Guest sullinss Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 Proceedings of the Board of Trustees District No. 2, Yellowstone County High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County Billings, Montana May 20, 2005 Call to Order The Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees of School District No. 2, Yellowtone County, Montana, and High School District, Yellowstone County, Montana, was duly held at the Lincoln Center, 415 North 30th Street, Billings, Montana, May 20, 2005, at 4:00 p.m. Roll Call Trustees and officers present included: Katharin Kelker, Sandra Mossman, Dale Getz, Karen Moses, Malcolm Goodrich, Joel Guthals, Superintendent Rod Svee, and District Clerk Leo Hudetz. Trustee Conrad Stroebe was present via speakerphone until approximately 4:45 p.m. Trustee Dawn Achten was absent. Registered guests included: Jeff Weldon, Desiree Caskey, Gerry Thompson, Stacy Rambold, Sharon Reynolds, Tanna Schaff, Erin Waddington, Mark Waddington, Shelley Dolan, Linda Soft, Carol Rice, Judy Rigler, Peggy Smith, Joan Quilico, Stacey Reiter, Fred Michels, Justin King, Holly King, Mitch King, Mary Fox, Donna Witham, Eileen Sheehy, Diana Mysse, Rafael Zepeda, Susan Dolan, Ruth Linse, Kathy Carlson, Tami Hauge, Linda Jones, and other interested persons. Pledge of Allegiance The Chair led those assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance. Order of Agenda Chair Kelker announced Agenda Item C, “Administrative Recommendation to Terminate a Nontenured Teacher for Cause,” will be handled in closed session and, therefore, will be moved to the end of the agenda. Communication from the Public The Board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of listening to members of the public in its meetings. The Board also recognizes the statutory and constitutional right of the public to participate in governmental operations. The Board encourages members of the public to participate in and express opinions about issues important to the District. This part of the Board’s meeting is dedicated to public comment on any public matter that is not on the agenda of this meeting and is within the jurisdiction of the Board of Trustees. Members of the public may also address particular items on this agenda either now or at the time the Board considers the particular item. Donna Witham, Skyview teacher, spoke in favor of retaining the Integration Specialists. State standards and our District goals speak to incorporating technology. Removal of the Specialists will make it more difficult to meet standards in addition to teachers’ regular duties. Fred Michel spoke in favor of retaining the Integration Specialists. He urged the Board to consider other areas for high school budget cuts. Administrative Recommendation to Balance the 2006 High School Budget Through Certified Staff Reduction Budget Trustee Goodrich moved to table this item until the Board can reconvene next week for the purpose of directing administration to provide current budget information for the High School and allow Trustees time to evaluate that information so they can place the nine FTE reductions in context. Trustee Getz seconded the motion. Trustee Goodrich stated budget numbers continually change and the Board needs to have a solution in place by June 1st due to contract renewals. Trustee Moses agrees with the need to study the financial information before making the decision on the nine FTE, but is frustrated with pushing back the decision another week when the deadline to notice staff is June 1st. Karen said we had many budget meetings and have said no more cuts at the building level, yet these cuts are at the buildings. We voted to not have a mill levy on the administrations’ recommendation that we could absorb these cuts. Karen spoke for setting a priority to retain four Integration Specialists in the budget and spoke against tabling this motion. Trustee Guthals concurred with the motion to table to have additional time to study the financial aspects of the proposed cuts, and to allow the Superintendent to determine if other adjustments can be made in lieu of cutting the Integration Specialists. Joel’s priority is to place classroom cuts last. Trustee Getz said the Board has known about the nine positions since March when administration proposed their elimination and the Board voted and approved it; but, the budget was still in flux until the MPEA settlement and health related costs were known. Dale is in favor of tabling the motion to evaluate the budget information they just received. Trustee Goodrich asked that costs accompany solutions offered involving personnel. He also asked that we not focus on one group at the exclusion of another, and hopes to not cut any FTE. Malcolm is in favor of tabling the motion to allow time to evaluate the new budget information. Trustee Mossman was impressed by the advocacy supporting the positions. Sandra asked what happened to the prioritization for these cuts. Chair Kelker stated the list was not prioritized because there was not a lot of commonality among the items and some things were not practical. Before there was any ability to regularize the list, administration came back with a recommendation showing a balanced budget with the removal of the FTE. Any removal of FTE causes bumping and affects the classroom. Non-FTE dollars can be cut from the budget up to August 15th. Trustee Getz stated there are other risks in this budget beside those in the classroom, such as utilities and unanticipated maintenance. Very little money has been budgeted in this area. All areas need to be balanced, and difficult decisions will need to be made. Thomas Harper provided an updated General Fund Budget Forecast at the request of the Board. The Elementary Budget shows a deficit of $133,220 which includes the MPEA negotiations and insurance costs. The High School Budget balance of $25,042 includes the 9 FTE cuts and insurance costs. The estimated cost of the 9 FTE is $288,000. Superintendent Svee said the cost of adding back the four Technology Integration Specialists would be $148-150,000. Superintendent Svee said it is appropriate that if the four Specialists are brought back that the scheduling should be done at the building level. A very small savings to the Elementary General Fund will be realized from the retirement of the Federal Programs administrator. Superintendent Svee reviewed accreditation standards that require curriculum development and assessment. Standard 10.55.704 requires a full-time curriculum coordinator to supervise each district with 100 or more FTE certified staff. If staff is eliminated the corresponding duties must be eliminated also. Trustee Moses asked that administration do what they could to prepay next year’s textbook purchases out of year-end dollars. Thomas advised we still had $150,000 insurance to cover along with $1,022,000 in severance pay for retirements. Dan advised site improvement dollars of $187,000 were transferred to purchase World History books last week. Telephone connection with Trustee Stroebe was lost for the rest of the meeting. Thomas advised that most outstanding expenditures primarily relate to payroll. We have bids out for comprehensive insurance that may result in savings. The Workers Compensation insurance may decrease because we introduced a District safety plan. Superintendent Svee said budgets could be changed until August 15th, but non-tenured notices had to be given by June 1st. Chair Kelker reminded everyone if different budget cuts are made regarding certified FTE that caused a bumping effect on other non-tenured FTE, they also would need to be noticed by June 1st. The question was called for. Voting in favor of the motion were Katharin Kelker, Dale Getz, Malcolm Goodrich, Joel Guthals, and Sandra Mossman. Voting against the motion was Karen Moses, but she asked to change her vote to “yes” because she contemplates a vote to reconsider some time in the future. The motion carried but not unanimously. Administrative Recommendation to Terminate Nontenured Elementary Teachers for Budgetary Reasons Trustee Goodrich moved to table this item until the Board can reconvene next week to examine the financial implications of the termination of these non-tenured employees where the termination is without cause because their termination is predicated upon the bumping that occurs by the 9.0 FTE. Trustee Getz seconded the motion. Those voting in favor of the motion were Katharin Kelker, Dale Getz, Malcolm Goodrich, Karen Moses, and Sandra Mossman. Joel Guthals is ineligible to vote on this item. The motion carried. Personnel Report Trustee Goodrich moved to approve the Personnel Report with the exception of Troy Zickefoose who was approved on May 16, 2005. Trustee Getz seconded the motion. Passage of the Personnel Report does not eliminate the Trustees’ ability to consider agenda items D and E next week. A different configuration for balancing the budget holds the possibility that it would involve different non-tenured teachers. Trustee Moses will vote against approval because it precludes a healthy conversation of the agenda items next week. Trustee Mossman is in favor of approval because it would delay hiring a speech therapist and they are difficult to find. Superintendent Svee stated if the Personnel Report is not approved the certified long term assignments won’t end on May 28th and we can’t afford to keep them. Trustee Getz urged Trustees to consider the group as whole rather than individual segments and approve the report. The question was called for. Voting in favor of the motion were Katharin Kelker, Dale Getz, Malcolm Goodrich, Sandra Mossman, and Joel Guthals. Voting against the motion was Karen Moses. The motion carried. Executive Session The Chair closed the meeting at 5:20 p.m. “for the purpose of holding a discussion that relates to a matter of individual privacy where it has been determined that the demands of individual privacy clearly exceed the merits of public disclosure.” (2-3-203 MCA) Further, the right of individual privacy has not been waived by an individual about whom the discussion pertains. The Chair opened the meeting to the public at 5:45 p.m. Administrative Recommendation to Terminate a Nontenured Teacher for Cause Trustee Goodrich moved to exclude evidence that is being produced today by the administration in this termination proceeding, specifically a letter dated May 20, 2005 by Mr. Weldon, a rebuttal to evaluation, an evaluation with an observation date of January 02, 2003, March 11, 2003, November 25, 2003, March 9, 2004, and January 12, 2005 except to the extent that any of that information was included in the packet the Trustees received for the last meeting and the information contained in the blue binder. Trustee Moses seconded the motion. Voting in favor of the motion were Malcolm Goodrich, Kathy Kelker, Karen Moses, and Sandra Mossman. Voting against the motion was Dale Getz. Joel Guthals is ineligible to vote on this item. The motion carried. Executive Session The Chair closed the meeting at 5:53 p.m. “for the purpose of holding a discussion that relates to a matter of individual privacy where it has been determined that the demands of individual privacy clearly exceed the merits of public disclosure.” (2-3-203 MCA) Further, the right of individual privacy has not been waived by an individual about whom the discussion pertains. The Chair opened the meeting to the public at 6:10 p.m. Administrative Recommendation to Terminate a Nontenured Teacher for Cause The Chair asked Jeff Weldon to reiterate the standard before them in this situation. Jeff Weldon stated Trustees were considering the recommendation of the Superintendent to non-renew a non-tenured teacher’s contract. State law says you may do that with or without cause, and the Superintendent’s recommendation is the Board does it with cause. The Statute just simply says “cause.” Juxtapose that with both our tenured statutes and our labor agreement that talks about termination of a contract or non-renewal of a tenured teacher’s contract with good cause, so it appears to be a higher standard, so he would argue that in the context of non-tenure non-renewal cause simply means “reason.” There’s a recommendation of non-renewal for a “reason” and the reason is articulated to the Board. Trustee Mossman asked why this item was before the Board since she thought non-tenured teachers only had to be “noticed” in terms of non-renewal. She asked what process the Superintendent goes through to decide whether it’s “with cause” or “without cause.” Superintendent Svee replied that last year two teachers were asked to be terminated “without cause” and the Board rejected both of them. This year the Board and administration met to determine what approach to take. They felt there would be cases where non-renewal of non-tenured teachers “without cause” was appropriate, and the issue was the evaluations. If the item is clear-cut and documented the recommendations would be “without cause.” The Superintendent did not want this case combined with the other cases of non-tenured teachers without cause that are being bumped for budgetary reasons. He believes the teacher deserves the right to speak, and the documentation shows the reason is valid with the understanding that the Board may still refuse to accept it. Trustee Goodrich moved to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation for non-renewal of the non-tenured teacher for cause. Trustee Getz seconded the motion. Trustee Moses introduced a substitute motion to table this item until all elementary trustees can be present. Trustee Mossman seconded the motion. Trustees Moses, Goodrich, and Mossman expressed concerns regarding the District’s lack of following established procedure. Chair Kelker passed the gavel to Vice-Chair Goodrich. Kathy agreed with the concerns expressed regarding procedure, but she is also concerned for the students involved. Kathy is concerned if this recommendation is not adopted, then they have tenured a teacher who has an admitted problem with behavior management of students. There is not an appropriate match between what the job demands and the particular situation and what the teacher is able to do. The Board was very clear with the Superintendent that they wanted evaluation procedures followed. The “higher value” is the students themselves and that will influence her vote. It was not the Chair’s intention to leave an absent Board member out by scheduling the decision time on this matter. Katharin resumed control as Chair. Trustee Moses believes we have not done all we can in the planned program of improvement, or the date of the evaluation. Karen restated her desire to have all trustees present to vote on this item. Trustee Goodrich said the decision to table the meeting on this issue was his idea because of the late hour of the first meeting. Malcolm said he is not condoning the procedure by voting for the motion, but he would rather err on the side of caution than make a decision that would adversely affect a student. A decision needs to be made by June 1, and the procedural issues can be corrected for the future. Superintendent Svee said the possibility of a transfer was explored within the context of the positions available. The question was called for the substitute motion. Voting in favor of the substitute motion was Karen Moses and Sandra Mossman. Voting against the motion were Malcolm Goodrich, Dale Getz, and Katharin Kelker. Joel Guthals is ineligible to vote on this item. The motion failed. Trustee Moses requested that future meetings be scheduled when all trustees are available. The question was called for the original motion. Those voting in favor of the motion were Malcolm Goodrich, Dale Getz, Katharin Kelker, and Sandra Mossman. Voting against the motion was Karen Moses. Joel Guthals is ineligible to vote on this item. The Chair asked Jeff Weldon to comment on “motions to reconsider.” A Trustee must vote on the prevailing side to move to reconsider. This motion would be in order at the same meeting, and it suspends action on the motion to which it applies. Trustee Moses confirmed her vote was “no.” Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:40 p.m. Katharin Kelker, Chair Sherrill Sullins, Recorder Leo Hudetz, District Clerk Recorder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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