December 14, 2021

Regular Meeting Agenda: 6:00 pm Regular Meeting

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Fremont County School District Number One 

Board of Trustees

863 Sweetwater Street

1. 6:00 General Business

   1. Call to Order 6:00 pm

   2. Pledge of Allegiance

   3. Additional Agenda Items

   4. Election of Officers (Moved from II.)

      1. Chairperson - Jared Kail

      2. Vice Chairperson - Scott Jensen

      3. Clerk - Kathy Hitt

      4. Treasurer - Michelle Escudero

   5. Adoption of the Agenda

   6. Approve Minutes - November 16, 2021

   7. Recognitions

      1. Student

         1. All State Music Choir, Band, Orchestra

         2. All State Drama

   8. Public Comment

      1. Student board representative - 

         1. Where is a copy of the policy available?

         2. Stated purpose would like more info

         3. Available under previous agenda

      2. Margaret Jacobson (quarantine policy)

2. 6:10 Programs-Reports-Presentations

   1. Board Member Reports

      1. KH: attended a webinar on culture of civility for board members presented by Diligent (parent company of Board Docs); will share copy of presentation/video when she receives it

      2. SJ: Attended Challenge Day at LVHS; very impactful

      3. ME: 

         1. Delegate assembly of WSBA; all votes were passed according to what we supported; 

         2. deepest conversation was about suicide prevention; people want to make sure it is a priority for school districts; WDH providing classes; 

         3. 5th grade Market Day; 

         4. Attended choir/band concert included a lot of community members and an amazing concert

      4. TJ: 

         1. attended WSBA; great info on evaluations that would be helpful; interesting legal updates; 

         2. family engagement night - impressed with turnout and support; 

         3. Rec Board is meeting Jan 25 and 27 to go over grant apps (submissions still open)

   2. Superintendent's Report

      1. Katie Baxter, grant manager: SAMHSA AWARE Grant presentation - goals, next steps, and priorities

         1. Questions about eating disorders, budget limitations, length

      2. ESSER funding

         1. Trying to find intervention staffing

         2. Workforce stabilization payment

         3. MTSS (multi tiered structure of support)

      3. Free lunch data

         1. Numbers held steady this year; less than this year or during the summer

      4. Attendance

      5. Sound system being installed over break

      6. WSBA early bird registration closes tomorrow

   3. IT / Parent Engagement Reports - Deidre Meyer reported on the engagement night held on 12/9 at the PHS gym.

      1. Try something new this year, brought model from Ft. Washakie

      2. Tech Corner was phenomenal and try new tech pieces

      3. Lights On provided decorations

      4. Books handed out via Literacy Grant

      5. Title I and ESSR Funds

      6. SAMSAH Info

      7. Bingo, Crafts, PALS, Preschool providers

      8. Next semester grades 6-8

      9. 300 bags - only 6 left

3. *Consent Agenda

   1. Approve expenditures and pre-approve utility payments and financial report

   2. Designate the superintendent or his designee as the authorized person to sign State, Federal, and special education contracts and grants

   3. Designate the Curriculum Director as the District's representative for Title VI, VII and IX of the US Education Code

   4. Appoint the law firm of Copenhaver, Kath, Kitchen, and Kolpitcke to represent District

   5. Appoint the Lander Journal as the official newspaper of the District

   6. Approval of Surplus/Disposable Property

   7. Early Graduation Request - LVHS

4. 6:45 Action Items

   1. Personnel Actions - carries

   2. Establish the board meeting dates for 2022

      1. JK - Feb retreat as separate meeting and include on list

      2. Add Feb 1

      3. Carried as amended (BB-opp- no need for Feb 1 session on schedule or put work sessions on the schedule)

   3. Quarantine Protocol

      1. Public comment - Margaret Jacobsen

         1. Natural immunity is robust/long term

         2. Include it in policy that they need not quarantine with natural immunity

      2. SJ: Motion - Starting Jan 3, FCSD 1 staff won’t conduct contact tracing or enforce WDH protocols, those will be left to parents and students to uphold; TJ: second

      3. Discussion

         1. SJ: No longer keep track of who is/isn’t a contact; we trust parents/students to be responsible and mask/stay home when they need to, but it's no longer the concern of the district

         2. TN: understands the burden of contact tracing, but it seems like we just keep moving away from WDH. Numbers are good because of the things we are doing. COVID is still alive and well. Not wise to remove enforcement as yet.

         3. ME: we need to know if WDH will be doing the tracing; can the state handle it?

         4. SJ: Policies will remain as they are, we just expect that students and parents do it themselves

         5. JK: This is something that the WDH needs to step up and take care of this

         6. Dr. Barker: numbers on the health dashboard will go away bc we can’t keep track of the data; more anecdotal

      4. Motion Carrie’s; KH, ME, TN oppose

   4. Accept Audit Report

      1. Travis Sweeney: Got best report we can get; clean

      2. Discussion

         1. JK: terminology- “unmodified” vs. “unqualified”

         2. BB: TS and staff deserve kudos for what they do

         3. ME: preschool fund closed, where did the funds go

            1. Moved out of the preschool into general fund

         4. TN: echo BB about clean report

      3. Motion carries

   5. Administrator Contracts

      1. KH Motion: Dr. Barker work with legal counsel to move all eligible administrators to 2 year rolling contracts after meeting eligibility requirements (three years in administrative roll).

      2. Discussion

         1. KH: provided data and literature/research supporting; provided examples from own career at Pathfinder

         2. BB: how many in Wyoming; KH: not generally in our state

         3. DB: supports; concerns about performance issues can be address by working with legal counsel

         4. TN: change away from this was the result of a knee jerk reaction to a bad situation

         5. Dr. Barker: two ways to address - roll over every year or it automatically roll over unless there is an issue

         6. KH: would like to have it roll over automatically

         7. BB: clarification on what the motion is saying; reservations about it costing the district and extending contracts for “time served”; not in favor of tenure/continuing contract status for teachers

         8. JK: in favor to see what it will look like

         9. TN: it is a liability to the district, but in favor

         10. SJ: agrees with the liability; but does the benefit outweigh the cost?

             1. 3 year eligibility

             2. Work out a system that pulls them out of 2 year rolling in a plan of improvement

             3. Puts onus on superintendent on recommendations

         11. Motion carries, BB-oppose

   6. Policy (2nd reading) - Animals in the school - Policy ING

      1. Amend: include ING-R in wording

      2. Discussion

         1. Supt. administers policy

         2. ME: insurance issues need to be with liability verbiage; language goes back and forth; language clarification

   7. Policy (2nd reading) -  Local competitive purchasing - Policy DJD

      1. Discussion

         1. TJ: concerns about 5% being a significant amount (Dr. Barker: the number comes from state bidding statute); need to support local as much as possible

         2. Travis Barker: we do a good job of spending locally, including salaries

   8. Popo Agie Park rename

      1. Rename Popo Agie Park (greens around PHS/Admin building) to Starrett Fields

      2. Motion carries, BB - oppose

   9. Stipulated Expulsion Agreements

      1. Discussion items

         1. BB: stipulated agreements involve the Day Reporting program and thought the district would be done in-house

         2. Dr. Barker - concerns about staffing, facilities, conversation in January (involving M. Cox) as a secondary team; consistency; will be bringing it to the board in January

         3. TJ: how long has this been in discussion (a year)

         4. ME: thought day reporting was already in house; confused why it has taken so long 

         5. TN: what have been the barriers (Dr. Barker: funding, numbers

         6. BB: what do we pay for day reporting (Dr. Barker: don’t have it off top out, between 30-45,000. Don’t have per student)

         7. ME: curious about numbers (Dr. Barker: numbers have gone up and this year spike; more marijuana infractions; safe to tell reports)

      2. Motion carries

5. 7:45 Discussion Items

   1. Review Board Committees

   2. 2022-23 Calendar

   3. Policy (1st reading): EFAB - Procurement Policy and Written Standards of Conduct

   4. Job descriptions (1st reading)

      1. Therapeutic Counselor

      2. Social Worker

      3. Counselor-MS/HS

      4. Behavioral Intervention Specialist

      5. Instructional Facilitator

      6. Speech/Lang. Path.

      7. SpEd Coordinator

      8. School Psychologist

      9. School Nurse

   5. Review of District Success Document and Retreat Planning

6. 8:30 Administrative Details/Reminders/Future Plans

   1. January 2022 WSBA board training TBD

   2. January 18, 2022, regular board meeting, 6:00 pm

7. Adjournment

   1. *Consent Items Disclaimer