March 8, 2011 Board Meeting Minutes

MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF
BLAINE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 61
TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011 – 6:30 P.M.
DISTRICT OFFICE

I.     Closed Executive Session

The Board discussed evaluation procedures.  

There being no further business to discuss, the Board of Trustees convened to Open Session.

II.    Convene to Open Session

No action was taken as a result of the Closed Executive Session.

REGULAR MARCH BOARD MEETING

For complete details, please watch the streamed broadcast of the Regular March Board meeting.

III.   Call to Order and Welcome

IV.   Pledge of Allegiance

Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to amend the current agenda with the following three changes:

1. Removal of agenda item: 
   

2. Addition of agenda item: 

3. Removal of agenda item: 

The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.

VI.   Accolades

From Principal Tom Bailey, Hailey Elementary School, to Dr. Barber:

I would like to submit this letter as an accolade for Mr. Bob Dix.  The ski week program is a huge undertaking each year.  Mr. Dix puts in long hours organizing with Sun Valley Company, Sturtevants, Rotarun, parents, buses, teachers and students so that over 350 students can participate. This is consistently listed as their most memorable event in Elementary School.  Bob's dedication to the program makes it a success every year.  

Tom

From Greg Thomson (Sturtevants) to Principal Tom Bailey:

Tom,  

I just wanted to take an opportunity to commend Bob Dix with regards to the annual ski program.  He has really been instrumental in making things run smoothly and efficiently.  I have been doing these programs for eight years now and he has been, by far, the most organized and helpful of the school coordinators.  His efforts really make the job a lot easier for the staff here at Sturtevants.  I just wanted you to know how much we appreciate his effort and enthusiasm.  Looking forward to next year.  

Best regards,
Greg Thomson

Dear Lonnie,  

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to you for sharing Valerie Seamons with us these past weeks. She was a tremendous help to the McCall-Donnelly School District, and to me personally.  She offered invaluable guidance, and helped us through an extremely difficult time when we needed it most.  

It is difficult to step into an office and pick up where someone else left off.  Valerie rose to the challenge and didn't miss a beat.  She quickly learned the organizational system of the previous business manager and addressed our most urgent priorities.  Due to the circumstances, we were under a great time pressure to enter billing data, print checks and pay our employees.  

Val had to first learn our budgeting software program and how to enter and pay the district's bills.  She contacted Carol Whitney from New Meadows and Mike Chatterton for advice and assistance.  She figured out our payroll system and printed all of the checks.  

Val's greatest contribution was the manner in which she organized the available staff and substitutes to work as a team.  She did all of this with an upbeat, positive attitude, and a calm demeanor. Her professional approach and friendly personality established a work environment that was previously missing in the district office.  The office workers had an opportunity to see and feel the type of professional relationship that contributes to the success of an organization.

The first week Val was here got even more challenging when the president of our school board unexpectedly passed away.  Val stepped up to the plate, and helped us with some major banking issues.  She advised the board on protocols for signature cards and signing checks. We were able to expedite special board meetings and business transactions with her assistance.  

In order to assist us, Val had to make a significant commitment to driving on winter roads during severe weather conditions.  She also sacrificed time with her family that was not part of her regular job description.  I am sure that others in the Blaine County School District Office had to pick up some of her work load as well.  Please pass on our sincere gratitude to everyone who contributed to this process.  We could not have done it without Val, Mike, and you!  

Please keep in touch, and drop in and visit us whenever you are in this part of the world.  

Thanks again,  
Glen Szymoniak, Superintendent
McCall-Donnelly School District #421

VII. Consent Agenda

Special and Regular February Board Meetings – February 8, 2011
Special Meeting of the Board – February 23, 2011
Special Meeting of the Board – March 3, 2011

Please click here to view the February 2011 financial reports.

Leigh Ann Sandal, Woodside Elementary School Special Education Teacher

Please click here to view Adam Porth’s National High School Chess Championship presentation.

Classified  Staff – Exiting

Retirement:  Leslie Haramis – Administrative Assistant, Community Campus
Effective:  8/01/11

Certified Staff – Exiting

Retirement:  Linda Blackburn – Counselor, Wood River High School
Effective:  September 1, 2011  

Retirement:  Jim King – Spanish Teacher/Athletic Director, Wood River High School
Effective:  October 1, 2011  

Resignation:  Natalie Green – 6th Grade English/Social Studies Teacher, Wood River Middle School

Board Member Kathryn Graves made a motion to approve items “a” through “f” of the Consent Agenda.  The motion was seconded by Steve Guthrie and passed unanimously.

From one perspective, the whole argument over the appointment of a Communications Director seems like a tempest in a teapot. At stake is one job with a salary that ranks in the bottom 20% of teachers and certified staff, and the bottom 10% of administrators. It constitutes less than one tenth of one percent of the total District budget. The actual cost to the District is even less after taking into account a charitable foundation grant that will cover almost 1/3 of the salary for the first two years. That brings the initial annual cost down to about 1/3 of the cost of the Greyhound “jock bus” that several months ago this Board so eagerly approved without a peep about its impact -- or lack of impact -- on life in the classroom.  

How can such a relatively insignificant expenditure arouse such passions?  

First, I think there is a perception among some parents and teachers that class size has been creeping up over the last few years, and that this is adversely affecting the quality of classroom instruction. Second, I think there is a perception that the District leadership is not listening to the pleas of parents and teachers to do something to reverse the trend.  

Third, I think there is a faction in the community that has it in for the District leadership, wants to make life difficult for that leadership, and is tapping into the perceptions and concerns of the broader group to create a test of wills. “Can we get the Board to cave in on this issue?” For this group, a cave by the Board is a win, valued for its own sake.  For the broader group of parents and teachers it would be perceived as an acknowledgement that their concerns have at last been heard.

Unfortunately, the flaring passions leave little room for level headed discussion of the costs versus the benefits of having a Communications Director. While the costs have been emphasized and presented in a distorted perspective, the benefits have been largely ignored.  

One of the most significant benefits is the opening of a major new channel of communication for the community to voice its concerns to the District leadership. The job of the CD will be not only to transmit the stakeholders’ messages to Bullion Street, but to make sure the full implications of their messages are understood at the highest levels, and that District decisions visibly take community views into account.  

This benefit is not even acknowledged by the leaders of the group opposing the appointment.  One of them recently told me: “There is nothing in the CD job description about two-way communication.” She seems to have missed these words at the top of the list of Essential Duties: “ensures effective two-way communication with the school administration and the community.” Or these: “Solicits feedback through formal and informal means on activities, products and purposes of the communications [slash] community relations program and the School District in general.” In my view, hiring a CD is a small investment to make in order to create an effective dialog between the District and the Community -- a dialog in which all voices will be heard and legitimate concerns addressed.  

Perhaps the most important benefit from engaging a CD will be to shore up our community’s defenses against the storm coming out of Boise. I’m referring to the imminent end of our Budget Stabilization levy, and the prospect of having to subject the fate of half the District’s budget to a decision by the voters every two years. Voters are fickle. They cast their votes for any number of reasons. Some are noble and farseeing. Others cast their votes out of fear or short-sighted self-serving reasons. California’s experience illustrates how wrong things can go when critical financing decisions are put to a direct vote by the public.

In this new and dangerous environment, we need community solidarity more than ever. We need a culture in which teachers and administrators all enjoy the highest respect – a culture in which trashing teachers and administrators on the Express blog is considered almost blasphemous. That respect can grow only in an environment of understanding and trust.

The heart of the CD’s job will be to develop the communications processes that will foster such understanding and trust.   In her cover letter when she applied for the CD job, Heather Crocker had this to say:  

“What truly motivates me to apply for this position is the long-term potential to create … a systematic, sustained conversation with the community in which all stakeholders – teachers, administrators, parents, students and government – come together to build understanding, trust, permission and support for the ongoing change that is occurring in our schools…. The urgency for this has never been greater – our leadership is poised to take our district to the next level, and the district needs the full support of the community to do this.  The district has a great story to tell, and I want to spread the news that our educators are committed to excellence and fully capable of meeting the challenges of educating students in the 21st century.”  

Teachers, does it sound like you have an advocate? Parents, does it sound like your concerns will be heard? Administrators, does it sound like this voice can help you be understood? Members of the public, does it sound like this voice can help save our school system from a fiscal calamity that would affect us all?   

I urge the Board to vote to confirm this appointment with unanimity. A divided Board encourages a divided community, and vice versa.  The two feed off each other. As a wise political philosopher recently wrote in her book – appropriately entitled “Talking to Strangers”, “When citizenly relations are shot through with distrust, efforts to solve collective problems inevitably founder.” (Danielle Allen, U. of Chicago, 2004)  

Please, let’s not allow this to happen to us.  

Lyman Drake

To the Board of Trustees;  

As you know I am a huge proponent of the Dual Immersion program, and the more I receive studies of the program the more I can see the educational benefits of this program. I try to give the information to the district and to the Board as often as I can.  I know we all have our personal agendas, but overall I pray that you can look at what is best for the kids.  

The dual immersion kids have truly worked their assess off for the last 10 years only to get slammed by the hiring of staff that are ill prepared and ill managed. Is that their fault, should they be punished?  The district sees fit to allow the students to get bad grades in a Spanish 9 and Spanish World History class that will go on their permanent grade point average.  The teacher has never taught these classes before and is not fully certified to teach the class but instead of giving students concessions for their hard work and effort they are getting probationary letters.  These students are in advanced classes outside of DI and they are getting good grades outside of DI.  Is there nothing the Board can do about this situation? Poor management on the part of the Superintendent and lack of support by him and the other administrative staff does not make it right to put these students in this position.  

Please step in and help out these hard working highly intelligent and great students.  Thanks.  

Sheri Thomas

Written comments submitted for the record:

Dear Trustees,  

On Saturday, March 5th I posted a survey online on SurveyMonkey.com. At 2:32 pm today, I closed the survey and now convey to you its results.  

The survey was done in an effort to bring information to the Board as to the public opinion of whether or not to hire a Communications Director at this time.  And as you can see by the names of the people who responded, the reach of the survey was quite broad.  I am encouraged by that.  It means that people of many different opinions about the issue had a chance to vote.  

Here is a summary of the results of the survey.

• A total of 341 people responded to the survey

• Of those responding to the question about whether or not our district needed a Communications Director at this time:

• 57 (16.7%) responded "Yes"

• 269 (78.9%) responded "No"

• 15 (4.4%) responded "Needs further study"   

• Of those 341 people, 249 gave their name.  

Because, unfortunately, some people will "game" a survey, by voting more than once, I also want to give you a filtered result. The filter I attached was to give results only for people who were willing to give their name. Those results are this:

• A total of 341 people responded to the survey

• Of those disclosing their name:

• 22 (8.8%) responded "Yes"

• 217 (87.1%) responded "No"

• 10 (4.0%) responded "Needs further study

It is my hope that the board will heed these results as clear evidence that the community does not want our Trustees to hire a Communications Director at this time.  

For your review I will be happy to supply to your director of technology the entire data file for this survey so that he/she might analyze the results themselves.  

Sincerely,
Diane Barker

Dear School Board,  

I support the desires and understand the concerns of teachers, parents and community members who want more school district monies spent at the classroom level.  I also think that a Communications Director will be an excellent avenue for voicing those concerns.  I do not think that these two things need be at odds with one another.  This is not a choice of either/or.  We, as a community, can choose both.  And at this critical juncture, the most important obstacle facing us is the possible loss of our school budget stabilization to the tune of 29.5 million dollars.  I wish I could say that the fight to keep our exemption is just one fight to win, but I think the leadership in Boise has demonstrated otherwise.  In the end I have to ask, "Shall we invest $78,000 to help ensure that we don't lose 29.5 million?"  The simple answer is Yes.  

Patty Tobin  

Laurie,  

I wanted to send a note regarding the public comments section of the School Board Meeting tonight.  

I have been following the activity with this position quietly but I figured I better speak up before it's too late.  As a parent of two children that will both be part of the school district in September of this year and a tax paying citizen, I support this addition of this position as I believe it will better educate the public as to what is happening within the Blaine County School District, let the teachers be teachers, let the administrators focus on administration and let the Communication Director Communicate.  The end result will be a better education for the children of this county.  

Please follow through on the decision that has already been approved by the school board and fill this position.  

Thanks,  

Mark D. Mary
Human Resources Director
POWER Engineers, Inc.

Laurie,  

Please read during the public comments section of tonight's board of trustees meeting.  Thanks!  

I support the hiring of the Communications position by the district.  

As the communications audit indicated, I believe that the administrators will be more productive, the public will have more effective communications with administration, and most importantly, the education of our children will be improved by the focus of public discussion on education issues in a productive, proactive, and collaborative way.  

The decision to hire this position is about enabling communications to be more effective.  Since the communications survey provides us with a baseline of our situation prior to the hiring of this position, the trustees and administration should have concrete and quantifiable data to evaluate the success of the position within a year or two.  I believe we will be amazed at the contribution this position adds to the public's interests.

Please hire the position as originally approved and recruited.  

Yours truly,
Jeffrey A. Neel, CPA

Dear Board of Trustees of the Blaine County School District:  

On behalf of the board of The Works of Grace Foundation, I am formally presenting the offer stated in my remarks on February 23, 2011, during the public comments section of the Special Meeting of the BCSD to discuss the position of communications director for BCSD.  

The discussion that ensued between you was valuable and insightful and, despite some stated reservations, I think everyone made the case for the need for this position. The careful consideration that was demonstrated by the majority of you was appreciated.  I believe Trustee Guthrie is correct in his assertion that the salary was the impediment to a smooth acceptance by our community regarding this position.  It is my impression that the majority of the constituents approve of the need for this position but, because of all of the economic uncertainty being felt by our community, the salary became a very sore point for many.  

Therefore, the board of The Works of Grace Foundation would like to make the following proposal for your consideration.  We will make a total donation to the Blaine County Education Foundation of $50,000 over a two-year period commencing when the communications director candidate currently selected by the BCSD hiring committee becomes a full-time employee. This donation will be paid in installments of $25,000 each year.  The donation is restricted and must be used to help underwrite the salary of the full-time position of communications director as described by BCSD and recommended in the Communications Audit.  

As we look at the potential of significant budget cuts and changes to our educational system, the need for a communications director becomes critical.  It is imperative that the BCSD succinctly educates the community on its goals, accomplishments and challenges in order to garner every available dollar to educate our students. In the end, this is for our children, our teachers, and for everyone who works so tirelessly for educational excellence in the Wood River Valley.  

Sincerely,
Theresa Castellano, Vice President & Founder
The Works of Grace Foundation

Please click here to view Jason Miller’s PowerPoint presentation.

Board Chair Julie Dahlgren made a motion to accept Hunter Thompson’s Senior Project proposal for a plaque and scoreboard sign dedication to Coach Dale Martin.  The motion was seconded by Dan Parke and passed unanimously.

Dr. Barber:  

Senate Bill 1108, one of three Tom Luna reforms, which deals with contracts and labor negotiations between local school boards and teachers associations, was passed today by the full house of representatives by a vote of 48 - 22.  All 48 yes votes came from Republicans. Nine Republicans joined all 13 Democrats in opposing the legislation.  This sends this piece of the reform package to Governor Butch Otter for his signature.  Governor Otter is a co-sponsor of the bill and his signature to make this law is expected in the next two weeks.  This bill, in effect, limits contract negotiations to pay and benefits.  

Senate Bill 1110, which is in effect a pay for performance law, is still being debated in the full House of Representatives. This bill will set into place a pay for performance for teachers, hard to fill positions and leadership awards.  We await a vote by the full House within the next couple of days.  It is expected to pass.  

As you know, Senate Bill 1113 Modernization and Reform, which deals with the elimination of over 750 certified teachers and an additional 300 or more classified staff in exchange for laptops for ninth graders, has been recalled to the Senate Education Committee and is currently stalled there.  There is talk about forming a task force that would work on this over the next two years and would include the other major education stakeholders.  At issue is the fact that this bill was the bill that was designed to plug the funding shortfall.  If it goes to a task force, the Legislature will still need to deal with what is now a $60-million dollar shortfall in educational funding.  

I spoke to Representative Wendy Jaquet about the stabilization cap bill today.  She has been in touch with the Senate Government and Taxation committee Chair and is working with him to schedule the Senate Committee hearing on the bill.  We are both hopeful that the bill will be heard next week.  As you know, this bill passed through the House Rev and Taxation Committee last week and yesterday the full house voted to approve the bill 53-14.

Please click here to view Patty McLean’s Common Core Standards presentation.

School Board Trustee Elections will be held May 17, 2011 for Zones 1, 3 and 5.  The new deadline for receiving Declarations of Candidacy is March 18, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.  Once the Declarations of Candidacy are turned in to the District Clerk of the Board, she will submit them to the Blaine County Clerk for certification.  As per Consolidation of Elections legislation, all remaining aspects of the Trustee Elections will be handled by the Blaine County Clerk.

April 4, 2011 was previously chosen by the Board as the date for a Town Hall meeting.  Because that week of April is heavily scheduled and the Board would like more time to prepare for the meeting, it was decided to reschedule the Town Hall to Monday, April 25, 2011.  The topic for the Town Hall meeting will be “What is a quality education?”  The Board also discussed the possibilities of webcasting the meeting and holding it in a north valley location.

At their Regular August 10, 2010 meeting, the Board unanimously approved moving forward with the plan to implement the Variable Schedule at Wood River High School at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year.  

Please click here to view Principal Jurovich’s Wood River High School Variable Schedule Graduation Requirements presentation.

Board Chair Julie Dahlgren made a motion to reduce the number of graduation credits from 54 to 52 beginning with the class of 2012, reduce the number of required U.S. History credits from three to two for the class of 2013, and make Global Perspectives a one credit required course beginning with the class of 2014.  The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.

XV. Action Agenda

Board Chair Julie Dahlgren made a motion to accept the hiring committee’s recommendation for Communications Director with two modifications:  

1)      That we accept The Works of Grace Foundation grant to fund the first two years at $25,000.00 per annum; and

2)      That the position is reevaluated after two years.  

The motion was seconded by Dan Parke.  Following discussion, Board Chair Julie Dahlgren asked for a roll call vote in alphabetical order.  

Roll Call Votes:  

Paul Bates:  Nay
Julie Dahlgren:  Aye
Kathryn Graves:  Nay
Steve Guthrie:  Aye
Dan Parke:  Aye  

The motion is passed to accept the Communications Hiring Committee’s recommendation for Communications Director.

XVI. Public Comments Regarding Tonight's Regular Agenda

I thought I’d talk a little bit about the presentation I just saw from the high school.  I have two high school kids at home, so I am speaking as a parent.  The gaps in learning with a trimester system, sometime three math teachers in one year, is very frustrating for the students.  Sometimes they will have math one tri and not the next two trimesters and math again in the following trimester or a foreign language.  It’s been tough, and that was the design.  So I want to thank the parents that visited Colorado last year and the move to come up with a schedule that’s going to, I think, make the high school a much better place.  I also like the idea of how the flexibility for kids is going to be increased.  I looked at that schedule for my senior next year and I think he will have a lot more options to do many different things, to possibly even work for a little bit during the day; I just think it’s a better fit.  I also have a ski teamer at home, and the 18 weeks off that they can have if they have two nine-weeks on either end is going to be a much better fit for our winter than what we currently have.  Because the current ski team, they start missing in the first trimester, right near finals, and now they’re still skiing right near finals again.  This way the two finals will be eliminated and I think they are going to have a much better year.  It’s also a much, much better fit for MYP and IB work that both of our schools are doing.  Currently they would not be able to schedule a MYP eight-curriculum day for the freshmen and sophomores; it would be very, very difficult.  I also think there will be a better use of time; there is a lot of class time that’s used for homework, where teachers introduce an idea and kids spend a lot of time on homework.  I think that the smaller, tighter classes are going to benefit our students.  

Which leads me to a whole other topic.  I was counseled not to speak tonight on this topic by some of my friends, but after hearing Patty’s really wonderful presentation about where we’re going, I think that I have to.  I think three or four slides mentioned us being competitive internationally.  Well, I would like to thank Keith Nelson and all of the people that are working on the calendar committee.  If we are going to compete internationally, we have a problem that’s called the extinction of the uninterrupted week.  We have community-based organizations that always want a piece of our time in the schools.  I turn down people all the time.  Look at the calendar closely as it comes to you.  The work that they’re doing is really important and they are basically working with the calendar that they are given right now.  But I think that as a community, we are talking about more local control for the first time, and I think we need to look at our calendar for the next few years.  I don’t see it being an issue that we can look at right now, but I propose that we look at it for the next few years and maybe really even involve a small group, which I would love to participate in, in looking at a calendar that really meets the needs of our students.  If we’re ever going to compete internationally, count the days.  Count the days that we’re actually in school next year when the students actually have an uninterrupted week, where students aren’t doing something, and then you can look at our testing that takes another two weeks out, look at all the assemblies and early release days that we have; and I just don’t think we’re in school.  If you really count the days, the number of days our kids are in an uninterrupted week or an uninterrupted day, is, I would say probably, close to 100 days of lessons.  I just think we need to look at it; I’m not proposing that we do something crazy or drastic, we need to bring the community along, we need to involve the community, but I just think we need a much longer school year.  I know the kids will hate me for saying that!  We’re going to have a calendar to look at pretty soon; take some time to really look at it and you’ll see that we’re not in school very much.  Thanks.

There being no further business to discuss, Board Member Dan Parke made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.  

The Regular March meeting of the Blaine County School District Board of Trustees adjourned at 9:35 p.m.