November 11th, 2015 School Board Meeting Minutes

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR WAYNE SCHOOL DISTRICT HELD AT THE DISTRICT OFFICE ON WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 11, 2015 AT 6:00 PM.

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

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 Jeffery Chappell.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:
Cory Anderson mentioned that there was one portion of the minutes regarding the cross walk that stated Cory Anderson was going to take the concern to the principal. He said this should have read that Superintendent Torgerson said he would take this concern to the principal. Curtis Whipple moved to accept with the change. April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Heather Okerlund answered questions about accounts payable.

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

Heather Okerlund answered questions about the financial reports. Due to time constraints for the meeting last month we decided to review the same quarterly financial reports we looked at last month. We discussed the various programs and where they were financially.

CITIZEN COMMENTS

No citizen’s comments.

INFORMATION ITEMS

Superintendent’s Report. Superintendent Torgerson presented the draft board meeting schedule for 2016. Everyone preferred Monday to schedule when there are conflicts on Wednesday. Superintendent Torgerson will update and we can approve in our next meeting. Superintendent Torgerson said the dates for the USBA convention were January 7th through January 9th. All of the board members said they were planning on attending. Also there is an opening for School Board Representative for our region for the Utah High School Activities Association. Cory Anderson said he was interested and got the information from Superintendent Torgerson. We reviewed the SAGE results and October 1 enrollment counts. Superintendent Torgerson said he and Mrs. Bray and Mrs. Peterson met with Moab/USU about a new program for students that are on more of a ‘CTE’ graduation path. Discussed the various pros and possible cons to the new program, it’s similar to concurrent enrollment classes, we would still have local teachers, but a remote highly qualified teacher also. They wanted to know if we were interested, but it’s probably still a year from being able to put it in place.

Track facilities update. Heidi Woolsey and Mary Bray presented what they got from the contractor about the plans for the track and football field improvements. Regarding the water situation the contractor told them that the plan would be pushing some of the water to the north with a drainage system and said that some of it would also be piped down 200 west. The parking lot was a concern because of all the asphalt it would require. The board expressed that they felt that the project would likely be in phases. Cory Anderson said he was impressed we were able to get this detailed information very quickly. Heidi Woolsey also said Rick McCartney is purchasing some bleachers through the football program and they are incorporated into the plan. Heidi Woolsey said she felt right now that fixing the water issues and getting the bleachers in would probably be priority. The board discussed the different options and what we are interested in working on right now.

Community Council Reports. Cherie introduced Toni Lamb and JoAnn Davis that came to represent the community council at the elementary. They described the activities that the community council has been supporting and working on with their Trust Lands money. Leslie Chappell presented for the high school. She also described what they are using their Trust Lands money for and what programs they were supporting.

School Lunch. The board reviewed the detail on our school lunch program. Our participation is down quite a bit at all locations except Hanksville, which has an increase. We discussed what we are working on right now and some different options for future changes. Basically a large part of the problem is nationwide and there are a lot of groups challenging the nutrition standards because of it. The board reviewed the adjusted budget and we will have an update in December also.

Community Council Reports. Shirley Morrell presented for the community council at the middle school. She described the new programs at the middle school and what activities they are using their Trust Lands budget for. Joni Taylor mentioned to all of the community council members present that the board members want to be more involved. She thanked them for what they are doing and told them how appreciated they are for working close to the students and making a difference.

WMS Instruments – Fees. We reviewed the new instrument fees for the middle school.

Wellness Challenge for November/December. We’re doing a Zero Weight Gain Challenge for November and December and reviewed the handout that was given to the employees.

Superintendents Report. Reviewed the state requirement for conflict of interest statements and got statements from the board members as needed. Superintendent Torgerson mentioned the students that got All-Region and All-State in sports. They were recognized at an assembly. Superintendent Torgerson brought up the facilities needs assessment and what our next steps are going to be. Curtis Whipple said he has been thinking about it and maybe the assessment was a little skewed. He said he knew the buildings were in need of repair, but maybe it wasn’t as bad as the architect made it out to be. He thought we should probably get some other opinions and start making a plan. Joni Taylor said she agreed, and we need to address it now with a master plan so that we know where we are going 25 years down the road. Jeffery Chappell mentioned we need to consider things as we go and we are making decisions. Joni Taylor suggested we think about it this month and bring it to the next board meeting. Mary Bray wanted to clarify one thing - that the sharing of teachers between the high school and the middle school has been difficult. It’s not that far, but you still end up with kids left alone for 5 to 10 minutes quite often. Also the teachers end up in different rooms and with tough schedules. Also the teachers at the middle school are concerned about losing their identity in the middle school. We also discussed the availability of open rooms, it’s very limited so they have to get creative for where they are teaching some classes.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Canvass the returns and declare the results of the Voted Local Levy. Heather Okerlund presented the information that Ryan Torgerson from the County brought over regarding the election results. There were 906 ballots cast, 905 votes (one was blank) with 401 votes for and 504 votes against the proposition. The board reviewed the results of the County Election Server and compared that to the VISTA reports. The board members signed the Canvass Certification. Curtis Whipple made a motion to approve the results of the Canvass for the Voted Local Levy. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

Third and final reading DHE Leave and Pay Policy. Superintendent Torgerson said we needed to table DHE to review one more item regarding employee retirement. Cory Anderson motioned to table the final reading of DHE Leave and Pay Policy. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

Non-licensed employees retirement option at 20 years or 25 years. Superintendent Torgerson explained that we need to review this option again before we approve it, it’s related to the prior policy. Jeffery Chappell motioned that we table the non-licensed employees retirement step option. April Torgerson Seconded. All in favor.

Approve UCA Plan. Superintendent Torgerson described the UCA plan and what it is for. He described the goals and action plans that are set for all of the funding programs. Cory Anderson asked who puts the UCA plan together. Cherie Blackburn works a lot with Title I. Kaycee Pace works on Special Ed and IDEA. Superintendent Torgerson does the other programs like At Risk and is involved with all of the plans to some extent. Cory Anderson motioned to approve the UCA plan for 2015-2016. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

WMS Student Behavior and Expectations Policy. Superintendent Torgerson described the changes that WMS wanted to make to their safe schools Student Behavior and Expectations Policy. Curtis Whipple made a motion to approve the new policy. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

Second reading, new policies: DAA - Nondiscrimination, DAC - Background Checks, DACA - Personal Reporting of Arrests and Convictions, DDA - Reporting of Child Abuse. Reviewed the policies. April Torgerson motioned to approve the second reading of DAA - Nondiscrimination, DAC - Background Checks, DACA - Personal Reporting of Arrests and Convictions, DDA - Reporting of Child Abuse. Jeffery Chappell seconded. All in favor.

Policy Changes to BAA, BBG, BU, CJ, CJCA, CJDC, DHD, ECF, EDG, FH, GAB, GCA. Superintendent presented all of the policies, the changes were to state statute citations only so he proposed waiving the three readings in the interest of time. Cory Anderson motioned to waive additional readings and approve BAA, BBG, BU, CJ, CJCA, CJDC, DHD, ECF, EDG, FH, GAB, GCA. April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.
Approve new employees. April Torgerson motioned to approve Melissa Robins and Haley Robins as substitute teachers and Weston Johnson and Scott Anderson as assistant wrestling coaches pending background checks. Cory Anderson seconded. All in favor.

Renew contract with legal counsel. Curtis Whipple made a motion to table the renewal of the contract with legal council. April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.

BOARD ITEMS

Jeffery Chappell wanted to make public that he wanted to do a better job about raising awareness in our community about why we need our funding increase. He also wanted to extend thanks to the coaches and community that volunteer to help the kids.

April Torgerson said she won’t be here for the December board meeting and wondered if the board wanted to move the meeting. The board discussed options and decided to move the December board meeting to the 14th. We’ll visit the Loa Elementary at 11:00 and do a similar thing to what we did today. She also said she agrees with Jeff about the results of the Voted Local Levy. She’s going to start campaigning today.

Cory Anderson said he agreed with the comments already made about the Voted Local Levy. He also said there was a student with his arm up in the light pole at the track where there are live wires that needs to be fixed. Cory Anderson said that the wrestling coach said that the community couldn’t use the weight room during wrestling season. Heidi Woolsey clarified that there were some issues last year with holes in the mat and holes in the wall. They were legitimate concerns and those have been addressed. Cory Anderson asked if that was recently taken care of and Heidi said yes, it was this week. Cory Anderson also asked if we did anything for the principals in October. Superintendent Torgerson replied that we had not.

Curtis Whipple asked about the Pledge of Allegiance.

Joni Taylor didn’t have anything.

Joni Taylor recognized Diane and Bill Barrett who introduced themselves and had joined the meeting as citizens. Bill Barrett said they are forming a ‘Wayne County Tax Payers Association’ as a non-partisan non-judgmental, educational group to try and educate voters about the finances of the various local governments.

Cory Anderson made a motion to go into closed meeting at 8:30 pm to discuss the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

Roll call
April Torgerson – Aye
Cory Anderson – Aye
Curtis Whipple – Aye
Joni Taylor – Aye
Jeffery Chappell – Aye

Joni Taylor declared us back into open meeting at 10:00 pm.

Superintendent Torgerson reported what was discussed at the legislative meeting last night. Some issues were the number of bills, charter school local replacement, and the teacher shortage. Senator Okerlund said that he and Representative McIff are trying to get an extra 2% funding in the NESS funding, which would be a huge benefit for our district. They also talked about state school board elections. They seem to be leaning toward a hybrid proposal of partisan, non-partisan, and appointed.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Approve career educators. Cory Anderson made a motion to approve as a career educators, Candence Peterson, Shanda Johnson, Clifton Peterson, and Jan Brown. April Torgerson seconded. All in favor.

Jeffery Chappell made a motion to approve Kaycee Pace as a career educator. Cory Anderson seconded. Curtis Whipple and Joni Taylor in favor. April Torgerson abstained.

Cory Anderson made a motion to adjourn. Curtis Whipple seconded. All in favor.

Meeting adjourned at 10:10 pm.