material respects and no issues noted.
Theresa reviewed the Management’s Discussion & Analysis for Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2021
including the Statement of Net Position which provides the perspective of the District as a whole and
provides a summary of the District’s net position for 2021 compared to 2020. She notes that the
report in comparative of financials from this year 2021 and last year 2020 gives information on how
things will look moving forward. She then points out there was a new standard that requires all
school level funds to be rolled back into the district. That now shows as its own fund as a
restatement. There is increases in assets from last year to this year, including an increase in almost
everything. She references note disclosures for new standards for government leases and project in
process for construction contracts. She then talks non-major funds need to sustain themselves and
they all reported to be all positive. Theresa talks about the internal control reports and reports there
are no issues.
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Trustee Haacke asks about when the Board will receive a hard copy of the audit report for them to
review further. Angela Pendlebury states that is will be posted for public to review after signatures
are collected. Theresa reviewed the Combined Balance Sheet which includes General, Debt Service,
Capital Projects, and the remaining Nonmajor funds for a total combination of Governmental Funds
stating the district is in a very good position. The board of trustees had no questions and there was
no further discussion.
The meeting goes to recess to wait for the legislatures to arrive.
c. Legislative Representative discussion
Chairwoman Hill welcomes the local legislatures to our board meeting for open discussion. The
Legislatures all introduce themselves. Senator Kevin Cook serves as senator in District 30. He serves
on the JFAC, Joint Financial Appropriations Committee, and the Education Committee. He would like
to give all kids any educational opportunities that are out there so they have what they need to
continue to go on after they graduate. Senator Dave Lent served on the Board previously for 12
years and currently serves as a Senator for District 33. He states he also serves on the Education
Committee and JFAC. He states there is only 20 people in the legislature that serve on JFAC. He also
states he serves on the WICHE, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and adds that
Senator Cook is a legislative advisor for WICHE. Legislature Lent state he also serves on legislative
Counsel and his passion is in K-12 education and the transition to workforce. Legislature Marco
Erickson serves as legislature for District 33 and has a background in education. He states he has
worked in the department of education with students, building mental health systems in schools, and
working with at risk youth. Legislature Gary Marshall serves as legislature for District 30 and has
experience in educations as a teacher and principal. He states he also spent 27 years teaching at
BYU-I in the history department. Trustee Haacke adds that Legislature Marshall is also an author of a
book on the founding fathers. Legislature Wendy Horman serves as legislature for District 30 for nine
years. She states she was on the school board for District 93 for 11 years and also serves on the JFAC.
She states she serves on the House of Commerce on Energy and Commerce and the legislative
counsel.
Superintendent Shank introduces himself and welcomes the legislatures and thanks them
for meeting with us. Chairwoman Lara Hill introduces herself as the Board Chair. She states her oldest
graduated from IFHS in 2017 and her youngest starts Kindergarten next year. She also states she was
a graduate of Idaho Falls High School and works at the Idaho Falls Art Council. Trustee Hillary
Radcliffe introduces herself and states she has been on the Board for about two and a half years. She
states that she has two kids at Skyline High School. She is a business owner and does consulting work
also. Trustee Elizabeth Cogliati introduces herself and state she has been on the Board for almost two
years. She states she works in town as a Sunday school director and has two kids that attend District
91. Trustee Paul Haacke introduces himself and states he lives on the Westside of town. He also
states he has five children that have all attended District 91 with two currently attending Skyline High
School. He states he has been on the school board for about three years and enjoyed his time on the
Board. Trustee Larry Wilson introduces himself and has been on the Board for about five years with
the opportunity to be trained by Dave Lent. He states that he has 8 children with some graduating
from Idaho Fall High School, Compass, and Skyline High School. Currently he has two children that are
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expected to graduate from Skyline High School. He states he sells medical devices for his profession
and like to help patients. He likes to be on the Board to help the students in the district.
Angela Pendelbury introduces herself as the Director of Finance and states she has worked with
many of the legislatures at the IASBO meetings. Tito Parades introduces himself as the IT Director for
the District. He states has been with the district for the awhile and is happy to have the legislatures
join us for the Board meeting. Heather Wade introduces herself as the Director of Human Resources
and states she has been working with the district for over twenty years. Julie Nawrocki introduces
herself as the President of the IFEA. Jessica Means introduces herself as the Assistant the
Superintendent and has worked with the school district for about ten and a half years with children in
the district. Kelly Coughenour introduces himself as the Assistant Superintendent of Elementary
Education and has been with the district for thirty-one years. He states he has four children. Three
daughters that have graduated and are in college and one son that is a Junior at Idaho Falls High
School. He adds that he is happy that the legislatures could join us this evening.
Chairwoman Hill opens up the discussion with the legislatures. Legislator Gary Marshall starts with
explaining what they have been working on with K-12 standards. He states the Science standards
come from an organization called Next Generation Science and Idaho adopted those standards word
for word as they did the Math and English Language Arts word for word. He states he has been very
involved in helping revise the standards to simplify and clarify the standards. He states that and last
January after the first revision the legislator recommended a second revision by smaller groups of
teachers that would be paid to do the revision, this would allow dedicated time from the teachers. In
June of this year, the revisions with Math and English Language Arts were improved. He also states
he was involved in the Teacher Education Review Standards for the State of Idaho, going from 277
pages of standards and key indicators to fifteen pages. He adds that people from all over higher
education were involved in that change. He asks if the Board has any questions on either of those
standards. He states the position of the legislatures is to make the standards better not to do away
with them and they are part of the rules that are the Board of Education creates. He states the
legislatures reviews the standards and they can be rejected.
Trustee Haacke asks what the Governor’s intentions are. Legislature Marshal states that he has
spoken with the Governor’s office and the Governor’s concern was financial, stating that it was going
to cost the state an enormous of money for in-service to help teacher know the new standards and
creation of new tests. Legislature Marshall adds that he would like to have input on what the
teachers would like to move forward. Senator Kevin Cook adds that part of the standards that he has
reviewed the estimating the kids stretch things a little farther than what the common core was and
thinks that this is a good thing. Trustee Radcliffe asks about the costs of redoing the test and does it
give the legislature the opportunity on how they assess the tests to meet the standards. She adds
that reporting of the ISAT scores does not reflect the student’s abilities and would like to recommend
the revamping of how we are testing and evaluating the students and teachers. Legislature Marshall
responds that there does need to be changes in the testing and test itself. Legislature Wendy Horman
states that we have come to a place where standardized testing reporting our subgroups has failed.
She states that we are in the middle of conversations about the value of standardized tests and
uniformity. She asks if we want all students to have the exact same experience with learning and
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adds that she does not. She wants personalized learning, competency-based learning, and tailored
for every child. She states that we are in a national conversation regarding this matter and she trusts
the work that Legislature Gary Marshall is doing that will be an improvement to the standards.
Legislature Gary Marshall adds that there has been a controversy for years about helping kids know
things or helping kids do things. He states that from a state level we should focus on simple standard,
knowledge standards. He then states we should leave the process to individual school districts,
individual teachers, and individual disciplines. He adds that there are basic things that we need kids
to know that we can test at state level. Legislature Horman states that there are states that have
eliminated the summative tests.
Legislature Homan then asks questions about the ARPA money. She states so far of the 395 million
dollars available in ESSER III only 1.7 million dollars have been drawn down my district and charters in
the state. She states that is troubling when we have urgent hiring situations and why those funds are
not being used as one-time bonuses, recruitment, and retention. Angela Pendlebury, Director of
Finance adds that the state required us to provide a plan for the use of the ESSER funds by October
st
1 and we are still waiting for approval to use the funds. She adds the plan was created with
stakeholders, parents, community members, teachers, and staff. Trustee Haacke asks the legislatures
to help with the ARPA plan moving forward if they have any input to push those plans through.
Superintendent Shank adds that we have plans in place just waiting for the approval. Legislature
Horman comments on the funding that the Governor created with a K-12 emergency council. She
states no one knows who is apart of that council, when and where they meet, and no agendas are
posted from their meetings. She states that the emergency council is who decided on the 99 million
budget cuts and no legislature was not involved. Angela Pendlebury states we did spend the funds for
ESSER I and did hesitate on ESSER II funds to be cautious with the funds to cover all the expenses with
the Governor’s cuts.
Superintendent Shank requests to discuss about salaries and struggles that we have in the current
economy. He references a graph handed out to the group that has what the state has funded for
salaries and what the community salaries are in comparison. He states we are recruiting and hiring
people, but the funding the state provides it is difficult to compete with the salaries. He references
the graph with other states to give an idea and states we have not been fully staffed this year at all.
He states we would like to impress upon the legislatures that there is an issue and we are asking for
some attention on this particular issue. He adds that we have positions like needing an electrician
that we can not compete with salaries. Trustee Radcliffe ask the legislatures if they have any
capabilities or what their perimeters are regarding the budget for salaries. Legislature Horman states
the Governor makes a recommendation and JFAC sets the budget. Senator Cook states that JFAC
needs to take into consideration if the budget will pass when it is submitted, so they don’t submit
something that is wasting time. Legislature Erickson talks about projects are programs that are
submitted that will need long-term funding in comparison to project that are one time funded and
how they are easier to budget for. Legislature Horman adds that we have a 960 million total surplus
of one-time funds and no one is aware how much of that is sustainable. Angela Pendlebury adds that
it is hard to increase salaries because in two years if the funds go away then we would have to lay
people off. Legislature Horman states the agencies are figuring out how to use the funds for bonuses
or retention. Superintendent Shank states that is hard to hire people to come work with our children
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for a fair wage and be able to retain them when they can go out into the community and make more.
He states that what we would like to pay in wages needs to be competitive. Legislature Marshall
states that is really hard to get salary increases through legislation and he suggests that they need
help with the dialog on how to raise the whole professional standard level of education itself. He
states that this will take an enormous amount of culture change. Trustee Haacke states that the
demands on the teachers today are so different than they used to be and the salaries haven’t
changed to reflect the demand needed from the teachers. He adds that the same is for the
counselors and the students needs today are greater than they used to be. Legislature Marshall
states lets put our thinking caps on and maybe School District 91 can create a change to be more
innovative.
Senator Lent talks about his experience on the Board and the creation of Compass Academy and the
district being more innovative then. He states there are lots of pieces in place with the K-12 system
but they are not necessarily connected, for example in Idaho in fourth grade we had Idaho History
and we loved it. He states that he thinks in eight grade they should have a career exploration piece
that all students should experience and start their career plan. He also asks why the advanced
opportunities are not tied to the career plan to help the students advance. He also states that we
should have the knowledge of the number of students that move on to college and how many do not
complete college but generate debt from college. This would help see the growth in the go on rate or
graduation rates. He states the importance of knowledge versus performance perspective. He goes
on to say that public education like never before is under the microscope, he states that it is being
challenged at all levels because of the value they are getting with the investment in education. He
states when you think about how many students actually graduate high school and have the skills and
abilities to support themselves and or their family. He states when we invest $100,000 plus in each
student that graduates from high school, that is a lot of money. He then states we set them up for a
life that is dependent on social programs that is building a cycle. Senator Lent states the model we
are using is over a hundred years old. He states we need to ask how we can evolve the process and
evolve our district to add value to our schools. He states we need to include this in our strategic plan
to dedicate the resources in five years. He states that we need to create a school system that people
want to send their kids to and a school system that people want to work at to feel valued. He states
the culture needs to evolve also.
Trustee Hill asks how the legislatures can help teachers know that they disposable. Legislature
Horman states that they have invested millions of dollars and want to get to a funding formula that
will benefit the teachers. Senator Cook asks the board what can they do as a school board to help the
teachers feel more value and what can we do as a community. He states that we are doing what we
can where we are at. Legislature Horman stated we all have a role to play in civil discourse.
Legislature Marshall adds that we need to focus on attracting highly qualified and dedicated teachers
and this will need to be part of revamping the way we do things. He states that we are on the same
page and working for the same goals.
Trustee Haacke referenced Utah schools and developer fees that goes into the school district to help
with creation of new schools for the new developments. He asks that the legislature look at the
impact fees and being able to utilize them to build new schools to support education. Trustee Cogliati
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states that the legislature is asking for the district to be innovative and we may need to build new
programs but how do we do this to support our teachers when we don’t have the money to support
the teachers or the programs. She then references budget cuts a few years back. Legislature Horman
states there have never been budget cuts done. She explains the restoration of funding process that
reflect the change Trustee Cogliati was talking about. Legislature Marshall then states we need to
work together to make the kind of changes needed to lift the profession of education.
Trustee Radcliffe asks Superintendent Shank to speak on some of the things the district is working on.
Superintendent Shank states that we are working on some great things as a district one being High
Reliability Schools. He then explains that High Reliability Schools is a research base certification
program where each of our schools are certified with an outside entity, Marzano Research. We are
practicing five levels within the program and we have set a goal this year that six of our schools
would be level one certified by the end of the year. We have twelve schools that have identified their
schools as being ready to certify for level one, doubling our goal by the end of the year.
Superintendent Shank then states another goal we are working on is engaging with the public more.
We want to hear what they have to say and provide input to us, we need them as champions to work
with us. He states that he has been presenting the State the District Address throughout the
community and talks about how we are preforming, things we set our goals for, where we are at, and
how we are going to get there. He states he has enjoyed his time interfacing with the community.
Superintendent Shank talks about facilities and the improvement of them. He states we are meeting
in the Idaho Falls High School cafeteria for a reason. We need more people in the community to see
the facilities to understand the need for improvements and Idaho Falls High Schools is on a lot of
people’s minds. He states that we have engaged with Cooperative Strategies again to focus again on
the needs to our facilities. He states we are also working on the Board and Superintendent
development, to work hard and come together. Superintendent Shank states we are looking to
improve our Career and Technical Education program in the district. He then states we talked about
learning loss and learning found. He states that we have been discussing with each of our schools on
how we can improve what we have lost during the pandemic. He then states that we are working on
a strategic plan and continuous improvement plan, so watch for that because it is coming soon. He
states those are all things we are working for and excited about. He states we hope to have the
support from the legislatures.
Trustee Hill asks about how the legislatures are planning to help school district implement full day
kindergarten with the curriculum, development, teachers, and facilities. Legislature Horman asks if
we currently have full day kindergarten. Kelly Coughneur responds that we have three schools that
offer full day kindergarten to every student and one school that offers it with a fee with only one
session available. He then states the rest of the elementary schools have extended day kindergarten
for students that have a lower IRI score. Senator Lent states that if full day kindergarten is approved
at the state level it will be more like what we are already doing now with extended day kindergarten
for the students that qualify with their IRI scores. Superintendent Shank states that we would need
help with facilities to provide that in all schools and have seen great results with the schools that
have had it in their schools. He then states the students that started in the full day kindergarten
program and are now in second grade have a substationally higher data. Senator Lent states he
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would love to see the data on that to present to the legislatures. Trustee Wilson states that people
that get into education don’t go into teaching for the money, but we still need to make in
competitive. He asks the legislatures what are next steps on making sure that this discussion
continues. Legislatures Marshall said we need to keep the relationship and discussion continuing.
Legislature Erickson talks about the process and emails that are sent to them to answer and try to
provide input. He states that they like to know specifics and want to focus on actual issues that are
coming up so they do not generalize the issues. Senator Lent thanks the Board for all they do and
their time. Trustee Hill thanks the legislatures for joining us.
Chairwoman Hill made a motion to adjourn. Trustee Cogliati provided the second. Motion carried 5 ayes, 0
nays. The meeting adjourned at 8:14 pm.
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