August 2015 School Board Meeting Minutes

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR WAYNE SCHOOL DISTRICT HELD IN THE DISTRICT OFFICE ON MONDAY AUGUST 10TH, 2015 AT 6:00 PM.

Those Present:
Joni Taylor - President
April Torgerson - Vice President
Cory Anderson - Member
Jeffery Chappell - Member
Burke Torgerson - Superintendent
Heather Okerlund - Business Administrator

Absent/Excused:
Curtis Whipple - Member

Conducting: Joni Taylor

ADMINISTRATION

Joni Taylor called the meeting to order. She announced we would begin with the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a reverence from April Torgerson.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:
Joni Taylor said we need to change the phrase 'in work' right above 'move into executive session'. Cory Anderson motioned to approve the minutes as amended, April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Heather Okerlund answered questions about the financial reports and accounts payable.

Joni Taylor asked about check 6048, PO 15001660 for a smart document camera. Heather Okerlund will follow up.

Cory Anderson motioned to accept the accounts payable. April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.

CITIZENS COMMENTS

None

INFORMATION ITEMS

Superintendent's Report: Superintendent turned some time over to Alex Buxton from Zions Bank. Alex described the Voted Local Levy and the amount of taxes we were trying to raise. He also went through the process we would have to go through once we adopt the resolution; the signed resolution needs to go to the Lieutenant Governor by August 20th.

Teacher evaluation overview: Superintendent asked Cherie to come and present some information about the teacher evaluations. Cherie described the Utah Effective Teaching Standards that are implemented into the evaluation tool. Cherie described the implementation process and said the district has been working on implementation for 3 years. Cherie stressed that the evaluation process is about improving teachers and building them up. She also went through some examples of how the evaluation process works and what is required to do it properly. We also discussed that we have to come up with a merit pay program during 2015-2016 for pay changes in the 2016-2017 school year. This is a state requirement and has been in work for a while.

PTO representative/information: There is a new PTO organization and the president is Bekkah Petree. Bekkah has done a lot of volunteering with the elementary school. She said that their initial goals are to help augment the reading program by getting volunteers to help with the new reading program, some office help and library help. They also want to help volunteers get on a scheduled basis and will do some fundraising as there are school needs. Heather clarified that any fundraising needs to be in the name of the PTO, and all volunteers will still need to be background checked. Superintendent asked how this fits into the Community Councils and it basically just augments them.

Sports, fund raising, athletics, football fundraiser: Mary Bray described the reason for the group fundraising (between the High School and the Badger Boosters) and what benefits the sports team gets. Money will be first spent for the banners and then used 53% to the high school and 47% to the badger boosters. Heidi has a schedule of what teams will get which funding which years. Teams will still be allowed to do other fundraisers, but can't go to businesses. Superintendent stressed that he was in favor of the idea, but had some concerns. We signed a contract with Badger Boosters that they would provide everything for the football program. The original contract we signed with Badger Boosters was specifically for football. We need a distinct funds trail for the money raised by the district. The fundraiser as written had the money going directly to the Badger Boosters, an outside organization. After much discussion it was determined that the letter could be re-written to have the Badger Boosters only raise money or the money would have to come through the school district. The interested parties will decide what they want to do and follow up with the Business Administrator before any other letters go out.

Review board evaluation results: Heather Okerlund read the board evaluation results in the meeting and the board decided it would be appropriate to evaluate our progress quarterly.

Update on football field meeting with contractors: Superintendent said that there was one contractor that came to the meeting (request for information meeting for work on the hill next to the track). The contractor recommended doing some dirt work for now. He also recommended that we work from the track back as we go forward with our plans. We need to determine what we are going to do at the track and worry about doing the long term grading later. Superintendent had Shane come and do some work on the area also and that seemed to take care of most of the water. Superintendent said his recommendation was to have the contractor do the grading for less than $2,000 for now and work on developing a more long term solution.

Discussion regarding taxation proposals/increases: Cory Anderson mentioned trying to put information together to take out to the businesses. We also set dates for the meetings in October. Decided on the 14th in Hanksville (in conjunction with the board meeting) and having meetings the 5th, 7th, 12th, 13th in Torrey, Lyman, Bicknell, and Loa. We'll work on reserving locations on the days they are available develop a final schedule to publish on the website. Joni Taylor asked about making the facilities needs assessment available on the website as requested by some individuals in the truth in taxation meeting. Discussed possibly removing some portions of the document to minimize confusion, but ultimately decided to publish the whole document. We also discussed creating the task force and using the contacts we make at the fair to start the group.

Information about adopting a 'buying local' preference in our policies: Discussed the information provided about buying local. Cory Anderson requested that we make it a business item for next month.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Magon Bowling - WMS CrossCountry: Magon presented the information in the last meeting, but clarified that there are 7 freshmen participating. Cory Anderson made a motion to allow the 7th and 8th grade students to participate in Cross Country at the discretion of the coach and the principal. April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.

Heidi Woolsey - Transportation: Heidi presented the information in the last meeting but requested that spouses be allowed to ride the school bus to out of town sporting events for extra supervision on the bus. The board clarified that there would still be no children allowed and Heidi agreed. Discussed possibly opening up the proposal to a second adult, not just a spouse. April Torgerson made a motion to approve a coach plus one adult as a chaperon (having passed a volunteer background check) to ride the bus. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

Lisa Crane - bus request: Lisa is requesting the use of a school bus for a community event. Superintendent handed out a modified bus use indemnity agreement that the county would have to sign. Risk Management said we can provide the bus, but someone else has to provide the insurance and that would be the County in this circumstance. The modified indemnity agreement was given to the county attorney for review. Superintendent felt we could absorb the cost of the driver because the county was allowing us to use the bleachers. Lisa said they would probably need 2 buses. 70 have signed up so far for the half marathon. Jeffery Chappell motioned that we allow the Boulder Mountain Marathon to use district buses according to the bus use indemnity agreement. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor. Jeffery Chappell amended the motion that the approval is pending the approval of Wayne County to approve the indemnity agreement. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

Approve official resolution for Voted Local Levy: Cory Anderson made a motion to approve the resolution that states, 'Resolution of Wayne County Board of Education proposing a special election for purposes of submitting to the voters the question of authorizing a proposed Voted Levy at an annual rate of .000748 per dollar of taxable value.' April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.

Alex Buxton said that Zions has put together a calendar of events for what needs to happen between now and the vote on November 3rd. We can send out a voter information pamphlet. He also mentioned the argument for and against (500 words or less) that needs to be written by a board member. The public can write an argument against. Board submission is due by September 4th. The board thanked Alex Buxton for coming.

Approve WHS and WMS fee schedules: Superintendent said there were no changes from last year. Jeffery Chappell asked how the figures were determined. Superintendent said it was determined by the principals with input from the teachers/clubs. Jeffery Chappell asked about the high fees for some of the sports and we discussed the fee waivers. April Torgerson motioned to approve the fee schedule for WHS and WMS with a change to the dates for WMS (had prior year dates on the document). Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

Third reading and approval of DHA Human Resources Management (Orderly Termination): Burke said there was still some work that needed to be done on the policy before it was approved. April Torgerson made a motion to table the third reading of DHA. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

First reading of new policies DKD, CGJ, FAB, CAE, CBF, GCF: Discussed each of the policies. Cory Anderson made a motion to approve the first reading of DKD, CBJ, FAB, CAE, CBF, and GCR. April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.

Superintendent and Business Administrator contracts: Reviewed both contracts. Cory Anderson made a motion to approve the Superintendent of Schools Contract and the Business Administrators Contract. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

Purchasing card program: Discussed the purchasing card program and potential risks and benefits. April Torgerson motioned to approve Heather Okerlund to open a purchasing credit card in the name of Wayne County School District. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

Transfer $10,000 from the business operating account to the money market account. Discussed the transfer and the reasons for it. Primarily because right now we're getting dormant fees in the account. Cory Anderson made a motion to transfer $10,000 from the business operating account to the money market account. April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.

High Top Administrator Assignment: Superintendent needs to discuss the assignment with the individual before we can move on it. Jeffery Chappell motioned to table the appointment of the High Top Administrator to the next board meeting. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

BOARD MEMBER ITEMS

Cory Anderson asked about how much we would be paying Zions for the work that they have done. We don't have any bills from them yet, but understand it will be lower than we had estimated. He also asked about if the sponsorships were put on the flag and Mary Bray clarified that they were included both on the flag and on the wall. He also asked what the board though about communicating the tax information with the public and we had some discussion regarding the best approaches.

April Torgerson asked about the schedules for WMS. They are still finalizing them but hope to have them out next week.

Joni Taylor asked about the barbeque for the opening institute and if there was anything else we needed to do. Burke said he spoke with the swimming pool about renting it, Cory is bringing the trailer to cook with, and we decided we can use the tables in the lunchroom or people can eat outside on the ball field. Coral will be coordinating most of the food.

Cory Anderson made a motion to go into executive session to discuss personnel. Jeffery Chappell seconded.

Roll Call
Cory Anderson - Aye
April Torgerson - Aye
Jeffery Chappell - Aye
Joni Taylor - Aye

Executive session had Rick McCartney, LeEllen McCartney, Heidi Woolsey, and David VanDyke present.

Joni Taylor declared us back in open meeting at 1:20 am.

BUSINESS ITEMS:
Hire new personnel: April Torgerson made a motion to hire Andrea Peterson and Tina Faddis as paraprofessionals and to approved Colleen Gardner as a time special education teacher. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

Joni Taylor read a letter of resignation from Laci Grundy. April Torgerson made a motion to accept Laci Grundy's letter of resignation. Jefferey Chappell seconded. All in favor.

April Torgerson motioned to adjourn. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

Meeting adjourned at 1:30 am.