August 13, 2012 at 8:00 PM - August 2012 Regular Board Meeting

Rationale: 

Public Participation at Board of Education Meetings:

BOE Policy/Regulation 8346 outlines the parameters of public participation at Board meetings concerning items on the agenda as well as those not on the agenda.  A copy of this policy is available in the Superintendent’s office and at each monthly Board meeting.

Rationale:  A draft of the budget detail, warts and all, is attached to this agenda items.  Many of the numbers in the draft will change over the course of the next month.  Many of them have probably changed from Friday, August 10th, when this agenda item and draft budget was attached.  Now is the time to budget for improvements or changes you want to see in the school next year/summer.  I have the items from the summer retreat and those will be covered by money being taxed into the special building fund if the budget allows it and money being transferred into the depreciation fund.  Please remember that this is a very rough draft.  Everything is just a little bit further behind, including me, because we settled so late this year.  But that is OK.  The board negotiations team did an AWESOME job.  Since we have a two year settlement, I should be ahead of the game next year.  :-)

Rationale:  I would like to find a time to get together with the members of the policy committee.  We will be tackling the 4000 series of policy.  This is the section of policy that deals with employees.  There will be sections of this that will be cumbersome and take a while to get through.  There are also suggested policies, such as the one pertaining to duty hours, that are in direct disagreement with our negotiated agreement, which is why I tried to get some of those items cleaned up before we tackled this section of policy.  We cannot have policy that is in direct conflict with the negotiated agreement.  The negotiated agreement trumps any policy that we might put in place.  Also, we will discuss the retirement incentive policy and the RIF policy.  Discussion of these sensitive policies will likely involved the entire board, but we should start the work as a committee.  I'm looking for dates and times when we could meet.

Rationale:  The negotiated agreement that the teachers have agreed to is attached.  The changes to the agreement with include changes to base pay, insurance deductible amount, and leave days are highlighted in yellow.  This is a two year agreement. Thanks to Raquel, Ron, and John for their leadership and work on this agreement.  They all three did a super job.

Rationale:  Attached, you will find the pay increase requested by Jan.  Additionally, you will find current pay for non-certificated staff members.  We can discuss how you would like to change their compensation.  There are several staff members we will need to discuss compensation for in a little greater depth.  Those include Ingrid Lennemann, Jan Weiss, Dennis Knutson and Gerald Gerdes.  

Rationale:  Each year we execute a transfer of funds from the general fund to the activity fund to "zero out" the accounts at the end of the year.  This is because the income we bring in from the activities program is not enough to pay officials, uniforms, and other costs associated with operating an activities program.  The auditors encourage us to do this rather than carry the negative balance from year to year.

Rationale:  Each year we need to make a transfer to the school's depreciation fund to energize that account since it is a non-taxing fund.  I did budget for a $50,000 transfer.  Additionally, I did budget for bus and vehicle acquisition.  We did not spend that entire amount as we only bought one used bus and only used 2/3 rd's of the money set aside for vehicle acquisition that was used to replace the school's pickup.  Those "unused" amounts were about $40,000.  The other $10,000 is made up of money that was originally budgeted to replace items such as furniture.  We will use this money to plan for next year's summer projects that were identified at the board retreat this summer.

Rationale:  These are the board goals that were generated at the retreat.  If you want to make any changes to them prior to approving them, we sure can.

Rationale:  The board policy committee has reviewed these three policies, as has Greg Perry.  There were only three that needed any type of changes.  The other 6000 series policies were pretty much "cookie cutter" policies.  I'd ask you that you approve their first reading.

Rationale:  Clay Roberts is a speaker who will be coming to speak to the staff and community about the 40 Developmental Assets.  We would ask that the staff development day that was originally scheduled for October 5th be moved to October 8th.  Students will be in session with a 2:00 dismissal on Friday, October 5th, and they will not be here on Monday, October 8th. 

Rationale:  Kim Molzahn has some transportation program concerns she would like to share with the rest of the board members.  I invited her to speak on the topic.  I'd really like full board support if we are going to make substantial changes in the transportation program relevant to the addition of staff or equipment.  Stacey has been made aware of the concerns and he and Kim discussed them.  Stacey has discussed the concerns with Gary and Stacey will come to the meeting to answer any questions anyone might have.

Rationale:  In the past we have always had the budget hearing first at 8:00 and then the property tax request hearing at 8:10.  I would recommend we do the same unless you want to do something different.

Rationale:  Tiffany Jackson has earned her diploma through alternative education.  She will not be present, so we won't have cake, but it is still reason to pause and celebrate her success.

Rationale:  Megan wants to come in and thank you for your sponsorship of her attendance at the National FCCLA Convention and share her successes from that experience with you.

Rationale:  Mary is going to come in and present to you on the new meal patterns that are going to be observed.  You can also ask her any questions you may have about them or anything else in the school meals program.

Rationale:  Attached you will see the projected enrollment based on numbers provided by the guidance office.

Rationale:  If anyone would like to attend this area membership meeting on September 12th, please let me know and I will get you registered.  Also, please remember that when you travel to such events you can be reimbursed for mileage or use a school vehicle.  Please just let me know if you wish to attend by September 1st.  A copy of the flyer indicating the topics discussed is attached to this agenda item.

Rationale:  The Alma football game will be schedule for its original time.  The official who overbooked found a set of officials for the game.  It will be on Friday, September 7th, at Franklin, at 8:00.

Rationale:  President Fritson wishes to discuss with the entire board concerns that have been brought to his attention regarding an employee of the school district.  The employee has been invited to attend the meeting and has been given the option to have the discussion held in open session or in executive session, as per the Open Meetings Acts Law.