BOARD OF EDUCATION OCTOBER 19, 2009 MINUTES

BOARD OF EDUCATION OCTOBER 19, 2009 MINUTES OPENING ACTIVITIES A. Call to Order The Board of Education of Morgan County School District Re-3 met in regular session on October 19, 2009, at 7:31 p.m. at the Ft. Morgan High School Media/Library and Room 110A, with the following members present: Mr. Rob Carruth, Mr. James Graff, Mr. Mrs. Julie Harden, Mr. Don Kembel, Mr. Damon Mussman, Mr. Matt Laws, and Mr. Rogelio Segura. Absent was Perla Rodriguez, FMHS Student Representative. Also present were Mr. Greg Wagers, Superintendent; Mr. Ron Pflug, Assistant Superintendent Personnel; Mrs. Joy Perry, Assistant Superintendent Curriculum/Assessment; Mr. Mike Lee, Chief Financial Officer, and Board Secretary Mrs. Karen Temple. B. Approval of Previous Minutes Mr. Laws made a motion to approve the minutes of the October 5, 2009, regular meeting as written. Mr. Kembel seconded the motion. On Roll Call vote, AYE 7; NAY 0; ABSENT 0. Motion carried. C. Agenda Changes; Review of Table File; Approval of Agenda Mr. Carruth made a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Mr. Laws seconded the motion. On Roll Call vote, AYE 7; NAY 0; ABSENT 0. Motion carried. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS/RECOGNITIONS A. Blessings in a Backpack Cindy Schneider The program works with an $80.00 donation per school year, per child. With the corporate partner, WalMart, the school purchases set menu items with the WalMart cards and fills a backpack for each child identified for the program. The school sends home the filled backpack on Friday afternoon, and the child returns the backpack on Monday morning to be used again the next week. The donation can be an accumulation of several people to get to the $80.00 amount. The menu items have already been determined. They are items that can be easily prepared, or require no preparation. Kids will need to be identified in a way so that private information is not disclosed to others and kids are not labeled. The school administrators are still working on how to accomplish this. Mrs. Schneider has been talking to other civic groups in the community, and she will work with Mr. Pflug at the schools to get this promoted. October 5, 2009, Board of Education Minutes, Morgan County School District Re-3 Page 1 of 6

At this time, the District could be the first charter in the state for this program. The Board agreed this sounds like a great program for our students and Administration should continue to work out the details. Administrators will work on gathering the estimated numbers of kids/families that would qualify for the program so we have some idea of how many sponsorships are needed. B. Technology Presentation by FMHS Teachers (Room 110A) There were several presentations by FMHS Teachers on how they are using technology in the classrooms. Those presenting were: Mr. Stewart Johnson, Mr. Heldwin Brito, Mr. Tom Kammer, Mrs. Denise Cranson, Mrs. Cindy Tormohlen, Mrs. Judy Carruth, Mr. Jeremy Kaiser, Mr. Jeff Walters, Mr. Paul Gerk, and Mrs. Connie Tormohlen. The teachers demonstrated how they are using document cameras, smart boards, web blogs, virtual lessons, UTube, web based presentation tools, and Smart Clickers in the classrooms. The teachers thanked the board for all the updated technology and are excited to have Technology Coaches this next year to be able to maximize the technology in the classroom. C. Employee of the Month October Cindy Tormohlen, FMHS Math Teacher, has been selected as the Employee of the Month for October. Mrs. Tormohlen received a plaque and a gift certificate to a local restaurant. Mr. Mike Boehm with Farmers Insurance Group also agreed to sponsor Employee of the Month for the District and Mrs. Tormohlen was presented with a gift basket from Farmers Insurance. OPPORTUNITY FOR AUDIENCE Shawn Turner, FMHS Senior requested the Board move the date of HS graduation, from Saturday, May 22 nd to Sunday, May 23 rd to accommodate the students who might be graduating this year and possibly involved in the HS State Track Meet. Right now those two events are scheduled on the same date, and students involved in both might have to make a choice on which one to attend. REPORTS A. Mr. Don Kembel reported on his attendance at the CASB Fall Conference in Denver last week. The first day mainly talked about the state budget deficit of 1.3 billion and the economy. It is possible for the 2010-11 school year there could be a 5% cut for K-12. The state is still unsure if the ARRA funding will need to be returned to the state. There are a couple of bills in the legislature regarding PERA that could have some significant changes for members and effect negotiations in the future. Mr. Kembel also reported the FMHS FFA Oyster Fry had a great turn out and support from the community. There were approximately 800 people in attendance and the FFA raised a significant amount of money from their auction. B. Superintendent October 5, 2009, Board of Education Minutes, Morgan County School District Re-3 Page 2 of 6

Mr. Wagers reported the numbers for October Count are leveling out. We projected 2997 students, and right now we have 3003 FTE for our count. We will be going through the final audits in the next two weeks to turn into CDE. Mr. Wagers and Mr. Segura will be attending the CASB Fall Regional Meeting on Thursday, October 22 nd in Sterling. If anyone else is interested in attending, please let Mr. Wagers know. C. Other Mr. Pflug: The Vacancy/Hire report is attached. Mr. Lee: Mr. Lee reported the August financials are in the Board packet. Mr. Lee has noticed an increase this past month in the property tax and the SO tax for September. That will definitely help the district. On October 28 th, the CDE Facilities team is scheduled to come for a visit to report their findings for the BEST program. The BEST application is due in January to the state. The program offers a 5:1 cost ratio with the district responsible for 1 part of the cash, which will need to be set aside up front. This amount will most likely come from the mill levy fund. Mr. Wagers commented there are three big if s that will need to be answered yet: if the district qualifies; if we can come up with the upfront funding; and if we can get the application done. More information will be forthcoming on this program. Mrs. Perry: Mrs. Perry reported on the Drop Out Summit that was held last Friday in Denver. Dr. Barb Medina from CDE was the keynote speaker. Dr. Medina mentioned the District in her talk and the work Re-3 is doing with immigrant and migrant students. The focus to reduce drop-out rates is on ABC attendance, behavior, credits. Some of our programs like Success 101, PBS, and A+ all focus on post-secondary readiness. We still have some additional data to gather to help us evaluate this issue. The value in our team attending the summit was the interaction between our team members before and after the summit. The challenge is to not lose focus as we move forward. The next session of the Principal Academy will be held tomorrow night and will be addressing fiscal issues and longitudinal growth. DISCUSSION ITEMS A. Enhancing Education Through Technology Grant Mrs. Joy Perry was the author of the application, and we have been informed we will be receiving $150,000 for this grant. The grant focuses on technology rich classrooms with four goals: October 5, 2009, Board of Education Minutes, Morgan County School District Re-3 Page 3 of 6

Catch up Keep up Growth Student Engagement Increasing percentage of staff rated proficient in technology Increasing student proficiency in 8 th grade technology proficiency test Some of the dollars will be used for hardware purchases, but a large portion of the grant will be used for 2 Technology Coaches positions in the District. These will be one year positions, and at this time we are looking at beginning those positions next fall. By waiting till fall we should have a better pool of candidates to look at and should have all the hardware in place. There is also money in the grant for an external evaluation. B. FMHS Graduation Date Administration at FMHS has talked to coaches, parents, and students, and after looking at a lot of options, administration is now recommending to move the date of graduation from Saturday, May 22 nd to Sunday, May 23 rd at 2:00 pm. Unfortunately we will be at the same time as other schools in the area. The Board recommended we talk to our representative for the region on the CHSAA Board of Controls and write a letter from the board requesting CHSAA avoid this weekend in the future when setting the date for state sporting events. CONSENT AGENDA A. Personnel Actions see attachment B. Claims and Accounts FMHS General Ledger and FMHS List of Checks for September 2009. Total checks issued by the District for all Funds for the month of August 2009 was $2,201,059.42. Total expenditures for each Fund of the District for August 2009 are as follows: General Fund $ 1,603,006 Building Trades Fund $ 00 Mill Levy Fund $ 173,764 Insurance Fund $ 60,930 Colorado Preschool $ 7,585 Capital Reserve $ 2,918 Federal Programs $ 194,345 Pupil Activity Fund $ 29,470 After School Daycare $ 18,260 Flex Spending Fund $ 00 Bond Redemption Fund $ 00 Food Service Fund $ 34,600 Mr. Kembel made a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Mr. Segura seconded the motion. On Roll Call vote, AYE 7; NAY 0; ABSENT 0. Motion carried. October 5, 2009, Board of Education Minutes, Morgan County School District Re-3 Page 4 of 6

ACTION ITEM A. Consideration to Approve the 2009-10 District Accountability Committee Members Mr. Carruth made a motion to approve the list of District Accountability Committee members as presented. Mr. Segura seconded the motion. The Board commented on a lack of community members represented on the committee, and Mr. Wagers noted administration is still working on recruiting to the committee. On Roll Call vote, AYE 7; NAY 0; ABSENT 0. Motion carried. B. Consideration to Approve a Trip for FMHS Music Department to Colorado West Invitational Music Festival in Grand Junction Mr. Wagers commented on the good documentation to support the BAF. Mrs. Harden made a motion to approve the trip for FMHS Music Department as presented. Mr. Graff seconded the motion. On Roll Call vote, AYE 7; NAY 0; ABSENT 0. Motion carried. C. Consideration to Approve Policy Upon 3 rd Reading 1. EBCB Safety Drills 2. EBCB-R Safety Drills Regulation Mr. Segura made a motion to approve the policy EBCB and EBCB-R upon 3 rd reading as presented. Mr. Graff seconded the motion. On Roll Call vote, AYE 7; NAY 0; ABSENT 0. Motion carried. D. Consideration to Approve Changing the FMHS Graduation Date for 2010 Mrs. Harden made a motion to approve moving FMHS graduation date from Saturday, May 22, 2010 to the new date of Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 2:00 pm. Mr. Graff seconded the motion. On Roll Call vote, AYE 7; NAY 0; ABSENT 0. Motion carried. INFORMATION ITEMS A. Monthly Reports Sherman Early Childhood Center September 2009 Pioneer Elementary September 2009 FMMS September 2009 FMHS September 2009 LHS September 2009 B. Newsletters Columbine Elementary October 2009 Green Acres Elementary October 2009 Pioneer Elementary October 2009 Baker Central October 2009 FMHS October 2009 October 5, 2009, Board of Education Minutes, Morgan County School District Re-3 Page 5 of 6

ADVANCED PLANNING A. Next Regular Meeting November 2, 2009 District Support Center B. Thanksgiving Lunch November 19, 11:30 am Pioneer Elementary - RSVP C. Dinner with FMEA November 16, 6:00 pm DSC D. Holiday Open House December 14, 3:30 5:30 pm DSC E. Holiday Lunch December 17, 11:30 am FMHS - RSVP ADJOURNMENT The regular meeting adjourned at 9:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Karen A Temple, Board Secretary Damon Mussman, Board President October 5, 2009, Board of Education Minutes, Morgan County School District Re-3 Page 6 of 6