September 8th, 2015 School Board Meeting Minutes

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR WAYNE SCHOOL DISTRICT HELD IN THE DISTRICT OFFICE ON TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH, 2015 AT 6:00 PM.

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

Absent/Excused:
Joni Taylor - President

Conducting: April Torgerson

ADMINISTRATION

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

Curtis Whipple offered a reverence.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:
There were some typo's that need to be corrected. Cory Anderson motioned to approve the August 10th meeting minutes as amended. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

Curtis Whipple made a motion to approve the minutes for August 24th. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Heather Okerlund answered questions about the accounts payable.

Cory Anderson motioned to accept the accounts payable. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

Heather Okerlund answered questions about the financial reports.

CITIZEN COMMENTS

Cory Anderson explained our new procedure for citizen comments regarding time limits.

Heidi asked about what we are going to do with the football field. They have spent a lot of time getting it ready and presentable and are wondering what the long term plan would be. Discussed the different options for the field and what our next steps would be. Mary committed that they would have a plan by next board meeting. Discussed possibly sending out a request for information to some engineers to see if there is any interest.

Cherie wanted to thank the maintenance team for the work they did during the summer. Nothing huge was planned but they got a lot done over the summer. She also said she thought the opening institute went well.

Kaycee said she also agreed that the maintenance team has been great. The new ticket system is working great and things are getting done timely.

INFORMATION ITEMS

Update on math curriculum situation: There were about 15 students that were enrolled in Secondary 1 math that didn't get the Secondary 1 math curriculum. In response the school is making smaller classes for these 15 kids and Mary, Matt and Magon will meet weekly to review their progress and will be offering tutoring after school. They are all going to be using a textbook and try and stay at the same pace with all of the classes. They are also going to offer electronic high school during the summer for the kids that want to take one of the courses over the summer. Matt described the track that would benefit the kids most and how it would affect most of them through their time in high school. April Torgerson asked about the parent response to the resolution and Mary said that they were happy with the solution. Mary said there is about 5-10% of the questions on the ACT that are in the secondary III curriculum that the students wouldn't have by their junior year when they typically take the test. Superintendent said that he wanted to stress we need to do everything we can to help the parents and students.

Report on Delegate assembly - Cory Anderson: The president and some of the deans from UVU did a presentation about getting kids college ready. Discussed the new initiative to limit the number of bills presented to the legislature and some of the other issues that were presented and their potential impact.

Ashlee Jackson - SAGE & DIBELS assessment reports: Ashlee explained the different areas of DIBELS and at what ages they test the kids. Ashlee is over the testing for the whole district. Testing is done in the fall, mid-year and at the end of the year. The state requires the school to continually improve. They have purchased some intervention programs that will hopefully help the kids more this year. Parents are also given a letter with the areas the kids are struggling and activities they can work on at home to help improve. Jeffery Chappell asked if there is anything similar to this that helps in the other areas like math. Cherie said that they got really great math results this year and they did a lot of targeted teaching and training with the kids. Right now we are a 'B' for every school in our district except that this is our first year as an 'A' at Loa Elementary.

Reviewed the SAGE results by school and the whole district in all of the areas. Also reviewed the ACT results. As a district we are higher than the state average in Language Arts, but lower in both Math and Science. Loa Elementary is above the state average in all three areas. The middle school and high school are above state average in Language Arts, but below in both Math and Science. As a district we increased 2% in all areas over last year. Discussed how representative the testing is and if it's meeting our goals for the education of our students. Jeffery Chappell said that he felt the key is bringing the struggling kids along.

Hanksville late bus: Superintendent said that there have been some questions from the public about the Hanksville activity late bus. Curtis Whipple asked what the policy is regarding kids in the Fremont and other areas of the upper county. Superintendent explained that it's the board's and district's discretion but right now we are only offering the late bus to the kids in Hanksville and there are a few in Torrey that also ride the late bus. Superintendent explained that right now the policy is if there are two or more students that sign up we will provide transportation. If there is only one student we offer an in-lieu of payment to the parents. The late bus runs four days per week. The board had also decided in the past to pay the parents in-lieu of for concurrent enrollment courses taken on Friday when bus service is not provided. We reviewed the cost breakout for the Hanksville Late Bus for 2013-2014 and 2014-2015; the total was $14,826.90 and $9,746.39 for the years, respectively. We also reviewed the number of students using the late bus and discussed the reasons for offering the late bus.

Cost of bus per mile: Reviewed the cost per mile for transportation for the district and specifically for activity trips. The total district cost per mile for all transportation is $3.53 for 2013-2014 and $3.91 for 2014-2015. The cost for just the activity trips depends on what costs you include in the calculation, but if we use only driver, benefits, fuel, and repair costs the cost per mile is $2.33 for 2013-2014 and $2.27 for 2014-2015. Decided this would be an appropriate cost to pass on to school groups that pay for their own transportation.

First Reading - Employee leave and pay policy: Superintendent explained what the new employee leave and pay policy was. It's basically the same policy and follows existing procedures, just clarifies some things that were vague or not in writing. The board asked some clarifying questions on the policy. Superintendent said our next step was to get the new policy out to the principals and employee representatives for review.

Superintendent's report: Reviewed the new enrollment numbers. We are down 14 students compared to last year. Reported that the OSHA visit to the schools went well, there was one plan we had to develop in response. Discussed board meeting next month and decided to move it to the 13th in Hanksville and do the district tax meeting on the 14th. We will plan on leaving Bicknell at 1:00, do a school tour from 2:00-3:00 and start board meeting at 5:00. The Hanksville taxation meeting is at 7:00. The tax meetings are scheduled and the schedule is published on the website and will be published in the Insider this week. There is also a meeting for Loa Town at 8:00 or 8:30 Thursday night and with the Senior citizens October 12th at about 1:00. Superintendent attended the Bicknell meeting last week and the information was very well received. Superintendent asked if the board would still like monthly reports from the administrators and they said yes. The High School lunch program is down 20% in participation compared to last year. 55 was the low with the exception of today (seniors weren't in school and they only had 37). Cherie said the elementary was really low also - one day they only had 89 eat school lunch. Regarding the bus indemnity agreement that was voted on last time - the county didn't accept the agreement. They were supposed to review it again today. There is still an option where Lisa can possibly get event insurance and they would sign the indemnity agreement, then we could follow the bus rental policy. The board expressed that they wanted to be able to support the use of the buses for the event, Superintendent agreed and expressed the same intent, but was concerned that Risk Management would not accept a changed indemnity agreement, in which case we would be unable to rent the buses out.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Coal Bids: We only got one bid from K&K Crane and it was $17.50 from Sufco Mine and $27.50 from Skyline mine. Discussed that the price is comparable to last year's price and seems reasonable. Curtis Whipple motioned to accept the bid from K&K Crane for delivery of coal. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

Adopt a buying local policy: Cory Anderson requested that based on the information we reviewed last time we adopt a buying local policy. The board discussed what the policy should be and it was decided that it will be a 5% benefit to local contractors and there will be no matching the low bid. Also decided that $100,000 is the highest a contract could be to fall under this policy. Will draft a policy for next board meeting to be approved.

Approve final reading of WHS/WMS attendance policy: Curtis Whipple motioned to approve the third and final reading of the WHS/WMS attendance policy. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

Jessica travel to receive national agriculture award: Cory Anderson made a motion to let Jessica travel to receive the award. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

Second reading new policies: DKD Nursing Mothers, CBJ Contractor Oversight, FAB Transgender Students, CAE Capital Outlay Reporting, CBF Policy Exhibit 1, GCF Animals on School Premises: Superintendent said he's recommending that we waive the 3rd reading due to the large number of policies we have to review this year. Cory Anderson made a motion to waive the 2nd reading and move to the third reading and accept policies DKD, CBJ, FAB, CAE, CBF, and GCF. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

Purchasing Card Policy: Curtis Whipple made a motion to do the final reading and accept the Purchasing Card Policy. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

School visits: Discussed how the board visits to the school should proceed and what worked well in the past and what hasn't worked well. Decided to do the visits in conjunction with the next four board meetings. Hanksville is scheduled already with our October board meeting. November 11th we will visit the high school. December 7th and the board meeting in January (not scheduled yet) will be the middle school and Loa Elementary. The board will meet at noon and eat lunch at the school and then do the school tour.

Approve new substitutes: Curtis Whipple made a motion to approve Kristin Fillmore, Tiffany Spencer, Carla Ruger, Adrian Ruger, Amber Blackburn, Kelly Florez (HES), Adie Mitchell, Miriam Jackson, Lori Woolsey, and Polly Tucker as substitutes pending background checks. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

Approve new personnel: Curtis Whipple made a motion to approve Caitlin Robbins as a substitute janitor in Hanksville. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

Approve new personnel: Cory Anderson made a motion to accept the following new employees pending a background check: Mindi Mascaro-Pau'u - Lunch Work WHS, Caitlin Johnson - Lunch Worker LES, Melinda McConnell - Special Ed Aid LES, Angie Baumann - Preschool Aide LES, Kesha Larsen - Special Ed Aid WHS/WMS, Kaylee Wells - HES Special Ed Aide. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

Letter of resignation for HES custodians: Curtis Whipple read a letter of resignation from Brandon and Erica Whipple. Cory Anderson made a motion to accept the resignation of Brandon and Erica as janitors at the Hanksville Elementary School. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

BOARD ITEMS
Jeffery Chappell said his item was addressed because we had already discussed the resolution to the math problem. April Torgerson said that she got a text from a parent that was pleased with the solution.

Cory Anderson requested that the board minutes be posted on the website. He also asked about school traffic lights at the high school and middle school. We've always had one at the elementary but not at the other schools. Discussed the reasons we don't have any there and that we would also have to staff a crossing guard if we put lights in. He also asked about the grading at the football field and if we got an invoice for that yet. We haven't yet, but are still expecting it. Cory Anderson also mentioned that the presentation at opening institute wasn't very professional with the blue screen behind the speaker and no spotlight on the speaker. Decided that next year we should probably have a student come and help. Also discussed the need to plan for more people since we ran out of food.

April Torgerson asked about staffing changes. She was concerned about the impact to our teachers when we make staffing decisions last minute. If administrators can see changes coming we should make those changes early in Mar-May, not right before school starts. The last minute changes this year caused a lot of extra work because of scheduling and also really impacted some of our teachers negatively.

Curtis Whipple made a motion at 9:05 pm to move into closed meeting to discuss the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

Roll Call
Cory Anderson - Aye
April Torgerson - Aye
Jeffery Chappell - Aye
Curtis Whipple - Aye

Jeffery Chappell had to be excused due to an emergency.
Jeffery Chappell came back to the meeting.

April Torgerson declared us back in open meeting at 11:00 pm.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Curtis Whipple made a motion to approve Wendy Potter for the High Top Administrator assignment. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

Cory Anderson motioned to adjourn. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

Meeting adjourned at 11:00 pm.