HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-20-2022 Minutes Special 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 Scott Lynch Greg Calder Paul Jenkins Carissa Coats
Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Special Meeting
January 20, 2022
5:00 PM
District Office
3497 N Ammon Rd
Idaho Falls, ID 83401
Chairman Dance called the meeting to order at 5:11 p.m.
Roll Call
Carissa Coats Present
Greg Calder Present
Randy Smith Present
Paul Jenkins Present
Chad Dance Present
Welcome Visitors and Delegations
Chairman Dance welcomed visitors and stated that the district is continuing to take measures to protect the health and
safety of its students, parents, patrons, employees and members of the board of trustees. Such measures include providing
for members of the Board of Trustees to participate remotely in this meeting. In addition, the Board of Trustees has
adopted an abbreviated meeting agenda to include only statutorily required and other matters deemed essential.
Approve/Amend Agenda (Action Item)
Chairman Dance asked for a motion to approve or amend the agenda
MOTION: Greg Calder moved to approve the agenda. Carissa Coats seconded. Motion carried.
Chairman Dance invited Superintendent Woolstenhulme to present the status report on staffing and operations and
possible school closure and moving to a hybrid schedule to the board.
Dr. Woolstenhulme started the presentation off by showing the COVID case increase in our district. It show ed a huge spike
in our district alone. At last week’s board meeting we were around 150 cases and this week we have increased to close to
300 cases. Everyday this week the district had between 120-130 staff out due to illness. We did close our school on Friday.
Dr. Woolstenhulme stated “I can’t tell you enough how appreciative we are with the teachers and staff. Especially those
who are covering for others. They are all pulling multiple duties this week”. He then explained that the Executive team had
a meeting with principals earlier that day so we could get an idea of how each school is doing with these challenging
circumstances. Last night Dr. Woolstenhulme sent out a survey to staff to see how they are faring. Everyone participated in
this survey. Dr. Woolstenhulme went through some key questions from the survey. The most important question was “what
do you think the best plan for next week”. Half of our employees said staying in school, and the other half thought going
online is best. We did ask how ready the teachers were ready to go online next week. The vast majority said they are ready
to go online, and just a higher percentage said that they needed a day to prepare for online instruction. The Elementary
online hours for students would be 2.5 hours, and M.S and H.S is 3.5 hours. There wasn’t a clear answer, the results were
split down the middle. However, Dr. Woolstenhulme said there was a lot of concern for employees, and their mental health.
He stated “If we don’t see a downturn we may need to take next week to go online”.
Parent Teachers Conferences – a lot of schools would like to postpone parent teacher conferences next week. Dr.
Woolstenhulme left this decision at the discretion of the schools. Chad wanted some clarification on what the district is
proposing for next week. Dr. Woolstenhulme explained that right now we are not recommending any school closures.
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Praxium program had the majority of their teachers out today and tomorrow so they were online yesterday and will be
online tomorrow. For the vast majority of our schools they will remain open. Paul stated that he has had some calls from
teachers and they are tired and burned out. We can’t keep doing this any longer. Randy asked “do you think this is our high
point?”. Dr. Woolstenhulme stated that he hopes we have reached our peak. But it’s hard to tell. Chad asked if there has
been any luck with hiring subs. Dr. Woolstenhulme stated, yes we have seen an uptick as much as 30 new subs. They are
currently volunteers, and we will get their fingerprints, and backgrounds processed. This has made a difference.
Carissa wanted to point out that we have the volunteers and the student teachers.
School Closure / Hybrid Schedule Discussion (Action Item)
No motion was made tonight. Schools will remain stay open and further discussion will be at the Board Work
Session on January 26th.
Chairman Dance called for any items for upcoming meetings. Hearing none he asked for a motion to
Adjournment (Action Item)
MOTION: Paul Jenkins moved to adjourn the meeting. Greg Calder seconded. Motion carried
Meeting adjourned at 5:37 p.m.
APPROVED: ______________________________________
Chairman
ATTESTED: _______________________________________
Clerk
DATE: ___________________________________