MINUTES
- REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
The Board of Education of the
Ms. Marianne
Clancy, Board Secretary, established a quorum and the following Members were
present: Mr. John Dirks, Mr. John Hanson, Mrs. Janet Smith, Mrs. Millicent Roth,
Mr. Uvaldo Herrera, Mr. Keith Davis and Mrs. Cheryl Jackson, Board
President.
Present from
the administrative staff were Dr. Robert Nielsen, Dr. Roger Kilpatrick, Mr.
Barry Reilly and Mrs. Sally Tucker.
Ms. Linda Aschenbrener, Public Relations
Facilitator, was also in attendance.
Present from
the news media was Ms. Michelle Steinbacher, The Pantagraph.
Mrs. Jackson
presented the Minutes for approval. It was moved by Mrs. Smith, seconded by Mr.
Hanson that the Minutes of the Regular Meeting held on
Mr. Richard Knowles, Bloomington Junior High School
(BJHS) Associate Principal introduced BJHS Track Coach Nate Culbertson and
Assistant Track Coach Ron Bass. Coach
Culbertson summarized the track season, introduced team members present (Kelly
Steffen, Ashley Brown, Emily White, Tara Clemons, Ashley Short, Ashley Beyer,
Julia Meek, Ashley Verplan, Joe Roberts, Tyler Sipes, Josh Roig, Paige Steffen
and Marcus McGee), and announced the following achievements:
7th grader, Josh Roig - State Champion 800m
7th grade girls - State Champions
7th grader, Jasmine Johnson - State
Champion - 100m
7th grader, Ashley Brown - State Runner
Up - 200m
7th grade girls 400m relay - State
Champions
8th grade boys - State Champions
8th grader, Darian Davis - State
Champion - 100m
8th grader, Darian Davis - State
Champion - 200m
8th grader, Marcus McGee - State Champion
- 400m
8th grader, Josh Strong - State Runner
Up - Pole vault
8th grade boys 400m relay - State
Champions
8th grade girls - State Runners Up
8th grader, Ashley Verplank - State
Champion - 400m
8th grader, Ashley Beyer - State Runner
Up - 100m hurdles
8th grade girls 400m relay - State
Runner Up
8th grade girls 1600m relay - State
Champions
Eleven school records were broken during the season, three state records
were broken and there were 39 State Qualifiers on the team.
Mrs. Jackson congratulated the team and the coaches
and asked them and any parents present to come forward and receive personal
congratulations from the Board.
Mrs. Jackson announced that The McLean County Community
COMPACT recently honored Dr. Nielsen with the 2004 Evelyn Cobb Service Award
in appreciation for his outstanding volunteerism and commitment to the goals of
the McLean County COMPACT. The Board
congratulated Dr. Nielsen.
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Mr. Dirks reported that the Beyond the Books
Educational Foundation awarded $22,000 worth of grants recently, $11,000 going
to District 87. Mr. Dirks stated that
the grant writers did a great job.
Mr. Davis reported that he and Mr. Dirks continue to
work with the Board Policy Committee on policy recommendations.
Mrs. Roth reported that she and Mr. Herrera attended
the Minority Recruitment Project meeting on May 18.
Mr. Herrera reported that there were two meetings of
the Minority Recruitment Project held recently.
On May 11 a meeting was held in conjunction with the Bloomington-Normal
Education Association (BNEA) to continue developing a strategy for recruiting
more candidates from Illinois State University (ISU) and Illinois Wesleyan
University (IWU) to pursue education degrees.
The meeting on May 18 was to review some applications for candidates who
are pursuing education degrees. One candidate was chosen. A need to create a mentoring program for
those entering the program was discussed.
Mrs. Jackson reported that on May 12 she
attended the Board of Directors Meeting for the Illinois Association of School
Boards (IASB). There was a discussion regarding the inequity of dues paid by Districts
that are growing and whose student enrollments continue to increase. The cap on dues was increased to catch
these Districts up. District 87’s dues cap was increased slightly for the next few
years by $3.00. Mrs. Jackson stated that
despite her objection, the motion to change the dues cap passed.
Mrs. Roth stated that she attended the Senior
Luncheon last week with Mrs. Smith and the high school administration and it
was great.
Mr. Herrera stated that he attended
Mr. Dirks stated he attended the BJHS Honor Society
installation and it was a great event.
Dr. Nielsen
presented a “First Reading” of the following Proposed Board Policies.
2.040 School Board Membership
2.110 Qualifications, Term, and Duties of
Board Officers – Mrs. Jackson asked that #4 under President, should read “May
represent the Board” etc.
2.150
Committee Organization
2.200
Regular Meetings
2.202
Closed Meetings
2.210
Organizational School Board Meetings
2.220
School Board Meeting Procedure
2.222
Voting Method
2.224 Minutes:
Regular, Special, Adjourned, Emergency, Closed – Mrs. Jackson noted that under
Quorum on page three, “a” should be placed before quorum at the end of line one
2.250
Access to District’s Public Records
2.260 Uniform
Grievance Procedure – Mr. Davis noted that under #11 the “P.Z”. should be
“P.A.”
4.010
Fiscal and Business Management
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3
4.110 Transportation
4.140
Waiver of Student Fees
4.170
Safety Program
6.030
Organization of Instruction – Mrs.
6.180
Extended Instructional Programs
6.240
Field Trips
7.030
Student Assignment and Intra-District Transfer
7.130
Student Rights and Responsibilities
7.300
Extracurricular Athletics
7.330
Student Use of Buildings—Equal Access
8.020
Community Use of School Facilities
8.025 Advertising & Distributing
Materials in Schools Provided by Non-School Related Entities
Dr. Nielsen stated these
proposed policies will be posted on our website and they will be brought back
at the next Board Meeting for a “Second Reading”.
Dr. Nielsen presented a “Second Reading” of the following Proposed Board
Policies.
5.010 Equal Employment
5.280 Educational Support Personnel
6.160 Bilingual Education
7.015 Student and Family Privacy Rights
7.100 Health Examinations, Immunizations,
and Exclusion of Students
Dr. Kilpatrick presented the
Tentative 2004-2005. He began his
presentation with a review of the assumptions that served as the basis for the
budget. Dr. Kilpatrick mentioned that
this presentation was a preview for next year since many of the major factors
such as state funding and new equalized assessed values have not been
established. He began his review of the
local, state, and federal revenue assumptions.
The Tentative Budget was based on a continued improvement in the economy
with an increase in the local assessed values of 3.5%-4%. In addition, student enrollment was projected
to remain stable and interest rates were projected to increase slightly. The state revenue assumptions included the
promised $400 million by the Governor for education. These funds would be allocated both to
General State Aid and to the categoricals such as
special education. It was assumed that
the Foundation Level for General State Aid would be increased by $150 and that
the categoricals would be funded at no lower pro-rations
than the current year. Federal Title
revenues were projected to decrease primarily from the reduced poverty count
from the census. Federal IDEA funds for
special education were projected to increase.
In the Tentative Budget, salaries were budgeted to
increase with the current contracts, but were also reduced due to reductions of
personnel as well as extra duty assignments.
In addition medical insurance costs were budgeted to increase
substantially. The other District
insurance costs for liability and workers’ compensation were projected to
increase, but at lower rates than the previous couple of years. Purchased
services, materials, and supplies were reduced under the budget
reductions. Remaining amounts were
projected to increase at an inflationary rate.
Dr. Kilpatrick then reviewed several of the revenue
and expense areas graphically from an historical basis to indicate the trends
that the District has seen and what is anticipated for the 2004-2005 fiscal
year. In addition, he summarized the
projected budgets for the other funds of the district, including the other
operating funds – transportation, working cash, and operations and
maintenance.
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4
The
Education Fund and the Operations and Maintenance Fund were targeted to have
balanced budgets that did not rely on existing reserves.
Dr. Kilpatrick stated that the Tentative Budget
would be revised over the summer as more information on revenues becomes
available and will be presented to the Board in August with a targeted adoption
for the second Board meeting in September.
Dr. Nielsen commended the Board for taking the steps
that needed to be taken over the last two years to make $4.1 million in
reductions and helping to create a balanced budget for 2004-05.
Mr. Reilly and Mr. Rich Gordon, Bloomington High School Business
& Technical teacher, presented a new training level proposal for the Office
and Technical Employees (OTE). Mr.
Gordon summarized the current OTE training program:
•All Levels consist of the
employee learning Microsoft Office 2000 for Windows including PowerPoint,
Access, Excel and Word
•Training for OTE Employees
on the Office Programs is done by using the Skill Assessment Manager (SAM)
Training Program.
•The SAM Program is a
testing program which is the educational version of the Microsoft Office User
Specialist (MOUS) Testing Program.
•Using SAM, the four MOUS
programs are tested at two levels….. Core and Expert.
•To pass a Core Test
requires the employee to get 90% of the 40-50 tasks correct. To pass the Expert Test requires a score of
at least 70%.
•63 employees have taken at
least the first test at the first level.
•61 employees out of the 63
have passed the first level and have received their certificates.
38 out of the 63 employees have completed all 5 levels
•
The New Training Proposal in
summary:
•
It
would result in one more pay increment of $.30 for each employee completing the
new level.
It would allow for direct increase in on the job productivity.
§
It
would review all 4 Basic MOUS programs
§
It
would have employee apply all 4 programs by completing a variety of application
problems
§
It
would have employee learn new program including Front Page and Possibly
Outlook.
§
It
would have employee setup their own web page
§
It
would have employee work directly at improving their productivity on the job.
§
Entire OTE Level 6 program can be accessed online
at:
http://www.district87.org/staff/gordonr/Ote%20training%20files.htm
Mr. Reilly stated that this will be brought back at the next Board Meeting for Board consideration.
Dr. Nielsen presented the Group Medical Plan and HMO insurance
rates changes. He stated that beginning
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compared to $348).
Dr. Nielsen stated that this will be brought back at the next Board
meeting for Board consideration.
Mrs. Jackson presented the Consent Agenda
for consideration. Dr. Nielsen asked
that the Personnel Report be moved to Board Action F. Mrs. Jackson asked that Proposed Board Policy
2.105, Ethics and Gift Ban and Proposed Board Policy 5.120, Ethics, be pulled
from Item E, Resolution: Amending Board of Education Policies Manual and be
brought back at the next Board Meeting for “Second Reading”. Mrs. Smith had a question about the Personnel
Report and asked to go into Closed Session to discuss it.
It was moved by Mrs. Smith, seconded by Mrs. Jackson that the Board go into Closed Session to consider the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of District 87, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee to determine its validity. Upon a roll call vote, all Members present voted “Aye”. Motion carried.
It was moved by Mr. Dirks, seconded by Mrs. Smith
that the Board return to the Regular Meeting. Upon a roll call vote all members present
voted “Aye”. Motion carried.
It was moved by Mr. Dirks, seconded by Mr. Herrera that the
Consent Agenda (Bills, Treasurer’s Report, Financial Summary, Resolution:
Amending Board of Education Policies Manual (minus Proposed Board Policies
2.105 and 5.120), Bread Bid and Stevenson Walk In Cooler) be approved. Upon a
roll call vote, all Members present, voted “Aye”. Motion carried. (See with Original Minutes,
Attachment 05-26-04/1)
Dr.
Nielsen reminded the Board that the BHS Commencement is a week from tonight,
Dr. Nielsen also asked that
the Board consider canceling the July, 2004 Board meetings. He stated that we will put this on the
Mrs. Jackson presented
SHOR0304-3 for consideration. It was
moved by Mr. Hanson to approve SHOR0304-3. There was no second. Motion failed. (See with Original Minutes, Attachment 05-26-04/2)
Dr. Nielsen stated that Ms.
Anna Cunningham’s name should be omitted from the Personnel Report as she has accepted
another teaching position in another District.
It was moved by Mr. Dirks,
seconded by Mrs. Roth that the Board approve the Personnel
Report. Upon a roll call vote, all
Members present voted “Aye”. Motion
carried. (See with Original Minutes, Attachment 05-26-04/3)
Mr.
Kim Smith, BJHS parent, stated that he and nine other parents met with Dr.
Nielsen regarding events at BJHS. He
stated that he and several others are offering to help address the issue of
bullying at BJHS.
It was moved by Mr. Davis, seconded by Mr. Dirks that the Board go into Closed Session to consider the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of District 87, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee to determine its validity; and to
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consider litigation, when
an action against, affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has
been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or when
the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent, in which case the
basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the
closed meeting. Upon a roll call vote, all Members present voted “Aye”. Motion carried.
It was moved by Mr. Hanson, seconded by Mrs. Roth that the Board return to the Regular Meeting. Upon a roll call vote all members present voted “Aye”. Motion carried.
There being no further
business to come before the Board, Mrs. Jackson adjourned the meeting.
APPROVED:
ATTEST:
_________________________________
President
_____________________________
Secretary