Minutes of November 14, 2018 Board Meeting

MINUTES

The regular meeting of the Yaak School Board of Trustees was called to order by Chairperson, Pam Fuqua, at 3:25 p.m. on Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at the Yaak School. Pam opened the meeting and stated that the meeting was being recorded.

Trustees Present:    Pam Fuqua, Trish Lauer and Sandy Beder-Miller

Others Present:       Diane Downey, District Clerk, and Rose Wilson.

Minutes:

The minutes from the September 26, 2018 board meeting were reviewed. Trish moved that the September minutes be accepted as presented, Sandy seconded and Pam concurred.

Maintenance Committee:

• Trish reviewed the Playground Inspection report that was completed by Craig. There are no issues that need to be addressed at this time. Winterization items have been completed and issue in the boy’s bathroom has been addressed.
• Annual maintenance on the generator will be completed the next time Boundary Electric comes to the valley.
• Flowering trees will be arriving any day. They will need to be planted. Sandy offered to have Larry help with the planting.
• Trish presented a letter from TDH Engineering that explained the process of the required preliminary engineering report. Pam presented the information she has found in regards to funding sources for the foundation project. Pam and Trish will continue working on this and report on their finds as things progress.

At this time our 5^th graders gave a presentation based on the work they have been doing in the new Side by Side Reading program. Both students stated that they were enjoying the new curriculum. The use of chapter books for their reading has simulated their love of reading and they feel they are learning more language arts skills than they were last year.

Curriculum Committee:

• Sandy gave the board a quick overview of the committee meeting that was held November 13th. Rose has been reviewing a program through Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt called “Kids Discover”. The program is not available yet, but Rose will keep in touch with the company contact and ask about the test version. The committee agreed that Rose should pursue this. The committee members asked Rose about her immediate needs: Third Grade is working on “Community” and Fifth Grade is working on “Government”, reviewing regions of the United States. We volunteered to review the current text book over a long week-end or winter break to look for ideas to help Rose with class room activities on the topics mentioned.

Teachers Report:

• Rose asked if we could schedule our teacher interviews before winter break as the one candidate has sick leave she needs to take starting in January if she is the candidate you choose. Trish stated that she could not find anything but the letter of interest for the one candidate. Diane will check the forwarded emails to see if something was not forwarded.
• There will not be a winter program. Bonnie is teaching the students to read music and Rose feels they need more time for students to prepare. She is planning a program for presentation at the end of the year.
• The State JUMP testing conference is scheduled in February, Rose feels that her time would be better spent doing administrative things for those PIR days that are scheduled for the 11^th and 12^th of February. She has already fulfilled the requirements for professional development hours for this year.
• Rose recapped the two conferences she attended in October and November. MEA Conference highlight was the 2 classes she took on phonics and letter sounds. She is using what she learned with the kindergarten and 1^st grade. She also got some STEM project cards. The rep from Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt was there and this is where she heard about the new social studies curriculum and will be working with them to see if our school could pilot this new program. There was some discussion about the earlier 5^th grade presentation. Rose feels that her trip to the Know Atom conference was well worth the time.

Technology Committee:

• Diane reported on the outcome of our 2018 funding year E-Rate application. The 2018 lit fiber project was cancelled due to insufficient data and time to complete project within the funding window. Diane and Todd Lark have put together the Request for Proposal for the same project for the 2019 funding cycle. Form 470 will be posted on the USAC portal on November 30^th. We have posted our request for proposal on our school website and in the newspapers. Education Superhighway has sent a copy of the RFP to all vendors that are registered with them across Montana, Idaho and Washington. Our State Grant funds are still in place for this project and are locked in until 2020. We have also submitted a 470 for category 2 funds as a backup plan in case the lit fiber project does not happen. These funds will be used for hardware that will boost our satellite signal.

Old Business:

• Harvest Festival was a big success again this year. It brought in $185.00 in donations. These funds were deposited in the Student Fund. Expenditures for the event were paid out of Fund 115 PRC Code 008 Misc. Vendor Refunds.

New Business:

• Student count for Fall ANB was 9 students. We now have 10 students as one enrolled the day after count day.
• The revised teacher contract was signed by Board Chair and Clerk. Rose had already signed the document earlier.
• The CSIP has been completed and copies were sent out to board members.
• Tentative date of December 7^th was chosen for teacher interviews.  Diane will send the candidates an email asking if this date will work for them. Sandy offered to have the candidates stay at her house while they are here.

Clerk’s Report, Financials & Expenditures:

• Our E-Banking documents are up for renewal on the Glacier Bank Payroll account, Pam signed all needed documents and Diane will forward them back to the bank.
• Diane presented the board with copies of the GANs for our 2018-19 State Grants. Awarded amounts were reviewed.
• At the beginning of the school year Diane was asked if she could track the number of copies we were getting per toner cartridge from the black and white copier that is used the most. Yield is approximately one thousand seven hundred ninety four copies per cartridge (1,794), this is about .03 cents per copy.
• Diane did not register for the MCEL video conference.
• September balanced Financials were reviewed. Questions were answered. Pam moved that the September Financials be accepted as presented, Trish seconded and Sandy concurred.
• October and November Expenditures to date were reviewed.

Policy Review:

Clean updated copies of last month’s reviewed policies were presented to the board for placement in their policy books. Policy numbers 2314, 2320, 2330, and 2332 were reviewed and needed no changes. Clerk will update review history and print board new copies.

Public Comment:

None

Next Regular Meeting:  December 19, 2018 @ 3:30 p.m. Meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.