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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-18-2015 Minutes Special Meeting-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 Ucon Elementary March 18, 2015 11:30 AM I. Call to Order Chairperson Winchester called the meeting to order at 11:30 a.m. II. Roll Call Those Board members in attendance were Chairperson Annette Winchester, Vice-chairperson Kip Nelson, Treasurer Amy Landers, and Trustee Brian McBride. Trustee Jeff Bird was not in attendance. Others in attendance were Superintendent Chuck Shackett, Deputy Superintendent Marjean McConnell, Director of School Improvement and Technology Scott Woolstenhulme, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Michaelena Hix, Communications Liaison Phil Campbell, Director of Plant Facility/Purchasing Roger Hill, Chief Financial/Operations Officer April Burton, Director of Safe Schools, Director of Food Services Heather Plain, Financial Specialist Joey Hodgson, and Board Clerk Valerie Messick III. Welcome Visitors and Delegations Chairperson Winchester welcomed the following: Holly Giglio, Stephanie Gifford, Sally Price, Tammie McCammon, Heidi Southwick, Karla Harris, Renee Cook, and Katie Davenport. IV. Amend/Approve the Agenda Chairperson Winchester read the Motion and Order to Amend the Agenda and asked for a motion to amend the agenda as stated. MOTION: Kip Nelson made the motion to amend the agenda as stated. Amy Landers seconded. The vote was 4 in favor, with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. The Motion was carried. Chairperson Winchester then asked for a motion to approve the agenda as amended. MOTION: Brian McBride made the motion to approve the agenda as amended. Kip Nelson seconded. The vote was 4 in favor, with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. The Motion was carried. V. Consent Calendar A. Technology Surplus Items B. Anonymous Alerts Agreement Chairperson Winchester asked if there were any questions from the Board with regard to the Consent Calendar. Hearing none, she then asked for a motion with regard to the consent calendar. MOTION: Amy Landers made the motion to approve the Consent Calendar. Kip Nelson seconded. The vote was 4 in favor, with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. The Motion was carried. VI. State of the District Report and Bid Award for HHS Network Replacement - Scott Woolstenhulme Chairperson Winchester asked Mr. Woolstenhulme to give the state of the District Report along with Bid Award for Hillcrest High School’s network replacement. We had a switch with our internet service provider this year. Luckily we were a head of the game compared with the rest of the state. We made the technical switch at Christmas Break and when the state provider license was rescinded, we had already made the change. We are now needing to make a few changes with the eRate program. Looking back over the last decade, we have been increasing our band width continually. This is a function of the number of students, devices, and applications. Last year, we jumped up from about 150 megs to about 300 megs. Within the next month, we are hoping to reconnect with cable one and that will bring us up to about 400 megs. As we look at having every student in every classroom being able to connect to the network, that is not sufficient. We will need to move upward to about a gig based on national studies. Next year we should have the opportunity to increase to about 1.2 gigs. Right now we have computers in the schools connected to our network. We do not currently have enough band width to connect personal devices wirelessly to the network. We are also looking at putting our camera systems on the network as well as our intercom systems. Right now we have each elementary connected back to the Tech Center with 1 gig and our high schools are on a 10 gig connection. This is significantly higher than three years ago. We have a strong robust fiber optic network that is connecting our schools at this time and it will allow for increased band width. This year, we would like to award a contract to Silver Star to be our primary internet provider. Since Christmas our provider was the City of Ammon and before that time it was ENA. Silver Star gave us a bid for a one gig connection that is very affordable and we will still have supplemental connections in case something happens with Silver Star we will still have back up connection with Cable One and Iron. Silver Star will have to use the City of Ammon’s connection to get to us. We had seven responses to our RFP for internet providers. We separated the RFP requesting at least 100 megs for our elementary schools, at least 100 for our middle schools, and at least 100 for our high schools. We did it this way so that if IEN ever comes back on line, we will still have connections to our elementary schools. Silver Star was the least expensive and could provide service to us cheaper than the City of Ammon. The City of Ammon was the fourth most expensive rate. Silver Star is giving us a great rate at $1500 per month and $18,000 per year. Our net cost through eRate is only $5400. Mr. Woolstenhulme asked the Board to approve the bid from Silver Star so he can submit that to eRate for this coming year. Silver Star has had great reliable service to their customers in the Teton Valley and in Jackson. Part of the RFP was to guarantee 99.99% up time which is basically industry standard. They will have presence here and will be able to provide service if necessary. In the RFP, they have a guaranteed response time of four hours if something breaks. We also have the backup circuits if something does go down. We would lose the speed but would still have 200 megs of connectivity without that and we would still be functional. The other big thing is to install wireless into our classrooms. There have been things that have happened this year that will make this affordable to us. The eRate funding has increased this year. Everyone is eligible for the internal connections this year where they haven’t been before. The cap is $150 per student, per school for five years. This doesn’t get everything we need but gets us in the ballpark. We are looking at putting about 20 access points into our elementary schools. The cost to put in just the access points is $13,300. X 14 schools = $186.800 districtwide. eRate will pay $130,000 of that cost and we will have to come up with $56,000 as our portion of the cost. Just putting access points in does not solve the problem. We will need to make sure our switches are up to speed so they can handle the additional traffic. That is about seven per elementary school and we have eight schools that will need to be rewired. Our six new elementary schools that we have built recently are fine. We are looking at about $15,000 per school for rewiring. All that is eRate eligible at 70% of the cost that would be reimbursable. We would be liable for 30% of the cost. A lot of this funding will come out of the existing Plant Facility Budget. We have already taken care of Rocky Mountain Middle School. We put wireless in the ir classrooms this year and rewired the year before. We have a commitment to get Sandcreek wireless access this year because they are the only secondary school that doesn’t have it. We are looking at $14,000 on the access points and we have the rewiring out as an RFP that closes tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. That will also need to be submitted for eRate. We were required to put wifi in every high school and the reason we did Rocky Mountain as well is because we closed two computer labs and turned them into classrooms. We replaced the labs with mobile carts. Sandcreek was not in that position last year but will be this coming year. So between the wireless access points and the rewiring, we will use up all the eRate money that Sandcreek is eligible for. Hillcrest and Bonneville will need their networks replaced. We are planning on leveraging plant facilities moneys that was freed up by the Board from land purchase funds. We have the bid back for Hillcrest and that is $284,450.00 for Hillcrest. Our portion after eRate kicks in will be about $285,000 for both high schools. The only problem is that we don’t know if we will get the eRate funding. They have promised it but we won’t know until September. We need to get Hillcrest rewired now. So, we will be laying out the $285,000 from Plant Facilities and hoping that the Federal Government will come through with their promises or if not, we will be a little bit behind with replacing the network at Bonneville. We will put Bonneville out to bid next year and at that point we will know whether we have the eRate funding. It all comes down to how much money is requested versus how much is in the eRate budget. We had our request in by the deadline but then they extended the deadline because there was only 30% of the requests they expected. Everything points to the fact that we should get the reimbursement but nothing is sure until the check gets here. There was a question regarding whether using Plant Facilities moneys would put something else in jeopardy. The leadership team talks about plant facility funding each year. If the state continues to fund technology we should be ok. The money that would be used for rewiring would come from bond money that can be used toward plant facilities instead of being used to purchase property. We had this planned and then eRate came along with increased funding that will help us get the upgrades we need. Mrs. Burton stated that the administration came to the Board in October, anticipating what the needs would be and knowing that we still had bond funds available and looking at the question that allowed us to do technology upgrades as opposed to purchasing land. The Board approved that use of the available funds. If we get eRate funding, it will help us leverage bond funds more effectively. There was a question regarding whether we have to do anything differently in wiring for portables. We have wiring going underground to the portables now so we wouldn’t have to do anything different for them. It will just be internal wiring. The leadership team sits together and prioritize all the plant facility requests. We have quit a reliance on technology so this would be one of the high priority projects as opposed to something else in the District. Safety will be first and then looking at technology upgrades as second and maybe get by with delaying some other projects. Mr. Woolstenhulme asked for two things from the Board. (1) Accept the bid from Systems Tech to do the rewire for Hillcrest and (2) accept the bid from Silver Star do our ISP for the next three years. When we accept three year contracts, it really gets the price down. Chairperson Winchester asked for two separate motions. One for Systems Tech to rewire Hillcrest High School and one for Silver Star to provide our band width. She asked if there were any other questions or concerns from the Board. Chairperson Winchester called for a motion to accept the bid from Systems Tech to rewire Hillcrest High School. MOTION: Kip Nelson made the motion to accept the bid from Systems Tech to rewire Hillcrest High School. Brian McBride seconded. The vote was 4 in favor, with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. The Motion was carried. Chairperson Winchester then called for a motion to accept Silver Star as our band width provider for a three year contract. MOTION: Brian McBride made the motion to accept Silver Star as our preferred vendor for three years. Amy Landers seconded. The vote was 4 in favor, with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. The Motion was carried. VII. Items for Discussion A. Professional Standards Commission Information - April Burton We were updating board policy related to the code of ethics. There was a question regarding possible violation if we allow coaches to run summer camps using school facilities and/or equipment. We contacted the Professional Standards Commission and asked them specifically about that concern. We asked if it was a code of ethics violation based on the fact that they were receiving payment for doing something that they do during the school year. The response was that the camps are outside the normal seasons, so it is outside the scope of their normal duties with the District and it is not a violation as long as we treat the coaches the same as any other user of our facilities. We need to be consistent in treatment of the coach run summer camps and other groups using the facilities. We charge other groups that are working with our students a community rate and we should do the same for the summer camps. In other words, we should be charging the coaches for using the facilities. We have been working with the Athletic Directors, principals, and coaches for the last couple of years regarding the fees that will be charged. This should be ready to go for this summer. Mr. Nelson wondered if there is something that can be done when teachers focus on coaching and not so much on the subject matter. Kids then suffer because of this action. Is there something in the professional standards that will help the teachers be more accountable? Now 33% of student achievement is on teacher assessment and will help focus people. Mrs. McConnell asked to move the Code of Ethics policy along since it has been on hold. The Code of Ethics will not change because it is the State Code Ethics but our behavior may need to change. It is still in 30-day and Mrs. McConnell would like to put into final at the April Board Meeting unless the Board has any reservations. She feels that it is important to get that policy adopted and in our policy manual. That was agreeable to the Board. Mrs. McConnell will move that policy to final reading for the April Board Meeting. Financing for profit and non-profit camps - Carl Friesen Chairperson Winchester stated that Carl Friesen was unable to attend and asked Mr. McBride to read a statement from Mr. Friesen. He is a freshman volleyball coach at Hillcrest. He also has a club that is involving students from the school. His concern is why he would be viewed different than the Sandcreek staff when they request open gyms for Sandcreek kids. Sandcreek staff do not get charged when they make requests but he does get charged. Open gym is not a club activity but an opportunity to get the kids in the gym playing. He is concerned about the fairness between an insider and an outsider. The schools are charging for open gym time but not for the established school programs. This needs to be up to policy and not up to the principal. There are some who have off season clubs that do not get charged because it is viewed as a school activity. There appears to be an inconsistency between those that are calling it a school activity and those who are requiring payment for a non-school activity. We need to try to be consistent and clarification from the schools. There are a lot of variation on usage of school facilities. People are using an agreement that was made 20 years ago. We need to look at programs and district-wide. It needs to be consistent. Who pays and who doesn’t needs to be a Board, District policy. Some of what we are fighting is historical precedence. We will talk to principals and ask them to be consistent in administering the policy. The grandfathering idea is pertinent but should not be the guiding principle with regard to this matter. B. Bond Resolution - Chuck Shackett Chairperson Winchester asked Dr. Shackett to discuss the Bond Resolution with the Board. Dr. Shackett talked about District 91 being in the same position as we are in, having two bonds fail. They needed to put something to rest that was something the opposition kept bringing up. That was the consolidation issue. They did a study and found that it was not a good idea to consolidate because it would cost more per year to run the combined district. We are in a similar position with the opposition’s concern regarding lava rock at the proposed new high school site. We feel that it won’t be a huge problem because the previous owner did some digging and there was about a 4% contingency put in the bond and part of that was in case we did run into lava rock. Another part of the contingency was a site layout. That is in the event that you run into lava or you have to put up a signal light or pay for acceleration lanes, or other things you don’t know about when the bond is put out for election. After we put out the $56.1 million cost for the high school including the contingency, we had two meetings with community members that would be impacted by the high school being put in there, Through that process we came up with the layout of the high school so we could take some of the contingency out. We didn’t do a geotechnical study of the land because of the cost. But given the fact that this a growing concern, we want to put this to rest. Mr. Hill has arranged to get this study done now because we were going to do it after the bond passed anyhow. Mr. Hill has been in contact with MTI which is the Materials Testing Company that we have used in the past. They are going to dig about 10 holes realizing now that we have a site plan, where the utilities will come in and where the building will sit. The study tells the engineers how they will need to put in the footings and foundation on that property. We will have a documented report regarding their findings. If the result comes back saying that we do not have a problem with lava, that would give us an area in the contingency that we could probably take out. We could run the bond again, not taking anything out of the school but taking a certain percentage out of the contingency with the new facts that we have gathered. Mr. Woolstenhulme has talked to the architects to see how much of the contingency could be taken out if lava is not a problem. They felt comfortable that we could eliminate about $625,000. The new estimate would be $55,361,260. That reduction would be around 1%. He did an apples to apples comparison with Rigby and Madison with this high school. Construction costs require a 4% inflation per year. When we do that, we are coming out right between Rigby and Madison. We are developing more of the site than either of those schools did. We are looking at developing full practice fields and tennis court where they did not. The difference is when you are developing a full site as opposed to using existing facilities. There was a question regarding if the contingencies work in our favor could we do things to the high school that we would like to do. As we are looking at revising the bond question, we would like to remove the catch all statement and reduce the amount. Then anything left over would have to go into the development of the high school or we could go back out to the voters to decide what that money could be used for. We could have an add-alternate if we want to put any left over money into the high school. The funding could be very dependent on the economy as well Hopefully, if the Board is so inclined, we will go out with a lesser amount and take the last phrase out of the question. That would do a few things. It would say we have listened. It is not the same bond. Hopefully with this change, we might have 100% support on the school board. We definitely need to take the last phrase out. We are just proposing that the Board consider this and have another meeting to consider the proposal. Maybe sometime next week because all this needs to be submitted to the elections office by March 30th which is Monday. Hopefully the Board could have another vote. Mr. McBride asked Mrs. Southwick if she felt this type of change would make a difference. She feels the amount of money is small and would make a difference but if there could be a unanimous board vote that could make a significant difference. A unified decision would be more important than the dollar amount. Chairperson Winchester does not have a problem with taking the verbiage off because she doesn’t think there will be any money left over and the Board debated whether to put the language in the question. Mr. Woolstenhulme stated that the architect had no problem if there is lava. They usually build the site up anyway and if it is underneath the school it is a great foundation to build on. His only concern was with utilities having to go through the lava. Dynamiting it or boring through it is not uncommon. He feels really comfortable with removing $500,000 from the contingency if there is no lava found would not hurt us at all. There was discussion regarding adding an additional classroom shell if there is additional money and not reducing the contingency. We can use 100% of the money for anything to do with the high school. It is better to do an add-alternate than to have a change order .because it is much cheaper. If you have add-alternates, you can evaluate along the way and decide whether to do it or not depending on the funding available. Mr. Nelson stated that if we kept the $500,000 in contingency, we would be able to add on the extra wing for a good price even though it would not be finished. We will schedule a Special Meeting on Monday 30th at 3:30 p.m. here at the District Office. That should give us enough time to get any changes to the County Elections Office by 5:00 p.m. C. Dress Code - Marjean McConnell Chairperson Winchester asked Mrs. McConnell to discuss dress code modifications with the Board. Mrs. McConnell stated that we started talking about the dress and grooming part of the Code of Student Conduct earlier this year when the studentbody president at Bonneville asked the Board to consider allowing students to wear hats at school. When we talked to administration, they felt that banning hats is really important for safety reasons. On 2.7.7.d she suggested that leggings and bike shorts be removed as non-acceptable clothing. She also recommended that we take out the word morals in the last sentence of the description because that can be interpreted many different ways. The last request was to change the word immodest to revealing in 2.7.7.c. If we are not going to enforce it, we don’t want it in the Student Code of Conduct because it causes problems. These changes will be more descriptive of what we are really looking for as unacceptable dress and would become effective next fall. We will introduce this in initial reading in April to be consistent in how we change policy. The Board is comfortable with moving the changes through the process for next fall. D. Senior Corps Volunteers Program – Michaelena Hix Chairperson Winchester asked Mrs. Hix to discuss the Senior Corps Volunteer Program with the Board. Mrs. Hix stated that the District has been approached by a group that would like to bring in some retirees to work in our schools. We have had grandparents before but not this particular program. We would write a job description for what we needed such as clerical work or mentoring students in reading, etc. They would then match the expertise of the retiree to the job. No cost to the District. It is a win, win situation because we are always looking for extra help. The program is run with grant money but the volunteers do not get paid for their services. We will need to submit a time card for the individuals and train them to do the job we want them to do. They will be finger printed just like anybody else that would come into the schools to work with students. We cover the cost of fingerprinting volunteers. The Senior Corps Group will cover insurance for the volunteers. These are people that are well educated that would like to give back to the community. The Board had no concerns with moving forward with the idea. E. Board Retreat Date and Location The Board will need to coordinate with the two new Board Members about when to hold the retreat. Mrs. McConnell will look at scheduling Harriman State Park for the retreat. Chairperson Winchester asked if any Board Member had anything to add to an upcoming agenda. VIII. Call for Agenda Items for Upcoming Meetings A. Regular Meeting - Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - 7:00 p.m. B. Work Session - Bonneville Student Council - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - Bonneville High School Media Center - 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. C. Work Session - Lincoln Student Council - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - Lincoln High School Room #3 - 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. D. Work Session - Hillcrest Student Council - Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - Hillcrest High School Media Center - 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. E. Regular Meeting - Wednesday, May 13, 2015 - 7:00 p.m. IX. Adjournment Chairperson Winchester asked for a motion to adjourn. MOTION: Amy Landers made the motion to adjourn. Brian McBride seconded. The vote was 4 in favor, with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. The Motion was carried. APPROVED: ______________________________________ Chairperson ATTESTED: _______________________________________ Clerk Date: _______________________