coen Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 Proceedings of the Board of Trustees District No. 2, Yellowstone County High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County Billings, Montana April 2, 2012 Call to Order The Special Board Meeting 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 Lincoln Center, Billings, Montana on Monday, April 2, 2012. Roll Call Members present included: Trustees Connie Wardell, Dr. Greta Besch Moen, Teresa Stroebe, Lindy Graves, Pam Ellis, Allen Halter; Clerk Leo Hudetz; Administrative Staff: Jack Copps, Lew Anderson, Dr. Josh Middleton, Scott Anderson and Brenda Koch. Trustee Kathy Aragon arrived at 6:12 p.m.Registered guests were Mary Westwood and Ginny Mermel. The meeting was called to order by Chair Teresa Stroebe at 5:30 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance was said. COMMUNICATION FROM THE PUBLIC Mary Westwood addressed the board and urged them to work together to pass the levies. AGENDA CHANGE Item G-2 will be discussed at the regular meeting on April 16. Chair Stroebe asked if there was an objection to changing the agenda to have the Performance Monitoring/Stakeholder Relations Committee meeting first so that the presenters would not have to wait for agenda setting. A motion was made by Trustee Graves to hold the Performance Monitoring/Stakeholder Relations Committee before agenda setting. The motion was seconded by Pam Ellis. Those voting in favor of the motion were Trustees Wardell, Moen, Stroebe, Graves, Ellis and Halter. The motion passed. PERFORMANCE MONITORING/STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS COMMITTEE Trustee Graves introduced Ginny Mermel, member of the District’s School Health AdvisoryCommittee(SHAC), to give a presentation on the backpack program. Ms. Mermel explained that the backpack program is to provide meals and personal items for students to take home in their backpacks over weekends and holidays. Ms. Mermel stated that they had also launched the teen pantries. Ms. Mermel stated that some policies previously presented by SHAC had not been approved, and some of their goals have not been met, such as physical education requirements in grades K-3. She stated that it costs $180 per child per year for the backpack program. Kendall Kuntz of the MetroVista Program talked about the teen pantries. Each of the high schools, Career Center, Riverside and Castle Rock Middle Schools have pantries. Students are allowed to take home food from these pantries if they need it. Trustee Halter asked about the booster clubs in the high schools supporting these programs. Ms. Mermel stated that they would be willing to talk to any other organizations regarding this program. Trustee Moen asked about the proposed policies from SHAC. Mr. Hudetz has the policies and will forward them to the Governance Committee since the Policy Review Committee has been disbanded. Ms. Mermel will send the policies to Leo Hudetz. Trustee Ellis is concerned that schools are already under a lot of pressure to comply with policies. Ms. Mermel stated that there has to be a balance but she is concerned that there is federal money left lying on the table because of minor noncompliance issues. She is currently working on several grants. Ms. Koch said that the principals speak highly of the backpack program. Karen Dawson, a member of the public, stated that the idea is to get kids to help each other. AGENDA SETTING A draft agenda for the regular meeting on April 16th was presented. There will be a presentation by Brian Dennis of the Boys and Girls Club. He will talk about their contributions to Billings Public Schools and also has a proposal. There will be potential action on budget. This item will be presented by Dr. Middleton and Patricia Hubbard. Trustee Wardell asked that the language “potential action” be used on the agenda items instead of specifying potential action. Trustee Aragon will present information on the Fielding Nair International (FNI) final presentation. She also requested an item for the Council of Educational Facility Planners (CEFPI) Day of Planning for information only. There was a discussion between Trustees Ellis and Aragon about an item for City of Billings EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Grant (SGIA). Trustee Ellis asked that this be on the agenda for potential action. Trustee Ellis is concerned that other trustees had no knowledge of this grant and it has to do with school siting which should be a School District responsibility, not a responsibility of the city. She wants to see the entire grant application to see the whole picture in order to take action. Trustee Stroebe reminded them that this is an agenda setting meeting only tonight. Trustee Aragon will explain the grant and there will be potential action. Trustee Graves would also like questions answered regarding this grant. Trustee Aragon will bring in the professionals to discuss this. Policy 4333 on advertising was discussed by the Board Governance Committee. They requested a complete list of advertisers and where the money goes for the signs. Trustee Moen wants a complete list of the existing signs and their duration as well as the contracts. Dr. Middleton stated that the list he has is incomplete and not particularly valuable. He and Mark Wahl will work on a new and complete list. Dr. Middleton stated that it is important that this policy be approved. The Governance Committee asked that there be quarterly reports made on advertising. Trustee Graves stated that the policy be approved and a procedure be developed by administration. There will also be discussion of the facilities use procedure 4330-P2. Trustee Ellis is concerned that there is a financial liability for buildings when other groups use their facilities, and she would like to see the building budgets made whole by the rents charged for usage. Trustee Moen stated that there may be action items on the Planning & Development Committee report. She also asked about a possible report from Mark Wahl on the streamlining of activities and possible cost savings. This can be added later if necessary. Chair Stroebe went over the future meeting schedule: April 9, no meeting; April 16, regular meeting; April 23, Planning & Development Committee; April 30, special meeting with McPherson to talk about superintendent search; May 7, agenda setting; May 14, Planning & Development; May 21, regular meeting; May 28, no meeting. Trustee Moen stated that she and Dr. Middleton had decided to have a Planning & Development Committee meeting work session next Tuesday, April 10 at noon to go over the RFP. Trustee Ellis objected and stated that the board had agreed to have all meetings in the evenings. There are superintendent interviews scheduled the week of May 7-11. AA caucus will be held on May 7th at noon. Trustee Ellis also stated that the Performance Monitoring/Stakeholder Relations Committee should not give up all their meeting times to Planning & Development Committee. Trustee Moen stated that the planned meeting at noon was so that things could go smoother at the regular meeting. Trustee Graves left the meeting at 6:45. Mr. Hudetz reminded the board that he has many policies that were put on hold since the board’s committee reorganization. Trustee Moen asked that he send out a list of those policies. PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE SCHOOL CONFIGURATION RESEARCH Dr. Middleton and Brenda Koch presented information on school configuration research. Ms. Koch stated that there is no one best configuration but every community needs to come up with the configuration that works best for them. Teacher quality is the number one predictor of achievement. Ms. Koch stated that from her personal experience, she prefers a K-5, 6-8 configuration. Dr. Middleton stated that in Laurel the 5th graders were moved to middle school because of space constraints. Trustee Aragon asked if teacher quality and teacher training is most important. Dr. Middleton stated that teacher training that is focused will pay dividends in the classroom. Ms. Koch stated that the reading and math coaches are great. Dr. Middleton stated that the way our funding is based, we get elementary funding for 6th graders and high school funding for 7th and 8th graders. FACILITIES USAGE Lew Anderson presented information on all of the buildings. He stated that the state of Montana information is not accurate. He explained that the state just takes the number of square feet and divides by 35 to get the capacity. Trustee Wardell would like to know how many students are at the Career Center. Trustee Aragon asked for specifics on which classrooms meet standards, such as ADA, etc. Mr. Anderson stated that music rooms are called music rooms because of their use. Ms. Wardell would like specifics on lunch rooms and gyms. This information will be mailed in the Thursday packet if ready. Mr. Anderson stated that the band schedule drives the elementary schedule because of sound issues. SAMPLE RFP – FACILITIES MASTER PLAN Mr. Anderson presented the Bismarck, North Dakota Master Facilities Plan. He stated that he has been trying to get some of the footwork done locally to keep the costs down. Dr. Middleton said there is a time element in getting the RFP out. He would like to get it in front of people before sending it out. Trustee Ellis stated that the board had spent $500,000 in the last six years on planning so we have lots of data. Mr. Anderson stated that we do not have the demographics tied to the plan. Trustee Aragon stated that we do not have the experience and knowledge on the board. Mr. Anderson would like to get as much done as possible then go to a major company for the Master Facilities Plan. Trustee Aragon urged the board to have a robust community process. Trustee Halter does not want an employee to have the responsibility for doing this. Superintendent Copps agreed that a staff member should not be responsible for the final product. He has no idea of the cost. He does feel there is a possibility of getting some community contributions to help defray the cost. Dr. Middleton stated that he is looking for direction. Trustee Ellis does not believe the community supports this. Trustee Stroebe asked Dr. Middleton to put something together for an RFP to see what is out there. We need to start doing things to get more community support. COMMUNITY OUTREACH This item was removed from the agenda. ADMINISTRATIVE BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS AND BOARD PRIORITIES Dr. Middleton went through the administrative recommendations as presented in the agenda. If the levies do not pass the textbooks will not be funded. Trustee Moen asked for a list of items to do a ranking. Trustee Wardell asked for a whole budget for ranking. Trustee Stroebe would like to have this discussion after the mill levy vote on May 8. We need to find a way to fund both teachers and textbooks. Trustee Ellis stated that if we tell the community the levy is for reading, that is where the money needs to be spent. Trustee Moen asked if there is any way to reduce costs by standardizing intervention programs. Ms. Koch responded that there are various needs and there is no standardization of intervention programs. Trustee Aragon stated that the budget drives decisions. Superintendent Copps said that union negotiations and a 7 percent increase in health insurance has been added to the budget. Trustee Ellis would like to wait until after May 8th . Superintendent Copps stated that we are already late and he does not want to wait. We need to get the size of the budget deficit first. Trustee Moen asked about retirements. Mr. Copps stated that he is not sure there is enough budget to cover them all. Trustee Stroebe stated that this will be discussed on the 16th, ballots go out on the 18th. Trustee Wardell asked about contracts to know what to figure in there. Mr. Copps stated that until we know what the deficit is we will not know the contracts. The deadline for layoffs is June 1. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Teresa Stroebe, Board Chair Lindy Graves, Chair Performance Monitoring & Stakeholder Relations Committee Greta Besch Moen, Chair Planning & Development Committee Nancy Coe, Recorder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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