April 11, 2016 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Motion to excuse Mike Blecha and Shad Stamm from the meeting

1. The Board of Education reserves the right to enter into Closed/Executive Session for 1) the protection of public interest or 2) the prevention of needless injury to the reputation of an individual, and the individual has not requested a public meeting. When making a motion to enter into Closed/Executive Session, the member making such a request should be as specific as possible keeping the previously listed stipulation in consideration. 
2. If the Board is in agreement, a motion maybe to enter into Closed/Executive Session to 1) discuss a personnel matter, or 2) for the prevention of needless injury to the reputation of the individual, or 3) to discuss litigation and for the protection of the public interest.
3. Action concerning matters discussed in Closed/Executive Session will be acted upon in open session

This item is for the public to address the board. Public comment is limited to 30 minutes total and no more than 5 minutes per speaker. Persons having a grievance are encouraged to file a written statement of their concerns following the district grievance policy prior to addressing the board. 

To verify that notice of the meeting was given by publication in the Benkelman Post, a legal newspaper for Dundy County Stratton and by written notice to each member of the board, the designated method of giving notice

To adopt the agenda of this meeting. The board reserves the right to change the order of items within the agenda.

Presentation of the financial status of the district, balances in the various funds, recent/impending activity therein anticipated expenses and planning for future considerations.

IF DCSEA and NSEA have reviewed the contract I would like the board to consider it at this meeting. If not we will table the change until fall and do it as part of the teacher negotiations process.

Based on information from the NASB Budget workshop and the NASB website I have put together a tentative year-long calendar for the board. This calendar contains information about what to expect at the board meetings each month, some information about statutory guidelines and deadlines and hopefully gives us a better ability to anticipate upcoming events at the board level. This is a draft and intended to be a guideline not a carved in stone schedule.

The board has already voted to retain head coaches in Girls Golf, Girls Cross Country, Boys Cross Country, Football, Wrestling, Girls Basketball and Boys Basketball. At this time we will have a recommendation for Head Volleyball. 

Naming the final head coach now will allow them to meet with students, schedule camps and work with the rest of the staff to set up summer activities. 

We will address the remainder of the assignments should have them ready to go in May.

Action should be taken to accept the resignation of Lisa Faimon and thank her for her 3 years of service to the district

We would like to recommend that the contract offer for the 206-2017 school year to Nathaniel Parker be approved. 

We would like to recommend that the contract offer for the 206-2017 school year to Karla Freudenburg be approved. 

We would like to recommend that the contract offer for the 206-2017 school year to ________________be approved. 

We would like to recommend that the contract offer for the 206-2017 school year to ______________be approved. 

I would like to schedule fall parent teacher conferences for Thursday October 20. The calendar is very tight that time of  year and that information was not on the adopted calendar

Prices of used full sized SUV's are apparently very high right now. I would recommend that we delay any purchase in this category for a while.

I would like to recommend the following as major summer projects, in addition to the usual painting, floor finishing, cleaning, etc. 

1. Repair the plumbing at Stratton Elementary. This will include installing tankless water heaters in the building. Two heaters at $**** per unit.

2. Replace the fascia around Benkelman Elementary. We plan to replace it with an engineered wood plank. We have a materials estimate from League's for $4,910 for the siding. It would not include anything with the soffit or changing the lighting above the soffit.

3. Replace the high school commons floor. The plan would be to remove the existing tile and either polish and stain the concrete or use an epoxy finish. Epoxy is around $8.25 per square foot($29,700), stained concrete is in the $5.00 range ($18,000). New vinyl tile is $2-$3 per square foot. The area is around 3600 square feet.

4. Replace the single pane windows and exhaust fans at the high school. More efficient windows with shades and larger fans with variable speed. We plan to work on this ourselves. Purchase the windows and have our staff replace. Cost is about $600 per window.

The order they are listed is the priority I think they should be done in and if we run out of time or it gets to be more money than we want to spend we will stop. I am thinking about $30,000 total for these projects.

I would like to at least have a discussion about pay and raises for classified staff along with the upcoming implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the implications it will have for the district. 

ACA will require us to offer an insurance plan which meets certain federal requirements to all of our employees who average over 30 hours a week. We need only offer single not family. The insurance may not cost the employee (assuming they accept our offer) more than 9.5% of their pay. If the plan costs more than that we are required to pay the difference. Also, we only have to offer insurance they do not have to take it.

We will attend a meeting on Thursday the 14th and learn more about ACA and it's implementation. We are already 2 years delayed from the original date of coverage and even this year they delayed the sending of 1095-C forms.

There is also a chance that we may have someone look at our employees to make sure we have all of them on our offer list that belong there.