BEA Notes from 9-24-18 BCSD Board Meeting

School Board Minutes 9/11/17




Call to Order- Welcome


Brueck and Bross are on phone conference - Kendell is running the meeting


Pledge of Allegiance


Adoption of Agenda -


Hatteberg motioned, Robberts second - pass


Public comments


No comments


Consent Agenda - Minutes, Bills, Human Resources Report,Travel and Gifts


Robberts $212,531.88 un 573,025 bank 54,000 and gifts 2000 - Brueck second - pass, Bross abstain


District Positive Accomplishments -School Pantry & Back Pack Program


Cory Johnson speaking for Brian Johnson - positive, program has grown. We needed a sponsor that was not religiously affiliated so got the school pantry to volunteer. Will have Brian Johnson present at another time. Kendell - Who is the contact? Johnson - Contact Brian Johnson since he covers the food programs at school.


Student Representative Report


No one


Superintendent's/Curriculum Director’s Report


Coen - absent


Johnson - highlights - Homecoming went well, activities and munchkins in the parade (some inside jokes or something at the parade).. Mr. Coen met with people at SCC and BHS admin to continue Steps to Success. Half of the freshman will go on campus on Oct. 5 and the other half will go a day in February. Have a goal to send more students on SCC campus for credits and hope that trimesters will help with that. Tomorrow is future Iowa ready event. He is going with Robberts and Mr. Keane. It is a business and industry event and looking forward to that. Comments and questions about the right sizing. Please feel free to contact the board if you have questions. We are looking and gathering information with student count for October. PZAZZ event in October. Thank you all for helping with the help with my transition to the district - admin, teacher leaders, teachers, and so many others. Other reminder for the board - Agenda for Iowa's school board conference in February, please sign up for the sessions you want to attend. Greg - We will have transportation for you. Kendell - Thank you Mr. Johnson for transitioning as well.


Items for Discussion


Des Moines County Conference Appointment


Greg - School board has a representative to help with the budget. Vickstrom - What do they do? Greg- They meet once or twice to review the budget for the assessor. Bross - It was a learning curve, but if anyone else wants it, I can easily step back. - Vickstrom -sounds interesting - Hatteberg - motions for Vickstrom, Bross second - pass


Educational Services with SCC for Joint Enrollment Courses


Greg - We have had several meetings with SCC for dual enrollment. Consists of programs to help both. This is a continuation for classes offered at SCC and BHS. Cost is similar to yein the past. This year it is $261 for 3 credit. (he said something was reduced from 75 to 27 dollars this year per credit?) This is only an agreement only for one year. Courtney - Cost is about $100,000? Greg - With books and class. - Courtney - Are we supplemented? Greg - We get supplements from the state. He said something like if we spend $150,000 we get $100,000 from state. Kendell - Books are purchased, but why are they not using chromebooks (I am assuming in reference to online textbooks)? Greg - They add up. Brueck - What are the classes at BHS? - Greg - health occupations related, building trades, engineering, some social studies, stats, english and more. Kendell - Coen likes supporting students, and having several students get credits before they graduate is awesome. Greg - Medical and engineering are the highest credit earning. Courtney - Other districts? Johnson - It does happen, but what makes us special is that kids don’t have to go to the campus, we can teach the credits at a lower cost, students have good relationship with teacher since they may have had them before. Robberts move to pass, Bross second - all pass.


2018-19 Meeting Date


School board election will be in November next year. Revised dates in May and November - passed - Robberts - can we have Janet send days to our calendar?


400 Partial Series of Board Policies - 2nd Reading


Bross - Brueck - pass


400 Partial Series of Board Policies - 1st Readings


Tabor - will squeeze in the rest of the other series in the next two meetings. Questions - Vickstrom - Activities director got struck out? Where did it go? Tabor - Admin will take the responsibilities and that info got moved to handbook. Vickstrom - Supervisor of transportation the same? Tabor - correct. Passed


PTO/Booster Meeting Discussion


Kendell - We want to send board members to the different meetings. There is a list for all members to try to sign up and make it to the meetings. Courtney - I had a hard time making them to them last year. Kendell, we need make sure we don’t show up to the same and have too many there. (They went around and chose the ones they want). Bross, we need to make sure that who goes to Corse will go because they have questions about the right sizing. Hatteberg will go to Corse and Bross will go to Grimes. Each one has a building (I didn’t get what they choose). Bross will help with Booster Club, Kendell will be there. Brueck - I think we should have more at Course - Bross - no more than three. All agreed. Bross - Thank you all for stepping up and going. It means something.


Board Communications


Vickstrom - Comments - Rumor about the property about the east of Ed Stone and if that is with the right sighting. Quality of sound at the board meeting is still not good. Wished he was at the last meeting, but really concerned with the right sizing. How much input will we get for the right-sizing from staff, community? Kendell - There will be one morning, evening and weekend forum and one for teachers. Bross no dates yet, but BLDD will be there to help and we should get stuff from them. Greg - The outline is the same as you said. Got something from them this afternoon and sent back to make corrections. He will have it at next meeting. Vickstrom - How well will this be communicated to everybody? Greg - everything we can, facebook, paper website. Vickstrom - Wish I could have been there. Courtney - Maybe extend it to more than 3 so we make sure everyone is heard.


Brueck - Kudos to all that participated and helped in homecoming.


Hatteberg - Been to a couple of sporting events and it is exciting to see how the students use their energy, talents, at the game. Good academics too.


Kendall - Please send us emails with questions and comments. Maybe Greg can come up with a frequently asked questions so people can see the answers right away and don’t have to repeat. People seem to understand why we are making these tough decisions. Coen is on vacation. He is human and deserves to enjoy his vacation.


Robberts - Congrats to BHS golf team with a couple place in the top 10. Looking forward to a great school year.


Courtney - Nothing much. He want to wrap this up and go home. Today is his birthday. (got happy birthdays and jokes)


Bross - Echo Brueck - great homecoming week. Friday morning was great. I would encourage board members, staff, and community to contact the board or Greg, Janet, Pat to ask questions. Bross has forwarded questions to get answers. We want to address them all. Agree with Courtney to make sure people are heard. Hopefully we can make a decision by Dec 17th meeting. Thank you Kendell for leading the meeting today.


Adjournment - pass 7:40 pm

BEA notes from 9-10-18 BCSD Board Meeting

BCSD School Board Meeting September 10, 2018




5:30 Work Session Facilities

Absent: Dean Vickstrom, Heather Brueck

Present: Tom Courtney, Marliss Robberts, Deb Hatteberg, Darvin Kendell, Brian Bross

Powerpoint: Burlington Community School District Brainstorm Meeting Preliminary Results

Presented by Iowa Construction Advocate Team (ICAT)

Called to order at 5:38 by Robberts.

They started by recapping meeting of August 13, . Reviewed approach, present analysis, etc.

Feedback from the meeting was to take out Regional Academy, identify space needs to relocate all JMEC,programs. How can we do what we do best?

The ICAT Approach: Programs first, buildings second. Plan for instruction and learning first and then determine how to use the buildings to maximize this.

Initial Assumptions: enrollment requires right sizing. Which school makes the most sense to be retired? Identify the answer, use it to build subsequent scenarios.

Sell JMEC and relocate programs. Keep central office, upgrade and move tech to central office

Scenarios

Currently there are two approaches and I didn’t get this down. I believe this information is on the last board meeting infor.




Then the District had a presentation led by Cory Johnson but before he could start talking, Coen spoke. Coen then talked about how trimesters has given students more credits and better graduation rate. The District needs options that make the changes a positive thing for teachers and students. Aligning grade level and having students having the same teachers for a number of years is a good thing. Looping? Elementary teachers have to do a variety of professional development programs because of core classes. Make specialists of elementary teachers is what Coen’s suggested.

Coen the said something about 246, 135 - Flexible groupings? Not sure what this is.

Cory briefed the cabinet this morning about a framework of instruction about teams in the middle school year. Coen said it is like looping. Create relationship strands??? Made an analogy with team teaching. Kids have same teachers multiple years. Kids who are problems have problems with multiple people.

Cory presented the team aspect. Coen said that teacher leadership was briefed on this. All this is researched based.

Cory - Referenced research in education about best practice. Collective teacher advocacy, teaming is good, integrated curriculum is good, effective interventions is good, collaboration time is good, enrichment is good, need to build student self efficacy etc. How do we plan for this and use the buildings to accomplish this?

Examples of different configurations of structuring 5-6 so that there are fewer teachers in the day for students? Promote block teaching with two contents area in the same block.

Having 7-8 promotes collaboration. Each level have teams. Teachers teach both grades. Example social studies teacher teaches the same students 7 and 8th grade. You teach them as 7th graders and then again as 8th graders. Team has common collaboration time. This model has to be flexible because 6th grade is a bubble class and subsequent classes will be smaller. Must grow and shrink with class sizes.

Coen - have had some students come back to us. He said it is because we don’t have all the kids leaving during lunch anymore at the high school Courtney - enrolled back in? Coen - about 5 have come back. They are coming back for more classes. We are different than all other schools around us. Middle school advanced math wasn’t advanced when Coen started, it was the same as regular math and the advanced class was behind the average class. This model will help teachers be content area experts. Coen said that the teacher displeasure factor is removed because they don’t have to sit through some stuff (PD?) that they aren’t interested and can focus on the area they are passionate about.




Planning Context (IACC)

Issues ahead: Referenced the school funding disparity issue in Davenport (superintendent put his license on the line). Article pointed out that most districts will decrease in size. Des Moines Register: 80% of Iowa Schools lost enrollment since 2001 and 9 percent of districts now educate half of all Iowa children.

They went over BSD projected enrollment and new money. We are losing money. That creates the planning context.

Assumptions Used for Retiring a Facility presented by IACC

Operation and maintenance cost

Energy Costs

Building renewal

Staff costs assumed to stay the same

Grade alike slightly less need for staff.

Numbers shown are for grade alike buildings.

Sunnyside and Blackhawk are not going to be closed.

Retire Corse because it has the highest cost.

Did life cycle cost over square feet. Corse has highest cost.

Bross questioned data.

Kestkerke - Blackhawk and Sunnyside built for 4 section buildings and rest 3 sections.

Courtney - Corse is oldest .

Robberts - Every assumption has some sort of grade alike? She wanted a third option.

Pre k-4 at each school 5 moved to middle school.




Sell JMEC relocate programs to other places. Upgrades to high school for accommodating this. Cafeteria is reduced by 20%. Three classrooms will be added in this area for a school to work program that was not identified in the presentation.

Bross - Why would IT head and secretary be at CO and not at the high school? Coen said it would work.

Kendell - expenses of moving included? IACC - Not included because it is a part of both scenarios.





Robberts - Will we be able to sell JMEC? Coen - We can’t just keep it open for municipal band and food bank. Courtney - What is the cost of tearing JMEC down? Coen - Talk to legislature so that districts can use 1 cent sales tax to tear down buildings. Courtney suggested we tear it down and sell building sites. He asked if it has asbestos Kesterke - lots of asbestos. Coen - we own 8-10 acres behind it. We could sell those as building sites.




Scenarios

Gave cost analysis of selling JMEC and closing Corse. Then had a slide about transportation consideration. A fraction of the radius of the served area would not be served. Students in Corse area would be bussed. HS could be a hub for transportation. Might be a reasonable approach to solving this. IACC didn’t spend time on this since it isn’t their area of expertise.

Scenario 1: Prek -4 at North Hill, Blackhawk, Sunnyside, and Grimes. Aldo would have ⅚ and Ed Stone 7-9. BHS would have 9-12

Scenario 2: North Hill, Grimes would have Pre K-1. Sunnyside and Blackhawk would have 2-4. Aldo would have 5-6 and Ed Stone 7-8. BHS 9-12.

Presented average annual operating cost and savings associated with the two scenarios. I couldn’t read the slide. The two save about the same amount. Option 2 slightly lower because they will need from 2-6 fewer teachers.

Then there was something said about 5-8 both middle schools pre k-4 for all elementary schools. Robberts asked for number on this possibility.

IACC said they could get the numbers for next time.

Both proposals are better than what we have now per IACC.

Phase 2 considerations: In about five years we may need to close another building.

Next Steps

IACC suggested an Options Forum format for getting community input. This may be done more than one night and more than one location. They will present three options and status quo for community. This is an open house form that has three stations that people progress through.

Introduction - This station explain the background of this stuff.

Concepts - This station presents the different options.

Feedback - This is where community members are asked a series of questions either by a person, electronically, or on paper and pencil. It focuses on what people want in a productive way according to IACC and lessens those who might cause “discord”.

Bross - Similar to IDOT process? IACC - not familiar with it.

Bross - People need to be heard or feel that they have been heard. Coen - This may be an opportunity to judge the indifference in the community.

Robberts then asked when we would do this

Bross - Suggest how many? IACC - 3 usually at different times.

Robberts - wants option 3. Anyone else want something? Robberts wants a non grade alike option. Hatteberg - How does 5-8 work in our buildings? Kendell wanted to know the same thing.

Coen said pd easier with grade alike buildings. Kendell - adding 5th grade creates a challenge?

Coen - tried to explain

Cory explained licensing of elementary vs licensing of secondary and how it impacts what grades can be in buildings. Grade alike buildings increases more opportunity for collaboration. Flexible group for students because more sections. Less staff.

Bross - need to explain what its better to community.

Cory - parent complaint - Students in multiple buildings. We have three levels now and going to four isn’t that big a deal. We have nostalgia for neighborhood schools. Coen - we have less than 2 kids per household. This really isn’t a problem.

Robberts - next steps?

IACC will provide the 3rd option that Robberts requested. The community engagement phase should be brief. May happen as soon as October. Decision made be end of December.

Staff lost will be attrition or moving out of district.

Coen - don’t anticipate firing people at this time as long as people retire or leave.




6:30 Expulsion Hearing




Regular Board Meeting

I. Call to Order – Welcome 7:45 p.m.

II. Pledge of Allegiance

III. Adoption of Agenda - motion Kendell, second Bross. Passed.

IV. Public Comments - No one.

V. Items for Discussion

3. Minutes - Reynolds presented them, Courtney moved, Hatteberg second, passed.

4. Financial Reports (June & July) - Reynolds presented this to close out fiscal year. General fund balance did increase. A portion of that is set aside for categorical funds. Categoricals did come down a little bit because we used PD funds. Management fund went up. Activity fund went down because of some non recurring expenditures. The trust fund went down. Nutrition fund went down. Overall, a good year. Courtney moved, Bross second. Approved.

5. Annual Settlement of Books - Reynolds presented. The books have to be closed for the last year. Bank statements etc were given to the board to show how it all reconciles. Hatteberg moved, Courtney second, approve.

VI Adjournment - This is the reorganizational meeting, this meeting has to be adjourned.

VII. Call to Order

(Board secretary, as president pro tem, will preside) Reynolds called to order.

VIII. Election of President - Robberts asked to say a few words. She was honored to be president for the last five years and then complemented the board members on serving. The one thing she was most proud of was getting Coen as superintendent. She gets texts and phone calls all the time and that he works all the time. She thanked Coen for his dedication. She then nominated Bryan Bross for board president. Kendell seconded. Hatteberg moved that nominations cease. Courtney seconded. Approved. Then they did a roll call vote. All voted yes. Bross is the president.

IX. Election of Vice-President - Courtney nominated Hatteberg. Robberts nominated Kendell. Nominations ceased. Bross - couldn’t choose. Hatteberg declined the nomination. Bross then voted for Kendell. All voted for Kendell.

X. Administer Oath of Office to Officers - Bross and Kendell were sworn in by Reynolds and board members changed seats.

XI. Consent Agenda - Bross took over at this point. Kendell moved, Robberts seconded, approved.

6. Bills, Human Resources Report, and Gifts

XII. District Positive Accomplishments- Homecoming Activities - Kennedy Gravel, Ally Bivens spoke. Started with powder puff and ruff and tuff yesterday. Today was country vs/ country club. Jr./Sr were country club. So/Fresh - country. Tomorrow is somewhere over the rainbow. Wednesday is vine/meme day which adults may not understand. Kennedy explained what vines and memes are. Thursday is jinx day and Friday is grayhound pride day. WQAD is coming Friday 5:00 A.M. for a pep assembly. There will be free breakfast pizza and Starbucks gift cards for the first 30 people there. They then talked about the Thursday night’s events including the parade, carnival, king coronation, pep rally, bonfire. The game is Friday and Saturday is the dance. The dance is in the cafeteria at BHS.

XIII. Student Representative Report - none

XIV. Superintendent’s Report - Sent an email to board president/vp about the guy at North HIll who is doing security. Attended GPAEA superintendent meeting. Something about million dollars and something else about two million dollars. Not sure what he meant. WB is going to abide by wish that an open enroll student can’t be on our swim team. Referenced homecoming stuff. Kids bank has 4.5% for any employees. Bank will talk to students about school debt and with the building trades students about equity in homes (F&M Bank). He talked to Derrick Murphy about everyone is a writing teacher and this taking time from band. He talked to students about being involved. He met with some other people about the school becoming a talent pipeline. Met with Sarah Butler Shoop about problems with her assignment at Grimes. He attached a document about some scores of something, ADA act information, and hard copy of something. Something about avoiding legal issues when disciplining students. A score? A letter was sent to high school association athletic association by someone but he did not elaborate on what it said. He presented to other districts the possibility of providing some of our high school programs to other districts. He talked about some more stuff about discipline stuff - unclear.

XV. Items for Discussion

7. 2018-19 Meeting Dates - They were in the packet provided. There were questions about the dates in May and June. May 13th is Senior Awards night. Robberts suggested the meeting be moved to May 14 (Tuesday). May 28th is the Tuesday after Memorial Day. June has only one meeting and they chose June 24th. Kendell requested we move some of the meetings out into the schools for one or two meetings. Motion to adopt meeting schedule Robberts, Courtney second. Approved. Janet will distribute updated schedule.

8. Board Committee Assignments - Bross asked if anyone wanted to change committees Courtney and Robberts good where they are at. Approved to stay the same.

9. Firework Agreement - Reynolds presented the J&M Display contract. Hatteberg motions, Robberts second. Approved.

10. Board Appointed School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC) - The membership was presented and Cory said that Nicole Wingate was left off and he added her to the list. He explained a little about it. Kendell moved, Hatteberg second. Kendell asked how do we find people for this committee? Cory - He tried to keep the same people as last year and then invited admin team to see if they wanted to join or leave and recruited another parent. He tried to keep the same group. Hatteberg thought it was a great meeting and good discussion. She appreciated all the data presented at the first meeting. Approved.

11. SIAC Goals - CSIP requires goal in early literacy. Cory gave the board a draft of the CSIP and the draft goals. He said there were two but didn’t say what they were. Robberts moved, Hatteberg second. Robberts - They don’t have to have goals above 5th grade? Cory said aren’t required to do this according to the Dept. of Ed. Robberts - Are they still looking at the data? Cory - Yes. Approved.

12. 400 Series of Board Policies 1st Reading - Jeremy Tabor presented this. He didn’t say what they were. Hatteberg moved to accept first reading, Robbert seconded. Several board members gave Jeremy comments about these policies back in July. Approved.

13. Computer Science Professional Development Incentive Fund Grant Information Only - Cory and Cassie Gerst presented. Gerst submitted the application. We got a grant of about $30,000. This will be used in flexible learning spaces at elementary and expand computer coding opportunities at the high school. There will be a committee developed to figure out how to implant the plan.

14. Depository Resolution - Reynolds asked board to approve the places we put our money. Courtney moved, Robberts second. Courtney asked why we move money out of Burlington? Reynolds said we are following code to get the best return on our investments. He tries to distribute funds as much as possible locally. If the nonlocal is the best, why not put all the money in that nonlocal one (Courtney)? Courtney asked how much better with a Des Moines bank? Reynolds said it could be as much as 1 point. But the local institutions are working more with us. Courtney asked about coop that we invest with. Courtney asked why we are out of state. Reynolds responded that we use the local branch of the out of state facility. Approved.

XVI. Board Communications - Robberts - She thanked for the opportunity to be board president and congratulated the new president/vp and wished all a save/happy homecoming. Hatteberg thanked Robberts for leadership, congratulated new ones, but said no female. Kendell thanked Robberts for her leadership and the respect he has for her. He enjoys the enhanced media coverage of the District. He thanked Greater Burlington Partnership for teacher event. Many BCSD teachers attended. He thanked them for electing him. Bross thanked Robberts. He’s learned a lot from her. He is thankful Kendell is his vp. He proud of staff, teacher, administrators that work hard. He recommended a book to all - The Deepest Way. This explains the “A score” thing referenced earlier.




XVII. Adjournment 8:37

Facilities Realignment/ "Right Size" Draft Document

BCSD Facilities Realignment Document shared with BEA leadership 8-24-18. As Mr. Coen notes, it is a draft at this point.