BEA notes 3-25-19 BCSD Board meeting

School Board Minutes 9/11/17

1. Call to Order- Welcome
1. Kendell
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Adoption of Agenda  
1. Robberts, Hatt - Passed
4. Public comments
1. None
5. Consent Agenda - Minutes, Bills, Human Resources Report,Travel  and Gifts
1. Vickstrom, Robberts, no discussion - passed
6. District Positive Accomplishments -CHAMPS Program - Mr. Cradic
1. Took 5 staff ot Portland in July last year with the intent to provide more supports with the increase of more challenging students.  This is for all staff. Used a quote showing that staff has the control of how the classroom feels with common respect with students.   Sets of expectations in the classroom for students and staff. When we provide clear expectations for students, the students should know how to behave.  Consistent and calm in corrections of misbehavior - brief corrections. Might need a buddy room so a student can get a break. Purple Marker - give student a break and let them go run an errand.  Volume level - level 1-6 - silence - 1 to 6 outdoors. 3 - 4 in the classroom. Charts for assemblies and classrooms. This has reduced office referrals - have dropped 70-80 students which is about 20ish%.   During the conference they would spend an hour or two to discuss what they learned and how can they apply to the school. Plan on using at Aldo, and Mr. Taylor use at North Hill.
1. C- Conversation - with who, how long, is it appropriate
2. H - How to get help?, expectation about asking questions
3. A - Activities - What are students engaged in right now, what do we hope to accomplish
4. Movements - walk around the room
5. P - Participation - how are students fulling participating
6. S - Success
2. Vickstrom - this is heavy on staff and will only work if if there is buy-in.  Cradic - that is why I took a team. Focused on this at the beginning of the year with.  Every activity needs to have a CHAMPS list (set of expectations). Coen - have seen CHAMPS sign in the bathroom.  Courtney - I see kids sitting and talking, but not about academics and they come and go and there are students are roaming the halls.  Cradic - that is what CHAMPS is trying to address because it give a clear set of expectations. Teachers should do this ahead of time so students know the expectations - need to be clear and consistent.  Focus the first four weeks of school on the expectations and reminders throughout the year. Courtney - what do you do in the office when kids are sent there for misbehaving? Cradic - it depends. But my goal is to build a relationship so I can understand the kids better and find out what the student is trying to say through the behavior.  If it is a frequent flier, then the relational piece will shorter and go straight into the discipline. Kids will have consequences, like holding back from lunch or recess. Suspended here and there. More discipline questions from Coen and Courtney. Hatt - Buy-in? Had good buy-in, there are some struggles and it could be better, but it is going pretty good.  It provides the framework for structure that helps to lead to good classroom management. Kendell - Thank you.
7. Student Representative Report
1. Dream Catcher - accepted another dream last night - elderly woman who loves to dress up.  Dream was to go to a spa and get professional makeup. National Honor Society. Some sport thing.  Softball played in the Dome and got 2nd place. Burlington may host the Leo Club Convention.
8. Superintendent's Report
1. Last week - attend a meeting.  All city band concert - great display of talent.  Mr. Flaherty screamed amazingly. Watch the little kids and their awe watching the older kids.  Mark something - met with ISEA about insurance to do what is best for our employees. (internet break) Something about safety plan.  Radio show - kindergarten roundup and strings concert. Freshman night is tonight, school calendars, negotiations, value of fine arts education, and how the district will deal with contract and master agreement.  Met with Board Presidents - Bross wants more round tables. Attend Our City Listens training - you might see me nicer and kinder. ISBA - Sheet on what should happen every year. Will pass them out when I get them off my desk.  Laci should share with you our notes from our cabinet meetings. Most school do not have what we have - we are year round with summer school and other programs like what Mrs. Butler does. Rightsizing - hopefully we don't have to do this for another 5 years. Bettendorf cell phone policy is similar to BHS.  Coen says CHAMPS works. Handbook and scheduling. Link from NEA and Mennonite - Articles about trends in high school. Teamster president - issues with the BHS parking lot - police should increase patrols - students were just needing a place - so trying to work on it. Can’t close the gates, fire marshall is against it - no sprinkler system - every minute is going to count so they don’t want anything slowing them down.  If we start renovating the building we have to make everything up to code. Associate principal interviews this week. We need to support something about abuse legislation. Wall of honor at bracewell. Future teachers.org - teacher shortage looming and need to encourage people to get into the profession. Participation in track has increased over 100% and thanked coaches. Courtney - cell phone policy? Not to have them on them and not in room in test, use office phones? Are we doing this?  Coen - Keane will talk about it in his talk. Robberts - Pepples - is there plan to get information out to get people to support pepple? Coen - we talked about it and will get it out on our social media. Strategic times - it is not a tax increase, and is very important. Kendell - hope that the staff will go out and vote - legally think they can tell people when and where to vote, but can’t ask them how to vote. Hope they know the importance.
9. Items for Discussion
1. Contract/Rental Agreements with Girl Scouts cam L-Kee-Ta
1. L-Kee-Ta - Butler - In 3rd year for doing middle school summer camp - provides us the opportunity to see us in different light and let students experience things they might not have experienced before.  Cradic- Trust me - we will be using CHAMPS (inside joke all meeting) - very unique opportunity to go out in nature and not a school setting and some walls come down quicker and we see huge growth in the students and the sense of community is awesome to watch.  It's fun and you should come out and see. Coen - coordinate visit with pancake breakfast? Hatt- Grades? Butler - incoming 6th, 7th, 8th. Cradic - this is the first year 6th graders will be there - Butler - students are grouped into teams and are competitive and are fun.   Work on skills that students don’t naturally bring to the table. 80-100 students hope - and staff are hired for this. Kendell this is great and we need to vote on this. Cradic - the staff is amazing - lots of energy, high tension at times, but the growth is amazing - passed.
2. 
   
2. Trimester Updates -
1. Cory Johnson - Elementary don’t see much difference
2. Butler - middle school - able to introduce 21st century skills which is awesome.  No registration problems since they don’t choose classes.
3. Keane - Increase in number of A’s - of course there are more opportunities, but % of As have increased, # of C and Ds are decreased. Dip in grades during the winter trimester - maybe breaks, activities.  Happens at other schools. Increase in the third Trimester. More credit opportunity, Bigger increase in credit increase - lots of students were taking a full load. Unexcused absence are a huge problem - excused absence  - kids don’t make up their missing work. Disportionality in unexcused absence. Healthy choices class, and saturday school help, but freshman tutoring has helped tremendously. Kids don’t make up absent work. Attendance and achievement are linked.  Freshman team have worked really hard. With them Fs are more linked to absence. There are inappropriate behaviors in classroom and we are working. Courtney - what about truancy -Keane - parents gets prosecuted, but some can move to homeschool to avoid.  Keane - Wants an attendance policy with a leave slip and are then forced to talked with the teacher. 6th unexcused absence (and leave form not followed through) - credit would be be pulled from the course. Students need to make up the work. Consequences to not showing up.  This is to hold students accountable for missing time. Will need to make up - list of stuff. Other Things we have done. PLCs- Cohort (UbD, Assessment practice). Professional Development - common focus on grading policies. NGSS, Social Studies, Math, all going inquiry. English working on power standards and more.  We are a work in progress - collaboration is key and is built in the schedule. We are working on building professional capital. Robberts - Attendance - have we ran any policy by legal counsel to see how it works. It has been implemented in other schools I have been at - it is not to be punitive but more to give responsibility when they are absent.  Some issues have to do with grades, seniors last year were better attendance than current freshman. Issue just skip a class or two and not all get caught. Vickstrom - registration problems improved? Keane - we will find out, I hope they do better this year, we try to involve parents. If we can get kids to sign up in a timely fashion then it will be better.
3. American Program  Bureau, Inc. Speaking Agreement for Teacher Quality Event
1. Conscious discipline - researched based program used nationwide - not new or different - another shot in the arm how we do things, next step on the path with the training we have done.  Funded from TQ, 21st Cent grant and after school program - maybe open to other districts. October 11th. TQ committee have reviewed this, stipend day. Kendell - $12,000 - where is that money going - Johnson - 3 people, two focused on secondary - Teacher and student paring for this with and elementary person and will do ½ day for all general info, and break to elementary and secondary training.
4. Dragon Boat agreement
1. Review of our yearly - at big hollow - Kendell - it is a well attended even and great to see kids passion - passed.
5. Aid & Levy Budget Proposal
1. Greg - publish information for public hearing for some time in April 8.  Auditing for school. We are proposing a decrease in property taxes $0.83.  Other information - he has such a quiet voice and says big words related to taxes (sorry). Post the information for it - Robberts - hoping the pepple will pass at $0.67 passed.
6. BHS Handbook Committee Update - info
1. Keane - asked in the fall 10 parents, 10 staff, 10, parent  and 10 others. to provide feedback - passed out handbook and compared to other schools and look through the portion they were given and asked to provide feedback.  Did not get a lot back - lots of discussion, but not strong decisions. Going to call them back in April to get better - hard to get consensus from all people. Cell phones and chromebook only for academics if refuse - get to office and if decline get sent home.  Robberts - wants to look specifically on attendance and cell phone. Contact parents through social media? Keane - it is hard to get consensus and people don’t show up. Robberts - wants feedback on what is working. I don’t want to create more work on teachers. Kendell - Teachers should not spend more than 3 minutes for phones.  Too much. My point is employability - what will happen in the workforce and wants to mirror that in the school. Vick - what is the best learning environment? Keane - the teachers should have the choice. Vick - what if everybody does it different? Keane - I don’t see the problem with staff choosing what goes on in their room. Hatt - teachers should have flexibility , but there needs to be consistency as a whole.  Keane - Gets as much complaints about chromebooks about phones. I will do whatever you say we do. But have a hard time getting consensus from the staff and it is polarized. Kendell, let talk about it in a month and focus on one policy like attendance. Concern is recording things they shouldn’t need to be recording - we need to protect our staff and their privacy. Courtney - Cell phone policy at the school? Teachers say we don’t have one. Coen - article refers to loss in instructional time.  Look at it. Kendell - if listed as agenda item we might get the feedback. Cradic - similar cell phone policy in elementary and middle school - but will see more of it in older grades. Hatt - need to short concise and consistent.
10. Board Communications
1. Vickstrom - been unconscious for two weeks i have nothing to say
2. Courtney - I said enough today
3. Hatt - nothing
4. Roberts - Thank you high school teachers for helping the registration process - and looked good and staff was very helpful - looked smoothly run - all city choir on thursday at 7.  Thanks for gifts and grants. Update of staggering of start time for students? Coen - it has been done and will brief on it. Get out and vote on April 2nd. It will keep 13 teacher jobs.
5. Kendell - Nothing about 20 minutes for the extended day have not complained and gone smoothly - course handbook looks nice. And it has more options and it is amazing.  The opportunities are exciting and should be bragged about.
11. Adjournment - passed around 8:48 pm

BEA notes 3-11-19 BCSD Board Meeting

BCSD Board of Directors Meeting March, 2019

Attending:  Dean Vickstrom, Marlis Robberts, Darven Kendell, Deb Hatteberg, Heather Brueck

Absent:  Courtney

Late:  Bross

I. Call to Order - 7:01

II. Pledge of Allegiance

III. Adoption of Agenda  - Robberts moved, Hatteberg seconded.  Passed.

IV. Public Comments - None

V. Consent Agenda  - Robberts moved, Brueck second.  Passed.

VI. District Positive Accomplishments -  None.  Mr. Craddock was sick.

VII. Student Representative Report   - none.

VIII. Superintendent’s Report - He will be in training Tues, Wednesday. Cabinet meeting happened.  Weather was a slight problem at the beginning of the week. He sent a document about hound time days and digital learning.  Attended GPAEA superintendent meeting. Dedicated to concerns about Waukee community school district where misappropriation of public property occured. We must be always be prepared to explain expenditures.  Good enough is good enough. Lavish is not ok. Must be oversight on expenditures. Reynolds does a good job of doing this. He talked about whistleblower protection. It can’t be handled in a negative way. Admin must follow policy.  This is in response to something that happened in another district. Talked to head of GPAEA about right sizing. GPAEA has lost 1000 students and will shrink and lay off people. It’s not just Burlington. 80% districts in Iowa have declining enrollment. Attended a meeting a GRMC concerning medical services.  There may be telemedical services in our schools. Attended to normal flow of issues. He spent a lot of time out in the buildings. Angie Butler is doing a great job attending to matters. Friday, he attended Joseph’s college visit . Attached to the report was a article from new ISEA president. It was about mental health and schools.  He said that our district is way ahead of this with our after school programs and other stuff. He thanked people for their work. There was a document that was sent to legislature to encouraging them to not support vouchers in Iowa. He believes it would cause segregation. He asked Wingate about information about a study (not sure what he was talking about).  

IX. Items for Discussion

Poggemiller production service contract for sound/lighting for graduation presented by Reynolds.

Hatteberg moved, Robberts seconded.  Approved.

Reynolds presented budget guarantee resolution.  It is for district’s with declining enrollment like ours.  It’s a one year funding. It’s less than we have gotten before.  Brueck moved, Robberts seconded. Roll call vote and all voted yes.

The audit review was presented by Reynolds.  He gave the highlights of the report.

This was the first year that GASBE(?) had to be 75. ( No idea what this is.)  He talked about IPERS liability. We have 70+ retirees on our insurance. We have a lot of employee benefits that must be funded.  The audit for 2018 was the best that we can get. $59, 942,692 revenue for 2018. This was a .88% decrease from the previous year.  The general fund increased by 1.3 million. Some of this will be pulled out because of SPED. Capital projects balance increased from 820,040 to 5,826,826.   We are projected to lose enrollment which will negatively impact our revenues. State supplemental aid was set at 1.0% for FY19. Solvency ratio 23.5% increased from 19.7% but we will have to return about $1 million.  Continued revenue projections negative. Brueck asked if there a recommended solvency ratio. Reynolds 10%. Total revenues $50,429,441 for 2018. Total expenses $49,245,583 for 2018. Salaries are trending down, benefits somewhat trending down.  Student activity fund declined others increased. School nutrition fund is down. It was recommended to continue to review board policies as we have been doing. Kendell asked to look at general fund expenses. He pointed out that the drop in benefits was “negligible”  and that Chapter 20 didn’t really impact it. He was saying that the admin worked to protect benefits and they haven’t gone after it but they could in the future if necessary. Robberts said that the auditors speak very highly of Reynolds work. Our district is lucky to have Reynolds.  Brueck asked about the decline in the student activity fund. Reynolds said that most of it is sports related, gates receipts and fundraising. There was a decline in a music trip that impacted it. Coen then talked about not being able to bargain insurance. Becker Insurance Services will meet with BEA and ISEA to keep transparency.   Robberts moved, Hatteberg seconded. Passed.

The Iowa Children's Museum Ladders Americorps Program Agreement was presented by Reynolds.  This will provide two members to assist with summer school and freshman bootcamp. There is a slight cost.   Each staff works 300 hours. There is a cost of $1481 for each person. Should be able to reduce staff (teacher) requirements.  Coen said Cassie has brought in about $1 million to BCSD. Vickstrom talked about how restrictive the agreement was. Brueck moved, Hatteberg seconded.  Hatteberg asked if this was an enhancement and they agreed. Who will be in charge? Administrators will be in charge. Bross joined meeting at 7:38.

Branding information was presented by David Ruehs.  He saw a presentation of it. It was about controlling our message.  He showed business icons that people recognize. Quoted a book about branding.  Okoboji went through the process. Okoboji developed a mastermark and then derived icons from it.  Gave another example, Charles City. Apparel is trademarked. The final example, West Des Moines Valley.  They created subicons for all the buildings. Then he showed how many different icons we have for our district.  Waukee and Okoboji got in trouble for using other people’s brands. Our speed hound looks like University of Indianapolis.  Since we are in the middle of changing everything, maybe we should rebrand. He suggested hiring an outside entity to do this and presented pros/cons.  He also suggested using an inhouse committee. Presented pros/cons. He had more cons for this proposal. The third option was to do nothing. Robberts asked what fund would this come out .  Ruehs said it come out of the activity fund or maybe Purple and Gray might do it. Reynolds said it would probably be a general fund expenditure. We would replace old icons with new as they needed to be.  Vickstrom asked why you couldn’t start with community involvement first. Vickstrom suggested a prize for it. Kendell said it was exciting and interesting idea but a little concerned that it will hinder access to our logo and materials here locally.  The discount stores have clothing with logos. He would want that to still be accessible. He likes the idea of the uniform message but not hung up on making money about. Bross then explained what a mastermark gives us. Hatteberg is concerned about taking this out of the general fund.  She wants teachers in the classroom. She suggested get some outside groups to fund this. She wants an estimate of the cost of this. Coen said you can’t encumber a future board. Coen didn’t think the expenditure is very big. Bross said a couple of thousand is ok for this. Robberts said the marketing thing is bigger than they realize.  Trademarking should be done by a professional depending on the cost. Ruehs said the company didn’t want to say the price but “its a fraction of a teacher”. Bross said its nothing they can act on tonight. They need community input. This company has community involvement. Coen had Lacy if she met with the PR person for Greater Burlington and suggested she ask them what they do.  Bross knows alumni would be interested in this. The board asked for more information. Ruehs will start RFPs.

Board meeting start time was brought up.  Coen talked about moving it to 5:00. He said that it should be set once a year.  He suggested it be 5:30 to be accommodating to the public. Brueck then said that the meetings are now on YouTube.  Kendell said that there would be time for feedback and he thought they can be flexible about times and places. He asked Coen what he was hearing about it.  Coen then talked about phases of children (sports etc) and how nothing will be perfect. Vickstrom said that they should have the meetings different places. Coen said people didn’t really come when moved to the auditorium  Brueck suggested moving it monthly. Kendell suggested they make a decision this year. Robberts requested 5:30 not 5:00. Bross is concerned about moving it and makes longer meetings. Hatteberg suggested get some community feedback and not do anything until next year.  Brueck wants to do it this year. Bross said to poll the staff. Kendell said to make it available for the community as well. Robberts asked about what city council does. Hawkeye addressed the schedule for the city council. Bross said gather information and throw on April board meeting agenda.  Coen will put it on as an action item.

X. Board Communications

Hatteberg went to Aldo and viewed 8th grade national history day projects.   Some are going to regional competition. Congratulations to the kids. She also $2800 was given to Sunnyside in memory of Jack Wehrle.  She asked on the status of the handbook. Coen said that very few people volunteered. Keane got input on some. Coen he only saw one kid with a hat when in the high school.  Asked his wife to watch for hats. She has seen some. Coen said the handbook should be in time. Ruehs then went to the mic to address it. He said there were two parents that attended and were employees in the district.  They didn’t get a cross section of the population. Coen then said 99% of the people didn’t show up for right sizing stuff. Hatteberg asked about polling students. Coen said that two students asked to be on the committee.  

Vickstrom commended Ryan Osbourne’s op ed piece in the Hawkeye.  It was well written. He was very appreciative of what he wrote. Robberts agreed and wished to thank him and other staff who do stuff for the district.  Mentioned the festival of bands coming up in the spring play is coming up as well. Hatteberg mentioned the spring fling and vocal concerts. Brueck had nothing.  Kendell impressed by Coen sending stuff to legislature. The voucher program is not a good idea. Coen then said that Rep Kerr has already spoken to head of house education committee and they don’t think it has enough votes to pass.  Kendell then said something about the nurse's situation. He said there was misinformation about it and that Coen sent the facts out about. He thinks the issue has calmed down. It’s all about communicating. Bross the mentioned that we have started the 3rd trimester.  He thanked the staff for what they do. I appreciate the board working together as well. Kendell then praised Coen about doing the my community (something) training. Coen then said that Lacy met with nurses and did all the work. Cory has assumed command and have enabled him to be able to go to the class.  Vickstrom asked if we will look at worked and didn’t worked with the trimester system. Coen then said something about organisms and growth model. Vickstrom said something about confusion. Bross then praised Coen again about making virtual days work. BEA was recognized as helping.

XI. Adjournment  -  8:27