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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-28-2022 Minutes Special Public Input MeetingDr. Scott Woolstenhulme, Superintendent 3497 North Ammon Road, Idaho Falls, Idaho, 83401  (208) 525-4400  Fax (208) 557-6800  www.d93schools.org Board of Trustees  Chad Dance  Paul Jenkins  Greg Calder  Carissa Coats  Randy Smith Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 is an Equal Opportunity Employer Special Public Input Meeting March 28, 2022 8:00 PM District Board Room 3497 N Ammon Rd Idaho Falls, ID 83401 I. Chairman Dance calle the meeting to order at 8:02 p.m. II. The Roll Call was Greg Calder present (via Zoom) Carissa Coats present (via Zoom) Randy Smith present Paul Jenkins excused Chad Dance present Others in attendance or joined via Zoom were Superintendent Woolstenhulme, Jason Lords, Executive Director of Learning and Instruction, Heath Jackson, Executive Director of Planning and Personnel, Guy Wangsgard, Chief Financial Operations Officer, Ben Parker, Principal at Discovery Elementary, Cara McCartney, Principal at Bridgewater Elementary, Jason Curtis, Principal at Iona Elementary, Phil Campbell, Director of School Public Relations and Communications, Dr. Yvonne Thurber, Director of Special Education, Nicki Pack, Principal at Cloverdale Elementary, Tina Orme, Principal at Falls Valley Elementary, Alycia Birch, Karen Wallis, Ashurity Jones, Angela Tinsley, Holly Giglio, Samantha Lowery and Samantha Williams, Board Clerk. III. Approve/Amend the Agenda (Action Item) MOTION: Randy Smith moved to approve the agenda. Carissa Coats seconded. Motion carried. IV. Discussion Items A. Proposed FY23 Boundary Changes and ERR Expansion Proposal Presentation. Chairman Dance invited Superintendent Woolstenhulme to present the FY2023 Boundary changes and ERR expanson proposal to the Board. Dr. Woolstenulme explained the District Special Education Programs to the Board. He started by explaining each specific program. The General Education Classrooms are for typical instruction and support. Special Education General Resource Rooms are specialized instruction and support. Extended Resource Rooms (ERR) for which the proposal involves, are specialized instruction and intensive support. He continues on with the Developmental Resource Room (DRR) which is located at Summit Hills Elementary, the Autism Program located at Discovery Elementary, and the district’s Behavior Program which is located at Tiebreaker Elementary. We also proved a Pre-K Program, and FLITTE, which is the district’s 18 year old to 21 year old programs which are located at Campbell Gym, and Hillcrest High School. After explaining the programs that the district offers and their purpose, Dr. Woolstenhulme explained the proposal in detail. The proposed plan key benefits and changes are as follows: • 3 elementary schools with 3 dedicated classrooms • Elementary programs will align with middle school and high school ERR programs • Shortened bus rides for students • Sustained peer groups through middle school and high school o Bridgewater – Rocky Mountain Middle School, Bonneville High School o Cloverdale – Black Canyon Middle School, Thunder Ridge High School o Mountain Valley – Sandcreek Middle School, Hillcrest High School 2 Dr. Woolstenhulme continued by presenting the second portion of the proposal. Boundary changes that would impact some Elementary schools in the district. These changes were as followed: • Pinewood/Applewood Neighborhoods o From Summit Hills Elementary to Falls Valley Elementary (about 75 students) ▪ North of Lincoln Road ▪ South of Highway 26 ▪ West of Hitt Road • Berkley Park/Hatch Hollow o Iona Elementary to Discovery Elementary (about 115 Students) ▪ North of Iona Road ▪ South of Telford Road (49th N) ▪ West of Crowley (45th E) ▪ East of Canal Dr. Woolstenhulme stated that the boundary change proposal is short term. The district does own property for a new elementary school in that area. It has been over a decade since we opened the last elementary school. Again this boundary proposal is a short term solution until a new school can be built. V. Public Input: Chairman Dance stated that Pursuant to Board Policy #4105 Public Participation in Board Meetings, Public Input shall be held to a maximum of (90) min and will provide an opportunity for any Board Member, administrator, staff member, student, or patron to raise issues of interest. The Board will receive such input without comment, except to ask germane questions of those speaking. Comments should be limited to three (3) minutes. The Board will take no action relative to any items during the meeting unless on the agenda but may direct the Superintendent to consider such items at a subsequent meeting. Samantha Lowery, Idaho Falls, ID – Samantha Lowery expressed her concerns. Her children have been to several schools. Her kids have found solace at Summit Hills. Ms. Lowery has been very grateful for Summit Hills. The idea of changing schools when he kids finally feel settled, would be difficult. She would like the board to reconsider the boundary change proposal. Angela Tinsley, Idaho Falls, ID – Angela Tinsley expressed her frustration with the proposed boundary change. She has a student who receives special education resources at Summit Hills. She stated that the staff at Summit Hills has been phenomenal in helping her student get caught up and with this change, she feels this would be detrimental to her student’s progress. She asks that the Board reconsider the boundary change. Tina Orme, Firth, ID – Ms. Orme, Prinicpal at Falls Valley Elementary wanted to address the concerns some parents are having with changing from Summit Hills Elementary to Falls Valley Elementary. She wanted to let them know that she understands the frustration the comes from changing schools, she herself has had to do that with her own kids. Falls Valley will welcome the new students with open arms and take care of them and do their best to make them feel welcome. Ms. Orme expressed the love for her school and for the students and staff. Falls Valley has great teachers and can’t wait to welcome new students to the school. Holly Giglio, Ammon, ID – Ms. Giglio had a few concerns that she wanted to be brought to the Board’s attention that involves the proposed changes with the ERR (Extended Resource Room) proposal. One of questions she asked was about nursing. Are they going to provide nurses at each new locations? Dr. Thurber was asked to answer that question. Dr. Thurber stated that if a student has needs on an IEP (Individual Education Plan) those services will be provided no matter where the student is. That is something that the district is very cognizant of. Ms. Giglio’s second concern was not having a DRR and and ERR available to those students who need both programs. Cara McCartney, Idaho Falls, ID – Ms. McCartney, Principal at Bridgewater Elementary wanted to help Ms. Giglio’s concerns regarding ERR and DRR. Ms. McCartney stated that she has been fortunate to not only be a principal, but was also an ERR teacher at Mountain Valley Elementary. She seconds Holly by stating that it was a blessing to have the ERR as well as the DRR programs in the same school. She continued on by saying that cases with students that would require both programs would be few and far between. Alycia Birch, Idaho Falls, ID – Dr. Woolstenhulme read Alycia’s question that she posted through Zoom. She asks, why special needs programs were moved to Bridgewater and Cloverdale. She also questions why the special needs kids are 3 always being moved when the district is faced with overcrowding issues? Moving kids with special needs is not like moving typical kids. It causes huge setbacks in all aspects of their live, not just at school. Summit Hills was built with special needs kids in mind. Superintendent Woolstenhulme thanked Alycia for some very good questions. He stated that Bridgewater was selected because after looking at all the schools, Bridgewater had available classrooms to accommodate an ERR program. As stated before, Ms. McCartney, Principal at Bridgewater Elementary has a fantastic background being a former ERR teacher. So being able to expand the ERR program at Bridgewater and Ms. McCartney’s leadership and her ERR experience, Bridgewater would be a great place to fit the needs for the program. Cloverdale Elementary was chosen because that school feeds into Black Canyon and Thunder Ridge and has classroom space available. In regard to the question as to why special needs kids are chosen to be moved, Dr. Woolstenhulme expressed that the district tries really hard to not move special needs programs. He stated that the Autism Program at Discovery has not moved since it opened. The program at Tiebreaker has been there for twenty plus years. The Summit Hills program and the DRR program has stayed at Summit Hills since it opened a decade ago. The ERR Program at Ammon moved to Mountain Valley when that school opened up. So when these programs have moved, they’ve moved because we’ve built new schools and found new locations for those programs. The exceptions have been when we expanded the ERR Program and expanded past Mountain Valley, and had to expand to Summit Hills. We have moved the preschool quite frequently trying to find a place that could be a more permanent home for that program and it is currently at Falls Valley. The district realizes that for some parents it feels like we’ve continually moved these programs. This change is the first significant move that we’ve had with those programs. The district is hoping that this proposal will be a solution so we won’t have to move these programs and have the same conversation in the next five or ten years. Ashurity Jones, Idaho Falls, ID - Ms. Jones is concerned with the ERR expansion proposal. She has a child who has been moved around a lot. He has had to move levery year of his school career. It has been very difficult to watch her child being moved from school to school. He finally gets comfortable at a school, and he has to move again. This decision will impact Ms. Jones’ family in a negative way. Karen Wallis, Idaho Falls, ID – Ms. Wallis’ main concern is transportation. Is there going to be an option to transition with transportation as well as we transition into the new boundaries? Dr. Thurber stated that this is something that can be discussed in an IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting. We want to be able to provide the needs to these students. Transportation is included in these discussions. If students are in a program, they are provided with specialized transportation if that is determined in their IEP meeting. Angela Tinsley, Idaho Falls, ID – Dr. Woolstenhulme read Ms. Tinsley question that she posted on Zoom. She asked that if the district moved 6th grade to middle school would that help aleviate the growth in the district? Dr. Woolstenhulme addressed this question by saying that the district reviewed that option before we bonded for Black Canyon Middle School. At that time we made the decision that 6th grade was best to stay in the elementary schools. When we decided that, we sized Black Canyon to be appropriate for two grades. We have also made changes to Rocky Mountain Middle School to fit that criteria as well. By doing that we do not have the capacity to bring 6th grade into our middle schools unless we were to bond for a fourth middle school. Holly Giglio, Ammon, ID - Ms. Giglio had follow-up comments in regard to transportation with special needs students. If the district or and IEP decides that a school is now a student’s least restrictive environment and that is not their home school, which is more than likely 90% of the time it might not be. Then the district would still have to transport them because this was a team decision. Putting those kids in their home school or a school closer to their home school would definitely cut down on that transportation time. Some students are on the bus for an hour. Dr. Woolstenhulme provided clarity by stating that programs and schools are not synonymous, and so while we’ve housed programs at certain schools, it really should be the program that’s the least restrictive environment, and not necessarily the school location itself. VI. Chairman Dance called for items for upcoming meetings. Hearing none he asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. VII. Adjournment (Action Item) MOTION: Randy Smith moved to adjourn the meeting. Greg Calder seconded. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m. 4 APPROVED: ______________________________________ Chairman ATTESTED: _______________________________________ Clerk DATE: ___________________________________