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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-28-2015 Minutes Special Session-Work SessionDr. Charles J. Shackett, Superintendent 3497 North Ammon Road, Idaho Falls, Idaho, 83401  (208) 525-4400  Fax (208) 529-0104  www.d93schools.org Board of Trustees  Annette Winchester  Kip Nelson  Amy Landers  Brian McBride  Jeff Bird Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 is an Equal Opportunity Employer Marjean McConnell, Deputy Superintendent Special Meeting/Work Session Iona Elementary Media Center January 28, 2015 11:30 AM I. Call to Order Chairperson Winchester called the meeting to order at 11:33 a.m. II. Roll Call Those Board members in attendance were Chairperson Annette Winchester, Vice-chairperson Kip Nelson, Treasurer Amy Landers, Trustee Jeff Bird, and Trustee Brian McBride. Others in attendance were Superintendent Chuck Shackett, Deputy Superintendent Marjean McConnell, Energy Education Specialist Don Trauntvein, Director of School Improvement and Technology Scott Woolstenhulme, Communications Liaison Phil Campbell, Director of Human Resources Shalene French, Director of Food Services Heather Plain, Director of Safe Schools John Pymm, Director of Plant Facility/Purchasing Roger Hill, Chief Financial/Operations Officer April Burton, and Board Clerk Valerie Messick III. Welcome Visitors and Delegations Chairperson Winchester welcomed the following: Lo Ann Belnap, Renee Cook, Gary Marshall, R. Jay Taylor, Karla Harris, Bran Johnson, and Jamee Jolley. IV. Approve the Agenda Chairman Winchester asked for a motion to approve the agenda. MOTION: Brian McBride made the motion to approve the Agenda. Jeff Bird seconded. The vote was 5 in favor with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. Motion was carried. V. Consent Calendar A. Trip Request - TCHS to travel to Boise to present in front of the Senate Education Committee - January 29, 2015 to January 30, 2015 B. Approve amending approved HHS Ski and Snow Board Trip to Big Sky Resort to travel March 5 and March 6 instead of February 20 and 21. C. Technology Surplus Items Chairperson Winchester asked if any Board Member would like to remove any item from the Consent calendar to the Regular Agenda. Chairperson Winchester asked if any Board Member had any questions with regard to the Consent Calendar. Chairperson Winchester then asked for a motion with regard to the Consent Calendar. MOTION: Amy Landers made the motion to approve the Consent Calendar. Brian McBride seconded. The vote was 5 in favor with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. Motion was carried. VI. Items for Discussion A. Bond Next Steps – Chuck Shackett Chairperson Winchester asked the Board Members to sign up to attend the activities that have been scheduled. The administration will take over from there to schedule individuals to attend the various locations and events. Some of the facilities committee as well as the finance committee have signed up to attend some of these meetings. We may not know who is coming from those committees but they will just show up. She suggested that cottage meetings could be scheduled for the last week in February and the first week in March. We only need a board member and an administrator to attend the cottage meetings. Mrs. Winchester will schedule meetings in her zone. Mrs. Landers will schedule for her zone. The PTO presidents will schedule through Mrs. Southwick. She then asked Dr. Shackett to talk about the next steps the Board needs to take toward the Bond election. Not a lot of new stuff that the Board is not aware of. We need to schedule meetings at some of the retirement homes. Dr. Shackett has asked Mr. Campbell to set up those meetings. We need to bring some elementary kids to perform for them. Jay Taylor brought a possible land swap opportunity. Mr. Hill is doing some research on land appraisals, etc. Jay Taylor introduced Gary Marshall who will be available answer specific questions. He talked about the natural water flow and the storm water drainage could go to the corner of the pond. The District could continue to expand the pond and build athletic fields in the bottom. There is a piece of property owned by the District that is about the same size. Mr. Taylor would like to swap the land if possible. The sewers are deep and there is lots of water. He left copies of the maps of the area with the Board. Mr. Marshall talked about the sewer and water access. Mr. Taylor will need about 100,000 cubic feet for run off that will comes from existing streets in his subdivision. Mr. Marshall asked that any agreement would allow that access. He suggested that the District do their homework regarding the rock and bedrock in the area. You can build on bedrock but running utilities under it is the problem. Mr. Hill will have further discussion in executive session. The Board will look into this proposal and consider this option. Mr. Taylor is in support of the high school and does not believe that property values will go down because of the school location. She thanked Mr. Taylor and Mr. Marshall for attending the meeting. B. Scheduling Board Members to attend Bond Discussions - Annette Winchester Chairperson Winchester worked with the Board to schedule members to attend the various discussions and meetings being held throughout the District. C. Policy Adoption Requests 1. Trip Supervision - Annette Winchester Chairperson Winchester spoke to the Board regarding the need for a supervision policy. We need to start working on this policy and set it before the Board. Then it will be up to the principals and teachers to understand what they need to do. 2. High School Athletic Schedule Approval - April Burton Chairperson Winchester asked Mrs. Burton to talk to the Board about adopting the High School Winter and Spring Sports Schedules. There is a policy that the Board will approve all high school sports schedules. She asked that the Board approve these schedules. Dr. Shackett suggested that we have the athletic directors ask for Board approval of the sports schedules as soon as soon as they have established them. The Board also needs to approve travel to the state competitions because they are overnight trips. Mrs. Burton asked the Board ratify the winter and spring sports schedules. Chairperson Winchester asked for a motion to accept the winter and spring sports schedules for both Bonneville and Hillcrest. Motion: Kip Nelson made the motion to accept the athletic schedules as presented. Jeff Bird seconded. The vote was 5 in favor with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. Motion was carried Chairperson Winchester asked to put the state tournaments for the remainder of the school year on consent calendar for the February 11th Regular Meeting. The schedules will come to the Board as soon as they are established. D. Implementation of District Testing Policy - Scott Woolstenhulme Chairperson Winchester asked Mr. Woolstenhulme to discuss the implementation of the District Testing policy. We updated the assessment policy last spring to be in compliance with State Board Policy. It states that all students are required to participate in testing. We still have a few parents that don’t want students to participate in the state tests. In particular the ISAT provided by the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium. We need to have a common sense approach on how we handle the situation when parents do not their children to participate. We talked to high school principals and came up with a plan and then presented the plan to all principals. We will schedule all students to take test. At this point, parents will need to excuse their student from school on the day of the test if they do not want them to participate. That will be four different tests and could be up to four mornings or four afternoons at the middle school or four class periods at the high schools. If the parent tells us that they are refusing to allow the student to take a test, they will be asked to sign a form to take responsibility and their student won’t be rescheduled to take the test. The form lets parents know the implications of that decision. Once they sign the form, we won’t reschedule the students. This form tells us that parents don’t want us to reschedule their student to take the test. The form lets parents know that this may impact the District’s ability to identify students for support and enhancement programs. At grade 11, students will be required to complete the ISAT test pursuant to IDAPA Rule. That will impact those students whose parents don’t want them participate. The board rule is there unless they have received exemption from the State Board of Education. There was a question regarding what Madison School District is proposing to replace the SBAC. The replacement test is the MAP Assessment out of Northwest Educators. NEW were the original vendors for the ISAT. Then there was a contract change to use DRC. Now the contract is with SBAC. The STAR assessment that we use in the District for benchmark testing far out scored the MAP test. Neither test assesses the common core standards at the depth of thinking that we are trying to assess with the SBAC. The MAP is just multiple choice. The new ISAT test requires writing, manipulating graphs for math, etc. There is no assessment of deeper knowledge with the MAP test. We are getting push back from teachers on the STAR assessment because the kids don’t have enough time because it is a timed test and we have been teaching kids to take time to analyze the questions. That is a good sign and we will have to find another test to assess what the students have been taught to do. You can assess standards with multiple choice test but not deep level of thinking and understanding. The SBAC is designed to assess that level of thinking. The SAT and ACT will make this type of move to more authentic tests. The more authentic an assessment is the more effective it is. We want it to be right for our kids. We don’t want to jump into something that is not going to solve the problem. Passing the ISAT in order to graduate is still a state requirement. It will only impact at 11th grade students. Maybe we need to add a sentence in the form stating that it “will impact” instead of “may impact”. Mr. Woolstenhulme will strengthen the language. So students can not show up to take the test. But, in 11th grade they will be required to take the test and pass it in order to graduate. If people chose to excuse their student during testing, that will impact Star Rating because of the participation requirement. That would then impact federal funding to the District. It is a federal requirement to have a 95% rate of participation in the testing. The state can lose funding and would impact the District. It would impact our Free and Reduced Lunch, Breakfast, and Backpack program funding as well as Title 1, Title 2, and Title 3 that allow academic support for students. It may also affect Special Education funding. We could lose professional development, migrant, LEP, IDA, and food program funding. There is a significant amount of Federal dollars that flow to our District and that are used to help kids who are struggling. It could hurt a lot of kids in a lot of our schools. We are required by both State and Federal to participate in the testing program. If parents are refusing to allow their students to participate in state testing, they will be aware of the consequents. This gives the schools the opportunity to not reschedule the student for testing and not play tug- o-war with the students. These forms will be kept in the student’s cum file so we have a record. E. Web page Advertisement - Scott Woolstenhulme Mr. Woolstenhulme discussed the possibility of soliciting advertisements for certain web page applications. We are not looking at putting these on the Home page. We are looking into online registration so parents could avoid all the paperwork and congestion that is a result of registration practices in the District. It would help us keep the data in PowerSchool updated more quickly and accurately as well. We are looking at a vendor that will provide a portal that integrates with PowerSchool and would allow parents to register their students online. I costs about $20,000 -$25,000 per year. The first year is $15,000 to $20,000 to get started. Advertisements specifically for the portal would be a possible way to generate revenue to get the portal started and keep it going. Mr. Woolstenhulme wants to explore the feasibility of opening the registration portal instead of printing off pages for parents to fill out. Parents could also pay the fees with a debit card online. It would clean up the process. There was concern that it seems like a lot of money. It would cost more than that if we had a web programmer hired to do that type of web development for us. This portal program is a partner with PowerSchool and the information shows up in PowerSchool. That saves data entry and time as well. There would be links to the advertiser’s site. There was a question regarding whether we can add a disclaimer and whether we can decide who we would allow to advertise. We have the right to decline a possible advertiser. Mr. Woolstenhulme is not sure how much revenue it would generate. The Board’s disposition was that it is ok to look into it. The concept should save secretarial time and alleviate congestion with registration. We would still need hard copies of immunizations and birth certificates. Down the road we could change to electronic copies of these as well. F. Email Accounts for students - Scott Woolstenhulme Mr. Woolstenhulme then discussed the possibility of creating email accounts for students. We did this before and it didn’t work for a number of good reasons. He wants to open this option up again using Google Apps. One of the primary reasons for using Google Apps is chrome books. They are light weight, run on the internet, and interface with cloud based services and google docs that students need to have. Students need email addresses to access these programs. We will start at middle school and high school levels. Elementary will be available in the future with parental permission. There was a question regarding the progress of the wireless internet connection at Sandcreek. We are submitting our E-Rate request tomorrow. That plan includes completing wireless at Sandcreek and completely rewiring Hillcrest. We have identified four elementary schools to go wireless. If E-Rate funding comes through in August, they will proceed with the elementary schools. Hopefully we will have wireless in every classroom within two years if the E-Rate funding comes through. They will work on putting wireless into every classroom at Sandcreek this fall and then push it District-wide. We can set up internal controls. There was a question regarding the cost of Chrome Books. To get one that will last and has the functionality, you are looking at about $400 - $500 apiece. There was a question regarding how the email accounts would be distributed. At the high school level, they would provide them for everyone and let parents opt-out if they want. We can set up controls if we want so they would only be internal email addresses. Mr. Woolstenhulme would like the Board to think about those kinds things and then provide him with direction and guidance for next school year. The email addresses would be at d93mail.com. There needs to be plenty of parental input on this. They did an opt- in at Sandcreek because it was new. We will either do opt-in or opt-out depending on what direction the Board wants us take. We can set them up to only function internally if the Board would like. The advantage of more than internal is functionality. If the Chrome Book is fully functional the likely hood that the students will use it is much higher. Please give input to Mr. Woolstenhulme. They will be working on it over the next few months to get everything set up. He will make a recommendation as to whether the parents will opt-in or opt-out at the secondary level. There was a request to know what other districts are doing with regard to internal or external email access. Mr. Woolstenhulme will do some checking on that. Chairperson Winchester thanked Mr. Woolstenhulme and asked the Board had any questions or concerns. Hearing none, she moved into the next agenda item. G. Right At School After School Program – Chuck Shackett Chairperson Winchester asked Dr. Shackett to discuss the after school program. Several years ago he wanted to have a full service after and before program at the elementary schools from 6:00 a/m to 7:00 p.m. the same as Coeur d’Alene school district. Parents could drop their kids off and go to work. There would be a program for the kids in the morning and a program for them at night. He was at a workshop and saw a company called Right at School. They do morning, after school, and even recess. They give the District back a portion of the money. The executive team and elementary principals listened to them. The majority of the principals are interested. The company will do a survey to ascertain the level of interest in the school community. Basically we are interested in the after school program where kids can stay at the school and not need to be transported to daycare after school. Parents can pick students up until 7:00 p.m. It is $4 -$5 per hour. They give 5% back to the schools. He would like to do a survey after the bond election to see what the interest would be. If there are 20 parents interested, the will come into the school and take care of everything. The program is also available in the summer. They also offer an enrichment portion. There was a question about the possibility of Cloverdale getting the after school grant. They wrote it last year and were not accepted. They have worked to strengthen the application and have resubmitted it. Sometimes you have to apply two or three times before the grant is awarded. Because it is a grant, it would be a free after-school program. There are many kids who do not have anyone to go home to and no one pays for daycare. The grant would be a great opportunity for those families. Right after School provides activities. It is not just babysitting. Students would be able to stay at their own elementary. In the summer, there might only be one school location. The goal is that the kids will be done with their home work when the parents pick them up and they don’t have to travel to day care after school. There will be tutors available. The company will screen employees and will carry liability insurance. Adam King, Chief Operating Officer for Right At School gave an overview of the program. Their program runs from the time the school bell rings until 7:00 p.m. every day that school is in session. They offer after school, before school, vacation day, professional development day, winter, spring break, and summer camps. Afterschool time is a very intentional approach. At first, they have a town hall meeting where they go over the rules and the schedules. Students review curriculum options and their choices for the day. They then have a healthy snack and participate in their first fitness period of about 5 to 10 minutes to get the wiggles out. Then they go into homework zone where they focus on completion of their homework. It is a partnership with parents who will still check the homework and work with their student. Students then move into the curriculum block. These are two week curriculum units that are aligned to state standards. The program makes after school learning time different. They expand the learning time and make it fun and exciting. Then the students participate in another fitness or sports activity for the rest of the afternoon. This program has transformative properties that includes fitness where kids have fun and can make choices .This called the Right Club Program. They also offer the enrichment on demand program. This for families who do not need everyday care but would like their students to be involved in enrichment opportunities. These are one day a week enrichment classes that go from 10 to 12 weeks. They work with vendors in your community. Parents can sign up for these online. They have three trimesters a year. Their goal is to take the headache, planning, and coordination off the principals and the district. They put an emphasis on cleanliness. If a problem arises, they will address it. They will attend all of the Board Meetings so they can be a part of the fabric of the community. They hear what is going on and then try to make the programs better. They will also continuously survey the parents in order to make the program better. All programs are parent paid. There are two programs: the Right Club is every day with a cost of $4 to $5 per hour. Separate from that is the Enrichment Program which is on demand classes. Those are typically $10 per class. So, the whole cost for a 10-12 week class would be around $100. They use local providers and they must be licensed to operate in the schools. They need to have proper insurance. The student to adult ratio is dictated by the state. It typically run about 1:12 or 1:15. They meet licensing standards for the state. There was a question regarding what space in school they use. They are flexible and will work in any licensable space. They work with each principal to find out what space works best. They may license three or spaces so they can be flexible and move around. There was a question regarding how they deal with parents who want it to be a day care and what happens if a parent is late to pick up their child. Their policy is that, if a parent is more than 5 minutes late it is a dollar per minute after that grace period. It is something that is addressed at the parent level but has never been a major issue. They will call the emergency contact to make sure everything is ok. If the time goes over an hour or two they will get hold of the local authorities to make sure that nothing has happened. There was a question regarding authorization to pick up a child. Before the child attends, parents must supply emergency information including who is authorized to pick up the child. There was a question regarding how they determine the interest in the program. They have an online survey that they ask the principal to send out the link to all parents at the specific school. Usually within 72 hours they are able to determine parent interest. They need at least 20 parents per school to make it happen. The 2nd year is always the biggest growth year. Chairperson Winchester stated that we will revisit this proposal later. Dr. Shackett wants to do surveys after the bond election to see if there is enough interest to pursue the program. It would help kids that have to go home to nothing. The Board will get the video and go over it. Chairperson Winchester announced that the Board would enter into executive session for the following reasons pursuant to Idaho Code Section 67-2345 (1)(b) To consider the evaluation, dismissal or disciplining of, or to hear complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member or individual agent, or public school student and Idaho Code Section 67-2345 (1)(c) To consider deliberations to acquire an interest in real property which is not owned by a public agency The Executive Session will be closed to the public as permitted by law.. The roll call vote was Jeff Bird Yes Kip Nelson Yes Amy Landers Yes Brian McBride Yes Annette Winchester Yes The Board then moved into the conference room to conduct executive session. The Board returned to open meeting at 2:17 p.m. VII. Call for Agenda Items for Upcoming Meetings A. Regular Meeting - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - 7:00 p.m. B. ISBA Day on the Hill - Monday February 16 - Tuesday February 17, 2015 - Boise, Idaho C. Work Session - Wednesday, February 25, 2015 - Mountain Valley Elementary - 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. D. Regular Meeting - Wednesday, March 11, 2015 - 7:00 p.m. E. Work Session - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - Ucon Elementary - 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. VIII. Adjournment The Board adjourned at 2:17 p.m. APPROVED: _____________________ Chairperson ATTESTED: _______________________ Clerk Date: _______________________