This was a very unusual board meeting for me. I was in Washington DC attending a dairy meeting. I had requested to participate by phone. The auditorium is not really set up for this purpose. I eventually was able to participate during some of the meeting over Casey's phone. I could only hear most of what the board said but not any of the audience, so my report will not be complete.
Julie Cederberg gave a report on the budget, which I didn't hear. I also had no information with me about what was being presented. I had hoped there would be some information on the web site to follow, but there wasn't. All I had was the meeting agenda. I knew the finances would be close to what it was last year, but not really any details. In past years we have had a work session to review the budget, this year we didn't. When I was able to get on the call they had already had the budget presented. When I received the agenda the Friday before the meeting and saw that there was no extra meetings on the agenda I requested we have a work session and an executive session to discuss budget questions and other matters that would potentially effect our budget. I received no response to my request. I made the comparison that we review each policy update twice before we approve them, I thought we should have more time to review the budget, since it is one of our most important duties as board members. During the meeting I was asked what questions I had, but like I said I had no information so it was hard to ask specific questions, other than what I just mentioned. Bottom line, the rest of the board voted to approve the budget and I opposed.
Since I got home Sunday I looked at the information that was sent to me the day of the board meeting, by mail. I have questions and requested more information. I received more details like I requested but have not had a chance to review them yet. I have no problems with how our budget was developed and admire how well our district stays within our budget without a supplemental levy. I will try and figure out more of the details. I won't get into all the details of what budget questions I have. Since the board adopted the budget as presented, that's how we will move forward for this coming school year.
We approved the teacher negotiated contract for the year. There was a substantial insurance increase that we covered out of our small general fund increase from the state. But most of the rest of the contract was about the same as last year. Some teachers will get small increases because of a small bump from the state.
Lisa Jolley and Becky Thane were approved as new teachers in the district. Lisa to teach P.E. and health and Becky to teach math.
There was a report about how the district is doing to comply with Common Core Standards. It was hard to follow over the phone, but we were assured we are doing what is necessary to comply.
They had a discussion about how to update our Strategic Plan, but Casey's phone died, so I didn't hear what was said about this. I know this is something we need to develop a lot more and hope this will happen soon. I called April and was on her phone for the rest of the meeting, but for some reason, April's didn't work as well, I pretty much listened to nothing until the approvals at the end of the meeting.
There was quite a bit of public comment, but I didn't hear any of it. I heard later there was a report from the Education Foundation. I look forward to their help supporting our district.
Over the last while I have had a lot of questions. The first part of the month I emailed Mr. Tubbs a long list of these questions. The next day he replied by email then when I had more questions he called me. I will address some of them here, so if anyone may have wondered the same things you will know what I found out.
I had questions about the teacher negotiations. Mostly the fact that the whole board wasn't informed about what was presented and what was agreed to. Mr. Tubbs sent me a long reply explaining the process and the agreement. I encouraged him to provide more timely information next year.
There is merit pay again this year, similar to last years Pay for Performance plan. We will have to decide how to distribute these funds by September. I think we will have more discretion with the process this year, but it still has to be partly based on student achievement. I think they will get the money in November.
I had asked what summer projects the district was planning on doing this year. I didn't get this question answered at the time but there was information in our board packet. The main project for the high school is the area between the high school and seminary building. The estimated cost is $20,000. They also plan on rebuilding the four baseball backstops at the elementary school for a cost of about $10,000. Other projects include more wood chips and paint in the elementary school playground, and some desks and chairs for a couple of classrooms for about $4,400.
I asked if we ever received a grant for our high school bleachers last year. I knew they had applied for a couple of grants but had never heard if we received any money. Well no we didn't get the grants. I guess they are hard to get.
I had heard we received some grant money from the Idaho Dairy Council, which I am involved with. The school received money for new milk coolers and money to help fund the school breakfast program for next year. We received this for promoting the importance of drinking milk at breakfast. We are the only school in Idaho that received this award. The Breakfast award came from the national processor organization called Milkpep. They do the milk mustache adds among other things. I am glad Amy Dye applied for these funds and that the dairy industry provided them to our district.
I asked about the drill team. I heard from my daughter that the current teacher didn't wish to teach the drill team anymore. I am not sure of the status with the teacher, but I know there is consideration to not have a competitive team. They might decide to have an intramural type team that would only perform at home games and not participate at any competitions. I am curious what the girls think of this idea.
I asked about the suggestion box idea that I brought up after our cottage meeting, to make suggestions to the district. I didn't get a response to this question and forgot to ask about it when I talked to Mr. Tubbs on the phone. I will have to follow up on this.
I asked about the reduction of federal title I funding from the federal government. I was told it might result in the loss of up to two more aides. I later found out that with savings in other areas that we won't have to make these cuts. I'm glad we don't have to cut aides. I think we already are short on aides.
I mentioned how I was disappointed with how few scholarships our graduates received. It seems to me like several years ago our students received a lot more. I also mentioned how my oldest daughter was valedictorian, and worked hard looking for not very typical scholarships. She received $1000 from Tylenol for example, and a very good four year scholarship from an old liberal southern senator. I think our students should be able to get more scholarships, but I don't know how. I was told that the school provides a lot of information about scholarships but there seems to be very little interest for the students and parents to pursue any. Only four of the 60 students applied for the Kiwanis Club scholarship. If anyone has ideas for how the district can improve this process, let me or the administration know.
I asked for more reporting on federal programs. Mr. Tubbs oversees this and I would like to hear more about it at a board meeting. I had read where Shelley had done this. Mr. Tubbs said he does provide some information about this, but I think it would be good for the district to hear more about it.
I had questions about the web site and trying to read the policies. He said that was going to be a summer project to fix these issues. Since I asked him this, the problems have been fixed and the policies are much easier to look up. Hopefully the web site will be updated and work a lot better this next school year.
I asked if the district had any idea of how many students that live within our district that don't attend our schools. I think this would be interesting to know, but I didn't receive a response to this question. Maybe its hard to find out. I think they would have a pretty good idea of how many attend other schools by just calling and asking them. We know who attends our schools that don't live in our district. I would also think there are ways to find out how many are home schooled. I think this would be good information to have. Maybe it would help us to find out why these students don't attend here and try to address their concerns if possible, and encourage them to come back to Firth. More students mean more funding.
I also asked about the idea of evaluating the non core programs in the district. This idea had come up during a discussion recently but no action has been taken to do this. The management team has done this, but I think the board should review each program. I think we need to determine the level of support for these programs and the costs. I am not saying I want any of our already limited programs cut, but if we don't have much participation, we need to try and promote them more, find ways to improve them, or maybe try and provide something else if possible that would draw more interest. I will need to suggest further discussions about this.
There were a few more questions that were answered in other ways and some I can't discuss here. Next month we will welcome Paul Jensen as our new school board member. I would like to thank John Monson for his many years of service on our school board. This is also when we have our board reorganization and set the date, and place for our board meetings. I would rather we had our meetings in either the high school or middle school library. We seldom have enough visitors for there not to be enough room in the library. I think if we anticipated a large crowd we could move to the auditorium. Having the meetings in the library we wouldn't have to deal with our problematic sound system, and we could see and hear those who desire to give public comment better. I don't know if the rest of the board will support this idea. Let me know if you have a strong opinion either way about this.
I hope this information is worthwhile. I debated if I should write a blog this month. As always if you have any comments or suggestions let me know. Thanks, Brian
