ARLINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS’
BOARD OF EDUCATION
REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2013, 7:00 P.M.
HS CONFERENCE ROOM
1. Call Regular Meeting to Order and Roll Call: President Mark Jamison called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. All proceedings hereafter shown were taken while this meeting was open to the public.
Roll call was taken. Present were board members Mark Jamison, Matt O’Daniel, Luanne Sundberg and Shanon Willmott. Also present were Lynn Johnson, superintendent, Andrew Farber, high school principal, James Shada, Activities Director/Assistant Principal and David Fritson, elementary school principal. Micheal Dwyer was absent and excused. Greg Sampson will be late.
1.2 Approval of Regular Meeting Agenda: Moved by Matt O’Daniel and seconded by Shanon Willmott to approve the regular agenda as presented. Motion carried on a 4-0 roll call vote with Mark Jamison, Matt O’Daniel, Luanne Sundberg and Shanon Willmott voting in favor of the motion. Mike Dwyer and Greg Sampson were absent.
2. Welcome to Guests and Public Forum
3. Consent Agenda
3.1 Minutes/Ratify Action of the October 14, 2013 regular meeting.
Luanne Sundberg indicated that in 8.5 of the October minutes that St. Paul should be changed to St. Paul’s.
3.2 Monthly Financial Reports, Claims (Check Register), Special Fund Transfers, Hot Lunch Report and Activity Report.
Employee Benefit Fund - BCBS Health Insurance $7,237.60
Greg Sampson entered the meeting at 7:07 p.m.
Moved by Matt O’Daniel and seconded by Shanon Willmott to approve the consent agenda as amended. Motion carried on a 5-0 roll call vote with Mark Jamison, Matt O’Daniel, Greg Sampson, Luanne Sundberg and Shanon Willmott voting in favor of the motion..
4. Curriculum/Instruction Reports: Media Report
Brandon Mues presented a report on K-12 Media. He shared a graphic of the 2013-14 Media Budget Summary indicating that $3,780 was budgeted for the elementary and $4,035 for the secondary. He indicated that 15-20% of the amount spent on library/reference books was for digital books. Mr. Mues provided a video tour of how Follett Shelf, depository of digital books is accessed and utilized. He noted that there has been about 7,194 checkouts so far this year (up from previous years), shared that the shelves have been reorganized by genre for user ease, shared student products evidencing use of technology to facilitate student learning goals and provided highlights from the Information Literacy Curriculum.
5. Review of Annual District Plan: Plan Item 3.0
The board continues to review and revise Item 3.0 on technology with attention to incorporating the technology committee's report into the district plan. Mrs. Johnson provided a preliminary draft of two items in the area of technology that attempt to capture the key concepts of making technology available to staff and development of skills of staff to implement the technology curriculum. After suggestions on wording changes the board will further consider and refine these drafts. It was mentioned that this might be a good topic to be considered at a board retreat.
6. Principals’ Reports: Mr. Farber reported on the peer tutoring program for grades 9-12, the upcoming annual turkey dinner, Nebraska Department of Education's recognition of a 1% exception on the NeSA alternative test for 2013 and the success of the FBLA canned food drive where over 4100 cans of food were donated to Washington County Food Bank. Mr. Shada provided highlights on upcoming events, wrap-up of the fall sports schedule and highlights from the Veteran’s Day Celebration.
Mr. Fritson highlighted the student engagement activities in the elementary which include the Ellis Island Project in 6th grade, participation of eight 6th graders in the Elementary Science Olympiad at ESU#3, elementary chess club and activities during Red Ribbon Week.
7. Superintendent’s Report
7.1 State Education Conference: Thursday, November 21, LaVista Embassy Suites
Mrs. Johnson reported that at the State Education Conference the district would be recognized at the Annual Alicap meeting as the school district winner of the Loss Ratio Award and that Arlington student Trevor Koger was selected as one of five students across the state to serve on a panel discussion.
7.2 Enrollment Figures: K-6: 280; 7-12: 284 K-12 Total: 564
7.3 Update on Staffing: The board was informed that the district is advertising for a second semester elementary special education teacher to fulfill a vacancy created by a leave of absence, that the district is still looking for a morning van driver and that both building secretaries will be on leave.
7.4 Make-up Days on Calendar: The change in how instructional time is calculated in the state aid formula will create a change in how we manage our make-up snow days. There will be an attempt to make-up all lost instructional days as feasible within the parameters of the make-up days identified on the calendar.
8. Board of Education Committee Reports
8.1 Americanism/Education Evaluation
8.2 Buildings and Grounds Committee: Update from the committee meeting included a tour of boiler rooms and a discussion on necessary HVAC updates, update of the summative needs list to include adding resurfacing of the track and concrete care, investigating level payment plan for OPPD, final purchase of a used mini van for $20,650 and progress on the review of the 7000's policies which should be in front of the board next month for consideration.
8.3 Finance Committee: The committee reported that they met with Ric Ortmeier, who presented the annual auditor's report, with the finding that all seemed to be in order and details on how to read the report and the final outcome of the lawsuit with Facilities Cost Management Group with the jury finding in favor of the plaintiff for the full amount that was requested. Facilities Cost Management Group was the owner representative of the construction project. The district consulting with legal advisors, disputed the amount owed under the contract.
8.4 Legislative Update
8.5 Negotiations Committee
8.6 Professional Development Sharing
Matt O'Daniel and Shanon Willmott were charged with creating a format and process for capturing and sharing committee minutes. They suggested that the committee minutes be recorded by the superintendent, affirmed by the committee and then posted on the website for the public. The board members favored this approach.
9. Unfinished Business
9.1 Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to enter into an agreement to become a participating member in the Nebraska Whole Child Project Consortium. Members of the consortium will work together with NASB and the NCSA to address student fitness and health issues of Nebraska children with the purpose of sharing best practices for improving student fitness and health.
Entering into an agreement to become a consortium member does not obligate the district to any aspects of the program or any expense.
Moved by Shanon Willmott and seconded by Matt O'Daniel to approve the agreement recognizing Arlington as a participating member as presented. Motion carried on a 5-0 roll call vote.
10. New Business
10.1 Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the 2012-2013 district audit report. Moved by Matt O’Daniel and seconded by Greg Sampson to approve the 2012-2013 district audit as presented. Motion carried on a 5-0 roll call vote.
10.2 Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to pay Facilities Cost Management Group a final payment of $499,871. Information on this topic was presented during committee reports.
Moved by Greg Sampson and seconded by Matt O’Daniel to approve the final payment of $499,871 to Facilities Cost Management Group as presented. Motion carried on a 4-0-1 roll call with Mark Jamison, Matt O’Daniel, Greg Sampson and Shanon Willmott voting in favor of the motion and Luanne Sundberg abstaining.
10.3 Review of the district’s annual report: Discussed during committee reports.
10.4 Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to hire a non-certified employee. Moved by Greg Sampson and seconded by Shanon Willmott to hire Christina Burns as a part-time elementary special education paraprofessional effective October 22, 2013 as presented. Motion carried on a 5-0 roll call vote.
10.5 Discuss and Consider the process for appointing a board member to fulfill a term to be vacated by Mark Jamison effective at the end of the year. The board discussed the process for appointing a board member to fulfill a term to be vacated by Board President Mark Jamison effective at the end of December. The board approved a timeline for the process, the use of a committee to interview and recommend a candidate and the application format.
10.6 Discuss and Consider amendment to Policy No. 6910 Dispensing Medications on first reading. The board considered changes to be made to Policy 6910 concerning dispensing over the counter medications recommended by school nurse Lisa Tracey.
10.7 Review, Discuss and Consider the following policies: The board discussed and reviewed policies 8110 through 8260. There were suggested changes to be made to Policy 8151 Standing Committees to accurately reflect the current board committee structure.
11. Executive Session: None
12. Action On Executive Session Items: None
13. Adjournment: There being no further business meeting was adjourned at 8:57 p.m.
_____________________________ ____________________________
Mark Jamison, Board President Lynn Johnson, Board Secretary
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