September 24, 2013 at 9:00 AM - SAA Weekly Meeting

Discussion:  We reviewed the goals and accomplishments of the first 6 weeks of the 2013-14 school year. See below: 1. Establish a meeting schedule to communicate with administrators and representatives from each building and district program and develop a system to share information from these meetings with staff and district patrons. 2. Establish a classroom coaching model to reflect an interest in supporting teachers in improving instruction and encourage the implementation of new strategies from the Marzano Workshops with a focus on the "First Five" to seven minutes of class. (Awareness of Learning Environment, Start on Time, Focus Activity, Post Learning Objectives and Class Agendas, etc...) 3. Review of central office systems (finance, buildings and grounds, transportation, requisition/purchase and inventory, curriculum alignment and Textbook cycles, observation/supervision/evaluation) to determine their capacity to meet district needs. 4. Review of technology initiatives across the district and develop a team with a focus to develop the district-wide technology plan. 5. Finalize the budget of receipts~expenditures and assist the auditors in conducting the annual audit to close out the 2012-13 fiscal year. Develop and adopt the 2013-14 budget to reflect the board's goals to stabilize cash within the general fund, continue generating revenue in support of outstanding bonds, and generate additional revenue in the building and depreciation funds in support of facility maintenance and possible future building projects. 6. Develop a more transparent internal and external communication system and expand the use of the district website.

Discussion:  Mr. Pavlik shared that he was contacted by a local business offering to sponsor our school communication system. He said the business said they would pay for our district message system if the school agreed to add an advertisement "this message brought to you by "_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ". The principals agreed that we support business sponsorships and wanted a chance to go back to their buildings to visit with their staff about other needs we may have. We also visited about the role of the booster club, education foundation, etc... and decided to present it at our strategic planning meeting in order to develop a well-thought-out district-wide plan.

Discussion:  Mr. Pavlik asked about IPad procedures for newly enrolled students at the middle school. The middle school principals said they included the IPad information with their enrollment forms and said it worked well for them.

Discussion:  Mr. Pavlik also asked that the principals have a chance to visit about the scheduling of multiple special education meetings on the same day. The principals each work with their special education staff to schedule special education meetings in compliance with the required deadlines. The elementary buildings have to schedule some of these meetings during the regular school day in order to get the parents to attend. The middle and high school principals said they were able to schedule most of their meetings before and after school. We also discussed the importance of having all staff who work with the identified student attend the meeting. If there is a conflict with a staff member, the principals said the teacher was to call the parent and inform them of the conflict and provide a written response for use at the meeting.

Discussion:  PPACA requires employers to notify all employees by October 1, 2013 regarding the availability of coverage through the new Marketplace. Please click on the below links to view Blue Cross Blue Shield's recent flyer regarding employee notice of the Marketplace. The information from Rex Schultze, School Attorney, was sent out to principals on Tuesday morning. The principals agreed to make sure all employees in their buildings receive this notification and agreed to submit a signed list of employees included in this notification to Marlene Hartman by October 1st.

Discussion:  Please review the district crisis team meeting from Friday, September 20th. The team visited about how this works in Schuyler and the team approach for carrying out the function in each building. See meeting minutes below: Meeting Attendees: District Crisis Response Team (Mrs. Sweeney, Mr. Zegers, Mrs. Kment, and Dr. Hoesing) 1. Review Crisis Information: It was agreed that the building team leaders would update the information and have it back to Mrs. Sweeney by Wednesday, September 25th. Mrs. Sweeney would send the updated information to Dr. Hoesing to be distributed to building principals on Tuesday, October 1st. 2. Crisis Team Protocol: The team reviewed the crisis team protocol. It was agreed that the crisis team would meet initially to determine their support and release information for the building team (s) to support the staff and students dealing with the situation. It was agreed that if the district team advised that a crisis plan be enacted, the building team would review the recommendation, be given a chance to provide input prior to releasing information to the staff, and determine the roles of the building committee members responsible for implementing the plan. We also discussed the need for staff to meet at the end of the day/week to review the effectiveness of the crisis plan recommendation. 3. John Dudley Workshop: The team discussed the need for the team to attend the workshop for Level I and II training updates scheduled for October 28-29 in Omaha. The team will be making a recommendation on attendance for the Level IV training scheduled for February 18th in Norfolk following the initial training in October.

Discussion:  The building principals, Mr. Gibbons, and myself are registered for the Apple workshop in Kearney on the morning of October 2nd. We have a few staff registered for the pre-conference on Tuesday afternoon, and 14 teachers registered for the October 2nd evening and full-day session on October 3rd. We will meet on the afternoon of October 2nd with administrators and teachers to outline our approach to developing a district-wide technology plan.

Discussion:  Paul Toms will be in Schuyler Wednesday, the 25th of September, arriving at the high school between 9:30 and 10:00 AM. I shared that is a Parent/Teacher Conference Day for our district and he felt students did not need to be in session for his review. He would like to meet Dr. Hoesing and then conduct the reviews in the following order: High School Middle School Elementary School Alternative Ed Center Richland He conducted his review of Fishers earlier in the year. He may request someone to accompany him in your buildings.

Discussion:  Thank you for your continued work with classroom observations. I really appreciate your work to support teachers in setting up their classrooms and initial classroom and lesson procedures. I believe our teachers are now making the connection between your classroom visits and the tie to our district-wide professional development with Phil Warrick.

Discussion:  The board policies are now available online in html format. This new format allows you to google search board policies and will allow our parents and district patrons full access to our district policies. They are available now on the board website. Also, thank you to the principals who shared our efforts to become more transparent with our district-wide meetings. I hope this provides a conduit for better communication and a higher level of trust across our district.

Discussion:  We hosted our building & grounds and transportation initial meeting in September. Ron Mundil and Mrs. Egr will be working on developing our format for managing these two programs.

Discussion:  We are required to have our Social Studies curriculum in alignment with the newly adopted State Standards by December. I will work with Mr. Gibbons on this requirement and he will work with each one of you and your building staff to make sure they are included in this process.