RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
JOINT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 365
BOARD OF TRUSTEES

November 19, 2009
                                                                                 
 I.         WELCOME AND CALL TO ORDER
A.  The Board of Trustees, Joint School District No. 365, met for the regular meeting at Bruneau Elementary School on Thursday, November 19, 2009.  Chairman Dixie Black called the meeting to order at 1 p.m. and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
                                                                       
B.  Roll Call - Chairman Dixie Black, Vice Chairman Ray Meyers, Marie Robertson, Joe Merrick, Howard Field, Superintendent Vickie Chandler and Clerk Cathy Sellman were present.  Also attending were Principal Phil McCluskey, Principal Gerald Chouinard, Julianna Mori, Kyla Mills, Analeise Mills, Adrian Palencia, Julie Bodily, Jacque Black, Amber Pearson, JayDene Aquiso, Kathy Mori, teachers and students from Bruneau Elementary School.   

                                                                                                                                                          
II.        APPROVE AGENDA
Superintendent Vickie Chandler asked to postpone the Elko County Border Contract until the December meeting.         
Howard Field made the motion and Marie Robertson seconded to approve the agenda for November 19, 2009 with the appropriate changes.  Motion carried.

III.       CONSENT AGENDA
A   Approve minutes of the October 15, 2009 Regular Meeting
B.  Accounts Payable
C.  Bruneau Elementary Accounts
D.  Grand View Elementary Accounts
E.   Rimrock Activity Accounts
Joe Merrick made the motion and Howard Field seconded to approve the Consent Agenda.  Motion carried.
                                                           
IV.       REPORTS TO THE BOARD
A.  Bruneau Elementary Student/Staff Presentations—Principal Chouinard, Students, Staff          
Board members were given a copy of the school newsletter.  Principal Gerald Chouinard reported Students of the Month for October were Gus Black, Axel Arciniega and Julianne Mori for Bruneau Elementary and Xochitl Flores, Justin Lindquist, Nicolas Lino, Natilyn Barth, Varelia Lino, Josh Glaspie and Michael Hurtado for Grand View Elementary.  Parent Teacher Conferences went very well with a 99% parent attendance.  Extended Day classes for reading, language and math has begun and will be held Monday thru Thursday at both elementary schools through April 29, 2010. 
Red Ribbon Day and Veteran’s Day ceremonies were a huge success at both schools. 
Literacy Lunch on November 19th included Wynn Ludy talking about his son’s books and lunch for everyone.  Book Fairs made $1955.81 in Grand View and $616.11 in Bruneau with the money being used to purchase more reading materials for students.  Northwest Association of Accredited Schools will begin the NAAS Review Process at the elementary schools the week of November 30th.    The review will be in the spring during March or April.   The Six Traits of Writing Conference in Grand View on Nov. 6th for Staff Development was good timing because of Direct Writing Assessment coming up.  Upcoming activities include Direct Writing Assessment December 1st, Direct Math Assessment December 2, H1N1 booster shots December 4th, Operation Santa in Grand View on December 5th from 6 – 9 p.m., Bruneau Christmas Program on December 15th and Grand View Elementary Christmas Program on December 16th at Rimrock.  The November newsletter was given to board members.  Discussion was held on IRI and ISAT testing scores reports, individual student improvement reports and improvement reports from extended day classes. 

Students from Mrs. Karren’s 5th and 6th grade classes presented World History Flip Books with information on wars, mountains, lakes, rivers, national parks and historical landmarks.

Miss Martinko’s class read their stories they had written and illustrated which were based on the Skippyjon Jones books.

Miss Wampler’s kindergarten and first grade classes read stories about turkeys which they had written. 

B. Gifted & Talented Program Presentation---Julie Bodily, District G/T Program Director
Julie Bodily, Gifted and Talented Program Director along with four students from 4th, 5th and 6th grades gave an IPOD Power Point demonstration.  Board members and parents were given IPODS and instructions on how to operate the IPODs.  Bruneau Book Talk Broadcasting Bunch reviewed the book The View from Saturday.   Mrs. Bodily has downloaded Spanish lessons on IPODs for students to learn the language, students have listened to Book Talks and discussed the books and they have done characterizations from the books.   They are using the IPODS for lots of different applications to enhance their education.    Board members were encouraged to view Julie’s Web Page on the school district web site.  Other classes will be putting Book Talks on the web site also.  Mrs. Bodily thanked the board for the opportunity to teach Gifted and Talented students.  G/T student selection process has been on teacher referrals, students excelling in academic work, excelling in behavior with their work done the fastest and the ability to go above and beyond regular classroom work.  Rimrock G/T students have entered a Robot Lego Competition.  The competition will promote gracious professionalism in the competition.  They plan to start an e magazine.  Mrs. Bodily is currently working with 36 elementary students in the district.  Four G/T students shared their individual projects which were based on the book The View From Saturday. 

C.  Coordinated School Health Action Plan—JayDene Aquiso and Amber Pearson
JayDene Aquiso and Amber Pearson gave board members a hand out with information on the Coordinated School Health Grant Action Plan.  They had community members fill out papers as a needs assessment for the school, they had a company combine the information for feedback for action items to improve the health and environment of everyone at the school.  Board members were invited to join the team.  The action plan is focusing on the school currently, but they would like to expand the focus to the community.  The grant will be in place for three years.  They also received a Health Grant for students to have raw fruit or vegetable snack each day.  Students are also doing extra laps to improve their health.  They explained Fitness Fridays where students run laps to earn points for prizes.  The school will host a Health Fair on March 17th.   They have a lot of people involved with the project.  The grant has also sent staff members to two conferences.  Superintendent Chandler commended JayDene Aquiso and Amber Pearson for the three grants they received last year and the great things they are doing with the grants.  The school is now a pilot model school. 

Amber Pearson also reported on her reading coach position.  She has been working on goals and standards to align the teaching strategies and goals have common assessments from kindergarten through 6th grade in both schools.  Teachers and staff have been undergoing intense training to reinforce skills to become more proficient in reading.  Mrs. Pearson commended the teachers in all their hard work to improve student reading achievement.  Teachers are inputting student’s scores in the computers.

D.  Principal Reports-Gerald Chouinard, Phil McCluskey
Principal Phil McCluskey explained the criteria for Student of the Quarter.  To be eligible a student must have a 3.0 GPA or special need IEP.  They must have no disciplinary action and must be involved with some sort of extra-curricular activity such as scouts, 4-H, sports, etc.  The award will be awarded to 1 Junior High boy, 1 Junior High girl, 1 High School boy and 1 High School girl.  Staff members nominate the student and staff members vote on the nominees.  Students of the quarter for the junior high were Kaleb Burbank and Kyla Jewett and for the high school were Francisco Garcia and Norma Vega.  They each received a $50 award.  Parent-Teacher Conferences were October 28th and 29th.  Mr. McCluskey hired a Spanish interpreter to help with conferences to encourage more parent participation.  IDFY Leadership Retreat was November 6-8 in McCall with 8 students attending.   Because Mountain Home High School would like to organize an IDFY group, they invited Rimrock IDFY members to do a presentation for the Mountain Home students.   The IDFY coordinator for the state asked Rimrock students to present to the Safe and Drug Free School Board and State Student Council.  Band and Choir performance will be December 8th at 7 p.m.  Drama presentation will be December 10th and 12th at 7 p.m.  PSAT testing will be held at Rimrock on October 14th.  DWA will be December 1st for 7th and 9th grades and DMA will be December 2nd for 8th grade students.  Veteran’s Day included a true story of Veteran’s Day video presentation. The October 27th Blood Drive met their quota and 28 students attended the College Fair in Boise the same day.  Discussion was held on student discipline and detention.  Late bus arrivals at Rimrock and solutions were also discussed. 

E.  Superintendent Reports- Superintendent Vickie L. Chandler
Superintendent Vickie Chandler reported on November/December activities.  She encouraged board members to attend some of the activities. Student enrollment is down by 4 students since the last board meeting.  The In-Service agenda for the “6 Traits for Writing” was reviewed.  The final court documents for the Sharon Ackley Lawsuit and the stipulation for dismissal have been signed and submitted.  Absences from the swine flu will be discussed under Action Item A.  Mike and Vickie Chandler attended the Girls State Volleyball Tournament in Lewiston.  The hotel commended the team as being the best behavior student guests ever staying at the hotel.  Mrs. Chandler has received 5 applications for the special education position which will be vacant at the end of semester.  Interviews will be conducted after Thanksgiving.  Swine flu shots were given November 4th with a total of 420 vaccinations given.  Superintendent Chandler attended the District III Superintendent’s Meeting on October 21st.  Many heated questions and answers regarding funding and “Race to the Top” were held with State Superintendent Tom Luna.  On November 23 the small school superintendents in Region III will meet to discuss financial issues as well as extra-curricular costs and ways to address them.   Board members were given information on the 19th Annual Educational Law Institute which will be held April 19th and 20th in Boise and a notice regarding the revised policies from Anderson, Julian, Hull.  Rob Draper had the district sign off on his Eagle Scout Project which included painting concrete game lines, swings and poles and installing new swings, chains, brackets and seats.  His dad provided gates with locks for the fence surrounding the playground so it is now a secure area around Grand View Elementary.  Board members signed a “Thank You” note for Rob Draper.   Sympathy cards were signed for Verla Merrick whose father passed away recently and for Terry Carothers and Marilyn Messick in the loss of their mother, Donna Carothers.

Superintendent Chandler reported on ISBA Convention in Coeur d’Alene.   She attended a workshop with ISBA attorney Stephen Meade on board policy and hot topic issues, such as sexting, zero tolerance, Facebook, My-space, cyber-bullying, financial emergencies, pandemic plans, physical restraints, teaching with technology, Ipods, cell phones, web cams, childhood obesity and nutritional standards.  She also attended a workshop on developing a credit system for middle schools.  On December 10th Mrs. Chandler, Mr. Chouinard and Mr. McCluskey will attend a training workshop on Teacher Evaluations on the Charlotte Danielson model which the administrators must work from for the new evaluation system.  The draft must be to the state by February 10th.  An evaluation task force has been working on this for two years.  The plan directly leads to a mechanism to be used for performance pay mandates that may be coming in “Race to the Top”. 

Joe Merrick left the meeting at 3:10 p.m.

Other topics discussed at the convention were Citizens for Decency, Governor’s Alliance for Education in Idaho, loss of Federal Forest Funds, Graduation Requirement Task Force, shortage of math and science teachers with the new requirement, new middle school requirements, Finance Committee supporting reducing supermajority, election reform, no more unfunded mandates, a 4% holdback in this year’s budget, maintenance match requirements, “Use it or Lost It” requirement, consolidation of services, financial emergencies, funding sources, sales tax exemptions, soft drink tax, internet purchases tax and cottage leases by State Land Board taxed.   A panel of legislators had a question and answer session at the convention on Friday on the consolidation of districts, “Race to the Top”, budget holdbacks, possible 10% budget cuts for next year, cutting Early Retirement Incentives, remediation, classroom supplies and textbook allocations.

ISBA did not let Superintendent Chandler submit the board’s vote on the resolutions at the convention; only board members are allowed to vote.  She attended the session, recorded the voting and every resolution outcome was the same as the board would have voted.

V.        PUBLIC INPUT     
None.

VI.        ACTION ITEMS

A. Request ADA Adjustments for Schools with High Absenteeism

Superintendent Vickie Chandler requested approval from the board to appeal the ADA during the swine flu illness.
Marie Robertson made the motion and Howard Field seconded to approve the appeal for extreme absence due to illness.  Motion carried.

B.  Approve Elko Border Contract
Tabled until December board meeting.
                         
VII.     EXECUTIVE SESSION
            None.

VIII.    ADJOURNMENT
Ray Meyers made the motion and Marie Robertson seconded to adjourn.  Motion carried.

            The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.

_________________________________________
            (Catherine R. Sellman, Clerk)