NEWBERG SCHOOL DISTRICT 29J Regular Meeting, October 24, 2017 Newberg School District Board Room MINUTES BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT STAFF PRESENT Bob Woodruff, Chair Dr. Kym LeBlanc-Esparza, Superintendent Mindy Allison Dave Parker, Assistant Superintendent Debbie Hawblitzel Ilean Clute, Director of Finance Ron Mock Dr. Derek Brown, Director of Data and Brandy Penner Assessment Todd Thomas (Virtual) Autumn Foster, Director of Communication Melinda Van Bossuyt (Virtual) Gregg Koskela, Board Secretary STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES Valeria Cosgrove Melina Pina Capri Wheaton I. CALL TO ORDER A duly called and noticed Regular Board Meeting of the Board of Directors of Newberg School District 29J was called to order by Chair Woodruff at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, October 24, 2017 in the Newberg School District Board Room. II. FLAG SALUTE The flag salute was led by Kellen Rayburn. III. REVIEW AGENDA No changes to the printed agenda. Corrected copies of the Superintendent Evaluation timeline, Superintendent Goals and a handout for the Bond timeline were distributed. IV. STUDENT & STAFF RECOGNITION: ANTONIA CRATER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL The following Crater students made presentations for our Board: Justice Chamberlain, Brayden Ferraro, Grace Gaunt, Isabella Holsti, Hayden Mead, and Kellen Rayburn. Each was given a certificate of recognition. Principal MichElE Paton introduced the students, who are all 5th graders; this is Principal Paton’s first year in elementary, and she is loving it! Our school improvement plan is highlighting the five C’s. Our kids are learning that when you struggle, you learn. Mrs. Danielson’s 5th grade class is doing “Genius Hour”, so she brought six geniuses to share with the Board. Genius Hour is a time in class to choose something interesting to the students, research it, and then present it to the class. These students have studied: being an NBA general manager, cheetahs, bad jokes, dogs, labradoodles, endangered species, how Bugatti engines work, and Alex Morgan (pro soccer player and author). Research comes from at least three different internet sources; they write a draft of the main ideas on a slide, and then keep refining. One of the big takeaways is that picking your own topic makes you want to learn more! Principal Paton is using Genius Hour as part of her process to prepare students for the transition to middle school, a key emphasis for her this year. V. PUBLIC COMMENTS No public comments were given. VI. CONSENT AGENDA MOTION 32: Move that the Newberg School District Board of Directors approve the consent agenda as presented. MovEd: Mindy Allison; Second: Debbie Hawblitzel Motion passEd 7-0 ApprovEd minutEs from the October 10, 2017 Regular Board Meeting. ApprovEd Donation – Mark and Elizabeth Moisan, $500, NHS Integrated Design. VII. BOARD AND SUPERINTENDENT COMMENTS a. Board CommEnts: Director Mock: The meeting with the city council last week was useful, but it was disappointed that it was mainly one direction, with not a lot of input from us to the City Council. So we are probably not done. More dialogue about affordable housing would have been helpful, as it is a key need and there were not solid solutions presented. We have five governments: cities of Newberg and Dundee, the County, the US government, and CPRD. Each has a part to play. There was an article about chronic absenteeism from OSBA, showing that it increased. Newberg’s increased as well, but still a little better than the state. It’s discouraging, when it was an emphasis last year, to see another increase in absenteeism. b. Superintendent CommEnts: Dr. Kym LeBlanc-Esparza: We are in our sixth transition of state leadership in education since I’ve been here, with the recent State Superintendent change. Graduation rate has increased in that time frame, and Newberg has stayed ahead of the state average due to many people’s hard work; but there is still a lot of room to approve. Governor Kate Brown sent a letter to state education leadership, emphasizing her goals. I have great respect for outgoing State Superintendent Salam Noor, but I also have great respect for incoming Superintendent Colt Gill. Graduation rate is a key goal for the state, and it should be: we’re in the bottom five nationwide. Governor Brown is also asking the legislative leadership to deal with funding, and I emphasize that key need. Thank you to Ilean Clute, and the analysis she is giving to us. You’ll hear her report tonight. I’m grateful for the team work of our senior staff. Troy Fisher has been out on medical leave, and will return for half days starting Thursday. Stafford Boyd has been filling in at Mabel Rush. I’m grateful to the Board members who gave the time to be at the work session with the city. I’ll say more candidly than Ron did, we need to host and structure the meeting next time to keep on task and give our input. I’m out of the office next Monday and Tuesday with COSA. We’ll be getting direction from leaders from Apple and other key organizations. A little over two weeks from now, we will go to the OSBA convention. Gregg Koskela will send out an email to arrange car pools and other arrangements. I have to be there Thursday all day and into the night, and Friday. c. StudEnt ReprEsEntativE CommEnts: No comments tonight. VIII. REPORTS & INFORMATION ITEMS a. Growth & Enrollment Report Dr. DErEk Brown, Director of Assessment and Data Services, and Autumn FostEr, Director of Communication, presented the data in a similar format to previous years. First, a snapshot of enrollment on October 1 in 2016 and 2017. All are aware of the dip in enrollment this year. These slides show a comparison of actual enrollment year to year, which gives a little different picture than looking at actual this year vs. projected. Especially with Edwards, actual enrollment is up 23 students, but it’s almost 30 under projected enrollment. Enrollment was projected to be higher because of adding an additional grade level of dual language classes. Looking at data over the last several years, it is easy to see the drop this year is very much out of the ordinary. DirEctor Mock: There was a drop in 2011 similar to this; do any of the Board members at the time remember how it was addressed? Director Van Bossuyt: I remember it being connected to the continued recession. It was also unanticipated. Director Hawblitzel: I don’t remember having to make changes because of enrollment. Autumn FostEr will look into the 2011 drop in enrollment. Each school has capacity for growth. Student demographics are not showing dramatic changes from year to year, except for Free and Reduced Lunch, which increased another 2% and has been in a growth pattern for years. Projecting future enrollment, we can see from PSU’s research and other data that Newberg is projected to grow, but with a significant shift to an older population; so, we may not see a growth in student population. Dr. LeBlanc-Esparza highlighted the state funding issues this demographic change will bring about. DirEctor Allison: There’s a big decline in the outside numbers. Was that intentional? Dr. LeBlanc-Esparza: The closing of Sitka is a big part of the change in numbers. Chair Woodruff: When we project our numbers for next year, what will we use? David Parker: We begin in March with census data as well as specific students and map out where they will go as they promote a grade. We forecast well for the students in our schools; kindergarten is the biggest challenge, because 30% of our students won’t enroll until a week before school begins. Dr. LeBlanc-Esparza: In past years, we’ve had to be ready for increased enrollment with flexible teacher assignments; this has been a new problem. Director Penner: What about the comparison in numbers between last year’s graduating class and this year’s kindergarteners? Autumn FostEr: We can get those numbers. DirEctor Mock: Doing some rough figures, it looks like even with the change in percentage of young people, with the increase in population, it looks like by 2035 we still will increase to around 6500 students, using my probably faulty math. b. Monthly Financials Ilene Clute, Director of Finance, presented the monthly financials and cash flow. Tonight’s report will cover a few key details. On page 35, you’ll see the board adopted budget is in the far left column, and then there is also a column which accounts for the reductions to the budget in August and September. This is just a comparison tool for the Board and for budget management. On the first report, it is just a point in time view, not a projection for the end of the year. In November new budget resolutions will be brought to the Board to adjust some of our budget appropriations. On page 36 for grants and special revenue funds, there is a note so you can see the specific grants these are going for. The reason a negative balance shows is we are moving the Measure 98 funds out of the general fund; this will be cleaned up in the Budget Resolutions in November. Director Hawblitzel: The notes you’ve given are very helpful. With the debt services funds on page 42 and 43, we are working to accurately reflect the tax credit we receive each year. This will lead to another Budget Appropriation resolution in November. On the Cash Flow report, you will see detailed notes. This cash flow report anticipated full spending on all budgeted items. Right now, we are projecting a $150,000 ending fund balance, based on actual salaries.