News : School board to offer early retirement package

From VS Superintendent Mary Jo Hainstock

The school board met Monday, October 10 in regular session following an student expulsion closed session.

All board members were in attendance as were all administrators and Brenda Barkdoll, Business Manager.

Under Administrator Reports, Mr. Davis shared the year is rolling well and that it was a great start to the year. The students are involved with fire safety week following last week's homecoming activities. Mr. Kingsbury reported homecoming went very well with a lot of student and staff participation. The National Honor Society will induct new members later this month. He has been working with the building secretaries on finalizing the certified enrollment (which we think will be 50+ students less than last year). Mrs. Petersen reported that the MS's fall activities are wrapping up with the new season's activities getting ready to begin. She and several others attended the Hattie presentation through Grant Wood in which they learned more about the research on research and best practices. Mr. Murray updated the board on the work the Reading Series Selection Committee has done and will do. He also reported on the FAST results and our K-4 students' work towards meeting the benchmark. Finally, he reported on the Title I team's Parent Information Night.

Under the Superintendents' Report, Superintendent Hainstock summarized the types of activity passes we have in place; information about enrollment; open enrollment requests, the calendar; the school board convention and the November board agenda. I expressed appreciation for everything our staff and parents did to make adjustments during the recent flood situation. She shared the options we've been researching and considering for filling the Transportation Director's position in January. The options include refill as have been doing things; share with Union (either 20/80 or 80/20); combine with the director of building and grounds; or have the activities director take on some of the scheduling items. The board heard a summary of what other districts are doing within the Grant Wood area and most our size continue to have a position with several of the smaller districts sharing with each other.

There were no Board Reports or Requests.

Under General Business of the Board, the board started by reviewing and approving the consent agenda items. They included:

§ Minutes from the September 12^th meeting, claims and financials.

§ Contracts with Grant Wood to hold the contract for an induction coach; with Modus Engineering for a change order to reimburse us $15,376.10; and finalizing the ERate form 479.

§ Under Items for Disposal, they approved disposing of an LEA 91159 Precision Ap electrical diagnostic tester Model 612.

§ Under Personnel, the board approved resignations from Tammy Springfield from the Shellsburg kitchen and Karen Bunge as an associate at Tilford. They approved a contract amendment for Roxanne Bistline as she becomes a four hour person in Shellsburg's kitchen. Under Hiring, they approved hiring Lily McDaniel and Jason Cantrell for the Shellsburg kitchen; April Seitz as a special education associate at Shellsburg; Tamra Fiser as a special education associate at Tilford; and Nancy Donahue and Shirale Hanson as assistant MS volleyball coaches. They also approved Anthony Church to serve as a 0.25 HSAP teacher.

§ They approved Debra Hesson to be a substitute teacher.

§ They approved early graduation requests from Rebecca Moore and Dylan Wagner.

Under Early Retirement, they reviewed the history of the district offering early retirement and the recent survey results. Some of the board themes that emerged from the surveys included:

v 11 certified staff and 7 support staff are fairly serious about considering taking advantage of an early retirement program (who also have 15+ years of experience and will be age 55+ as of 6/30/17). v Most want a cash stipend or a cash stipend plus an insurance stipend. v Most would like to receive a payment for unused sick leave days. v As far as a timeline, there was not consensus although the most responses were to follow sometime similar to last year or "doesn't matter"�. v There are some misconceptions amongst staff members such as not realizing the funds are deposed into an account that could be sheltered from taxes or only used for insurance premiums. The board approved offering a program that: § Pays 45% of the prior year's base salary. § Pays $60/day for any unused sick leave for certified staff and $40/day for support staff. § Is open to any full-time employee who will be age 55 or older prior to June 30, 2017. § Is open to any full-time employee who has 15 or more years' experience with the district. § Includes a deadline of January 6th but no board action until February or March. § Includes the ability for the school board to accept any or all of the applications. If they do not accept all, decisions will be based on a first come, first served basis (i.e. the earlier the forms are turned into the office, the higher the priority of possibility of board acceptance). § All funds would be placed in a special pay account that is tax-free and the retirees can use the funds to pay insurance premiums over time, invest, or take out as cash (and which time they may have to pay income taxes). PPEL/LOST Funds - The board reviewed the preliminary recommendations for expenditures within the PPEL and LOST fund. The Expanded Administrative Team (directors, principals, and superintendent) anticipate recommending $60,000 this year for roof work; $100,000 for transportation; $900,000 for the HVAC unit above the circle at Tilford; $50,000 towards furniture; $400,000 towards technology; $25,000 for cement work; and $300,000 of discretionary funds for things that come up (such as Tilford's walk-in cooler last year and the work done on the Tilford parking lot). The team is continuing to work on more specific items such as restroom upgrades, door replacements, etc. and will share at the November school board meeting.

Board Policy - The board conducted their second and final reading on board policy 704.6 Online Fundraising Campaigns - Crowdfunding. If anyone is interested in learning more, please work with the building principal. We anticipate using DonorsChoose.org for this type of work and would focus on items that are not routine or part of the regular school experience.

Board Standards - The board continued their discussion on Standards for Effective School Board Members including reviewing the rubric and their examples of evidence; the data from their survey about the importance of the standards; and considering how the evidence will be collected and shared.

There were no audience comments on the preceding items.

Under Correspondence, the board reviewed the updated school board committee structure; the school board meeting schedule; the preliminary enrollment report; the Kirkwood report on enrollment; IASB nomination procedures for becoming a district director; letter from SAI recognizing Ryan Davis's work as a mentor; Benton County Community Foundation's 2015 annual report; and a thank you from Kirkwood after the recent flood and their relocation.

Next meeting is on Monday, November 14 at 7:00 PM at Shellsburg.