March 12, 2015 School Board Meeting

It has been a while since I have written a blog. I missed last months meeting lobbying for the Idaho Dairy Association in Washington DC, and the month before there just wasn't much to write about. 

The first thing we discussed was the school calendar for next year. Next school year Memorial Day is later in the month, so it was easier to fit the days in before Memorial Day. After changing things around from the original proposal we seemed to be in agreement on the calendar. It wasn't on the agenda to be approved at the meeting this month, but I suggested we go ahead and approve it. We later voted to accept the calendar. School will start on Monday August 17th. Spud harvest will start September 28th. Christmas break will start on December 23rd. We decided to have an extra day before Easter, which will provide a four day weekend. Graduation and the last day of school will be May 26th. 

  Mr. Tubbs then went over an update of the Strategic Plan. He went over the balance sheets and told us overall the budget was on track. He talked about all the technology updates that have been done. The bus lane safety issue between the high school and seminary building has been addressed. Phase two of this project will be completed this summer. The sidewalk will be fixed and water brought into the island. There will be a hill built up and grass and trees will be planted. I asked if this was on track to get started early this summer and I was told it was. When finished this will look a lot better. 

The teacher leadership premium program is going along well. All certified teachers will have the opportunity to earn a bonus based on leadership incentives the district set up. 

There is only about half the adult classroom volunteers as last year, but there are more student, or what they call Cougar Volunteers. They really help in the elementary classrooms, mostly with reading.

Heating and cooling systems in all three buildings were discussed. The high school gym and several units in the middle school have had issues. There are something like 16 units in the middle school all original to the building. They are getting to the end of their life expectancy so having a plan to start replacing them will need to be developed. 

They have been gathering information about the elementary boiler and other heating and cooling options for the elementary. Several companies are estimating replacement costs and other repairs. This is supposed to be figured out by next school year. 

Computer labs don't look like they will cost as much as was once thought. The computer cost per unit has dropped from about $600 to $300. So this will greatly help reduce the planned computer lab costs.

There were other Strategic Plan issues brought up but I just went over the highlights. It's good they have been working on a plan to better manage what needs done in the district.  

The Internet issues that have been in the news recently were discussed. The district is with the same provider as before. We just pay monthly now and have a little less band width. The state is supposed to reimburse us for most of these costs. It's still up in the air as to what will happen for next school year. 

We went over several policy updates. One of these updates is about principal evaluations. 33% of their evaluation comes from student achievement. We need to decide what testing we will use to do their evaluation on. We will talk more about this policy in the future. I brought up my concern for this if it's  based  on SBAC, or the common core test. I think there will be some major problems with this test and how a principal evaluation can be fairly based on it. 

I did get a better explanation of how the state controls common core compliance. If we decided we wanted to opt out of the testing, we would lose all federal funds. Among other things we would lose probably 20 staff members. The state also requires 95% of the students to take the SBAC test. If we fall below that we can be declared an underperforming district and the state somehow would step in and run the district. If the SBAC participation is low we would lose some federal funds. I don't understand all the details of this, but they have a lot of control over districts. Madison is rebelling and plans on not complying with the SBAC. They will be a good test to see just how the state responds to them. At some point I think the students will be required to take the SBAC test to graduate. I don't know what will happen to the students who don't want to take this test. I sure hope this gets changed in the future. I have been hearing from my kids how hard the common core math is for my grandkids to learn, and they are still very young. At least one granddaughter used to love math, but now hates it, which isn't a good thing for an elementary student with much more math in her future.

We went into executive session to discuss the district teachers. I think that was about all that was discussed. 

I turned in my candidacy papers last week to run for re-election to the school board. If anybody wants to run against me, or for Bart's position you have until Friday to turn your papers in. Unless Bart changes his mind at the last minute he is going to retire from the board. I hope I have done a good enough job to win support for another term. Four years is a long commitment. It is different not having any children attending in the district. I have thought about having a cottage meeting sometime, mostly just to get better informed about what's going on. If anyone has comments or questions please let me know. 

Thanks, Brian

December 11th, 2014 School Board Meeting

Missing last months board meeting makes it seem like a long time since I wrote a blog. Before I get into this months meeting I have one matter of old business to mention. When we extended the spud harvest break the question came up about how much it would cost the district to potentially have twenty kids miss two days of school during our counting weeks. It took a while to find out the answer, but worse case scenario the answer given to me is $12,000. This amount is a lot more than I thought it would be. This number is variable depending on a lot of things, but it will be good to know this for future considerations when it looks like a lot of kids might be absent from school. This is why we don't hold school on fair day. Too many kids would be out and it would cost us a lot.

The meeting started out with the recognition of the fall sports. The volleyball team won district and was second at state. They also won the sportsmanship award. The girls cross country team finished fifth at state and the boys  ninth. The football team had a 5-4 record and made it to state, and the soccer team qualified for districts for the first time. Overall they all did very well. 

Carla Reeves resigned from coaching volleyball. She did very well, and will be missed. Two of the senior volleyball players did so well they received scholarships to play volleyball in college. Thanks for all your efforts Mrs. Reeves. 

Sherlyn Petersen resigned from teaching. Two half time teachers are teaching her classes until a new teacher can be hired, which should be pretty soon. 

Reports were then given about the state convention by Paul and Casey. They learned a lot and enjoyed the meeting. 

We then had a long discussion about potentially starting a boys soccer team. Since I missed last months meeting it took me awhile to get up to speed on what was discussed last month. Roger Harrison the AD, presented some information. He said there were twelve unpaid coaching positions. He went through the list. The middle school coaches and several assistant high school coaches are unpaid. The C team high school coaches aren't paid. Several of these positions used to be paid positions, but when we were forced to make big funding cuts this changed. Mr. Harrison also mentioned that ten of the girls soccer team are seniors. Because of this, there is a concern if there will be enough girls to field a team for next year. So far they only have about eleven girls interested in soccer for next year. This isn't enough and jeopardizes the continuation of girls soccer. If the girls program can't continue, it makes it harder to justify boys soccer. With both teams costs can be shared, like bussing. A student presented his ideas about a boys team. There were several interested boys to last months meeting, but just him this time. He says there are around sixteen boys interested in soccer. He had ideas about a coach. If we decide to start a boys team I think they would be required to sustain a program without costing very much to the school for two years, just like when we started the girls team. Questions I deal with, are there really enough boys to sustain all the fall sports teams? Would it be similar to the girls, once the initial support group of boys graduate, would there be enough other boys to follow? One of the reasons we started girls soccer was to improve title nine issues. Last year we had 159 boys in all sports combined. The girls with soccer only had 108. If we loose girls soccer and start boys soccer, this really gets out of balance. We talked about this issue at the board meeting. Other concerns I have is all the coaches unpaid now, that I already mentioned. The cost estimate was $3,000 to fund boys soccer, once the district would potentially start paying for it. I don't  think this number includes the coaching stipend. Would it be better to work on restoring coaching stipends first? What about other school programs that are underfunded, some of which are core classes. I hear about things like the science department having fundraisers to buy needed supplies, for example. There were concerns about how the boys could raise the money to self fund. The boys need to show they have enough parent support with fundraisers in mind to better show we should consider this. There are other options for some of these boys to play soccer through clubs or maybe joining other schools teams, like a couple girls did before we started their program. We will need to decide if we should go forward with a boys program by next month, to get game scheduling worked out in time. 

During public comment a concern was brought up about how many games the cheerleaders can cheer at. Mr. Tubbs addressed their concern. They only cheer at home games, some district games, and state playoff games. This has been the policy for a long time. Because of many factors this is unlikely to change, at least very much. 

Because of girls basketball conflicts, next months board meeting was changes to January 14th. 

Other than going over policies this was pretty much all that was talked about. As always if you have questions or concerns let me know. If you have thoughts about soccer let me know. This is one of those issues that no matter what we do not all will be happy. Thanks, Brian

October 9th, 2014 School Board Meeting

Sorry I didn't write a blog last month. I was very busy and there wasn't much business to talk about. A couple things from last month. Bart Cook was presented a lifetime Idaho High School Activities Association pass. After 12 years of board service a board member qualifies for this pass. Bart has served 17 years, so they are a little slow presenting this to him. Thank you Bart for all your years of service to our district. 

Mr. Kunz asked to get permission to send out a bid for a new bus. The old one being retired is 17 years old and has 160,000 miles. It will be auctioned when we get the new bus next summer. 

The new bus lane was discussed. The curb and gutter has been put in. There is still some landscaping to do, but it sure looks better. Next year the plan is to lower the roadway between the high school and berm. Repave the roadway, and repair and replace the sidewalk, and put a curb in on the other side. Hopefully the next phase can start early next year. 

Well onto this months meeting. 

The first thing was the annual audit report by Morgan Hatt. The annual budget year ended June 30. Our total district revenue from all sources was $4,997,645. $4,027,443 from the state, $514,884 federal, $314,753 property taxes, and $120,565 other local revenue. I can't remember what other revenues are. The total revenue amount was $7000 more than last year. Total expenditures were $4,900,765, for a net revenue gain of $76,880. 

We had 754 enrolled last year and spent $6,500 per student. State average was $6,659. Mr. Hatt thought for a district of our size we did very well. He said smaller schools usually spend more per student. For example he said Rockland spends about $11,000 per student. Large schools much less. 

Our fund balance increased $53,382. This was the first increase in many years. Our total contingency fund balance ended up at $836,144. Mr Hatt also indicated this was very good compared to other school districts. With our revenue down $564,000 this past year compared to 2010, the chart only went back this far, it is remarkable that we still have a good balance in our contingency. Thanks to all our staff who manage the budget. Now with the support of the community in voting for our supplemental levy, we will be able to do some much needed updates, and still maintain a responsible amount in our contingency. 

We had 41.57 units of students. Our M&O budget per unit was raised just under $300 per unit from the year before. I asked if our attendance had improved this past year with the efforts mostly through the Education Foundation to reward perfect attendance. He said we went up from 96% in 2013 to 98% last year. I'm not sure how much this helped our funding, but better attendance does help. We received $13,419 in facility maintenance money from the state. This is the first time in many years we received  money for this use. There was also $15,173 from the state lottery. We were told the past few years the lottery money was just put into the overall state education fund, so we didn't know just how much we received. For whatever reason this year they separated it again. We have $821,871 in our non student occupied fund, which is where the money comes from for the bus lane project. We have $203,343 in our student occupied fund, which we used a couple years ago to buy the high school bleachers. 

Last year we had a $28,060 budget surplus in our school lunch budget. This year thanks to the new federal nutrition standards we ended up with a $9,793 deficit. The added cost of the required food really adds up. We were told we are losing about .30 for every meal we serve. The government reimburses us $2.95 for free and reduced lunches which has helped fund the difference between what meals cost and what we charge, but with the higher food costs and less participation we are going in the hole. In 2009 our free meal participation was 68%, now it's 61%. Only 50% of the kids that qualify for reduced price lunches are eating it. Overall this past year only 53% of our district students ate school lunch. The lunch service personnel spend a lot of time doing required paperwork, they didn't used to have to do. It will be interesting to see if the standards will get changed much going forward. The waste and how unbending the new standards are is sure messed up.

The district was given thirty five computers and some chairs from the FBI office out of Pocatello. Lisa Trent was instrumental in acquiring this equipment for our district. So thanks to her for her efforts. They will be distributed to several rooms in the district. Trying to put them all together drew to much amperage and the elementary breakers couldn't handle it. Next year we will get some new computers which will use less power and should work okay in the planed elementary computer lab.

The high school participated in a detailed survey to determine how many kids worked during spud harvest, and what they did. Out of about 250 kids 217 filled out the survey. 51 kids worked in the potato harvest. 116 other kids worked during harvest, doing many different things. There may have been a few more kids still working Wednesday when this survey was done. There were 4 kids who worked 13 days, 4 who worked 14 days and 1 worked 16 days, all the rest worked less days. I was surprised to see how many kids that worked during the harvest doing other things. Some spent a lot of time babysitting which could have been related to harvest. They did a simple survey in the middle school. 23 middle school students worked in the potato harvest. We have a lot of ambitious kids in our district. 

I asked during public comment how many students we have enrolled this year. Mr. Tubbs didn't have this information, but would soon update the board. Another suggestion was for us to put up a sign by the main road to indicate where the football field is. We thought this would be a good idea. Just a thought, maybe this could be a good eagle project for someone. 

This meeting had as poor attendance as you could have at a meeting. Three board members, Mr. Tubbs, the board secretary and business manager, and two reporters. Bart came after we adjourned for an executive session, he was still helping in the potato harvest.  Well this ended up very long, but I hope I provided valuable information. The board is going to walk through the buildings and receive training from ISBA on October 22. If you have questions or comments let me know. Thanks, Brian.

Letter to Editor, Thoughts About Leadership Premiums

After reading about the teacher Leadership Premium program presentation in the Blackfoot school district, I felt a need to comment. As a Firth school board member, we reviewed this program a couple months ago. We decided on a much different plan. We as a board, supported a plan that would provide the potential for all teachers to receive an equal share of these funds, as long as they meet the qualifications and requirements presented by our administration.   As I understand it, the state gives $850 per unit or teacher for this plan. The only way a teacher can make more than $850 is if other teachers receive none of this money. So essentially the districts are left with the decision of who can qualify for the funds and who can't, and that didn't seem fair. With teacher pay so flat in recent years, it didn't seem right to develop a plan that would benefit one teacher over another, or offer no potential for some teachers to receive this bonus. It would be harder to have teachers in positions where they couldn't qualify for these funds. I believe almost all teachers are doing their best to educate their students, so deserve to be rewarded for their efforts.

Why does the state Department of Education , with the support of the Legislature, feel compelled to keep coming up with these potentially divisive programs? If they were so good, why do they change the name and criteria every year? I am all for paying our teachers more money, but I believe it would be better to raise the overall pay scale instead of funding merit programs. My son gave up teaching recently. He taught for six years with only a token amount more pay in the final year of his employment than when he started. He couldn't support his family the way he wanted, and chose to further his education and enter a different profession.

I worry that unless Idaho chooses to step up and improve teacher pay, we won't entice college students into the teaching profession, and will continue to lose some of our best teachers to other states where they pay a higher wage.

August 14th, 2014 School Board Meeting

I am late again this month writing my blog. There has been a lot going on. This was however another month with a short agenda, and very few in attendance. 

The meeting started with the resignation of Stewart Portela as the track coach, and the hiring of Jason Chatterton as a Maintenance Man. 

We were then given an update of the summer maintenance projects. There has been a lot of painting in all the schools. Paint can make things look a lot better. There also has been a lot of work putting in new computer and phone wiring. Barb has really helped getting our technology improvements in place. All the gym floors were resurfaced. Rockymountain Power is doing a review to see if we qualify for new lighting in the middle school. It sure would be nice to get better lighting, like the other buildings. One of the main things completed is the removal of the carpet in the high school hallway and the polishing of the cement. It looks much different, but will be much easier to maintain. Having polished cement floors in school hallways is very common now. The cold weather entry at the elementary is on hold, not sure when it will get done. The parking and bus lane improvements between the high school and seminary building are progressing, just not as fast I would like. Hopefully the major work can get done during spud harvest. 

We talked over having board training and if anyone wants to go to the school board convention in Boise. The legislature last session included more funding for board training. We decided to start with strategic planning and have a trainer come to us. I can't attend the convention and I'm not sure if anyone else will go. 

We were given a copy of each schools handbooks and talked about the Superintendent evaluation schedule.

We then had a lengthy discussion about possibly moving back spud harvest one week. A local farmer requested we do this. He depends on help from high school kids and his spuds won't be ready to harvest in time for our first week break. He said there were eight spud farmers in the district, something I didn't know. I think all the farmers had been contacted and  some take longer than the two weeks, some only one week, but the scheduled harvest break didn't appear to be a problem for anyone else.  I hope he can work out his schedule, but to me it wasn't a good idea to change the break just for him. It was estimated about thirty kids work in the harvest. I was concerned about family vacations that may be planned for the same time. Yes we need to accommodate farmers, but changing our traditional harvest break especially after the calendar is set, would likely cause more problems than it would solve. I for one have taken my family on vacations to Disneyland during the harvest break in years past. It's a good time to go to places like this because of cooler weather and less people, and many vacations are planned a long time into the future. I later heard from someone that has a family vacation planned for harvest break and is glad we didn't change it.  I stated at this point the only reason I think we would change harvest break is if we get a lot of rain so the harvest is held up. 

This is pretty much all that was talked about. I hope this wet weather soon changes so our harvest season can get back on track. As always if you have questions or concerns let me know. Thanks, Brian

July 10, 2014 School Board Meeting

I'm sorry this has taken so long to write. I have been out of town a lot and have been very busy. It was a very short meeting without much business. About the first thing was the re-election of the same board officers. Casey as chairman, me as vice chairman, and April as treasurer. 

About the only business was a discussion about the flex program. I had requested an update about how it went. I had heard of some concerns with the program. Dave Mecham gave a report highlighting fewer missing assignments, and fewer F's and loss credits. This program helped with credit recovery. The students needing assistance were able to get help easier. There is also some areas that need improved. There needs to be more variety of activities for the students to participate in. Some teachers also need to support the program better. Some kids were not able to get all the help they needed, at least toward the end of the year. Overall I think it has been a successful program, but like any new program improvements can be made to make it work better. 

We then went into executive session to discuss personnel.

One more update. I was asked by the board to work with Mr. Tubbs to decide what to do with the area between the high school and seminary building. The basic plan we came up with is to remove the rest of the trees and put a curb ten feet wide with a dirt berm between the curbs. New trees and grass would then be planted. The plan is progressing and hopefully by spud harvest the work can be done. I think this will look much better and provide the bus lane security we need.

 

If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. Thank you, Brian

June 12th, 2014 School Board Meeting

Well this marks the start of the fourth year I have written this blog. Never thought I would do something like this. I've written 57 blogs and have had over 7,400 page views.

Before I get into the board meeting I want to provide more correct information about the athletic programs I last posted about. Jeff Gee sent me more updated  information. The track revenue from student fees was $5,440 not the $1,200 I stated last time. The track expenses were about $3,652 for a net of about $1,788. The expenses of softball and baseball were about $900 more each,  because the referee costs were not figured before. The travel cost for softball was higher too, because the state travel cost wasn't figured in either. Overall, our net loss on athletics was about $18,400. None of the coaching stipends are counted. Also not counted anywhere, is all the fundraising each organization does to help buy equipment and pay for other non district funded expenses. We did get reimbursed over $8,000 from the state to help cover some of our travels. For competitions that generate a gate profit at state, we get a share of the profit. For example, we received $3,947 from football. This included two playoff games in Boise.

Since I brought this up first, I will report on our discussion about the possible fee increase. After  reviewing this idea extensively, the administration recommended, at least for one more year, that we not raise the fees. They still might require the students to pay for the hotel costs, or at least some of it. The administration has some ideas of how to save money with the travel. 

Well,  more about the meeting. Our spring sports teams were recognized for their accomplishments. The baseball team finished 3rd at district. I know they had some injuries that hurt the team. The boys track won district and I think finished 7th at state. The girls won the softball district championship, and won their first state playoff game. The girls won district in every sport this year except soccer.  According to Mr. Gee, he thought the girls track team had won district for the 18th year in a row. Amazing. They got second at state by .5 point. Thanks to all our great coaches and community support. Firth high was awarded Exemplary Status by IHSSA. Firth finished third behind Declo and Soda Springs. This is based on number of championships in both athletics and academics. 

Julie Cederberg presented the budget for next year. She said for the first time in several years, she was able to project a balanced budget. She thanked the community for supporting our Supplemental Levy. Without these funds, Julie wouldn't have been able to balance the budget. The state increased some of our funding but it was mostly dedicated for specific  purposes without district discretion. She projected a starting and ending balance of $782,762. This is about $100,000 more than was projected in last years budget. We agreed to pay the  insurance cost increase for the teachers, but no additional pay raise. We approved the budget as presented and thanked Julie for her hard work and management of our district budget.

Liz Killpack presented a report from the Education Foundation. She summarized their funding and what they spent the money on. They gave out $7,594 in teacher grants. They gave $4,160 for solicited donations, most of which went to the elementary library. They made $2,900 from fundraising at Barnes and Nobel, and the Halloween Carnival dinner. They also made $10,126 from their donation drive, and another $450 from the fair scone booth. They also managed the Lyons and Killpack scholarships, and provided attendance awards for the kids. They have plans to better align with our district's Strategic Plan, and continue to support our district where they can. They have been a great asset to our district.  

We approved the Leadership Premium Program. We supported a plan by the administration that provides an opportunity for all certified staff to receive $850 if they meet certain defined requirements.  The state wants districts to limit who is eligible to receive a share of these funds. We just didn't feel like that was a good idea. If a teacher doesn't do what is required, they won't receive any money, and their share will be divided among the rest of the teachers. 

We were informed that Stephanie Jones, who worked in the high school office, resigned to go work for the Shelley school district. She has done a great job and will be hard to replace. We also approved the new teacher contracts. Tamara Jolley as a first grade teacher, and Katy Killpack as a second grade teacher. Deborah Richards as a high school math teacher and Blake Chapman as a maintenance man. 

We discussed the plan for facilities and maintenance. I had inquired about doing more than what the district had originally planned to do. I asked about putting a cold weather entryway  at the main elementary school entrance. Some kids arrive at the school before the doors are unlocked. With an enclosed entry, the kids could get out of the cold better. This should also save some heating costs. I suggested  we go ahead and get this done, and the other board members agreed. Mr. Tubbs estimated from prior cost inquiries, that it would cost $8,000 to $10,000. I thought this could come out of our Non-Student  Occupied Fund, but was told it would need to come out of the Occupied Fund. We have a lot more in the non student fund but still have plenty to cover the cost under the occupied fund. I asked about putting in more playground equipment at the elementary. They plan on replacing the basketball hoops which are bent. They are going to do a little more to improve the playground, but not much more equipment. It is very expensive to put new equipment in with all the safety requirements. I need to look more into what we now have and ideas of want can be done in the future. I would like to see more done, but it will probably take time to get it done.

The bus lane at the high school was also talked about. The blocks provided the security necessary, but more needs done. We were too slow figuring this out last year to do more than the blocks. I hope we aren't in the same situation this year. Because of a possible conflict of interest Casey can't be involved in this decision. I am going to meet with Mr. Tubbs Monday morning to further our plans for this project. The rest of the trees need removed and probably a berm with a curb and new trees need put in. More and better lighting will also be installed. 

During public comment I requested an update on the Flex program for our next meeting. I have heard some concerns about this program, and think we should review it to determine what might need changed to improve the overall program. If you have any suggestions let me know.

We reviewed some policies and adjourned. We were done about 9:30, sooner than I thought we would. This is also the first meeting for me not having my daughter in school. I enjoyed graduation and being able to give my daughter her diploma, and one of her scholarships. It's going to be a change for my wife and I not to have any kids in school. We do have 11 grandkids with two more on the way, so we have a lot to look forward to watching our grandkids grow.

Well thanks to those who take the time to read my blog. I hope you find it informative. If you have any concerns or comments, let