Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees s1

Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees Lone Rock School District No. 13 Tuesday, June 18, 2013

6:00 pm Work Session 7:00 pm Board Meeting

MINUTES

6:00 Work Session – Question & Answer with Insurance Vendors – Shaun Bubb and Dale Hanson – The board asked questions of the gentlemen.

1. Call to Order – The meeting was called to order by Chair Nancy Preston at 7:00 p.m.

2. Trustees Present – Wayne Stanford, Gary Leese and Matt Pendergast Trustees Absent – Dan Metully Visitors – Willene Miller, Roger Samples, Shaun Bubb, Dale Hanson, Angela Rowe, Karin Stanford, Marcia Bloom, Terri Morrison, Lisa Nicholls and Joy Kaler

3. Recognize Individuals/Delegations/Public Comment a. Penny Bertram – Stevensville Board Report – Dave gave a brief report from Penny in her absence. The Stevensville board added wrestling and girls cross country to the district’s sports program. The head football coach was rehired. The 2013-14 budget increased about $100,000. Also the board increased the credit requirement for graduation from 24 to 26, affective with the incoming freshmen this fall. The parking lot across west of the school is no longer available, so the district will be looking for additional parking areas. The 8th grade promotion at Lone Rock and high school awards evening were schedule for the same day. The hope is to make sure that does not happen next year.

4. Approve Minutes – Gary Leese MOVED to approve the minutes of May 14 and 29 as presented. Matt Pendergast SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

5. Approve Warrants – Gary Leese MOVED accounts payable warrants - 30733 and payroll and remittance warrants 9333- Lone Rock School District No. 13 Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees Tuesday, June 18, 2013

9429 with warrants 9409, 9410 and 9422 voided. Wayne Stanford SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

6. Superintendent’s Report 8th Grade Graduation was a spectacular success as we graduated 34 8th grade students and christened the new gym at the same time. Other than a fluttering flag inconvenience and having our new gym lights not going off on schedule the evening was a gala event and a fine send-off for these superb young students. Thanks go out to all the 8th grade parents who helped clean and decorate the new gym and plan the whole graduation procedure. .Handbooks and manuals have been handed over by Steve Ralls for the controls and maintenance for the new gym equipment. .I will have an update on basketball equipment and volleyball equipment at the Board meeting. .We will be considering the AESOP Substitute Calling program for next year. For the Board’s information, Kim Tiplady and I looked at the costs that the Board was incurring for calling subs annually and found we were in the $3500 per year area. The costs of this system are initially $1000 less than this and in the ongoing years $2000 less per year. I would recommend that you seriously consider this system. .I would like to ask the Board for permission to let me sign over the cell phone number I have been using to me as a personal phone number so that people who have this number for me will be able to continue to get a hold of me on that number. The board agreed to this. .I would like to ask the Board for permission to pay $50.00, the price that Norman has assigned, for the Dell Inspiron 9400 computer that I have been using since 2007 as either my main computer or my backup computer. I will be returning the HP Powerbook 4530s that I have been using for the last 2 years. The board agreed. .I am finishing up the Title I yearend report and the OPI Discipline Report next week. .I was asked by Mrs. Preston to provide costs for hiring a clerk/business manager. Since this person would not have evaluation responsibilities, I would recommend paying this person $17 or $18 per hour to start, depending on experience. The average experienced clerk/business manager makes about $39,500/year in Montana. .Thank you to the Board of Trustees, the community, students and the wonderful staff at Lone Rock School for providing me with the opportunity to lead your school. It has been a fulfilling and satisfying run filled with experiences that I will always treasure. Thank you and the best of luck to all of you in the future.

7. Principals Report

.PRESIDENTIAL YOUTH FITNESS GRANT -We have been awarded the Presidential Youth Fitness Grant for 3 years!!! The grant award letter is attached to this Principal’s Board Report. As you’ll see from the letter, we have been fully funded for the Lone Rock School District No. 13 Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees Tuesday, June 18, 2013

entire 3 years, which was not anticipated but is very welcome. This is a very exciting grant that will directly benefit the health of our students. . PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT -Ravalli County Curriculum Consortium Update - Lone Rock teachers Troy Miller, Ouisie Chanin, Monica Wilson, and Dusty Schrock worked this past week on aligning our mathematics curriculum to the Montana Mathematics K-12 Content Standards. This was very beneficial professional development that benefits our students in the area of math achievement. We will have new document ready to present to the staff and the school board in September 2013. .August Institute on Technology - Twelve teachers and administrators from Lone Rock are planning to attend the WMCSPD August Institute that focuses this year on technology. This is an excellent professional development opportunity to improve our skills using instructional technology. Participation in this training is funded by the MSRP grant. .OLWEUS GRANT/CALENDAR CHANGE REQUEST -Through multiple funding sources, we have raised the funds needed for the Olweus grant. We have contacted a trainer, and Tania and I are in the process of scheduling the training for August 27-28. In order for teachers and staff to participate in the required 12 hours of professional development, we need to make an adjustment to our school year calendar to have 179 student days, 7 PIR (Pupil Instruction Related) days, and one Staff Development day. Our teacher contract is up to 187 days, so in order to not have high costs for personnel to attend this training, we need to amend the previously adopted calendar for the 2013-14 school year. The proposed calendar is attached to this report. .SPECIAL EDUCATION STAFFING FOR 2013-14 and STAFF PLANNING FOR 2014-15-Please see attached proposal regarding this issue that is on tonight’s school board agenda. . SCHEDULING & CLASS LISTS - Using parent and teacher input, we have put together K-5 class lists for the 2013-14 school year. We have also split up the middle school students into homeroom and instructional groups. The next step will be building the middle school student schedules from these lists. I am continuing to finalize the details of the elementary schedules for the 2013-14 School year.

 MONTANA STRIVING READERS GRANT PERSONNEL FOR 2013-14 PROPOSAL LONE ROCK SCHOOL PROPOSED BUDGET/ GRANT AMMENDMENT Our original grant was written to provide a reading interventionist to students during grant year 2. The planned role of the reading interventionist in year 3 was to have him/her working primarily as a coach to teachers to model interventions in the classroom. As we have now finished year 2 of the grant, we have assessed our current needs and have decided as a leadership team that we would like to amend our grant regarding the reading interventionist position. This past year, we have had Loretta Strong providing instruction to struggling readers. She has done an excellent job providing instruction and interventions to students, but will not be returning for the 2013-14 school year. We have had Mary McGarry Burke working with us here as a consultant from Side by Side Consulting. In many ways, Mary has been an instructional coach to teachers. She has been modeling instructional strategies and interventions to teachers in professional Lone Rock School District No. 13 Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees Tuesday, June 18, 2013

development. She has started modeling in the classrooms and plans to do more of this during the 2013-14 school year. Mary has built a trusting relationship with teachers during the past year and will continue to observe teachers, model for them in their classrooms, and provide collaborative feedback to help them improve instruction. With Mary regularly visiting and coaching teachers, there does not seem to be a strong justification for duplicating this service. Additionally, some of our staff being resistant to coaching and have begun to build report with Mary and Loretta, I think it would very difficult to bring in a new person to serve as an instructional coach in reading. Additionally, we have previously amending the MSRP grant budget to fund a portion (0.2) of my salary as principal of Lone Rock. The school currently funds 1.6 FTE administrators in accordance with accreditation standards. The 0.2 FTE supports my efforts to meet the grant’s requirements with regards to assessment, monitoring, iWalkthroughs, providing professional development, and collaborating with teachers, as well as many other duties related to the grant. I have been trained in Jim Knight’s instructional coaching methods. I will continue as principal to be an instructional coach to my staff. I am able to model interventions/instruction, monitor implementation, and support teachers through job-embedded professional development in technology and literacy. The leadership team proposes that the best use of our personnel funds for the 2013-14 MSRP budget year would be to add a special education certified teacher to continue to provide high quality instruction and interventions to our students (including those not served under IEP’s). We continue to have a population of students with special needs at greater than 13% of our population. This past year, our elementary special education teacher served 26 students. We would like to reduce the size of special education groups and increase the number of students working with a certified teacher for special education services rather than have some receive instruction from para-educators. The ultimate goal being to improve the quality of our services and instruction through more double- dosing of reading instruction, with the hope that some students would make adequate gains to return to the regular education setting. The school has made a big step forward this year in planning to add a CSCT- Comprehensive School Counseling Therapy program in the fall to help students with behavioral/social/emotional disabilities. This will help our current special education teachers who have been recently burdened by some students with high mental health needs. Once this program is up and running, it should decrease the special education personnel’s instructional time lost due to dealing with disruptive behaviors and mental health issues. Fiscally, our middle school special education teacher, Lisa Nicholls, is planning to retire at the end of the 2013-14 school year. She is one of our highest paid teachers, and with her retirement, along with the projected retirements of other highly paid teachers, there will be funds available if the school would like to continue to have 3 special education teachers instead of the current 2. Additionally, if the MSRP funded teacher is successful, he/she could transfer into the Middle School special education position. This would Lone Rock School District No. 13 Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees Tuesday, June 18, 2013

provide great continuity for our students as they transition to the Middle School from the elementary. Lastly, if there are remaining funds in the personnel line item after we have paid 0.2 FTE of the principal’s salary and hired a 1.0 FTE special education teacher, I would like to add a 0.2 Testing Coordinator for only the 2013-14 school year to do our progress monitoring and benchmarking assessments, as well as assist the principal with compiling data from multiple sources. This person would also work with teachers to analyze the data at grade level team meetings. The grade level team meeting should be approximately 4 hours per week. This has been a heavy burden on my administrative time and takes time away from my ability to observe in classrooms and model lessons. It would be a great help to me for the duration of the grant. PROPOSED CHANGES TO 2013-14 In summation, I am not asking for additional funds to be included in the personnel budget simply that I have the ability to allocate funds within that line item to better meet the needs of our students and staff. Within Personnel Costs Budget $10,000 0.2 FTE Principal (Previously approved for 2012-13 Grant Year). Budget $35,000 1.0 FTE Teacher with Special Education Certification (Salary and Benefits) Budget $7000 0.2 FTE Teacher to support Assessments and Grade Level Team Meetings

Response to this request from Debbie Hunsaker, MSRP Grant Director: In order for this to be approved, you will have to add a very clear plan on how funds will be used beyond the grant to cover these salaries. You have begun this with the explanation of the one teacher retiring but I will need to see numbers and also approval by your board that they will actually approve these changes for next year. Like we stated in the application workshop several times, we will not fund salaries in year 3 without a VERY clear plan on how the positions will be sustained so the services you develop for students and teachers will not go away after the grant funding is gone. We will be asking any district that plans on using MSRP money for salaries to identify the sources of money that will cover those salaries after the grant is over and to get school board approval.

NEEDED FROM THE BOARD: 1. A commitment that if there is a continued need to serve students in 2014-15 through an additional special education teacher or reading interventionist, that the Board agrees to fund the position for the 2014-15 school year. 2. A commitment to fund 0.2 FTE of the principal position at the end of the 2013-14 school year to maintain a 1.0 FTE principal at Lone Rock School. Lone Rock School District No. 13 Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees Tuesday, June 18, 2013

3. Assessment support and grade level team meetings coordinator- This position is only necessary during the grant to help with the additional testing requirements of the grant. The person hired who will support grade level team meetings will help develop procedures and protocols that will continue without the need for this staff member after the 2013-14 school year. This person will work closely with teachers to train them in the administration of the assessments and will establish schedules for assessments. Our needs assessment and leadership meetings have identified that this is an area where we need additional support during the grant funded period to be more successful. At the end of the grant, Title 1 personnel will support Benchmarking and Progress Monitoring Assessments in the classroom.

1. NEED FOR THE SPECIAL EDUCATION POSITION WOULD BE DETERMINED BY: - Number of students K-8 identified as needing special education services in reading, written language, or mathematics as outlined in Individualized Education Plans. - Special education staff’s recommendation that the position is needed to effectively serve the needs of students identified with disabilities. - MSRP Leadership Team’s recommendation that the position is critical for us to support the needs of our students, both those identified as having disabilities and those that have academic deficits that cannot be remediated with existing staffing alone.

Thank you for your consideration of this important issue. If the board agrees to the staffing proposed for 2014-15, the grant will cover apx. $52,000 of staffing costs during the 2013-14 school year.

8. Tech Report – NO REPORT GIVEN

9. Business Manager’s Report a. End of year has gone very well. b. The audit for 2011-12 was completed, at this time it appears that we will have one comment which addresses the deficit in the food/meal fund. c. Budget to actuals was distributed to the board for all funds, as well as a student activity check register and recap. d. Copies of the proposed general fund budget and proposed personnel costs were given to the board. Sandi suggested that the board have a work session in early July to have a hands on experience of developing the budget. Lone Rock School District No. 13 Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees Tuesday, June 18, 2013

10. Items for Action – Old Business a. Approve Policy Section I pages 22-55 – 2nd Reading – Two small changes were made to the policy pages. Gary Leese MOVED to approve the 2nd Reading of the Section I with the mentioned changes. Wayne Stanford SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

b. Approve Pay to Play Language – 1st Reading – Gary asked if the booster club was able to make any money this year. Nancy commented that they did not go in the hole, but they did have other fund raisers to keep the booster club funds balanced. There is a fund available that can provide scholarships for those students that finances would prevent them from participating. Gary Leese MOVED to approve the Pay to Play language as presented. Matt Pendergast SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

c. Approve Calendar Change 2013-14 – Tammy commented that Wayne is correct OPI will only fund 7 PIR days. Stevensville calls additional days as staff development days. We are still in the process of securing an instructor for the OLWEUS program. The reading grant will pay for some of the additional costs for the program. August will have an extra staff development day with the last day of school being one day later. Nancy brought up the date for graduation which possibly conflicts with the Stevensville high school awards night. The date for the 8th grade graduation will be decided in the fall. Matt Pendergast MOVED to approve the additional staff development day and extend the end of the school year one day. Gary Leese SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

New Business a. Hire IT Administrator – Dave recommended hiring Maggie Nelson. Gary Leese MOVED to approve hiring Maggie Nelson as the IT administrator. Matt Pendergast SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

b. Approve Transportation Agreement With Stevensville – Wayne Stanford MOVED to approve the Transportation Lone Rock School District No. 13

Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

c. Agreement with Stevensville. Matt Pendergast SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

d. Approve Property & Liability Insurance Plan - Wayne Stanford suggested that we stay with PayneWest for Property and Liability coverage and continue with MSGIA for our work comp coverage. Gary Leese MOVED to continue with Paynewest for the liability and property insurance and MSGIA for the work comp coverage. Wayne Stanford SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. The board did not opt to go with the 3 year lock with the liability insurance.

e. Approve Work Comp Insurance Plan – handled in the previous agenda item.

f. Approve Purchase of Gym Equipment – Dave stated that we are not ready yet to make this decision at this time. TABLED.

g. Approve Aesop Program – Gary Leese MOVED to try the AESOP program for securing substitutes. Matt Pendergast SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

h. Approve Retirement Incentive – Wayne commented that we should change the name of the form. Wayne commented that the continued insurance benefit has been offered only to Union members. Sandi Wilson commented that it has been past practice since 2004 and that it is not in either of the union CBA’s. Wayne Stanford MOVED to TABLE item until next month. Matt Pendergast SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

11. Discussion Items a. Staffing for 2013-14 – The Striving readers group met today and have asked the state to approve an amendment on the staffing that the grant pays for. The grant can cover Lone Rock School District No. 13 Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees Tuesday, June 18, 2013

the personnel costs and benefits. The board has to state how they are going to provide for continuing the services provided through the grant. Tammy commented that if we hire a special ed teacher, then when Lisa Nicholls retires that new person could take her position. The board discussed this option at length. Wayne Stanford MOVED to commit to hiring an additional special ed teacher and continue the 0.2 FTE for the principal using the grant and the district will fund those positions for the 2014-15 school year while continuing to search for additional funding for future years. Gary Leese SECONDED. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

b. Park and School Committee - The committee met and came to an agreement involving the lease between the school and park. These were items that needed to be addressed immediately. Further work will continue on the lease. 1. The school will water & mow all the grounds. 2. The school will take back the area from west of the chain link fence on the major minor field to the north- south line in line with the west side of the Middle School building. 3. The area west of the Middle School, north of the basketball court and extending to the west, will still be leased by the park district. 4. A determination of value for time spent by custodial staff on mowing and watering this area (area 3) will be used to apply as a long term payoff of permanent improvement by park district. 5. Scheduling and operation of this area during all non- school hours will be done by the park district. A request for use must be submitted to park district and necessary arrangements handled by park district. 6. After school events (track and football) will be worked out and coordinated on a case by case basis by school and park district.

12. Adjournment – The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m. ______Board Chair

______Board Clerk