Notes from 8-13-18 BCSD Board meeting

Work Session on Facilities- 5 pm

My notes on this are going to be hard to understand, because they went really fast and we don’t have the info they have (the board and the planners)

Coen- hands off to Estes construction- assessment was sent out to board members. Going through a lot of info.

Paul Newhart- ICAT team. Program since 2009. 51st district assessment.

ID Needs- determine which buildings

James Madison, High School, IA

On site began 6-13

3-D building imaging

Kesterke helped identify needs and issues.

3D imaging within an inch accurate.

Enrollment projections-

Construction costs and ranges

Design and cm fees

Fixtures furniture and equipment

Contingency

-not included

land/property acquisition

Financing

Escalation inflation

Range of costs

Square footage reduction




James Madison- needs a new secure entry vestibule




BHS

Needs new tennis courts- 557-775 k




4.27 mil- 5.9 in improvements to Madison possible




BHS- 14.7-24.9 mil

Required- Asbestos containing materials- 328k

ADA compliance- 738k

Building Code Compliance Modifications- 163k




IA Building- 839-1.2 mil




HS needs most of the work

Urgent work- 1-5 years completion




Time to retire a school- none of them are at that.

Funding sources in the book




QLEO analysis- outcome from brainstorming session- a lot of information- facility capacities versus enrollment

Number of choices district has at elem

More capacity than students

Ran buildings at same capacity

Repurposing elem facility- changing grade levels at ms

What if did not grade a like

Pk-6, 7-9, 10-12




Should we close JMEC?

Should we sell admin building?

More 21st century/Iowa Big




Approach

Capacity and enrollment- how many facilities will be needed in 5 years




What does success look like

Lots of technical jargon- using math to decide how many kids can fit in what area




Average elem school uses a classroom 90%

85 for MS

80 for HS




Enrollment has declined across the country

Open enrollment in and out

These are based on projections for the year 2223

Pk-4 would need 3 buildings

Pk5 would need 3 or 4

Pk6 would need 4

6-8- only need one building

5-8- would need 2 buildings




Early Childhood center- admin building combined with it would equal square footage of corse

Cost benefit analysis- corse is best choice, north hill 2nd best, blackhawk would be the worst




Next set- what if we distributed students evenly across all the buildings- #sections required- awkward sized classes that require adding sections

77 sections- save money over long term- allows you to reduce sections




Grade alike and other re-makes would- more effectively use the MS’s- we have more buildings than we are expected to need




Could re-configure a space to host an academy like Iowa BIG to hopefully retain students/keep them from open enrolling out




Scenario pk-6 7-9 10-12- includes HS with regional academy

Retires admin building and aldo




Scenario PK-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-12- North Hill as EArly Childhood and admin building, retires corse and admin building




Scenario- PK-4, 5-8, 9-12-




Started throwing scenarios out- no discussion about them yet





Regional academy= higher performance. Planning to reverse open enrollment

These scenarios are all based on guesswork, in my opinion- anything involving a regional academy assumes that we would create both an early childhood center and a regional academy




Needs to be vetted with admin for example the bakery hasn’t been considered




All projections require only 4 elem buildings

How important is it to the community to keep a Preschool in the building where they will continue?




Effect of enhanced programming could be felt district wide- closing too many buildings may be a problem- might need room for growth




Next steps- identify which scenarios warrant further exploration- refine assumptions with admin

Come back with fewer scenarios

Timeline- comeback in sept- pick top 3 or 4- community involvement in October- roll out in January




Hatteberg- did any of the scenarios not include a regional center? Yes, some of them did.




Kendell- requests simpler scenario explanations




In all scenarios a building was retired- no scenario kept the admin building in it

Coen- regional academy idea is already in progress- not a good idea to compete with SCC

Courtney- we can’t get rid of admin building- we can get rid of the admin building

The cell phone tower may create a zoning issue when they try to sell the admin blg

The cell tower earns 1500 a month

Coen- Kesterke recommends selling the building- 10k a year on building for utilities

Brueck- regional academy? Coen- it doesn’t make sense to do it for us- it would make us competitors to SCC. we already partner with SCC in a regional way.

Iowa Big will be considered.

Board sending thoughts by Aug 23.

Hatteberg- concerned about adding something- wants to make sure what we do, we do well

Adding another element to that concerns her

Work session ended at 6:05pm




Call to Order – Welcome 7:05 p.m.

II. Pledge of Allegiance

III. Adoption of Agenda- moved by Kendell, 2nd by Courtney

IV. Public Comments

The Board encourages citizens to attend its meetings. Citizens have this opportunity

to comment on issues and concerns (Policy 210.9 & 213)- none

V. Consent Agenda

3. Minutes, Bills, Human Resources Report, and Gifts- moved approval by Vickstrom, 2nded by Hatteberg- question by Vickstrom- changes by staff- will there be more before we open? Coen- yes- medical situations caused people to not fill contracts- diligently trying to fill all the positions- passed with Bross abstaining

VI. District Positive Accomplishments- Freshman Initiative- Reuhs- chair in the middle- will come back to it

Reuhs- asst principal- new team freshman initiative- focused on 9th graders- support and curriculum- empty chair- data outcomes- Powerpoint will be shared with staff and board- Kendell going to talk about Personal reflection

Johnson- boot camp- 50 students

Mosbach- transitions class

Reuhs- data from summer school

Empty chair- envision a student who has impacted you- Reuhs thinks of a student from Dubuque

How they started school year with whole staff- focused PD sessions- kept coming back to empty chair

Read a thing about it- what is in that student’s best interest- we are working for specific learners in specific places- learning communities where everyone is on the same page- common goal- what kind of school they want to have- always focused on welfare of children- little chair- this year all the board members are getting pictures of an empty chair- help them remember why we are in the work we are in

Reuhs- lot of resources expended in 9th grade- lots of research shows 9th grade is critical- 2 years ago- 9th graders earned 10.9 credits- this year they earned 14.1

Total F’s- 440- this year- 407- 28% more classes offered

Core F’s- 227 2 years ago- 190

Students with a Core F- 95- last year 76

Met every day-

Video- Reimagining Freshman Year

Freshman Academy model- looked at Ottumwa and Muscatine- ours is a hybrid

Attempted a lot of things- efficacy diminished toward end of year

Tried to do too much-

Lack of communication outside of team

“We are not a freshman academy”

New name- Freshman Success Team

Clear two part process- stduent and parent relationships- 9th grade houndrooms- transition to high school course- after school course- after school students- google voice texting and calling- contact logs- academic plans-

Improving Instruction- incorporating exit outcomes- higher order thinking strategies

Frequent communication with staff- through email

Links to minutes will be provided in emails

UBD cohorts and meeting times overlap

First 2 weeks

Remaining year simplified

Exit Outcomes introduced and reinforced each week

2 houses-

What can you do to help? Ask questions, offer suggestions, use our common language

Attend our meetings




Mrs. Kendell- last year focus was on creating a safety net- spent a lot of time on parent contacts- building relationships- foundational piece- didn’t waver throughout the year- could address student concerns at daily team meetings

Mr. Johnson- Freshman boot camp- team building with national guard- breakout sessions- meetings with teachers in breakout sessions- brain chemistry- effective study habits- meant to equip students with what they need

Mrs. Mosbach- transitions class- wasn’t excited to teach it at first- amazing class- use 7 habits for highly effective teens- 1 tri class- kids would come back and show their learning- inviting board members to come in and visit their classroom

Think it made a difference in the 9th graders

Reuhs- whole school- summer school- unique here- conservation very popular- PE and science- water quality- kayaking- bike riding- trips taken in history class- wanting to help kids get credits back- had some 8th graders come to get a headstart- class offerings designed as at-risk- getting kids to “buy back in”

#s- 171 sign up- 128 active students- 151 credits- and counting- half of the credits they received last year

Student Achievement Center- 178 credits earned

Lots of teachers offered credit recovery- students who just barely flunked-

Other districts are starting to pay attention to what we are doing- asking about summer school and trimesters

Robberts- shout out to freshman boot camp- her student loved it- he’s excited to go to BHS- it’s wonderful- he’s not nervous at all to go

Courtney- great course offering list- wonderful

Bross- brings joy to his heart- trial and error- it’s awesome- such a transition from ms to hs- this is really helping them

Courtney- do other districts offer this?

Reuhs- some of the parts make us unique- Understanding Social Systems- Freshman transitions

Freshman Math topics- math you need to be an adult- how to use a spreadsheet- all 9th graders took it

Courtney- summer school length? 4 weeks

Reuhs- take care of pictures

Robberts- thank you to staff

VII. Superintendent’s Report-

Coen- SAI conference- firming- walked away knowing BCSD does a lot of good things- getting after it- last 3 years of work have led up to this- nice to be approached-

Attended summer reading program- thanks to parents who continued to read- library staff- room was full kids excited

Hyvee- will have principals in a dunk tank-

LMC meeting- positive- Cory Johnson review norms- talked about communication- discipline- fairly new- best LMC meeting he’s been to

P and G discussing locker rooms- banners

Art show- awesome art- Onesto

3 days in des moines- learned a lot- exchanged ideas- affirmation- we’re moving in the right direction

If a student is behind at end of freshman year, they are exponentially less likely to finish high school. Impact of freshman stuff is going to pay off for years to come- he’s asking them to not forget this night because freshman stuff is so valuable- can’t thank them enough- thank you for caring so much for the students you have in your classrooms

Kendell- p word- were people talking about politics at SAI

IPERS briefing- people nervous

School funding- didn’t come up at all. 95% about instructional practices and 5% about ipers




VIII. Items for Discussion

4. Outreach & Grant Coordinator Job Description Revision- Tabor- job description is an extension on current description- Ms. Gerst’s position- moved for approval by Hatteberg and Bross

Kendell- Gerst is so important- key position

Coen- cassie is invaluable- Brueck- two meetings with her

Vickstrom- how much help does she get- Coen- she’s at admin building now- she’s a self starter- asks for help when she needs it- she has a personality and energy level that a lot of people wish they had- she’s not isolated- Keane helps her out when she needs it- Johnson- management structure- she has resources- Coen she’s good at delegating- passed unanimously




5. Elementary Power Standards and Standards Based Grading- Johnson, Vanerstrom, White, and Myers- packet outlining what power standards are and what we do with them- curriculum is different now than it used to be- living document

Grade levels- iowa core standards- some are highlighted- those are the priorities

Way of focusing instruction- expectations for students- students at each school get the same level of education-

Myers- each school and grade level was represented- met monthly and sometimes more- talked about how they were scored and chosen-

Vanerstrom- real score- then had to align standards to see where they were assessed at the elem level-

Myers- in years past, had a large amount of items we were just touching on- now we are giving students a deeper knowledge

Johnson- AEA job he had- this is common practice- it’s hard work- curriculum work is not done- it’s ongoing




Bross- this is massive- how many hours went into this- hundreds- at least 20 hours this summer- regular meetings during the year-

White- something teachers have been waiting for

Bross- obstacles?

Johnson- giving teachers time and focus to concentrate on them- making sure each grade level team has a common understanding to define priority areas

Hatteberg- what should teachers accomplish this year?-

Johnson- teachers time to work around them- develop common assessments- soft implementation year- it’s overwhelming

Bross- is this easier for a new teacher or seasoned teacher? Myers- new, they don’t have to relearn

Robberts- thanks for all your time and effort and putting it in board packet




6. Morningside College Agreement for Internship, Field Experience or Practicum Courses-

Johnson- regular standing agreement- no cost to district- recommended approval- moved by Brueck, 2nded by Hatteberg- Vickstrom- long distance to get here

Johnson- grad level work- teachers doing grad work and field experience- sometimes student teaching- regional cohort

Passed unanimously

7. Resource Officers Agreement with City of Burlington- Coen and Reynolds- continuation of agreement- school protection plan- Resource officers key component- Vickstrom moved, Bross 2nd- passed unanimously

8. Board Policy 605.10 1st Reading- Tabor and Brueck and Butler- Therapy dogs policy- Brueck had the idea- she has a puppy- Butler- great way for kids with emotional disorders

Brueck- dog is still in training- has to have more training- already has been incredibly rewarding- she works her magic. Students suggested we get a therapy dog. One of the students was really struggling- it worked to break through to the student

Grimes- the dog is a reward- Check in Check out- they get to have their time with the dog- socialization- augmenting the counseling program- want to be proactive and have a policy- she’s a Goldendoodle-

Kendell- so happy- exceptional- Sparty and Strabala- great program- so fantastic- dog lives with Brueck- dog has to pass good citizen test- does she go to diff buildings- dog goes with her

Brueck- does this add insurance? Reynolds- becoming more prevalent- AKC will also have an insurance policy on her-

Courtney moved, kendell 2nd- passed first reading unanimously




9. Steff7 Report on Open Enrollment- tabled to next meeting- Steffensmeier didn’t attend the meeting, and no reason was given why.




Board Communications

Courtney- none

Hatteberg- thanks to presenters- success will continue- Vidya Mullangi and Sam Schulte recital in July- mature and far beyond their years.

Vickstrom- made a pass through on freshman boot camp - nice to see kids smiling. Well worth the effort.

Brueck- good luck to all students and teachers on start of school year

Kendell- nice meeting- lots of good stuff- hope people chat online. Staff is getting ready to go. Fall Musical- Hello Dolly in October

Bross- Pleased to hear about freshman initiative- power standards- excellent addition with therapy dogs- high school student council- thinking about underclassmen

Robberts- have a lot going on- fall fest at gym- 5pm- back to school aug 20th

Johnson- iowa future ready summit- sept 25th 9 to 3

Kurth got a reward for being speech and debate judge- national- superbowl of speech.

Podium- Dave Zoeller made it.

Impressed with freshmen boot camp. Smiling kid every day. Shout out to carl brueck for holding door open and smiling- thank you to him and all the teachers.




Went to closed session at 816