September 10, 2013 at 9:00 AM - SAA Weekly Meeting

Rationale:  Marlene completed the year-end finance statements.  These along with summary receipt/expenditure/cash-flow reports were shared at the meeting.   We also discussed the 2013-14 budget process and monthly reporting.

Rationale:  Dr. Hoesing met with the Schuyler Ministerial Association.  They expressed their concerns for Wednesday evening activities that conflict with their family services and classes for students.  We agreed that we need to comply with the board policy limiting school activities on Wednesday evenings in support of family and church activities. 

The ministerial association understood that changing the September conference times may present a hardship for parents who have already made arrangements to attend conferences on Wednesday evening from 6:00 to 8:00.  We will evaluate parent attendance on Wednesday evenings to determine if we need to keep an evening slot open or change from a 8:00-4:00, 6:00-800 schedule to 8:00 to 6:00 Wednesday conference.

We will re-evaluate the conference times following the September conferences.

Rationale:  Dave requested a chance to visit with building principals about the possibility of moving away from Terra Nova to MAPS testing.   We discussed assessment practices in the district and the possible benefits of moving to an adaptive norm-referenced assessment program.  Mr. Gibbons will take a team to attend a meeting at ESU 7 to review this process and work on a recommendation for district implementation.

Rationale:  Remember, you will be posting your reports to the board meeting on Monday, September 16th.  Reports are due Wednesday, September 11th. 

Rationale:  Mike Kissler from NDE called to inform us that NO Title money can be spent on curriculum directors.  He stated that money could be spent on classroom teachers, principals, superintendents, para-educators, but the new rules changed during the 2012-13 school year to exclude curriculum and program directors. 

Our new federal program application is open and due October 15th and must be written to allocate money according to the federal rules update.  Mike Kissler recommended keeping the money close to the classroom, so please keep this in mind when completing the 2013-14 application.

Rationale:  Marlene and I reviewed the recommendation for partial pay for Fridays when we have early dismissal.  After reviewing this recommendation, it makes sense that we pay for a full-day and it will be up to the building principal to assign a duty that allows the substitute to complete a full day's workload. 

We agreed at the meeting that building principals were in charge of their staff, and that they should find something for substitute teachers to do on the early dismissal days.

Rationale:  Thank you to those who have submitted their September observation schedule.  The goal of September is to visit every classroom and focus on the beginning 5-7 minutes of class.  This is also a great time to observe how the schedule and grouping of students within the schedule.  Discussion on protocol for assisting classroom teachers with student management and disciplinary procedures. 

Rationale:  We are finalizing the September district-wide meeting schedule.  The first Quarterly Safety meeting will be in October, following our safety review.  After visiting with the SEA, they are coordinating a team to represent each building and this team will meet monthly during the first semester and may move to quarterly if there is no need to meet that often.  Our first meeting will be in September TBA.

Don't forget to register people for the safety and crisis workshops if you are interested in sending someone for those trainings.

Rationale:  We discussed the new hires to be presented for board approval on Monday.  We also discussed replacing the FTE in the rural buildings as a result of moving the special education support to the alternative school.  We agreed to provide support for the physical education program by hiring a permanent substitute teacher to cover those classes and work in the SES building in the morning.

The cost of the permanent substitute will be offset by the SPED reimbursement realized by moving the teacher from a regular instruction program to a reimbursed special education program.  The principals will conduct the interviews on Wednesday and the new person would begin working on Monday.  We also discussed the importance of the regular physical education staff providing lesson plans for the rural buildings and the permanent substitute teacher will assist the rural teachers in grading student performance in physical education.