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Board Meeting Minutes August 2016

Regular Meeting Minutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August 8, 2016

Presented for Approval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . September 12, 2016

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TIME:             6:00 p.m.

PLACE:          Pioneer School, Main Building, Room 105

MEMBERS    Brad Zink, Chairperson

PRESENT:      Bill Bullard, Trustee

Kari Jones, Trustee

MEMBERS

ABSENT:       None

CLERK:          Han Lee

STAFF:           Jami Burns, Karissa Gordon, Emily Fanus, Eva Ticknor, Melissa Schnitzmeier, Connie Russell, Ike Wallace, Danny Brooks and Marilyn Michael arrived at 6:00 pm.  Danny Brooks left at 7:15

VISITORS:     Krystle Henry, Jody Goddard and Ellie Tremblay arrived at 6:00 pm.  Ellie Tremblay left at 7:00 pm.

GUESTS:        None

  1. OPENING
  2. CALL TO ORDER:

Trustee, Brad Zink called the meeting of the trustees of Pioneer Elementary School District #41 to order in the Room 105 of the main building, Monday, August 8, 2016 at 6:00 pm.  Trustee, Brad Zink welcomed all those attending.  Trustee, Brad Zink read the Montana Law about public meetings.

  1. MINUTE APPROVAL: Kari Jones made a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of June 8, 2016 and the special meeting minutes of July 14, 2016.  Bill Bullard seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.
  1. HEARING OF THE PUBLIC: None
  1. ADMINISTRATOR REPORT:
  • August 16th – Connie will be attending the MSSA Counseling Variance Training in Bozeman
  • August 19th – Morrison-Maierle will be at Pioneer for technology issues.  Staff will be advised to email Connie or Karissa with troubleshooting requests.
  • August 22 – PIR Day – teachers first day back.  Meet & Greet will be held from 4:00 – 6:00.  Staff can come in later due to the meet and greet going until 6:00 pm.
  • August 23 – First day of school
  • September 8 – Open House – 6:00 – 7:00 – Staff will be discussing hosting an MBI presentation for parents during this time.
  1. OLD BUSINESS
  1.  TECHNOLOGY COORDINATOR – Karissa was the only staff member interested in the open technology position.  Bill moved to have Karissa be the technology coordinator with Connie.  Kari seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.
  2. SCHOOL WEBSITE – Connie spoke to Morrison-Maierle about our website.  They recommended Pat Witmer.  Connie spoke to him and he said he felt the website could be fixed to be a very good website.  He would charge an upfront fee of approximately $900 to fix it and approximately $100 – $200 per month to maintain.  He would also teach some people at the school to do some of the posting which could lower the price.  Connie also spoke with Miranda Gilbert and is waiting for her to look at the website and get back to Connie on a price.  Kari stated that she spoke to someone that suggested we use the current website as it is very good it just needs some fixing.  Bill moved to have the technology coordinators make a recommendation within 10 days so a special board meeting can be held to get someone hired to fix and maintain the website.  Kari seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.
  3. HOT LUNCH – Kari explained that if we choose to use the Schoolhouse Fare website for hot lunches, we would have to offer them all 5 days of the week.  Dominos pizza on Fridays could be continued as one of the places but they would also have to offer a salad option for students.  A menu would be available a month in advance showing families what the options would be.  They would make their choices and pay on line.  The food would be delivered to the school with each child’s name on the bag and ready for distribution.  To use Schoolhouse Fare, we would have to guarantee 20 lunches to be purchased each day.  Lunches would cost $3 – $5.  The board asked Melissa to create a survey to see if there is enough interest.  Kari stated that PTA could do the same thing if they chose to contact restaurants to see if they would be interested in creating options for lunches and delivering them, this way we could only have to do it a few days a week if we wanted to try it.
  4. ADMINISTRATOR DUTIES – A list of the administrator’s duties was given out and discussed.  Bill suggested under areas of responsibility another line be added stating the administrator would work to create and maintain an atmosphere of trust and teamwork throughout the school.  Bill made a motion to add this line to the areas of responsibility.  Kari seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.  Brad suggested the teachers send a weekly synopsis to the board.  Kari agreed with this proposal.  Bill stated that he disagreed with this as they are giving this authority to Melissa and should not undermine the authority they are giving her.  Bill then suggested that Melissa attend all monthly board meetings with a report on how things are going, concerns, etc.  This is on the list of duties on line 12.  Bill made a motion to approve the administrator duties with the addition of line 17.  Kari seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.  The board will get clarification on a possible staff survey on the administrator’s performance for the next meeting.  Bill stated that he wanted the record to show that he does not agree with staff being able to evaluate the administrator as that is the board’s job.

III.  NEW BUSINESS

  1. CAMERAS ON BUSES – Danny Brooks worked to get bids on installing cameras on the buses.  He checked with Sarpy Transportation to see who has installed their cameras.  Sarpy gave him the name of a company which he contacted and received a bid of $840 per bus to install 3 cameras on each bus.  The board asked Danny if he feels cameras are necessary.  He stated that he had 2 reasons for believing they should be installed.  His first reason is that his job is to get the students to and from school and he wants to the board to know that he is doing his job.  The second reason is for surveillance to deter and report on behaviors on the bus.  Han said there is money from the bus depreciation fund to do this.  Brad asked that Melissa contact the company to make sure that we have computers that are compatible with the software on the camera systems, and also check into how much video the cards in the cameras hold.  Also, she should find out if we can purchase extra cards in case a card is needed for a behavior issue and if and how the videos are downloaded onto a computer to be saved.  Bill moved to approve the camera installation for $840 per bus for 3 cameras and installation providing the software is compatible with computers at the school.  Kari seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.
  2. LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS ON BUS – Brad contacted MTSBA to see if the school could have volunteers ride the bus to help maintain appropriate discipline.  MTSBA said this is acceptable however the volunteers would have to be background checked.  The volunteers would report any problems on the bus to the administrator and the administrator would handle the discipline.  Brad asked if PTA could try to find volunteers willing to get background checked and ride the bus.  Jody Goddard, PTA President said she would bring it up to PTA members.
  3. TEACHER’S SCHEDULE – The teacher’s schedules were discussed again.  Several teachers stated they did not receive the copy.  Melissa explained that she sent it out at the end of the school year after some areas of concern were changed and she only heard from one staff member.  Kari moved to approve the teacher’s schedules.  Bill seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.  The board asked Melissa to send the schedule out to all staff members again.  Melissa stated she would do this and if there were concerns, we will work as a staff to reach an agreement on how to fix them.
  4. STUDENT HANDBOOK – A chart showing our matrix of expectations for the students in areas throughout the school.  A new paragraph was added explaining the grading system that is now standards based grading instead of letter grading.  Kari moved to adopt the changes to the student handbook.  Bill seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.
  5. RESIGNATION/HIRE STAFF – Theresa Nalewaja resigned her teaching position.  The board conducted interviews on July 14th.  Emily Fanus was hired as the 2nd/3rd grade teacher.  Emily was introduced to everyone in attendance.  The janitor position is still open and Han has received one application for the board to look at.  They will set up an interview at a future date.
  6. SP-ED COOP RECOMMITMENT – Bill made a motion to recommit to the Eastern Yellowstone Special Education Cooperative with Melissa as our representative for 2016-17 school year.  Kari seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.
  7. MBI FACILITATOR – After the evaluation for the stipend position of the MBI facilitator was done, Melissa choose to step down as an MBI facilitator for the school due to her new duties as administrator.  Eva will remain as the MBI facilitator but she feels the stipend for the MBI facilitator should either go to all staff members that attend the MBI Summer Institute or be split among all staff members for their work on MBI throughout the school year.  Discussion took place on whether or not other MBI conferences throughout the year could count instead of going to the Summer Institute.  It was also explained that the board has always wanted the staff to attend the Summer Institute and splitting the stipend among those attending it would show that board feels it is important. The other MBI conferences do not do all the things that the Summer Institute does.  Bill made a motion to divide the money among those that go to the MBI Summer Institute.  After some discussion, Kari and Brad felt perhaps Eva could visit with the staff to see what their opinions are on the stipend money.  At this time, Bill withdrew his motion.  Eva will speak to all staff members to get their opinions.
  8. COUNSELOR OPTION – Kari knows 2 people that have counseling degrees that would be interested in doing some work for Pioneer School to help with student behaviors.  Han explained that the most money she can come up with is $3000 total.  Han suggested maybe the school could pay someone to come in to teach ways to help student behavior to the staff.  Kari explained that one of the people has retired and is not looking to make a lot of money.  The other holds other jobs and would only be looking for a little more supplement to her income.  Brad suggested that the board interview both people to see what they could offer the school.  Bill will come up with a job description for the position if it is created.
  9. AUDIT REPORT FY14 & FY15 – Han presented the auditor’s report for FY14 and FY15.  The report stated that the financial statements for Pioneer School were found to have no mistakes and be in good order.  Kari moved to accept the auditor’s report for FY14 and FY15.  Bill seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.
  10. TRUSTEES FINANCIAL SUMMARY REPORT 2015-2016 – Han presented the board with the Trustees’ Financial Summary report for 2015-16.  She explained to the board that this is a report of where we received money for 2015-2016 and how it was spent. She also explained that the TRS and PERS parts of long term liability are not included in the report as they had not released that information for the report.  She will put them in when she gets the report from TRS and PERS.  After reviewing the report, Kari made a motion to accept the 2015-16 Trustees’ Financial Summary report.  Bill seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.
  11. FINAL BUDGET REPORT 2016-17 – Han presented the board the final budget report for 2016-17.  After reviewing the report, Kari made a motion to accept the 2016-17 final budget report.  Bill seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried
  1. JUNE & JULY FINANCIAL REPORT

The clerk presented June claims warrants numbered 20608 through 20632 in the amount of $38,504.90 and July claims warrants numbered 20633 through 20651 in the amount of $12,428.22.  And June payroll warrant number 8893 plus ACH and Direct deposit in the amount of $1271.86, and July payroll warrant numbered 8894 plus ACH and Direct deposit in the amount of $5,328.25.  The clerk presented the trial balance sheets for each fund and a monthly report stating each line item YTD and budget balance remaining for the each fund.  After review of the report, Bill Bullard moved to approve the financial reports. Kari Jones seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; the motion carried.

  1. TRUSTEE CONCERNS

MAIL: The following items were read.

  1. A letter sent to a parents to inform that school had not received a letter requesting to have their child remain at Pioneer School
  2. DA newsletter

OTHER CONCERNS

  1. The board will hold a special meeting on August 15th to decide on hiring someone to update and maintain the website. They will also allow out of district applicants that were not received in time for the regular meeting to attend this meeting.  The time will be decided as soon as possible.

VI .  ADJOURNMENT: 

A motion was made by Bill Bullard to adjourn the meeting. Kari Jones seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous; motion carried.  The meeting ended at 8:10 pm.  The next scheduled regular meeting is Monday, September 12, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. in Room 105 of the main building.