Special Board Meeting (Retreat) - October 19, 2010

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Proceedings of the Board of Trustees

District No. 2, Yellowstone County

High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

Billings, Montana

 

 

 

October 19, 2010

 

 

 

Call to Order

 

The Special Board Meeting (Retreat) of the Board of Trustees of School District No. 2, Yellowstone County and High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County, Montana was duly held at the Bonaventure of Billings, 4001 Bell Avenue, Billings, Montana on October 19, 2010.

 

Roll Call

 

The meeting was called to order at 5:18 PM by Chair Barb Bryan.

 

Those present included: Trustees Barb Bryan, Lindy Graves, Connie Wardell, Greta Besch Moen, Travis Kemp, Joel Guthals, Joyce Weber, and Kathy Aragon (arrived at 5:35 pm); Superintendent Dr. Keith Beeman; and Clerk Leo Hudetz. Trustee Teresa Stroebe was excused.

 

For board discussion, Superintendent Beeman proposed a budget process and budget timetable for the 2011-12 school year (attachment 1). The process calls for the superintendent to hold public meetings and to meet with the bargaining units and administrators to receive input to help the board determine its final priorities for budget formulation. Information gathered in these meetings would be reported back to the board. The board discussed the proposed process, approved the outlined steps and approach (recognizing that steps may change as work on the budget continues), and agreed on the importance of having significant public involvement in the process.

 

Next, trustees discussed the future role of the Budgeting for Results (BFR) Committee, recognizing that the agreed-upon budget process would impact this role. Under the new process, broad public input will be obtained through a series of public meetings and other opportunities (such as comment on the district web site). This differs from the previous process, where community members on BFR provided the primary public input. Trustees felt that the broader public involvement through public meetings was more desirable and would involve more people. It was also noted that:

 

- The BFR process was never been fully implemented (despite good work towards that goal), and that the process was hampered by the lack of a strategic plan setting forth desired “results”

- It is important to make continued use of the expertise of current BFR committee members, who have significant knowledge of the district and its budget

 

As a result of this discussion, it was suggested that BFR 1) continue as a committee, 2) focus specifically on financial review for the district, and 3) no longer be involved in making budget recommendations to the full board. Trustee Guthals recommended that if these changes are adopted, the name of the committee should be changed to something like Finance Committee. Mr. Guthals also recommended that the committee membership be expanded to include more members of the community that represent the district’s diverse stakeholders. Trustees referred the BFR issues to the Committee on Committees and/or Policy Review Committee to prepare a draft description of BFR’s new duties and a description of its members for full board consideration.

 

The remainder of the meeting was spent discussing possible board priorities for budget development. Prior to the meeting, Dr. Beeman had sent out a priority-ranking sheet (attachment 2) that was filled out by most (but not all) of the trustees present. He went through the ranking sheet line by line, discussing each item and explaining the “average” rankings calculated from the rankings submitted ahead of time by some board members. It was stressed repeatedly that the initial rankings in no way represented final priorities and that the input of all trustees was not reflected in the numbers. Rather, the exercise was intended as a starting point for discussion.

 

As a follow-up to the meeting, it was decided that Superintendent Beeman and Board Chair Bryan would develop for board review a first-tier list of budget priority items for data collection and analysis. The list will be presented to the board for agreement at the next regular board meeting, and the superintendent will then begin collecting the indicated information for board review.

 

Dr. Beeman noted that he wishes to have another board retreat to discuss the superintendent review process and the board’s goals for the superintendent this school year.

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:35 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

 

Barbara Bryan, Chair

 

 

 

 

Leo Hudetz , Clerk

 

Two attachments are available:

1) http://www.billings.k12.mt.us/attachments/Oct%2019%202010%20att%201.pdf

2) http://www.billings.k12.mt.us/attachments/Oct%2019%202010%20att%202.pdf