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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021_10_13 Board Minutes IDAHO FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 91 BOARD OF TRUSTEES - BUSINESS MEETING WEBEX VIDEO STREAM FROM THE SCHOOL DISTRICT WEBSITE DISTRICT OFFICE BOARD ROOM 690 JOHN ADAMS PARKWAY IDAHO FALLS, ID 7:00 P.M. -- WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2021 Present from the Board of Trustees: Present from the Administration: Lara Hill, Chair Dr. Jim Shank, Superintendent Hillary Radcliffe, Vice Chair Kelly Coughenour Assist Supt Elementary Education Larry Wilson, Treasurer-Treasurer Dan Keck, Assist Supt Secondary Education Paul Haacke, Clerk Angela Pendlebury, Director of Finance Elizabeth Cogliati, Trustee Heather Wade, Director of Human Resources Margaret Wimborne, Director of Communication & Community Engagement Present from IFEA Heather Wade, Director of Human Resources Julie Nawrocki, President Jessica Means, Deputy Clerk, Recording Gail Rochelle, Director of Federal Programs Chairwoman Hill called the Business Meeting to order at 7:00 PM. She asked the guests from Westside lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Westside students in attendance. ADOPT AGENDA Chairman Hill requested a motion to adopt the agenda. Trustee Wilson made a motion to adopt the agenda. Trustee Radcliffe provided the second. Motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. REPORTS/INPUT/INFORMATION a. Student Reports i. Emerson Alternative High School -Representative Tyler Mills reported this Friday, they have the first two graduates that finished their courses and they will have a graduation party for them on Friday morning. New den is open and being used for counseling, extra projects, and small group testing. It is also a place for students to meet, talk, and do crafts during the lunch hour. The tardies have decreased in recent weeks. We have an updated the dress code policy and very few students violate the new policy. He then reports that overall the problems in the school seem to be resolved quickly without further issues. Trustee Hill asks Tyler is he is having a good start to the year and he answers yes, he is. The board thanks him for his report. ii. Skyline High School – Representative Ari Burgen reported student government has been working on Sources of Strength. Our mission of Sources of Strength is to prevent suicide by increasing certain behaviors, including connections between peers and teachers. All SHS student government has been CPR certified to help people if needed and send them to an adult to seek more help. This month our activity for that is to face our fears. We are having students write down their fear on a piece of paper and put it into the jar. In return, they will receive a ghost lollipop for facing their fears. We had our carnival last month and it was 10/13/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 1 of 7 a success, a bunch of families showed up. We had 20 groups and clubs be apart of the carnival, schoolwide and everyone really enjoyed it. During Homecoming week, we have the student body president take over the D91 Instagram page and post pictures of the dress up days. Then we had paint the town event and we painted 35 different businesses to raise excitement for the Emotion Bowl. We are trying to get our students to be excited to be at school. That is all we have been doing. iii. Idaho Falls High School – Representative Rylee Sessions reported that since the last meeting, they have planned and carried out lots of activities. During homecoming week, we had dress up days, the parade, powder puff. The sophomore and senior girls won in powder puff. We also had the football game and the dance. School and Sports clubs decorated and participated in the homecoming parade, with Spanish Club winning for the best float. The football team won the homecoming game. A couple weeks after homecoming, we had Emotion Bowl. We had dress up days for this week as well. We had the Bear Burn and grill the grizz at lunch, and of course the game. Each our activities was a success and we are excited to have the goal post painted Orange. As far as upcoming events, we have the jersey dance towards the end of the month put on by the basketball team. We are also planning a winter ball the end of December. Aside from the events, students are generally happy to be back in school with everything being normal. However, there have been a couple of issues that have been frustrated. Many of our teachers have told us that they are being told to use another new online system called Schoology. The students are frustrated with having to learn another new system when Google classroom easier for us to use. Second, we have been told that we can not collect money for tickets at the door for the dances or activities this year. This is a problem because a lot of people decide to go at the last minute and now they can’t. We are losing hundreds of dollars in ticket sales. Teachers have said that you probably have reasons for those decisions but for the students this is frustrating. She then asks the Board if they have any questions. iv. Compass Academy -Representative Jaden Schemers reported last week they had their Emotion Bowl assembly and it went well. This week we are going to be having our Halloween Dance that was planned by the Student Union, this Friday. Later this month, we are having our Halloween assembly and we have a few activities planned for the students. Today we are having Candidates for City council public debate tonight. We are also planning a Halloween Carnival and other items are students just doing cool student things. He asked if the Board if they have any questions, they thanked him for his report. b. Superintendent’s Report Superintendent Shank reports an update on construction projects. He states the east stadium and administration area is nearly complete, waiting for a glass window in the reception office to be installed. The TAC is preparing documents for phase 1 bid and comments from Bonneville Country specific to a fence. He states that Subcontractor bidding is anticipated for January/February. Phase 1 construction is projected to start Spring of 2022. The project is moving along as quickly as it can be and then the grass has to grow that is also part of it as well. Ravisten Field Turf work should be sufficiently completed for board to vote to go to project in November. Subcontractor bidding can begin in January with projected start date of Spring of 2022 and if approved completion dates the beginning of fall sports. Superintendent Shank states that he met with Bateman-Hall to get a better idea on many of these projects, but this one in particular. He then states the next item is the IFHS Electrical Upgrade, already being addressed as part of the ARPA committee plan. It’s been on the public website and sent up to the state. A project proposal will be presented to the Board to vote in November meeting. He then goes on to state the Administration Basement Project is substantially complete and curriculum department has moved into that area. However, he recommends that the other space downstairs that needs to be addressed as well. He is proposing for the November Board agenda, to complete the remainder of the basement remodel. We need to make the rest of 10/13/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 2 of 7 the basement a good place for people to want to come to work. There maybe some safety issues to address as well. Those are all the projects that we have been following and needed updates on. Superintendent Shank then added he has provided a print out to the Board for the State of the District Address. He has completed two presentations, one to the public and one to city council. He states they have been going well and lots of questions, some about taxation and learning. He is pleased when the questions about learning come up. He has made some improvements to the PowerPoint, noting substantial. Trustee Haacke asked where the next presentations would be. Superintendent Shank answers that tomorrow will be Civitan’s tomorrow at lunch and Friday with the FB Live. He states there are others coming up and he appreciates people coming out and the opportunity to engage with the community. He then turned the time over to Kelly Coughenour and Dan Keck to introduce the HRS presentations by the schools. Kelly Coughenour, Assist Supt Elementary Education, introduces Temple View Elementary presentation given by Principal Sarah Childers. She presents a PowerPoint, which is attached. Dan Keck, Assist Supt Secondary Education, introduces Shelley Smede, Director of Compass Academy to present her HRS presentation. She presents a PowerPoint, which is attached. c. Celebrations Kelly Coughneour, Assist Supt Elementary Education, introduces the first celebration by Westside th Elementary. He introduces the Principal Kelsey Anderson, 5 grade Teachers – Kari Augustus, Kaitlyn Mc Murtrey, and Darin Wetzel. He then presents students Dillon Trejo and Breklyn Davis. th The students present a service project done by the 5 grade to raise money, PowerPoint attached. Kelly Coughenour then introduces the next celebration from Longfellow Elementary. He introduces Principal Steve Andrew and PTO members Amy Frasier and Elise Springer. Principal Steve Andrews reports the PTO at Longfellow is wonderful and very supportive. He states that recently they have completed their Panther Prowl which has been going on for many years. It is an opportunity for the students to raise money for the school which is used for many things throughout the years. He states they are working on raising money for new playground equipment. He explains the Panther Prowl is a fundraising event that students talk to friends and family members for donations to support students running. The students ask for flat amounts, not correlated with how much the students run. The students run over at Community Park and the event has music and is lots of fun, running in 30 minutes. Students can earn prizes and earn raffle tickets for different opportunities to earn prizes. He then goes on to state the PTO plans and organizes the entire event, including the prizes and supervise the event. They also hosted a kickoff assembly and promoted the event. The PTO worked really hard to make this a successful event. Steve states they measure success in a few different ways, first of all it gives parents and community members an opportunity to be involved with the school. Then also the students get the opportunity to give back to the school and create ownership of what we have at the school by earning money for the school. Finally, he states that it provides monetary success for the school with lots of participation. They had over 90% of their students participate in running and about 75% of the students raise some amount of money to contribute. Steve reports that the fundraiser raised $27,000 and an interesting fact is that the largest donation was one donation for $1000 for a combination of 3 students, who were family. Outside of that donation there was not any other single donation that was that substantial. The PTO provided some information on one student raising over $600 and that was from 40 different donors, working really hard to raise that money. They had lots of success with Venmo and will continue to use that platform. He states that over $11,000 donated through Venmo. The PTO members state that the goal was to raise $10,000 and they far exceeded that goal. They also stated that if the goal was met they told the kids that Mr. Andrews would be put in a dunk tank, so last week the classrooms that raised the most money had the opportunity to throw the ball to dunk Mr. Andrews and he was dunked over twenty times and the kids were excited. They stated the plan is to combine the funds over the next two years for the new playground equipment. 10/13/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 3 of 7 d. Patron Input (Sign-in required) – - No comments were provided e. IFEA Report – Julie Nawrocki, President reported. Documents are attached. f. Education Foundation Report – Margaret Wimborne, Director of Communication & Community Engagement reported. Documents are attached. g. First Reading – Board Policy Revisions & Review i. Section 804.0 Performance Evaluations- Revised ii. Section 1002.0 Attendance – Revised iii. Section 108.0 Formulation of Policy – Revised Trustee Hill introduces the first reading of the policy revisions and review by stating that Trustee Cogliati has a couple of questions. Trustee Cogliati states the first item in question is a typo in 804.0 Performance Evaluation under immediate supervisor, it should say “within” the immediate previous five years, instead of “with the”. Superintendent Shank said that we would check the ISBA language and update if needed. Trustee Cogliati also states that she has a question regarding the attendance policy. Superintendent Shank states Dan Keck, Assist Supt Secondary Education, has been working with a committee on the attendance policy so he can respond. Trustee Cogliati states the medical needed absences student have need to be verified with medial excuse by a doctor. She the states the lower income families may be sending their students to school sick if they can’t afford the doctor visit for the excuse. Dan states that there is an appeal process to cover families with extenuating circumstances. Trustee Cogliati asks how the appeals process is communicated to families. Dan states the attendance policy is in board policy and in all student handbooks and websites. Trustee Haacke states if the student has long-term medical issues they can appeal, from personal experience. Dan then states that we do have homebound services for those students with long-term medical issues and then there would not be any issues with attendance. Superintendent Shank asks if there are any questions on the Formulation of Policy, with the recommended changes from ISBA we would move from three readings to two readings. He then recognizes the committee work and to Heather Wade for the work on the Performance Evaluations. Trustee Hill states the appreciation in keeping all the policies up to date. h. Other Items i. Monthly Budget Report ii. ISBA Annual Convention Nov. 17-19 Boise, ID CONSENT AGENDA Trustee Radcliffe made a motion to accept the Consent Agenda as presented. Trustee Haacke provided the second. Trustee Cogliati asks about the number of female wrestlers attending in the student travel request not being stated on the request. Trustee Haacke states they have not had tryouts yet and are probably using the roster from last year on the request. No other questions were discussed. Motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. Items approved included: a. Approval of Minutes i. September 8, 2021, Board Business Meeting ii. September 21, 2021, Board Work Session 10/13/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 4 of 7 b. Review of Payment of Claims i. September 2021 Bill List $4,339,469.23 c. Staff Actions New Hires: Name Position Location Carrie Wageman Special Ed Teacher .50 Edgemont Elementary d. Matching Funds i. Compass Academy – Yearbook Photography Equipment $3671.95 ii. Eagle Rock Middle School – Printer/Plotter with supplies $2721.79 iii. Temple View Elementary – Kindergarten Playground Equipment $17852.85 e. Student Travel i. Idaho Falls High School, Wrestling Millard, UT December 2-4, 2021 ii. Idaho Falls High School, Wrestling Stansbury, UT December 10-11, 2021 iii. Skyline High School, Softball St. George, UT March 17-20, 2022 f. Other i. Surplus Property  Theresa Bunker Elementary to discard old, broken teacher desks  Longfellow Elementary to donate and discard chairs and tables  Fox Hollow Elementary to donate and discard tables, desks, chairs, and bookshelves  Ethel Boyes Elementary to donate and discard desk PROPOSALS a. Second Reading – Board Policy Revisions & Review a. Section 101.0 Legal Status of the Board of Trustees- Revised b. Section 102.0 The People of District 91 and Their Schools - Revised c. Section 103.0 School Board Trustee Zones and Elections - Revised d. Section 120.1 General Statement on Equal Educational Opp. – Review Superintendent Shank ask if the Board has any questions on the second reading of the policies 101.0, 102.0, 103.0, and 120.1. The Board responds with no questions. b. ICLE Strategic Plan Proposal Superintendent Shank refers to the proposal that was presented from ICLE, Rick Schroeder, to do the work of the Strategic Plan. It indicates the types the work to be done, the types of meetings 10/13/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 5 of 7 that would be held, and the timeframe. He states that the work itself is something that we would want to do but please look at the timeframe that they provided. He states that with Cooperative Strategies their maybe similar types of efforts going on at the same time. He states that we want feedback on both plans and is proposing that we kick this plan a little forward and getting Cooperative Strategies along the way before we do this. He then asks the Board for their feedback. Trustee Haacke agrees that the community may get confused. The rest of the Board agrees on postponing this work. Trustee Cogliati adds that we would want to see the result from the work from Cooperative Strategies to incorporate into the strategic plan. Superintendent Shank agrees with her statement. He then asks the if we initiate or not if the Board is ok with the fee associated with this proposal for a total of $49,800, hoping that we get the value in the work with the cost. He states ICLE is also working with two other local districts. Trustee Cogliati asks why we are hiring this consultant. Superintendent Shank answered with pass discussions about the work being done and having someone do the work for us. Also, Richard is working with other districts and proposed working with us to help us out. Trustee Cogliati adds that Richard will be doing deep dive work for us that we need. Trustee Hill agreed and said yes, also to help eliminate the work load of the Directors. Trustee Wilson asks if the travel is included in the per day fee. Superintendent Shank states that there is not a breakdown, so it should be included. ACTION ITEMS a. Trustee Election Zones Trustee Hill asks if anyone has questions or comments on the Trustee Election Zones. Trustee Radcliffe made a motion to approve Trustee Election Zones, as presented. Trustee Wilson provided the second. No further discussion. Motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. b. Technology Advisory Committee Memorandum of Understanding Superintendent Shank states the proposal of changing the teacher contract with a Memorandum of Understanding with respect to the Technology Advisory Committee. He then states in brief that it changes the leadership positions that are designed to organize and oversee the committee. It identifies who those players would be and we have a Director of Curriculum and Professional Development now and they would be an important player in this committee. We also have the Director of Technology and a person of the association that would be part of this leadership creating co-chairs of organization to help facilitate the work that needs accomplished and move in the direction that we would be happy with. With Julie Nawrocki’s, IFEA President, assistance we came up with this language. With the change in the contract, we will need Board approval. He then states we would recommend the approval. Trustee Cogliati recommends an add of an “and” to the memorandum of Understanding instead of a comma in the statement. Superintendent Shank states we will update it. Trustee Haacke made a motion to approve the Technology Advisory Committee Memorandum of Understanding, as amended. Trustee Cogliati provided the second. No further discussion. Motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. 10/13/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 6 of 7 c. October 26, 2021 Work Session Location moved to IFHS Cafeteria Superintendent Shank stated it is the recommendation to move the work session to the IFHS Cafeteria to serve dinner with the Legislatures. He explains we will start the work session in the Board room for the Board Docs training and then take a recess to move over to the cafeteria. He states that we would like more people to visit the high school to see what the facilities look like. Trustee Wilson made a motion to approve October 26, 2021 Work Session Location moved to IFHS Cafeteria. Trustee Haacke provided the second. No further discussion. Motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. Trustee Wilson made a motion to adjourn. Trustee Hill provided the second. Motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. Meeting adjourned at 8:31 PM. 10/13/2021 D91 Board Minutes Page 7 of 7 Idaho Falls School District 91 Board of Trustees, The Idaho Falls Education Association had a fantastic turnout at the September New Teacher/ESP Pizza th night serving over 100 people. On October 20, we will hold a family-friendly IEA all food and drink sales and The Art of Happiness painting company will be donating $10 for each ticket -school children with basic needs that can often prevent them from taking full advantage of their educational opportunities such as: warm winter clothing, eyeglasses, groceries, dental work, medicine, etc. To date, the fund has served 5,275 Idaho Students, with an average amount of $3700 distributed per month. There has been a growing concern from our faculty and staff across all campuses in the district about staffing shortages, be it custodial, para-professional, food service, or substitute teachers. We understand that staffing shortages are not unique to the education field, however, we do hope that the district and the school board will continue to work with faculty and staff to not only find ways to incentivize those in our community to apply to fill these vacancies, but also to recognize and compensate those faculty and staff members who continuously take on extra duties to ensure our schools stay open and our students have a safe and secure educational environment. The current rate at which staff and faculty are covering for these shortages is not sustainable. Their workloads have increased and many certified staff are giving up lesson planning time to cover classes and co-teach, and many of our classified staff are coveringduties for other staff. The shortages have reached a critical level on many campuses and many of the staff and faculty that have been amenable to covering other duties are burning out from the additional duties. th On November 17, the IFEA will be celebrating ALL Education Support Professionals for National ESP cluding who they are, and the amazing things they do for our district and especially for our students. On that note, as we move forward with critical rolein the HRS framework, in the education of our students, and in the safety and security of -professional, secretary, bookkeeper, health service worker and custodian impacts the students in our school district and their roles are critical to keeping our schools running and our students safe, healthy, and ready to learn every day. Because of their physical locations and work schedules they can be overlooked when it comes to being in schools together, and as such we need to make sure they know how valuable they are to our district. Respectfully, Julie Nawrocki; Idaho Falls Education Association President