The two new members of the ISD 166 school board—Ed Bolstad and Sissy Lunde—settled smoothly into their new roles at the first meeting of the New Year, the board’s organizational meeting on January 10. Jeanne Anderson was elected board chair, Mary Sanders, board clerk, and Sissy Lunde, board treasurer.
The board chose to continue meeting on the third Thursday of each month at 5 p.m., with an informal community discussion time 15 minutes before each meeting.
Compensation for the board was set once again at $2,100 a year, with an extra $500 for the chair and $35 per meeting for board members on the union negotiating team.
Principal Gwen Carman said the district would be training staff in the use of the new grant-funded i-Pads for use in several classrooms.
To use them, the school will need to be hooked up to the fiber optic broadband lines being installed throughout the county, which she hoped would be in place by next fall.
Administrative restructuring
Superintendent Beth Schwarz reported that District Finance Assistant Cindy Carpenter-Straub had informed her that she might resign from her position June 1 or possibly earlier. Schwarz indicated that the district office—with Kathleen Johnson having recently retired—is currently understaffed by about 10 hours a week and suggested that they consider restructuring the positions in that office.
In a memo to the board, Schwarz wrote, “Cindy has done an excellent job with school finance, we have worked very well together, and I certainly appreciate the early notification of her potential resignation. …As with all resignations, we need to consider if there is a way the district could realize financial savings by redefining positions left open by a resignation.”
Three years ago, the district added community education director responsibilities to the superintendent’s job and went from two principals to one principal and a dean of students, a position that has since been eliminated. Office staff has also been downsized since then.
Schwarz asked the board to consider changing Carpenter-Straub’s position to a district finance specialist position that would include payroll and insurance as well and changing Lori Backlund’s human resources and community education assistant position to a district office specialist position that would handle clerical work and assist the superintendent. Backlund’s position currently includes handling payroll and insurance.
While Schwarz anticipated that training for the new positions—which she hoped would take place from April to June—would cost the district about $10,000, she expected the shift in responsibilities to save the district $11,000 a year starting next school year.
To help fill in the gaps right now, the board authorized the district to hire Jeanne Anderson as a substitute administrative assistant in the superintendent’s office at an amount not to exceed $8,000. Statute allows school board members to earn up to $8,000 a year at school jobs with the approval of the school board.
Administrative restructuring will be discussed further at a work session on January 24.
Budget
At the end of the last fiscal year, June 20, 2012, the district had a fund balance of $1,006,188, or approximately 34.5 days. The district has a fund balance policy of 45 days, which Superintendent Schwarz stated in a January 7 memo to the board “the school board can override given unusual circumstances or swings in the economy, both of which apply for 2013-14.”
The school board over-rode the policy for 2012-13 and authorized a fund balance of as low as 25 days. The superintendent recommended that the board consider a minimum 20-day fund balance, approximately $600,000, for the end of the 2013-14 fiscal year on June 30, 2014.
This will also be discussed at the January 24 work session.
Class sizes
Also to be discussed at the work session will be keeping class sizes small in grades K-2. “In 2011 the district made a conscious choice to invest in early childhood [pre-kindergarten to grade 2],” Schwarz wrote in her January 7 memo. “Part of this investment included two fulltime kindergarten teachers. In 2012-13 this expanded to two full-time first-grade teachers. In 2013-14 the board may want to consider expanding this to include two full-time second-grade teachers. Yes, this means very small class sizes of 9-15 in grades K-2, however, research indicates that this type of investment pays off in the long run for districts.”
Schwarz said the district has already invested about $90,000 in early childhood initiatives and suggested that they continue with them until 2017 so they could gather longitudinal data to evaluate their impact. The investment would average $75,000 a year.
This will be another topic to be discussed at the January 24 work session.
Upcoming work session
The board will meet in special session January 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the upstairs of the Harbor House Grille. In addition to discussing administrative restructuring, budget and class size in the early grades, the board will discuss the Q-Comp program (which provides compensation to teachers and districts for meeting quality goals), and the 2013-14 calendar. This is an open meeting.
School calendar
The district conducted a survey of parents, students, and employees regarding the school calendar next year. The information gathered will be used to help determine whether to continue with frequent four-day weeks as the district is doing this year for staff development days. The survey closed on January 15.
Kudos to students
Ed Bolstad complimented the students of ISD 166, saying that he had gotten lost in the building every time he had been at the school recently. He said students had been “very, very courteous” in helping direct him where he needed to go. “It’s something to be proud of,” Bolstad said. “I went home and told my wife, ‘That’s a nice feeling.’”
Superintendent Schwarz commended the students for their flexibility with the parking situation during construction of the new community center. They have been frequently asked to move their cars during blasting, which she said should be over soon.
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