MINUTES
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Washington County School District
121 W. Tabernacle, St. George, Utah 84770
October 13, 2009
3:30 p.m.
A regular meeting of the Board
of Education of the Washington County School District was held after
due, legal, and timely notice being given to all members and interested
parties. Board President Kelly Blake called the meeting to order
and welcomed all visitors. Board members present were Wendell
Gubler, Craig Seegmiller, Carole Morris, Laura Hesson, and Travis
Christiansen. Board member Wes Christiansen was excused.
Staff members present were Superintendent Max H. Rose and Business
Administrator Brent Bills.
OPEN MEETING
Board President Welcome – Kelly Blake
Pledge of Allegiance – Member Blake
Reverence – Member Morris
CONSENT AGENDA
A. Minutes – September 8, 2009
B. Purchases over $10,000
C. Personnel Items
D. Contract Bids
E. Springdale Elementary School LAND Trust Change
F. Desert Hills High School LAND Trust Change
G. Bloomington Elementary School LAND Trust Change
Member T. Christiansen presented a
motion to approve the Consent Agenda items, striking item D, as it is
empty this month. Member Hesson seconded the motion that passed
unanimously.
COMMENT ON ACTION ITEMS
Marshall Topham mentioned a change in Policy 2900 allowing more time to
make up a grade as previously discussed. He said no other
comments were received.
BOARD ACTION ITEMS
Policies:
1. Policy 2900 Attendance
Member Seegmiller presented a motion
to approve Policy 2900 Attendance as written. Member Gubler
seconded the motion that passed unanimously.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
Student Achievement/CSIP – Brad Ferguson
Brad Ferguson reported on the Comprehensive Student Achievement
Plan. The program was written by our technology personnel but
each achievement plan is developed by the school. The CSIP
program is a template that schools use to enter their goals.
Board members can access all of the schools using the login information
given. Brad Ferguson reviewed the reports on student achievement
and the information included in the CSIP plans. Student
achievement reports show data analysis and provide information to
develop Smart Plans. The program also includes the Comprehensive
School Improvement Plan. The site links to the School LAND Trust
plan and includes deadline dates for specific reports. He asked
for the Board to review the plans during the next month for approval in
the November meeting. The CSIP site will be available for parent
review in the future.
Policy 4240 Videos and Full-Length Movies – Marshall Topham
Marshall Topham explained that the changes would make the policy more
up-to-date. He mentioned that he is also working on a
comprehensive bullying and harassment policy to meet state laws.
He will have the principals review the draft next week.
Policy 1101 Criminal Background Check and Employee Reporting of Arrests – Lyle Cox
Lyle Cox said this policy is a result of the legislature asking the
USOE to set a rule that all districts create a policy. The policy
requires that employees report arrests, including assault or sexual
offenses. Travis Christiansen suggested including reporting
incidents where the employee is sited or charged with an offense as
often an arrest is not made with alcohol or drug related
offenses. Information will be noted on the state cactus site for
teachers and investigated locally for classified employees.
Anyone who was hired prior to 1992 may not have received a background
check and those hired since have only had one check. The policy
will now require all employees and unsupervised volunteers to have a
background check every six years. This also includes,
substitutes, and contractors or vendors hired that may have
unsupervised access to students. Travis Christiansen pointed out
that the policy states the individual has five days to report the
arrest. He said that they might not have access to report the
arrest within 5 days. Lyle Cox said that the Board would need to
determine to what extent the check is done. Checks can be done
using the seven western states or a federal FBI check. The cost
for the classified employees will lie with the district.
Certified checks will be included with re-licensure. Lyle Cox
will check into having two levels of checks. A more comprehensive
check could be done for new employees and the seven state check for
existing employees. He pointed out that the workload would be
increased with these checks. Fingerprinting is done here at the
District electronically. It will also increase the time involved
in getting the background checks. Laura Hesson pointed out that
2.5. only mentions non-licensed reporting.
Policy 0001 Policy and Procedure
Lyle Cox briefly reviewed the policy changes. The policy governs
how policy is induced, modified, and/or implemented. The
Board asked for a revision to assure that the superintendent is not the
only gatekeeper, allowing policy to be Board generated as well.
INFORMATION AND REPORTS
District Recognitions and Awards
Superintendent’s Award for Excellence (Presented at schools)
Chuck Bundy, Counselor, Pine View Middle School
Karen Tolman, Media Assistant, Pine View Middle School
Cindy Galt, Counselor, Sandstone Elementary School
Edrick Twitchell, Title I Aide, Sandstone Elementary School
Volunteer of the Month (Presented at schools)
Heidi Heideman, Pine View Middle School
Ellen Fujikawa, Sandstone Elementary School
Reports:
Superintendent
Superintendent Max Rose mentioned
that Clay Mills, school psychologist, just received a state
outstanding service award by the brain injury
association.
Board
Association
Kathleen Wagner, WCEA, reported that
they met last week with Superintendent Rose and discussed the
initiatives. She gave information on the initiatives to Board
members for their review.
AFT – No comments
PUBLIC OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS THE BOARD
Lyndi Frei, Desert Hills High School teacher, shared her concern with a
District mandated training held during school and the makeup sessions
after school. She said she didn’t want to leave during
school to attend the training as she felt she should be in the
classroom teaching her students. She said she is concerned with
the amount of teachers being taken out of class. She asked the
Board to come up with another solution so teachers are not required to
be out of class for trainings. She agrees that holding trainings
afterschool is not the best solution either as she is involved
coaching. She suggested having electronic sessions or only
mandating that teachers attend a portion of the trainings, not all of
the sessions. A menu of the topics being discussed during each
session could be given out so teachers could select those needed
most. Marshall Topham said that the best choice would be after
school sessions but teachers refuse to come to the training.
ADJOURNMENT