The first ISD 166 school board meeting of the new school year on September 5, 2013 was relatively short but covered a lot of ground.
All district employees were asked to set a personal goal to improve school culture in the first quarter of the year. Superintendent Beth Schwarz reported that goals set by the faculty and staff included getting to know students better, being friendlier in hallways, complimenting other employees, picking up litter, keeping a middle school bulletin board in the hallway up to date with information, speaking positively about fellow staff members and administration, learning the names of every student in school, and making positive calls to students’ homes.
Supervisors will be checking on goals at the end of the quarter, and new goals will be set for the second quarter.
In other school news:
. At the September 5, 2013 school board meeting, a community resident asked about the money the district has offered to pay toward Cook County Community YMCA memberships for its staff. Superintendent Schwarz said payment of $20/month for singles or $30/month for families has been a benefit for school staff for years, and it is in their union contracts. Not a lot of employees used it when it was paid toward Upper Shore Center for Fitness memberships, she said.
. Superintendent Schwarz reported that amount of glycol in the hot water pipes (to keep pipes from freezing) was low. The pipes should have 30 percent glycol but were found to have 17 percent glycol. According to Superintendent Schwarz, they have not been leaking. They believe that the glycol may have “degraded,” the system may have lost fluid due to human error during the YMCA construction process, or the system may not have had enough glycol put into it when it was installed six years ago. The cost to fix the problem will be about $18,000.
. Over the last five years, the 10th grade classes have scored higher on the MCA tests than the state average in reading and were higher in science three out of the five years but lower in math. In 2013, 47.6 percent of the district’s students overall scored at a proficiency level in math, 54.7 percent scored at a proficiency level in reading, and 41.7 percent scored at a proficiency level in science. Superintendent Schwarz said the statistics are moving upward, however. The superintendent expects the early childhood reading program, preschool program, small K-2 class sizes, and good nutrition program to increase school performance down the road.
. Superintendent Schwarz said she learned at a recent Local Indian Education Committee (LIEC) meeting that many more parents in Grand Portage had been affected by the government’s practice of taking Indian children away from their families and sending them to boarding schools than she had previously known. She said she realizes this would affect their feelings about public education.
. The school is working with the YMCA to come up with an agreement on shared use of the new facility.
. The board approved numerous work agreements. PreK-5 Principal Gwen Carman’s base salary will be $86,000 a year plus $11,672 a year toward health insurance and 2 percent of her salary toward a health care savings plan. She will be expected to work 221 days over a period of 12 months.
Facilities/Transportation Specialist Tom Nelson will be paid $46,104 plus $12,398 a year toward health insurance. District Administrative Specialist Erika Ternes will be paid $17.25/hour after her probationary period is over in December — a rate of $35,800 a year — plus $10,620 a year toward health insurance. These two positions start out with nine paid holidays and three weeks of vacation a year.
. The school is considering the possibility of having an overnight custodian. Facilities/Transportation Specialist Tom Nelson gets a lot of calls from the Law Enforcement Center about doors being left unlocked after hours.
. Regarding conversations on the superintendent’s facebook page about what students can and cannot do during lunch, Superintendent Schwarz said they do not want students wandering the halls during lunch, dropping garbage on the floors, or vandalizing the bathrooms.
Regarding the addition of two minutes to the transition time for juniors and seniors at the end of the lunch period after students and parents complained about them having to either stay in the lunchroom/commons area or stay out of the building for the entire 30-minute lunch period, she said the students realized they might lose their open lunch if they didn’t come to an agreement with Principal Nelson.
In regard to new policies and procedures that were being debated among students, parents, and the administration during the first week of school, school board member Deb White said, “This school board is committed to changing the culture in this school.” She said the board intends to model citizenship, civility, and respect and to listen before speaking. “These new policies are going to be painful for some students in particular,” she said. “Without change, there is no progress.” She said she does not expect everyone to agree with or like the new policies. She said she wants people to let the school board know if they are unhappy with something.
One of the new policies requires students and parents to be “buzzed” through the inside Eagle doors by office staff during school hours. This is now the only place students and parents will be able to enter the building.
School board member Ed Bolstad showed a newspaper clipping of the students killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, saying he carries it around with him to remind him of the times we’re in today.
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