Education Matters US

I was late to the meeting so this contains only the final few items. If you have notes from the first part of the meeting please send them to me and I will post them. As usual please let me know if any corrections need to be made and my comments are in [italics]. I entered at the discussion on the Board laptops. Sue was absent.

Board Laptops

• Tom Meskel, D127 Board member, talked about their usage at high school board meetings.
  • Setup before each meeting
  • Disk provided with board packets
  • Any changes are provided on paper
  • Items are displayed onto a screen for the public to see at the same time the board sees them.
• All computers don’t have disk drives
• Can use thumb drives, 2 each and swap them each meeting
• Cost more to provide Cd’s
• Can board member use their own laptops?
• Consensus to work on this over the summer

Monthly Enrollment

• 14 new students in February

Registration Fee Discussion

• Current fees
  • K is $100
  • 1-6 is $125 reduced to $100 if by 6/21
  • 7-8 is $??? reduced if paid by 6/21
• Decided to leave K at $100 since it need to be decided tonight.
• Others can be decided at next meeting.
• Possibly want to raise fee for 6 graders so they can purchase 3 books for annotation like 7-8.
• 7-8 has an extra $40 in fees for this purpose

Committee format discussion

• Ellen discussed history of committees
• Have not been posted meeting times
• Wanted as many stakeholders as possible
• During Board self evaluations – IASB said board members should not be on committees. May cause tension and deter openness of other members
• Legal ruling said that board members should be included and the meetings should be posted
• Cheryl – to move forward with the most efficiency board members should step back and not be on committees
• Karen – agree there could be tension and board should not be there
• Jill – understood board job better, if board member was present wanted meetings posted (Wellness – Board member is mandated), Happy to have them be Superintendent Committees and the board step back
• Keith – Taking into account what Daw had said, need to establish parameters in budget, facilities and curriculm, need to give parameters for facilities and curriculm over next several meetings since they had done budget.
• Ellen – would like curriculm done first
• Mark – Yes

Community members on committees

• IASB recommended against having community members involved
• Decided those already on the committees can stay until complete
• All new committees will be decided on an individual committee basis depending on its purpose

Future Agenda Items

• Bonds
• Special Education staffing
• Curriculm parameters
• ESL presentation – Legal requirements and why we do what we do
• Continue regular updates on committees
• To late to change tech parameters – Dr. Mosshamer thought the Tech Committee would be done in about 6 weeks
• Keith – Would like to develop a Board Philosophy or mission vision statement – summer maybe
• Sue, via Cheryl, wanted another session with Dawn (IASB) later. Ellen will contact for dates, but shooting for mid to late April
• Keith – Presentation on Health Insurance – summer

Approved 4% raise for non-certified staff
Approved Title 1 School Parental Involvement Policy as required by law.