BOARD MINUTES FOR
Highland School District #203
Regular Board Meeting
Tieton Intermediate School
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The February 19 th Regular Board Meeting was called to order by Chair Julie Smith at 7:00 pm. Others present included Board Members Nikki Keller, DeeDee Trepanier, Bruce Allen and Becky Laughery; Superintendent Gary Masten; Director of Business and Operations Dean Schlenker; Director of Student Services Barb Gilbert; Principals Janice Sauve, Greg George and Kelly Thorson; Athletic Director Eric Diener; Principal Intern Mindy Schultz; PSE President JoAnn Turner; Recording Secretary Sharon Fisher and some staff, students, parents and patrons of the District. TIS Principal Andy Woehler was absent.
Bruce led the flag salute.
Julie announced an amendment to the agenda, calling for an Executive Session to discuss pending litigation as Item D1 under New Business. She estimated the Executive Session should last approximately 30 minutes.
DeeDee moved, with second by Nikki, that they approve the minutes of the January 15 th Regular Board Meeting as mailed; motion passed.
COMMUNICATIONS
Julie presented Scottie Pride Awards to the following individuals to honor them for their service and special achievements: Students Ryan Garent, Taylor Gredvig, Lupita Gutierrez, Megan Hollibough, Daisy Perez, Eliza Perry, Yoanna Rivera, Nancy Salazar, Devin Smith and Luke Williams; Staff Members Colleen Christenson, Taya Eaton, Sandy Gavin, James Heinle, Lucy Naranjo, Gary Packard, and JoAnn Turner; Patrons Scott Ennis, Jim Kemp, Janene and Tom Westbay. Lisa Monroe, Byron Koempel and Doyle Urquhart also received awards but were unable to attend this meeting.
Gary read the Governor’s Proclamation recognizing Classified School Employees and designating March 10-14 as the week to honor these employees. He also read the Governor’s Proclamation designating March 17-23 as School Retirees Appreciation Week.
Gary shared a note from Representative Charles Ross thanking Gary, DeeDee and Nikki for meeting with him on January 7 th. Representative Ross also noted that he would be happy to participate in Highland’s Senior Exit interviews in May and graduation in June, as his schedule allows.
We received a letter from the State Board of Education certifying our District is in compliance with the basic education allocation entitlement requirements which Gary shared with the Board.
Julie passed out a graph showing the status of the Board Goals. Gary reviewed the worksheet and discussed the status of the goals. Julie said copies of the graph would be made available at the Community Forum in March.
Gary said Tom Boyce will be in the District on March 3 rd and will review the revised Math EALR’s.
Janice presented information on RTI and Differential Instruction. She said the purpose of the RTI team is to try everything possible to increase student achievement before referring student to Special Ed. Students having difficulties are referred to the team. The team, in conjunction with the teacher, plans and implements different strategies to increase student success. This team is in place of the old Student Intervention Team that was used to place students in Special Education.
Janice also explained that the DIBELS assessment provides three benchmarks for the year: September, January and June. Students not reaching benchmark are progress-monitored every 2 weeks. Teachers received training on Friday, February 15 to analyze student booklets from the test. Using the miscue analyze gives teachers insight to areas of weakness for their students so they can plan according for workshop groups. MWC is assisted through the DIBELS monitoring by two reading specialists from OSPI. The specialists pointed out our areas of strength and weakness. We do need to progress-monitor students (once a month) at benchmark in September and January if they’re not at the end of the year benchmark.
Janice Sauve left the meeting following this presentation.
Mindy reported that there are still some glitches in the electronics system for the Standards-Based Report Card. Gary said that until grades 1-6 are on line, we should not go ahead with the 7/8 grades Standards Based Report Card.
Dean reported that the fuel costs at MWC with the thermal heating/cooling system, are approximately 44-45 cents per square foot. The HHS/HJH propane costs are approximately $1.35 per square foot. Overall, the district has reduced energy expenses approximately $80,000-$85,000 per year.
Greg said that there is a safety/security issue with radios. They just do not provide good communications throughout the building, let alone the campus. Dean said the amount for this is increased to $25,000 in the Levy for the next four years. The principals need to contact ICOM about the current radio problems. DeeDee suggested that we need to follow-up and fix that problem.
There was discussion at the Board level regarding quarterly awards for an outstanding individual, but there are no criteria in place at this time.
Dean reported that Larry is working with Andy to develop a new website model that will be more user-friendly. It may be ready the second week in March. He also said that we received approximately 1.5-1.6 million in Federal grants, E-Rate, Math and Science and QZAB. Dean added that approximately 25 classified employees are paid out of these grants plus some certified staff. He said we should have to make some adjustments, but should finish this year with approximately 4-5% reserve.
MWC is assisted through the DIBELS monitoring by two reading specialists from OSPI. The specialists pointed out our areas of strength and weakness. We do need to progress-monitor students (once a month) at benchmark in September and January if they’re not at the end of the year benchmark.
Gary mentioned Mindy Schultz and Tanya George put together SIOP information for the OSPI Conference held earlier this month. The presenter used their material and Margo Gonzalez’s classroom for SIOP examples.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
There was discussion on the Small Schools Conference to be held in Yakima on March 3-4. Gary said he planned to go to the Monday session. DeeDee expressed an interest in attending the “Issues Dialogue by District Size” roundtable at the conference. She and Nikki will let us know.
NEW BUSINESS
Dean explained that we need to void the uncashed warrants from last year and send a report to Department of Revenue. Nikki moved that we void the uncashed warrants; DeeDee 2 nd; motion passed.
Dean referred to the budget status handout and reported that the year-end budget may need to be reduced. Enrollment is still above the projected budget numbers. He is monitoring funds and technology debits. He also reported the money comes to us in the Spring to be applied to the front-loaded expenses that we’ll be reimbursed for.
Administrator Reports
Greg reported that HHS finished Parent Conference Week and are missing five or six parents who hopefully will be rescheduled. Freshman should be getting English, Math and Science WASL schedules next week. He will be attending the NACL Science Conference the first week of March. Greg described the Health Fair held for HHS students, who selected and attended four from a variety of presentations. There was also a Brad Henning presentation to the students in the afternoon which focused on the differences in how boys and girls look at interpersonal and nonpersonal relationships.
Kelly reported the HJH Health Fair had six presenters who rotated through classrooms. This worked very well and was followed by the Brad Henning assembly. James Heinle added that there were presentations on gang violence, drugs and alcohol by Sundown M Ranch (a 16-year old meth addict spoke to the students), Planned Parenthood and choices, HS TATU (Teens Against Tobacco Use), sexual harassment, cyber bullying (MySpace and on-line bullying are on the increase) and the presentations were pretty powerful overall. Kelly said he thought it was very valuable to take teachers to the OSPI Conference. HJH Parent Conferences are completed except for one or two which are being scheduled. For the District Optional Day, HJH teachers worked on math and pre-WASL for CMP2.
Eric reported that Wrestling, even though there was a small team, finished with two qualifiers for state. A freshman finished 2 nd (he was ranked 5 th in the state in his weight classification). He reviewed the Girls Basketball playoff schedule. He added that the Boys Basketball season has ended. Spring sports practices start February 25 th.
The Board asked about the process for hiring coaches and the candidate pool. Eric explained the hiring process and that it is preferable to have an in-house teacher connection. Kelly and Greg both agreed that this is best, whenever possible. Eric said it is getting more difficult to hire in-house with teachers’ having increased commitments to the educational process, earning Master’s degrees and families. Also, there is some “burn-out” among teachers who have been coaching a long time. We also advertise in the newspaper for coaches, but that does not have a very good rate of return on the advertising dollars. Historically, there has been very little response to the ads. The last time he could remember a coach being hired after replying to a newspaper ad was an assistant football coach three years ago and that was the first in several years.
Mindy reported that the WLPT testing at TIS is finished. They are gearing up for conferences and trying to schedule siblings together to better accommodate parents. For the District Optional Teacher Day TIS had WASL Prep in the morning and “Accommodations” in the afternoon. Vanessa Williams, Aimee Hostetler and Heather Hastie led a presentation for Cohort 5.
Barb reported that Sybil coordinated 15 migrant student physicals. She also said they are still brainstorming WLPT testing. Our summer school will be a demo site for GLAD training/observations. Regarding Special Ed enrollment, Barb said the level of need for incoming students seems to be increasing.
JoAnn Turner said she thought the Health Fair was very good, with the students facilitating and the TATU group doing a presentation.
Nikki gave the Legislative Report. She said they are mid-way through the session and today is the deadline for new bills. The big items seem to be budget and the “rainy day fund”. She added of the memorials, bills and resolutions introduced this session, there are many that could have impact on schools.
At 9:05 Julie declared the Board would go into Executive Session to discuss pending litigation and that it would last approximately 30 minutes. There was no audience present.
Julie reconvened the Regular Board Meeting at 9:40 pm.
Gary presented the Personnel Report. Bruce moved, with 2 nd by DeeDee that they approve the Personnel Report with the amendment to Extracurricular Section 3 not approving the renewal for the HJH Head Track Coach position and reopening that position; motion passed.
Dean reviewed the bills. After some discussion Bruce moved they pay the General Fund bills for $180,267.19, with warrants 46933 through 47067, ASB bills for $12,989.00 with warrants 4130 through 4144, Payroll for $258,961.47 with warrants 47068 through 47147 and $419,630.81 by direct deposit. Becky 2 nd; motion passed.
Dean added we haven’t served any contaminated meat that might have been distributed through commodities and that we will incinerate the meat we’ve been holding as instructed. Also, there will be a meeting with Yakima Tieton Irrigation District regarding fire suppression.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:10 pm