The meeting started with the swearing in of the new and re-elected board members, Paul Jensen, Casey Park, and April Christensen to four year terms. We then had elections to reorganize the board leadership. Casey was re-elected as board chairman. I was elected vice chairman and April was re-elected as treasurer. We then honored John Monson with a plaque honoring him for his six and a half years of service. He says he will keep coming to our meetings to speak up on items when he feels like he needs to. Thanks John for your service.
Mr. Tubbs then announced my son Jacob's resignation from teaching. He has decided to go to graduate school at Utah State to get his Phd, and one day become a college professor. This will take him at least five years to accomplish. Making this decision has been tough for him, and even though I hope and pray he can succeed in his goal it also saddens me. I think he taught for six years. Because of state budget cuts his pay didn't increase since the time he started and he didn't feel like he could support his family the way he needed to. When I first became a board member I thought I would have several grandkids in the district, but not anymore. He waited until the last minute to resign because he needs to sell his house to be able to afford rent at college and he hasn't been able to sell it yet. He decided to take a leap of faith and hopes he can figure out a path forward.
We then had a discussion about meeting dates and place. I made the suggestion that we change the location to the middle school library. The auditorium is too big and hard to hear in. If there is an issue where we think we will have too many for the library we can move the meeting to the auditorium. After more discussion we decided to have it the same second Thursday at 8:00 in the middle school library.
We then discussed our board training that Paul, Sid, April, and I went to in Idaho Falls the day before. Paul and April talked about what they learned from the training and then I brought up a few things. One item was we only need to review some policies one time not two like we have always done. This would save time at some of our meetings. I suggested Mr. Tubbs could determine which policies that he thinks only need one reading, and I think that's how we will proceed. We were also told we should try and keep all public comments to the end of the agenda, and not allow it very often before. We also need to state a few more details about some agenda items to better explain and define the topic. We were also told how important it is for our funding to get students to attend school especially through the first reporting period. The foundation is working on some ideas to award kids for attendance.
We had some discussion about our strategic plan, but didn't get too far into it because we didn't have the plan given to us to review. I think we will get more into it soon.
We then had a discussion about what is being called Differentiated Pay for our district employees for this next school year. It's kind of like the Pay For Performance program they had before last year. Mr. Tubbs gave us some information from other districts in how they are intending on implementing this program. Our district will have more input into how this money can be distributed than we did before. This money still has to be based somewhat on achievement. One area that will be hard to decide is, do we just give it to the teachers or certified staff, or do we share it with all the non certified staff too. I suggested if possible that we at least share it with the aides that work in the classrooms to help the teachers and students directly. I don't know if this can be divided that way and I don't think Sid knew either. Sid did mention that during some discussions with some of the teachers that they would like to just distribute it amongst themselves. I can understand this too because if all are included the money would be less than half the amount. It's just too bad we can't pay everyone more. We need to have this figured out and turned into the state by October 1st. I think the plan is to have a special board meeting at the end of August to establish our plan. This would give time for the management team and teachers to come up with a recommendation to the board.
We then talked about the plans for the area between the high school and seminary building. Someone from the city was supposed to be at the meeting but no one was there. I think the preferred plan is to take out the trees, repave the road, put in new sidewalks and curbs, and plant some new trees on a grass berm. A waterline would have to be extended to that area. The suggestion was made that we could do this in phases over two or three years. I didn't agree with this plan. This would be funded by what's called the non student occupied fund. Money that we have to set aside each year for outside maintenance projects. We currently have several hundred thousand dollars in this fund. We are building new baseball backstops at the elementary and a few other projects that will spend some of this money. I feel like if we don't finish the parking and bus lane properly it won't look good or function like we intend it to. With the city working on the road that will connect to it, I think if possible we should tie it together to make it look good. Mr. Tubbs is going to get more cost estimates and get back with us. I hope this can move forward and get done when it needs to.
We then went into patron input. Liz Killpack presented some great information about what the education foundation is doing. She has done some research into our district strategic plan and came up with ideas in how the foundation can support and enhance our district goals. One exciting project they are working on with the help of a grant, foundation and district funds is to redo the elementary library. They are going to put in new book shelves, paint murals on the walls, put in a new computer and other things. She talked about grants that the foundation would support and the criteria to apply for them. She brought up several other ideas for board consideration. More discussion will take place into how the foundation and district can work together. The board really needs to review and update our strategic plan, which would help this process. I'm am very exited to have support from this hard working group of individuals.
We also had some concerns brought up to us about our lack of teachers in some grades making class sizes larger than they should be. I wish we could afford more teachers so this wasn't an issue, but without help from the state I have a hard time seeing how we can improve this situation now.
That pretty much covers our meeting. We then went into executive session and discussed some private matters.
There is another item I want to mention that should have been brought up at our board meeting. We are getting a big grant from a state fund to replace all the lights in the high school and Ag shop. The newer fixtures will not be replaced in the newest part of the high school, but all the old fixtures will be replaced too. This is the same fund that replaced all the lights in the elementary. Several months ago I was at a state dairy meeting talking about energy audits for dairies. I sat next to the man that oversaw the school grant program. I mentioned how much we liked the new lights in our elementary. He said there might be some more funds available on a limited basis to do more for our school if we requested it. He gave me his card and told me to have our superintendent contact his office to apply. I gave it to him and he applied. It took a long time but I think just in the last week or two the district was awarded this grant. I don't know what the overall value of this is for our district, but the work in the elementary was worth about $120,000. The same company that worked on the elementary is now evaluating what needs done in the high school. I assume this will get done before school, but I'm not sure. But I do know it will sure brighten things up.
I'm writhing this on my iPad laying on my hotel bed in Ypsilanti Michigan, a town close to Ann Arbor. I am at a Dairy Management meeting. We are going to tour the Dominos Pizza headquarters tomorrow. Technology is a great thing. As always if you have questions or concerns let me know. Thanks, Brian
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