BOARD MINUTES REGULAR MEETING February 10, 2015 The regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of School Districts 48-1J and 48-2J was called to order February 10, 2015 at 7:08 p.m. in the library by Brett Earl, Board Chairman. Members present: Greg Woods, Brett Earl, Jeff Mattson, Brad Kammerzell and Chandra LaFrentz. A quorum was present. ROLL CALL Also present: Thad Kaiser, Superintendent, David Jamison, Principal, Renee Richter, Clerk, and Pat Goldhahn, CJIEA. Also see attached list of community members present. Brett Earl opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. A motion was made by Chandra LaFrentz and seconded by Brad Kammerzell to approve the agenda. Motion passed. PUBLIC COMMENT: PLEDGE APPROVE AGENDA PUBLIC COMMENT Koni Erickson had a concern with the concessions. Charlotte Kelly asked the Board about changing the rules for junior high students to be able to compete in four sports now that CJI has gone to the 9C District, the junior high sports schedules would allow this. Brett Earl suggested to Charlotte that she discuss her concerns with Mr. Jamison, CJI s athletic director. Kelli Lohr asked about public comment and agenda item discussion. Elizabeth Woods asked that a meal policy for traveling teams be put on the agenda next month. Koni Erickson asked about paper copies of the policies discussed on the Agenda. Brett told her the Board was looking at purchasing a projector to put them on a screen during the meetings in the future. Chandra suggested putting a notice on the bottom of the monthly agendas that hard copies of the board policies are available in the school office. Bruce Richter asked Brett what the purpose of locking the basketball nets was. Bruce was asked to meet with Mr. Kaiser and Brett outside of the board meeting to discuss this further. REPORTS: Superintendent s Report Mr. Kaiser told the Board that the new school vehicle will arrive tomorrow. Mr. Kaiser spoke of the MTSBA meeting last week. He feels that the School Board Strategic Governance should be put on the March agenda for the first reading. Mr. Kaiser said that building bids for summer work are coming in and will be discussed with the building committee. COMMITTEE REPORTS SUPERINTENDENT REPORT
Principal s Report Mr. Jamison reported that on January 26 th, the STAR lab was here. Cool Springs Colony and Galata School joined the CJI students that day. On January 27 th, the Speech and Drama students did a showcase. Five students went to the State Speech and Drama meet. Mr. Jamison wanted to recognize Ally Jones for the fantastic job that she did with the Speech and Drama team. PRINCIPAL REPORT Mr. Jamison is still looking for one more person to help out at the 9C basketball tournament. There were 3 qualifiers for the State wrestling tournament in Billings this next weekend. Bryce King was the winner of the spelling bee, Kolby Lohr was the runner-up. MBI Session II was in Great Falls last week. There will be an MBI Kick off next month. There is a My Voice survey going out to all students about the climate of the school and interaction of students at school. Staff surveys will also go out. Student Council Report Emma Earl reported on MBI awards, the possibility of a school sponsored ski trip and there is a meeting scheduled to organize spirit week activities next week before basketball tournaments. Building Committee Brad Kammerzell and Jeff Mattson recommend wrapping up the window project in the high school with new windows on the east side of the school. They have received a $26,000 bid plus demo costs for this summer project. The demo costs should be less than $4,000. Negotiations The committee met with CJ Manska and has a recommendation. The teachers have finished much of the wording in the contracts. After the legislature meets, the District will decide the funds available for the teachers salaries. Budget Committee- The committee looked at buying out vacation days, and they have a recommendation to put into the maintenance supervisor s contract later on the agenda. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Board Policy 3600P Student Records Procedure A motion was made by Greg Woods to approve policy 3600P on the 3 rd reading. The motion was seconded by Brad Kammerzell. Discussion followed. Chandra LaFrentz wanted to clarify removing a bullet item on the policy. Mr. Kaiser will contact MTSBA to find out. Greg Woods withdrew his motion to approve this policy on its 3 rd reading and amended his motion to table it until more information was received. Chandra LaFrentz seconded the amended motion. Motion passed. Open Campus Policy A motion was made by Chandra LaFrentz to accept the open campus policy on its 3 rd reading. The motion was seconded by Greg Woods. Discussion followed. Kris Goss, a lawyer for MTSBA, advised us to include parent s written permission to include 7 th & 8 th grades students with the 9-12 th grade student sign off. There was discussion on setting parameters for 7 th & 8 th grade students. There is no way for the school to police this, so this might not work. Mr. Kaiser suggested getting input from the student council since it was their idea of an open campus policy. Chandra LaFrentz withdrew her motion to accept the open campus policy on its 3 rd reading and to send it to the student council for their review with no amendments from this meeting. Greg Woods seconded the amended motion. The policy will be reviewed at the July board meeting and will go into the student handbook next year. Bruce Richter had a concern with three families riding together to school and only having one vehicle amongst them; how would this policy apply to them? Brett Earl said that MTSBA will be contacted to find out their direction for us on out-of-town students, the policy will go to student council, and be approved at the July board meeting. Motion passed. STUDENT COUNCIL BUILDING NEGOTIATIONS BUDGET UNFINISHED BUSINESS SB 3600P OPEN CAMPUS POLICY- 3 RD reading
Travel Policy A motion was made by Brad Kammerzell to accept the travel policy on its 2 nd reading. Jeff Mattson seconded the motion. Discussion followed. There was discussion regarding coolers being put on buses and meals made for teams. There are MHSA regulations on this. Chandra LaFrentz suggested putting in MHSA policy and making it our own. Mr. Jamison said it s better to have a policy than no policy. We need our own policy to govern Title IX equity. Mr. Kaiser said we need to have our own policy with examples of what is acceptable. An amended motion was made by Brad Kammerzell to include MHSA guidelines and examples including coolers on buses, locker treats and meals for visiting teams into our policy and to move this to the 3 rd reading. Jeff Mattson seconded the amended motion. Motion passed. School Related Absences Non MHSA events Brett Earl, Chairman, asked for a motion on this policy. No motion was made. No discussion. Hunnewell Estate Mr. Kaiser handed out FSA information packets to the Board members with complete records for the Hunnewell Estate including land, CRP contracts and landowner leasing contracts. Mr. Kaiser said some decisions need to be made by March 30 th regarding some of the contracts. He asked that a budget meeting be set up as soon as possible to discuss our options. NEW BUSINESS Graduation Request Mr. Kaiser recommended that the Board table this request as the parent and student were not in attendance at the meeting. A motion was made by Chandra LaFrentz and seconded by Jeff Mattson to table the request. Motion passed. 2015-2016 School Calendar Mr. Kaiser would like to move this agenda item to the March board meeting. A motion was made by Greg Woods and seconded by Brad Kammerzell to move this item to the March meeting. Motion passed. School Board Policy 3630- Cell Phones and Other Electronic Equipment A motion was made by Chandra LaFrentz to change our current policy to mirror MTSBA s policy with our student handbook. The motion was seconded by Jeff Mattson. Brett Earl read the policy to the public. Motion passed. Part Time Permanent Contracts Brett Earl clarified that we have had three classified staff members for three years who are getting compensated as a substitute rather than being on the salary matrix because they are not 40 hour/week employees but have been permanent 10-30 hours/week. CJI has been trying to fill the custodial position for over 2 years. In order to make it a more attractive position, the board will consider a part-time permanent contract with a ½ of the $700 maximum monthly health insurance benefit and include the position on the salary matrix. This is a 9 month school year contract. A motion was made by Brad Kammerzell to approve the part-time permanent contracts. The motion was seconded by Greg Woods. Mr. Kaiser clarified that this applies to a limited number of people who are already working for the district. Motion passed. Classified Vacation Accrual Chandra LaFrentz spoke on behalf of the budget committee. They discussed the cap max for vacation accruals for classified staff. There will be an audit in March on accrual vs allowed. The budget committee is recommending to buy-out current overages and put something in a contract for the future at 2/3 max of accrual. If an employee hasn t used 2/3 of the vacation days, 1/3 of the days will be lost time. A TRAVEL POLICY 2 ND reading with amendments SCHOOL RELATED ABSENCES HUNNWELL ESTATE NEW BUSINESS GRADUATION REQUEST 2015-2016 SCHOOL CALENDAR SBP 3630-FINAL READING PART TIME PERMANENT CONTRACTS VACATION ACCRUAL
motion was made by Jeff Mattson and seconded by Brad Kammerzell to pay the classified vacation accrual. Motion passed. Maintenance Supervisor Contract The negotiations committee met to discuss the maintenance supervisor contract for the 2015-2016 school year. The committee is recommending that a $1.00 per hour increase be given to all maintenance staff with a Boiler s license and to all new persons who come into the maintenance department with a license. This is in lieu of a raise as an incentive to have and maintain a license. A motion was made by Greg Woods and seconded by Chandra LaFrentz to give a $1.00 per hour increase for a boiler s license for the 2015-2016 school year. Superintendent Contract The Superintendent contract was approved at the February 10, 2015 board meeting under the Consent Agenda. After meeting last week with MTSBA, they recommended that this decision should have its own agenda item. A motion was made by Greg Woods to offer Mr. Kaiser a contract pending negotiations. The motion was seconded by Brad Kammerzell. Discussion followed. Mary Ann Zorn brought a list of items to the Board during discussion. Motion passed. Request for Mail Ballot Election Trustee Position A motion was made by Chandra LaFrentz to have the school election (May 5, 2015) this year as a mail ballot election. The motion was seconded by Jeff Mattson. Discussion followed. The school will be doing its own school election this year as the county clerk has decided not to do it. Renee Richter went to an election training to learn how this process works. She will be responsible for the election this year as District Clerk. Motion passed. One Trustee position (Brett Earl) is open this year. Trustee Applications can be picked up at the District Clerk s office between now and March 26, 2015. CONSENT AGENDA A motion was made by Jeff Mattson and seconded by Greg Woods to approve the January 13, 2015 regular board minutes. Motion passed. MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR CONTRACT SUPERINTENDENT CONTRACT RENEWAL MAIL BALLOT ELECTION TRUSTEE POSITION OPEN CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS A motion was made by Jeff Mattson and seconded by Greg Woods to accept the claims and warrants as presented for payment. Mr. Kaiser pointed out to the Board that two scoreboards were purchased from Chinook High School for $2400. These will be used in the old gym. One works good and the second one will be used for parts; there were two controllers with the boards. Motion passed. Mr. Kaiser received a letter of resignation from Dena Fritz effective at the end of the school year. He wanted to thank you for getting the Vo-Ag program up and running. A motion was made by Greg Woods to accept the resignation. Chandra LaFrentz seconded the motion. Motion passed. Brett Earl also wanted to thank Dena for her undertaking of that program. Mr. Kaiser said a more formal recognition is being worked on for recognizing Richard Hunnewell for what he has given to our students. The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be March 10, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the library. DENA FRITZ RESIGNATION NEXT BOARD MEETING
A motion was made by Chandra LaFrentz and seconded by Brett Earl to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. Brett Earl adjourned the meeting at 9:20 p.m. ADJOURN BOARD CHAIRPERSON CLERK ATTEST