RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
JOINT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 365
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
April 8, 2010
I. WELCOME AND CALL TO ORDER
A. The Board of Trustees, Joint School District No. 365, met for the regular meeting at Rimrock Music Room on Thursday April 8, 2010. Chairman Dixie Black called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. then led the Pledge of Allegiance and welcomed patrons.
B. Roll Call – Chairman Dixie Black, Vice Chairman Ray Meyers, Marie Robertson, Joe Merrick, Howard Field, Superintendent Vickie L. Chandler and Clerk Cathy Sellman were present. Also attending were Principal Phil McCluskey, Principal Gerald Chouinard, Robert Draper, Bonni Draper, Sharon Fowers, Erin Burnett, Melode Burnett Simper, Marie Hipwell, Harold A. Simper, Will Goodman and Russell Erwin.
II. APPROVE AGENDA
Howard Field made the motion and Ray Meyers seconded to approve the agenda for the April 8, 2010 meeting. Motion carried.
III. CONSENT AGENDA
A. Approve correction to the February 11, 2010 Regular Board Meeting Minutes/Reports to the Board
B. Approve minutes of the March 11, 2010 Regular Meeting
C. Accounts Payable
D. Bruneau Elementary Activity Accounts
E. Grand View Elementary Activity Accounts
F. Rimrock Activity Accounts
Howard Field made the motion and Joe Merrick seconded to approve the Consent Agenda. Motion carried.
IV. REPORTS TO THE BOARD
A. Principal Reports-Phil McCluskey, Gerald Chouinard
Principal Gerald Chouinard reported on Parent Teacher Conferences with 93% of the parents attending at Grand View and 94% at Bruneau. Field trips will be confined to local trips in the valley such as the fish hatchery and the Emu-z-um. March Students of the Month for Bruneau were Gustabo Sierra, Victoria Ayala and Madison Burbank and for Grand View were Tatum Bradshaw, Sintia Varela, Martin Law, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Jacqueline Bodily, Josh Glaspie and Kari Wagenman. April is Drug and Alcohol Awareness Month and the kindergarten through third grades will have a poster contest and fourth through sixth grades will have a t-shirt contest. Winners will be announced at the Student of the Month Assemblies on April 30th. ISAT testing will be April 12 through April 30th. April 19th will be a district wide staff development day. Mr. Chouinard thanked Mr. McCluskey, Mr. Harper and the Rimrock staff for the 6th grade orientation at Rimrock. IRI testing for grades K-3 will be May 4-13. P.E. Field Days will be at Rimrock on May 10th for K-2 grades and May 11th for grades 3-6. He thanked Mr. McCluskey, Mr. Skerjanec, Mr. Murray and Rimrock students for their work on the upcoming field days. Grand View Elementary end of the year BBQ and 6th grade promotion ceremony will be held on May 23 with awards at 9 a.m. and the promotion ceremony at 10:30 and lunch at 11:30. Bruneau Elementary will have lunch at 12 o’clock, awards at 1 p.m. and kindergarten/6th grade promotion ceremony at 2 p.m. on May 22nd. Board members were given an April newsletter from both elementary schools.
Discussion was held on the date of the test results.
Principal Phil McCluskey reported that baseball, softball and track have all started. The Rimrock FFA Slave Auction made approximately $5500. Parent-Teacher Conferences were held on March 17 & 18 with 86 students represented. During conferences, thirty-one students pre-registered for classes for next year. The IDFY skit kicked off Alcohol Awareness Month on April 2nd. Drama Club with 21 students attended the CATS Performance at the Morrison Center in Boise on April 2. FCCLA and FFA State Competitions are being held April 8-10. Mr. McCluskey will be judging the STAR events for FCCLA on Friday, April 9th. The music department will have a Choir Solo Concert on April 13th at 7 p.m. Penny Jones has won another state-wide Prevention Award which will be presented in Sun Valley during the Prevention Conference April 15th and 16th. Rimrock students took a 4-year plan interest survey and are working on their 4-year educational plan. Letters are being sent to parents with a breakdown of classes that students should be looking at and 9th grade students will start their registration April 9th with next years sophomores registering April 8th. Every student has their own registration sheet with elective classes on the form also. Mr. McCluskey stated he is trying to keep parents and students informed about classes with the 4-year plan. He used an overhead screen to explain the registration sheet and the class schedules. Each student will register via the computer. Approximately a dozen students are at risk for graduating this spring. Some of the students are doing distance learning classes to make up for classes they have not passed. BYU independent study courses have also been offered by the school. There is a variety of circumstances regarding the student graduation deficiencies. Discussion was held on the issue.
B. Superintendent Report—Vickie L. Chandler
Superintendent Vickie L. Chandler reported on the weekly enrollment of 336 students district wide which is down 16 students since last May. In May of 2007 the district had 372 students. The projections for next year are Rimrock will lose 15 students because of 34 seniors graduating and 19 seventh graders coming in the fall. Grand View Elementary will gain 8 students and Bruneau will increase by 4 students for a total of 333 in the district. April/May events calendar was in the board packet. Mrs. Chandler invited board members to attend as many events as they could. An email Mrs. Chandler sent to the staff regarding field trips and field trip costs was discussed. Mrs. Chandler stated she loved for the children to be able to attend field trips, but the State Department will not reimburse the district for field trips. She suggested soliciting sponsors for field trips. The Elko County School Board signed and approved the border contract and it has been sent to the Idaho State Department for Tim Hill’s approval. The district had applied for the 21st Century Grant and there were 8 grants awarded out of 42 applications. Our district was 12 points below the minimum that was funded. A parent notification system will be implemented with three months of free service and a cost of $2 per student for next year. The notification system is a way to notify parents on everything. The system will save paper and the click counts on the copy machines. It will be set up next week. Phone calls, text and emails and whatever is registered in PowerSchool will go out immediately. The system can store up to 14 phone numbers per student. Idaho was not selected for the “Race to the Top Grant”. The large Idaho schools did not sign on for the grant. Only two states were selected for the grant nationwide. The legislature approved the financial transparency law which requires school districts to post every financial transaction they make. ISHAA classification which has been discussed in the past was again discussed. Even though the vote showed more schools want to change back to the one classification, John Billetz, Executive Director, of ISHAA says they need a larger majority vote. During the post legislative review meeting the discussion was cuts, cuts, more cuts and more requirements added on such as the new longitudinal data system. Districts must input every piece of information on every student and staff member which will be uploaded every month with the most current information. Every staff member has a unique identifier number and every bit of information from every student and employee will be on the State Department of Education website. Will Goodman and Vickie Chandler have written a grant for $7500 to help implement the identification system. Pre-school students will have a unique identifier number which will follow the student throughout their life. Sympathy cards were signed for Cheryl Whiteside for Ed Whiteside, the Chet Sellman family for Bob Tindall, Georgia Smith’s family, and for Don Davis’s family for Sarah Carothers, Cassie Farfan, Judy McBride and Ken Davis. Superintendent Chandler thanked the committee of Will Goodman, Phil McCluskey, Trent Bodily, Patty Dalrymple, Jessica Sonnen and Sherri Karren for compiling information on the 4-day school week. Notices were mailed to parents and sent in report cards and posted on the district web site about the community meetings to discuss a 4-day school week.
C. Four-Day School Week Investigation Update – Will Goodman
Will Goodman reported on the three community meetings held in the district on Monday at Bruneau, Tuesday at Rimrock and Wednesday at Grand View. The purpose of the meetings was to share data the committee had researched. The committee would like to send a survey to parents of school children. A total of 63 parents attended the meetings and they had 53 additional questions. People wrote their questions which were later typed and compiled with answers to be sent with the survey. Mr. Goodman had a slide show with information the committee had gathered in their research. Eighteen school districts are currently using a 4-day school week. One school has been on 4-day school week since 1976. All schools increased their Average Daily Attendance. Discussion was held on how people felt from the community meetings. The committee has only focused on parents of school age children. Joe Merrick attended all three community meetings and a board member was at each meeting. Paulina Bravo was commended for doing the translations in Spanish at the 4-day meetings. One of the biggest questions has been the day of the week the district would take off. Our district has one of the longest bus routes in the state. Discussion was held on academic achievement with a 4-day school week. Data has shown gains in student achievement with schools using the 4-day week. Nick Smith with the State Department of Education has information on 4-day school weeks on the SDE web site. Russell Erwin thanked Will Goodman for doing a good job with the presentations. He asked the board to look at everything when making the cuts in the budget. Before he can support anything he would like more information. Jodi Jewett asked the board to involve parents with pre-school students in the survey. Discussion was held on ways to inform the community of the surveys. Superintendent Chandler asked Mr. Goodman to do a synopsis of the meetings on the survey form.
D. Budget Discussion – Vickie L. Chandler
Mrs. Chandler gave board members a letter from Lawerence Denney (see letter). The state did have good news with March revenue which was 15.1M over projected revenues but still down 23M for total projected revenues. April and June revenues will determine if the state has enough revenues to meet the budget they approved. They could have special session in August or September to request a “holdback” of revenue. School districts will be held harmless in 2009-2010 because of salary contracts, but they are giving more than fair warning now about a possible “holdback” for 2010-2011. Revenues and expenditures until the end of June were reviewed and the projected fund balance could be approximately $79,000 less than last year. State funding for the current school year was discussed. The lottery funds used to be above and beyond the discretionary funding but lottery is now included in the discretionary funds. The total is $132,350 less for general fund. ARRA Federal Funds of $233,932 were used to keep people employed with the loss in general fund. ARRA funds had to be spent before they were reimbursed. A 5% holdback would be approximately $126,624. The total less revenue for next year will be $322,504.96 in general fund and Federal Funds will be $223,932 less for a total of $546,646.96. Superintendent Chandler’s goal is to provide the same quality education and opportunities for the children. Possible ideas for revenue were the Idaho Power rebate and interest from the bond of $175,000, but the board may feel it should stay in construction project fund. The elimination of an elementary principal position will save around $75,000. The Rimrock librarian is working on a grant to be a prevention specialist for this area and the IDLA para-pro could be a combination librarian/IDLA para-pro. Combining the positions could save $20,878. The gifted/talented instructor could move to a classroom where there will be an opening. The district could eliminate the music instructor, an elementary special education teacher, a half time secondary English position since Cheryl Whiteside is not returning next year for a total savings of $481,878. These would be the most painless cuts because it does not include RIFing employees. Bus depreciation has always been moved from General Fund to Plant Facilities to be able to purchase a new school bus. Last year the district could have kept $30,778 in general fund and they could move the money back into general fund if necessary. Custodial staff value is $27,784 per person. Paying certified staff on the state salary schedule would save $ 57,786. Twin Falls School District is planning to furlough 17 school days and another school district is looking at 25 furlough days. A 4-day school week could save between $30,000 and $100,000. To furlough 3 days on a traditional calendar could save $26,551 or 4 days off save $35,400. A 4% cut on extra-curricular salaries would save $2,923 and a 10% reduction would save $7,308. Eliminating the driver’s education program would save $10,000. Other savings could be to reduce sports contests, cut all or reduce field trips, raise deductible on employee health insurance, raise student fees for driver’s ed students. Voters could also pass a supplemental levy, but Superintendent Chandler stated she would rather find the funds to cover the short fall. The contingency funds of $160,000 for emergencies could also be used. Mrs. Chandler asked for input from the board on the budget and the priority of the music program. Discussion was held on the music program. Robert Draper commented that he worked hard to get the music program back in the school and he would hate to see the program deleted. Jodi Jewett stated she would be happy to pay more student fees for the driver’s education program. Her sister paid $500 for her child to take driver’s ed in Meridian. The board all expressed they would like to keep the music program. Bus driver’s benefits were discussed. Sharon Fowers thanked everyone for working so hard on everything. Raising fees for sporting events was discussed. Ref’s fees and mileage were discussed.
V. PUBLIC INPUT
None.
VI. ACTION ITEMS
A. Accept Resignations
Resignation letters were submitted by Trina Fowers, para-professional at Grand View Elementary, Dolores McCluskey, Grand View Elementary 5th grade teacher and Bobbie Munger, Rimrock math teacher.
Marie Robertson made the motion and Ray Meyers seconded to accept the resignations of Trina Fowers, Dolores McCluskey and Bobbie Munger. Motion carried.
Marie Robertson made the motion and Howard Field seconded to advertise for a math and a music teacher in the district. Motion carried.
B. Approve Grand View Elementary 1st Grade – Hire the Retired Contract
First grade teacher, Marilyn Dean would like to teach again next year under the “Hire the Retired” Program.
Ray Meyers made the motion and Marie Robertson seconded to hire Marilyn Dean as 1st grade teacher on a Hire the Retired Contract. Motion carried.
Superintendent Chandler explained Cheryl Whiteside was also on a retired contract and Ms. Whiteside does not need to resign her position, but she needed to notify the district if she wished to be rehired.
C. Approve Lead Teachers for Grand View Elementary and Bruneau Elementary
Staff members at both elementary schools were surveyed to see who they would support as a lead teacher. The almost unanimous support was for Sherri Karren at Bruneau Elementary and Patty Dalrymple at Grand View Elementary for the 2010-2011 school year. They are working with Superintendent Chandler on job descriptions and they will be paid a stipend fee. Discussion was held on a head teacher versus a lead teacher.
Joe Merrick made the motion and Marie Robertson seconded to approve Sherri Karren as lead teacher at Bruneau Elementary and Patty Dalrymple as lead teacher at Grand View Elementary for the 2010-11 school year. Motion carried.
D. Approve Fund Transfer – Bus Depreciation
In the past the district was required to move the bus depreciation money from general fund into a plant facilities fund to be used to purchase a new school bus. The legislature has changed the requirement to allow districts to keep the money in general fund to help offset budget cuts.
Ray Meyers made the motion and Marie Robertson seconded to keep the bus depreciation money in the general fund. Motion carried.
E. Approve Bowen and Parker Audit Contract
The audit contract was included in board members packet for their review. The contract was for $8600 which is $100 more than last year’s contract, but there is an additional report in the audit this year.
Howard Field made the motion and Joe Merrick seconded to approve the Bowen & Parker audit contract for $8600. Motion carried.
F. Approve Call for Bus Maintenance Bids
The Diesel Bus Maintenance Bid form and changes to be made were discussed.
Superintendent Chandler contacted Brad Carpenter from Western Bus Services said he said there are no requirements or certifications for a bus maintenance contractor, but they would like bus maintenance trainings every summer. Board members requested a monthly invoice from the maintenance provider on the same day every month. Robert Draper recommended a key production indicators computer program which they use at Simplots. Joe Merrick stated he has reviewed each bus for the costs of maintenance, service and parts and Bus 97 and 05 have been very costly. The board recommended changes to the form. A billing submitted the first day of the month will be added to the form. Joe Merrick has researched the district buying filters, etc. and found that it would not be cost effective for the district to buy the oil and filters. The board agreed they would like to have an inventory of parts on hand. The board asked Joe Merrick to work with Superintendent Chandler to edit the bus maintenance form.
Howard Field made the motion and Ray Meyers seconded to advertise for the bus maintenance bids to be opened at the May 6th board meeting. Motion carried.
Will Goodman told the board the district has signed a new copier lease which will be a savings of about $3700 per year and the Idaho Education Network will save the district about $1100 per month on internet services.
G. Personnel Issues
Tabled until Executive Session
H. Negotiations
Tabled until Executive Session
VII. EXECUTIVE SESSION
Marie Robertson made the motion and Joe Merrick seconded to adjourn into Executive Session for personnel issues and negotiations. Motion carried.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of Trustees of School District No. 365, recess from an open meeting into Executive Session pursuant to Section 67-2345, Idaho Code, to discuss personnel issues and negotiations.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that following the Executive Session, the Board will reconvene in public session to conduct further business or for adjournment of the meeting.
The board recessed into Executive Session at 9:45 p.m.
The board reconvened in Open Session at 9:55 p.m.
Marie Robertson made the motion and Joe Merrick seconded to not offer a contract for Category I Teacher A for the upcoming school year. Motion carried.
VIII. ADJOURNMENT
Ray Meyers made the motion and Joe Merrick seconded to adjourn. Motion carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:56 p.m.
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(Catherine R. Sellman, Clerk) |
