MINUTES - REGULAR MEETING OF
THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
May 10, 2006 6:30 P.M. Educational
The Board of Education of the
Ms. Marianne Clancy, Board Secretary, established a
quorum and the following Members were present: Mrs. Cheryl Jackson, Mrs.
Millicent Roth, Mr. Keith Davis, Mr. John Dirks and Mrs. Janet Smith, Board
Vice-President. Mr. Uvaldo Herrera,
Board President, was absent.
Present from the administrative staff were Mrs.
Sally Tucker, Mr. David Wood, Mr. Barry Reilly and Dr. Robert Nielsen.
Ms. Linda Aschenbrener, Public Relations Facilitator, was also in attendance.
Present from the news media was Ms. Sharon Wolfe, The Pantagraph.
Mrs. Smith presented the
Minutes for approval. It was moved by
Mr. Davis, seconded by Mrs. Roth, that the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the
Board of Education held on April 26, 2006 and the Minutes of the Closed Meeting
of the Board of Education held on April 26, 2006 be approved. Upon a roll call vote, all Members present voted “Aye”. Motion carried.
Present for recognition
were student Sesquicentennial logo design winners: Tracy McMurray (her logo
will be used on all celebration flags etc.) Bloomington High School (BHS), Wil
Frank, Bloomington Junior High School (BJHS),
Alyssa Davis, BJHS, Katie Rongey, Bent School and Sean Spaulding, Irving
School. Ms. Diane Cinkovich, BJHS art teacher, representing the Sesquicentennial
Publicity Committee, stated that we are very proud of these students.
Mrs. Smith congratulated all the winners and asked
them and any parents present to come forward and receive personal
congratulations from the Board.
Mrs. Helmers, BHS Principal, introduced
BHS Senior, Vikram Karandikar as the Pantagraph Student of the Year for Pantagraph-area schools
with enrollments of 500 or more students. The honor also includes a scholarship
worth $5,000. Vikram was chosen from among 20 finalists and nearly 70 nominees.
At BHS, he served as the captain of the Scholastic Bowl team (the team finished
5th at State), captain of the state qualifying Math team, was a state qualifier
on the Worldwide Youth in Science and
Engineering (WYSE) team, a member of the BHS Student Advisory Council, a
member of the tennis team for three years and he attended Boys State last
summer and was chosen Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He plans to major in
either chemical or biomedical engineering with a pre-medicine concentration.
Mrs. Smith congratulated Vikram and asked him and
his parents to come forward and receive personal congratulations from the
Board.
Ms. Marcia Hirst, BHS Art Teacher, introduced members of the Editorial Board of the Aubade, the new BHS literary magazine: Emma Hoop, John Twork, Ben Hall and Samantha Brown. Ms. Lisa Thomas, BHS English Teacher, and Ms. Hirst sponsored the magazine and the BHS PTO provided $500 start up money. Copies of the Aubade were distributed to the Board.
Mrs. Smith stated that the Aubade was very nice and those who worked on it should be proud of the end result. She asked the students, their parents and the teachers to come forward and receive personal congratulations from the Board.
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May 10, 2006
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Mrs. Helmers asked John
Twork to remain up front to acknowledge him and five other BHS students: Blythe Dillingham, Stacie Ochiltree, Rachel
Lawrence, Rachel Brandt and Elsie Davidshofer, who were State qualifiers in the
first year of State competition in journalism.
John won fifth place in the sports writing competition.
John
thanked Mr. Alan Kuchefski, BHS English Teacher, for helping the group with the
competition.
Also present for recognition was the
Bloomington High School Science Olympiad Team who won the State Championship
this past Saturday. They competed against 17 other
Mrs. Smith congratulated the team and the sponsors
and asked them and any parents present to come forward and receive personal
congratulations from the Board.
Mrs. Helmers introduced BHS senior, Elizabeth (Libby) Geison who is
a Chicago Tribune All State Academic
Team Finalist this year. Libby had to write an essay and turn in a list of her
activities throughout high school. There
were 70 finalists and 10 winners.
Mrs. Smith congratulated Libby and asked her and her parents to come
forward and receive personal congratulations from the Board.
Mr. Dirks stated that the Beyond the Books
Educational Foundation grant recipients for District 87 will receive a total of
$13,700. He stated there were 26 grants
awarded to District 87, 16 for elementary schools, 6 for BJHS and 4 for
BHS. There was one joint grant for
District 87 and Unit 5 for Spanish-language materials. He stated there was a great deal of
creativity used in these grant applications.
Mrs. Jackson reported that she, Mrs. Smith and Dr.
Nielsen attended the Illinois
Association of School Boards (IASB) Cornbelt Division Meeting on May 1 in
Fairbury. She stated they learned about
some of the problems other districts are having e.g. collecting lunch money and
not having a local newspaper.
Mrs. Roth stated that the Minority Teacher
Recruitment Project (MTRP) committee did not meet due to not having any
candidates. She stated that the
committee needs help getting the word out about recruiting teachers for this
program.
Mr. Reilly stated that he has had a couple of
responses from Heartland and Illinois State University (ISU) for the MTRP.
Mr. Dirks stated that he spent time over the weekend
at the the Washington School Playground Project. He stated it was a great community event and
a great contribution to that school.
Mr. Dirks stated that he attended the Reader’s
Corner for the Aubade which featured the students reading their works and the
art being shown that
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May 10, 2006
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was
entered into the competition. He stated
that all the contributions were impressive.
Mrs. Roth stated that she attended the Bloomington
Area Vocational Center (BAVC) Student of the Year Award Ceremony recently and
it was a great event. Mrs. Roth
presented certificates to the winner and the nominees. She also wanted to remind everyone of the
BAVC Culinary Arts lunch tomorrow.
Mr. Wood summarized the Tentative 2006 Amended
Budget for District 87.
·
The
District successfully recovered from its $4.1 M deficit in 2003 - 2004 and will
have balanced budgets for 2005 - 2008. Given the likelihood of lower state and
federal revenues in the future and smaller growth in the property tax, the
District will have to monitor the budget carefully to maintain this balance.
·
The
2006 budget remains balanced and generally on target. The reason for the
amendment is that we can not spend more than the budget provides and some items
will cost slightly more than originally anticipated. The Tentative Amended 2006
Budget before the Board reflects the specific amounts now estimated for each
revenue and expenditure line. The major changes include:
• Fire Prevention and Safety
Fund - reduced construction project expenditures.
• Site and Construction Fund
- increased BJHS expansion expenditures.
• IMRF - increased
expenditures from state calendar year rate increase.
• All Funds - increased
interest income and actual property tax revenues.
• Education Fund - increased
science and other curricular material expenditures.
·
The
Tentative Amended 2006 Budget will be available for public inspection for 30
days in the Superintendents office. On May 12, 2006, notice of a June 28, 2006,
Public Hearing on the Tentative Amended 2006 Budget will be published in The
Pantagraph.
·
We
anticipate making additional changes in various revenue and expenditure lines
at the time of the June Public Hearing and prior to the Board Resolution
adopting the Tentative Amended 2006 Budget at the June meeting. On the revenue
side, changes are anticipated because of the uncertainty of the state’s
significant payment cycle which may delay May and June payments beyond June 30.
On the expenditure side, we will simply know more in June than we know today.
Expenditures tend to be overstated and it is likely that the final surplus will
be more than the $1.5 M estimated in the Tentative Budget.
Mr. Tom Frazier, BAVC Director, presented the
tentative 2006 Amended Budget for the Regional Vocational System (RVS). He stated that the budget was amended because
of additional revenues received during the 2005-06 school year. The
increased revenues include the state Career and Technical Education Improvement
grant increasing $27,441 to $524,527. In addition, the federal Perkins
grant was increased $10,321 to $226,126. The RVS also realized an
increase in interest income ($2,655), a $1,000 Perkins mini-grant, and a
$12,697 increase in state Agriculture grants. The total grant increases
totaled $54,114.
Mr. Frazier stated that expenditures for the RVS
were adjusted to reflect actual expenditures per grant guidelines, including
salary and benefits spending, the purchase of software for the
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May 10, 2006
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(AVC)
and other RVS member schools, and math and English preparatory workshops.
He stated that the amended budget is balanced.
Dr.
Nielsen asked the Board if there were any questions on the proposed Student
Parent Handbook changes for 2006-2007 that are in the Board packet tonight?
Mrs.
Smith asked if the towing section under the BHS changes for “Clarification on
the parking” was new?
Mrs.
Helmers stated that this is on the sheet that each student gets and signs. The
wording in the handbook was a little different, so we are making the wording on
both of them the same.
Dr. Nielsen
stated the handbook changes will be brought back to the Board for consideration
in two weeks.
Mrs.
Connie Mueller, Director of Food Services, presented the Food Service Annual
Report. In summary:
·
Every
five years Congress updates the Child Nutrition Programs. As of the most recent
update, to participate in the National School Lunch Program, all school
districts must have a local school Wellness Policy.
·
The
next requirement of the Reauthorization Act is that we have food safety plans
in place for each site. District 87
already does that but not in a documented systemized way. We intend to have this in place by the
beginning of the 2006-2007 school year.
·
Mrs.
Mueller is one of five members of an Ad Hoc committee that helped write the
School Nutrition Association Recommendations for the revision of the Meal
Pattern Requirements for the federal school meal programs which has been
presented to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and
Nutrition Service.
·
The
District Food Service Budget will be affected by the requirements of more
fruits and vegetables offered and gasoline prices. We have not increased lunch prices for
2006-07 but that may change by mid-year.
·
Mrs.
Mueller stated that we need to think about purchasing some outdoor walk in
coolers since currently we are having milk
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May 10, 2006
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·
deliveries daily for several schools, the demand for milk
continues to go up and presently we do not have any storage space for
additional quantities of milk. This may
reduce our costs due to companies saving dollars on gasoline.
·
Challenges
and opportunities we are facing include:
The Governor’s Junk Food Ban; The Beverage Industry School Guidelines;
Mrs. Mueller is serving on the Illinois School Wellness Task Force and the Task
Force is working on a report which will be given to the legislature by January
1, 2007 on nutrition guidelines for State schools.
·
This
summer we will have 5 sites for food service; two closed sites, Girl Scout Camp
and the
·
Mrs.
Mueller stated that the BHS kitchen needs updating. It was built in 1960 and does not meet many
of today’s needs. The updating will be a
costly venture.
Mrs.
Smith presented the Consent Agenda for Approval.
Dr.
Nielsen asked that Consent Agenda Items F, Irving School Fence Bid
Recommendation, and G,
It was
moved by Mrs. Jackson, seconded by Mr. Dirks, that the Consent Agenda (Human
Resources Report, Bills, Payroll, Election Under Federal Law to Maintain
Current Health Coverage, Chestnut Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Contract
Renewal, Irving School Paving Renovation Bid Recommendation, Irving School
Landscaping Bid Recommendation, Washington School Landscaping Bid
Recommendation, Washington School Paving Renovation Bid Recommendation, BHS
Electrical Panel Work Bid Recommendation, BHS Wood Shop Asbestos Abatement Work
Bid Recommendation, BHS HVAC Bid Recommendation) be approved. Upon a roll call vote, all Members present,
voted “Aye”. Motion carried. (See
with Original Minutes, Attachment 5-10-06/1)
It was
moved by Mrs. Roth, seconded by Mrs. Jackson, that the Board go into Closed
Session for the purpose of considering a student disciplinary case. Upon a roll call vote, all Members present
voted “Aye”. Motion carried.
It was moved by Mr. Dirks, seconded by Mr. Davis, that the
Board return to regular session. Upon a roll call vote, all Members present
voted “Aye”. Motion carried.
It was moved by Mr. Davis,
seconded by Mrs. Jackson, that the SHOR 0506-6 be approved. Upon a roll call vote, all Members present,
voted “Aye”. Motion carried. (See
with Original Minutes, Attachment 5-10-06/2)
It was moved by Mr. Davis,
seconded by Mr. Dirks, that 2005-2006 Amended School Calendar be approved. Upon
a roll call vote, all Members present, voted “Aye”. Motion carried. (See with Original
Minutes, Attachment 5-10-06/3)
Board Meeting
May 10, 2006
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Community member, Ms. Vickie Cossio, wished to address the
Board on a student disciplinary matter, but was told by Dr. Nielsen that such
matters could not be discussed in a Board Meeting due to confidentiality
issues, but Ms. Cossio was welcome to make an appointment with him to discuss
her concerns.
There being no further business to come before the Board, Mrs. Smith adjourned the meeting.
APPPROVED: ATTEST:
___________________________ ___________________________
President Secretary