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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-17-2013 Minutes_Board_Retreat3497 North Ammon Road, Idaho Falls, Idaho, 83401 ": (208) 525-4400 v Fax (208) 529-0104 www,d93scfiools.org Dr. Charles 1. Shackett, Superin tend e nt Marjean McConnell, Deputy Superintendent Board Retreat July 17, 2013 District Board Room 11:30 a.m. I. Call to Order Chairperson Annette Winchester called the meeting to order at 11:55 a.m. Roll Call Those Board members in attendance were Chairperson Annette Winchester, Vice-chairperson Kip Nelson, Treasurer Amy Landers, Trustee Brian McBride, and Trustee Jeff Bird. Others in attendance were Superintendent Chuck Shackett, Deputy Superintendent Marjean McConnell, Chief Financial/Operations Officer April Burton, Technology and School Improvement Director Scott Woolstenhulme, Curriculum Director Michaelena Hix, Human Resources Director Shalone French, and Board Clerk Valerie Messick. 111, Items for Discussion A. Initial Board Traininq Presented by District Legal Counsel, Douq Nelson Mr, Nelson stated that he Would discuss Powers, Duties, Governance, and Ethics with regard to Board members. He presented each with a Board of Trustee Training Manual that he compiled for the retreat from information contained in Law of Education in Idaho and Idaho Code as a the Board. Reference tool, He stated that the Board's purpose is to enrich educational opportunities of students in the District. He discussed the assumption of office, the Trustee Oath, and the duty to attend meetings, Attendance at meetings is a statutory duty. A Trustee may forfeit the office of trustee if he /she fails to attend four (4) consecutive regular meetings of the Board and these absences are not excused by a majority of the Board. If a Trustee needs to miss a meeting, contact the clerk to make arrangements to attend in an alternate way. All decisions are by simple majority except executive session and that requires a 213 vote by roll call vote, You can willfully abstain from a vote. Your choices are yes, no, or I abstain. You should state the reasons for abstaining. The reasons for abstention could be because of a direct or indirect financial benefit, personal association, relatives, etc. You need to disclose and then step away from the vote. Mr. Nelson then discussed nepotism. If a relative is being discussed and voted upon, the trustee Must be disqualified from voting. You can't be biased when a decision is made. Board members act in the role of executive, legislative, and judicial depending their duty at the time. Policy is the Board's primary duty. Earlier today the Board was acting as a judge. Trustees need to expect that each member is unbiased when a case comes before the Board. Each person must avoid bias as well as the appearance of bias. You need to remain impartial. You can request that patrons take complaints to the administration so you won't become biased. The iEA trains their people to get board members in discussions and use that information to claim bias. You must assume that phone calls on sensitive issues will be recorded. The IEA has a playbook of tricks to be used when involved with negotiations. Secret ballots are prohibited. The Board can ask for a consensus in a closed setting. But they then must reconvene in open session to make the final decision. Be Cautious about asking someone how they are going to vote. Don't have a decision made before you come to a meeting. You may have dialogue but, be careful. Don't lobby for votes, Exchange of information is common but be very careful, Trustees have an entity duty. They need to look at the broader scope of the education of the kids and should not be influenced by special interest groups, The Board makes policy and the Superintendent administers policy in the District. Be aware of the Chain of Command and be careful of possible bias. Remember, confidentiality and that information cannot be shared. Don't blind side fellow board members or administrators. General Powers and Duties The Superintendent and administration are your key advisors. You are the decision makers so long as you are consistent with the laws, rules, and regulations of State Board of Education and your own policies. Board Policies You have the right to enact policies that govern the District. You are responsible to adopt policies and are required to follow them. The District administration enacts the Board's policies, You should not micromanage. It is the Board's right to evaluate the administration an enactment of policy. A trustee cannot act individually because you are an entity. Policy 1430 Board - Superintendent Relationship is key to what happens in this District. Policy 1465 Board Use of Electronic Mail and Social Media. Be aware that these communications between certain people on certain subjects can be a public record and subject to public records requests. You communications will be known to the world and to the judge. You don't have an expectation of confidentiality. Don't use email or social media as a substitute for transacting business that should be handled in an open board meeting. Communications could be subject to FERPA action if you are sharing information regarding students, Be careful, Policy 1500 Board Meeting Procedures. The Board is required to publish and post notices of meetings. You need to move to amend the agenda and ratify those amendments at the next meeting. You need to post an amended notice with regard to agenda items not necessarily specifics under the agenda item. Don't try to disguise an important agenda item to act on at a work session or special meeting of the board. Mr. Nelson interrupted his presentation at about 1:30 p.m. so the directors and managers of the District could introduce themselves to the Board. Those who attended for the purpose of introductions were, Don Traunivein, Energy Education Specialist, Louanna Bunn, Custodial, John Pymm, Director of Safe Schools, Rex Miller, Director of Elementary Special Education and Federal Programs, Julian Duffey, Director of Secondary Special Education and Federal Programs, Karen Judy, Board of Trustees Annette Winchester t> Kip Nelson Amy Landers ':, Brian McBride 0, Jeff Bird Transportation Manager, Roger Hill, Director of Plant Facility and Purchasing, Todd Hicks, Director of Operations, and Lance Miller, Assistant Principal at Bonneville High School. Chain of Command The Board's responsibility is not customer satisfaction. The Boar's responsibility is that of planers and judicial responsibility. You are not caretakers of the duties of management If YOU undertake to do the staffs job, you have either fired or reprimanded them, If a complainant comes to the board member, refer the person to District policy on grievances. it refers them to the person closest to the problem. Then always notify the Superintendent of the issue. I is his/her responsibility to manage the situation. If you undertake management responsibilities, then you have fired everyone in that chain of command. You don't have familiarity with the people or the situation. If You immerse yourself at that level, you become biased and effectively fire yourself from yourjudicial action responsibility. That is not a good position if you want to serve the community. Follow-up with superintendent and complainant and then the board. Sometimes a complaint needs to be articulated by someone other than you. Direct people to1550F to request an audience with the Board. This can be during public input in executive session depending on the nature of the complaint. The process would be gathering information, due process hearing, then deliberation. You most often you will not act on the complaint at that time. There are requirements involving due process hearings and then steps to go through. You need to take the monkey off your back and put it on the Superintendent's shoulders and then come back and report to the Board, You Gannet become an investigator. The Superintendent has the power to suspend employees with pay. If an employee is to be suspended without pay, the Board would need to make that decision. A violation of code of conduct would be a reason to terminate employment. Code of Ethics Familiarize yourself with the Code of Ethics for Idaho Professional Educators. This is statutorily required and included in contracts by reference. Consider yourself as a professional educator especially with regard to Principle VI. You could however be an in home private tutor. Don't benefit from your position on the Board. Policy 1600 Code of Conduct for School Board Members. Make sure you understand the chain of command referenced in #17. Violating your own policy and your own code of ethics could result in your being sanctioned or censured by the rest of the Board. Failure to conduct Yourself in harmony with the Code of Conduct could cause alienation of you as a member of the Board. Look through policy included in the manual and understand them. Then you will know what You expect of others and they know what to expect of you. If you find it that you cannot accept the requirements, then get an exemption or talk about making changes. Mr. Nelson encouraged the Board to spend time on the key Board policies. Make sure you feel comfortable with them and you will do well. Avoid sharing personally identifying information about individuals. Discretion is always the better part of valor. Don't show your cards. Turn the question back to the individual. A few words can change the burden of proof. Contactinq Mr. Nelson as a Board Member. The protocol for calls should be cleared through the Superintendent, Human Resources Director, or Chairman of the Board. These folks can give you direction.. Dr. Shackeft stated that it is important that we have legal counsel. It could become a big time financial issue if we don't work together on issues. Mr. Nelson stated that the District has employed professionals who have worked together for years. Decisions are better made in collaboration rather than in isolation. Identify questions and information you want then bring it forward in a work session, Get questions to the administration so they can bring information to the work session, Call Annette so she can help filter the requests, Sometimes the information has already been put together. The best thing to do is to call Dr. ShacRett, Mrs. McConnell, or Dr. French and then they will direct you, The Board goes through a process of Information gathering, deliberation, decision making, Chairperson Winchester thanked Mr. Nelson for presenting the training information to the Board. She then asked Mr. Woolstenhulme to go over information regarding IPad Operation, B. IPad Operation — Scott Woolstenhulme Mr. Woolstenhulme spoke about the need to use District email to conduct Board Business. Thatway, if a public records request comes in to the District, we have access to the information. He spoke about using their own devices as opposed to using District provided devices to access BoardBook or email. It is up to the individual since all of these applications are Internet based and can be accessed from any device. District email is hosted by Microsoft, We will change to d93.org in the near future, Each individual sets their own password. We don't have access to them anywhere. When you use District email, you have limited access to Outlook, Excel, and Word online. Mr. Woolstenhulme helped those who wished assistance to go through setting up their (Pads to access District email and BoardBook. He informed them that they could purchase Word 2013 for their home computer for $10.00. Just let him know if you are interested. You can login.to microsoftonline.com and you can set it LIP SO you can access email on the iPad directly. Access to BoardBook is also available. You could open these on your personal device that would allow access to confidential information on your personal device. You won't open in BoardBook. it will open on your device and then it will be saved on your IPad, The Wad ones are obsolete. They Could be used with kids. Mr. Woolstenhulme recommended that the Board members get a good PDF reader such as Good Reader or Evernote, If You store information on Sky Drive you can have access on your IPad. Chairperson Winchester stated that the time was getting late and asked that the following agenda items be placed on work session agendas in the future. What Every Board Member Should Know About Bonneville School District No. 93 — Chuck Shackett District Vision, Mission, Values — Marjean McConnell Professional Learning Communities (PLC) — Shalene French What Every Board Member Should Know About Governance and Team Operations — Valerie Messick Expulsion Summary Report- Valerie Messick Board Self-evaluation — Annette Winchester She their moved to Board Goal Setting. C. Board Goal Setting — Annette Winchester Dr, Shackett and Mrs. McConnell asked the Board to look at goals information in that section of the School Board Information Manual Increase Student Achievement: This goal goes all the way down to the classroom and the child. Respect at All Levels: The documents show what we are doing to accomplish this goal. Parent Involvement: The team breaks it down so we can accomplish this using SMART Goals It is helpful to us if you have goals that we can rally around. We will look at strong teachers and we are talking about data. We discuss how we will know if students know information they need to know. We hope that student achievement will remain one of the Board's Goals, Dr. Shackett stated that 88% Of Our elementary schools were 4 and 5 Star schools, We are still challenging a few things. He also stated that 82% of all our comprehensive schools are 4 or 5 Star schools. If we are granted our appeals we will be 92% of our elementaries. Star Ratings for elementary to 8th grade schools are based on ISAT scores. The Calculation includes: 25% for the percentage of students scarfing proficient or advanced on ISAT, 25% on subgroup growth, and 50% is based on overall student growth. We are only looking at 41h, 5Ah, and 61h grade students at the elementary schools and at the middle schools Th and 81h grade Students. Kids are put into groups that scored similarly on the ISAT. Then they are compared to others in that group to see how they grew the next year. The intent is to see how they are growing compared to others who scored the same on the ISAT the year before. The higher a kid scores on the ISAT, the less reliable their scores are. High kids don't grow as much. But, compared to other students in the state, our advanced students didn't grow as much as similar students in the state. Kids at our schools need to grow regardless of the clientele at the school. We have discussed some of the things we have found that may have caused our students to drop. Allowing a teacher to go on sabbatical and having a long term sub may have caused the students to not perform as well. Decisions that principals have made allowing teachers to take a leave absence may have been detrimental. Now we can identify through data analysis what the problem really is. We are looking at 6 —8 teachers whose growth was low. One school lost a teacher to Sandcreek and that Sandcreek had phenomenal growth. We are learning things through this information and talking about where we can fine tune what we are doing. We started focusing on data and student growth. There has been a huge benefit as we are using Mile Posts to track Student achievement throughout the school year. Alternative schools are at a disadvantage in the Star Rating calculations because high school ratings require college readiness tests, graduation rate, and advanced opportunity for any scores to count. They need 25 students who are continuously enrolled for their scores to count. Most students don't qualify to go to the alternative school until after the cutoff date. So the calculation only looks at historical data. The graduation rate is much lower because students don't necessarily go to the alternative school to graduate. The overall rating dropped. Student growth was not considered. Alternative school enrollment is fluid. The 1% of kids in 611 through 91h go to Telford Alternative Middle School. They are the most difficult in the District. The PLC's allow differentiation under the Board's Goals, All of our progress is because the Board has allowed the superintendent to try things. It is impressive to have Board goals that allow us to move in the same direction. It has focused our PLC discussions. Some schools have District programs that may have affected their scores. We want to do what is best for kids. We will be moving to Smarter Balance Assessment and our proficiency scores will drop significantly. We can still measure student achievement and our message to everyone is growth using STAR testing with our own District bench mark test administered three times a year. The Board's goals last year focused on achievement, respect and getting parents involved. These were goals the administration could grab hold of and run with. We need to prepare parents for lower test scores, Chairperson. Winchester then led the Board in discussion of Goals for the 2013 — 2014 school year centered around the following topics. Improve Student Achievement Improve Mutual Respect and Safety in Our School Community Learn and Follow Policy Improve Community Awareness Regarding Educational Climate, The Board will continue the discussion of their Goals to refine the language at a work session, Chairperson Winchester asked for a motion regarding the Board's Goals. MOTION: Kip Nelson made the motion to accept the concept of the goals discussed. Jeff Bird seconded, The Vote was 5 in favor with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. Motion passed. IV. Call for Agenda Items for Uocommq Meetings A. Regular Meeting — Wednesday, August 14, 2013 — 7:00 p.m. B. Work Session — Wednesday, August 21, 2013 — District Board Room —11:30 a.m. — 2:30 p.m. C. Opening Meeting — Tuesday August 27, 2013 — Performing Arts Center at Hlilcrest — 8:00 a.m. —11:30 a.m. D. Open House/Dedication — Wednesday, August 28, 2013 — Summit Hills Elementary — 6:30 p.m. E. Regular Meeting — Wednesday, September 11, 2013 — 7:00 p.m. Adiournment Chairperson Winchester asked if there would be a motion to adjourn at 5:33 p.m. MOTION: Jeff Bird made the motion to adjourn, Kip Nelson seconded, The Vote was 5 in favor with 0 ATTESTED: Date: and 0 abstentions, Motion passed. 4t, A: 4 t iirparson