01-08-2014 Minutes_Special_Meeting-Work_Session

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be made with the Common Core. The principals have been trained on the Common Core and SBAC through the LEADS program. There is information on the website and additional videos. Mrs. Hix will ask the principals to meet after school or at night with parent groups and go through the PowerPoint, She will make herself available to be at any meeting. So far, we have had only two schools, Rimrock and Hillcrest, which have met with their parents on the Common Core, There are a group of parents who are struggling with it but some are beginning to understand what we are trying to do. We believe there is a majority who support it. We are waiting to see what the outcome at the legislature will be, Mrs. Hix and Dr. Shackett will present to legislators February 22,1d, Mrs. Hix shared the website link with the PTO presidents at their last meeting. She will ask a teacher and the PTO President to be available to present with the principal at the meeting for the school. Chairperson Winchester stated that it is scary and overwhelming to parents when it comes to testing, scores, and homework. It is a new challenge. Maybe we need to ask the Post Register to do some articles about the Common Core. Mrs. Hix stated that there have been some articles in the Post Register. If the legislature turns down the Common Core, Mrs. Hix will recommend to Board that we rewrite our curriculum to make it more rigorous, There is a meeting tomorrow night at the court house, It's a bigger issue than common core standards. Parents are concerned that it is a data trap so the government can intervene, Mrs. Landers asked hwm should wewait until after the bond election to have meetings regarding the common core, It was felt that principals need ho meet with concerned parents now in small groups. Not addressing their apprehensions would bea greater concern. We will let our principals have that discretion ento when hu meet with parents. We will also put information out for our parents uo they can help their children do well with the new test. There are higher expectations at the schools now. Kindergarten is teaching kids how to read, It is going to be difficult. Hopefully our principals will keep the pulse of the neighborhood and community. The principals can use the materials when they need them and let the District administration know how they can help. There was discussion regarding whether students understand that the standards are being raised and they may not du well on the test. Mm. McConnell believes that the message is getting out and the teachers are communicating Uho the students. Mr. McBride suggested that the administration might bring this up to the principals to encourage them to help their teachers communicate the standards k>the students but not scare them, Mrs. Hix hopes that the communication with parents will happen before the end of the school year because there will be changes for next year regarding curriculum and testing, She will add some slides regarding tips on how parents can help their children with the common core. Mrs, Hix has worked on getting the teachers ready for the past four years and she believes that in the long run, it will be a good thing for our students. |t won't he easy but Our teachers and kids will ba able k>dothis. We will leave i(uptm principals anto when and i/ they meet with their parents. Chairperson Winchester thanked Mrs. Hix and asked if there were any other questions from the Board for her. Hearing none, Chairperson Winchester move to the Bond Question Discussion. B. Bond Question Discussion - April Burton Chairperson Winchester asked Mrs. Burton to lead the discussion regarding the Bond Question that will be presented at the Regular Board Meeting next Wednesday, Mm. Burton presented the Board with ehandout. The first page ia information regarding the $02million dollar bond and the potential cost to patrons. The second page shows our future debt capacity calculated by Piper Jaffrey showing when we Could possibly build an additional elementary school. The third page shows what would happen if we don't bond in 2014. That just adds $92 million to future bonding capacity based on projections prepared by Piper Jaffrey, In September 2014 with no growth in taxable market value, we would have an additional $8million bonding capacity. Sobywaiting until Sep(ember, we could run a bond for $i8O million. We will have to raise taxes for anything wo bond now and probably we will have toraise them again when *m bond in the future. Kmm just run the bond for a high school and a middle school now, then we Would have enough capacity to run for an elementary next fall. As we have talked, we have about $6 million now in needed projects and that does not include upgrades to the existing high schools. That is how we came up with the $92 million. We need to protect the assets that we have along with addressing the growth, There was discussion regarding whether there is a need for $100 million. It will be tough to have a new nice school and not make some upgrades in both existing high schools. We would have about 15 years before we get to capacity at the new high school. Mr. Nelson wondered if we built just an elementary on this bond would *m still need ho raise taxes. We would probably still need to raise taxes, If we want to wait to bond for the high school, we would probably need to have split sessions and get rid of the eight period day as well. We will save time in design if the Board likes the Middleton High School. We would still want the Bonneville edition with improvements taken into account. The Board is sold on the Middleton model. Dr. 8haoke# wondered if it would save money to build the high school and middle school at the same time. That is a lot of money for a general contractor to bond, The local people may not be too pleased because there may be a lot of out-of-state people coming in if we have the same contractor doing both. We want boallow the people around here hu have the ability hoget the work, We might save a few hundred thousand dollars but not millions and timelines would be an issue,