January 16, 2024

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Regular Meeting Agenda

Fremont County School District Number One

Board of Trustees

863 Sweetwater Street

6:00 pm Regular Meeting

Board Meeting -Disclaimer- Notes from the board meeting are intended to highlight the major events/decisions/tone of the meeting as determined by the representative attending. 

They are NOT meant to be an exact transcript of the entire meeting.

For items with documents, those are available on the website of the governing board at the Lander Schools Website.

1. 6:00 General Business

A. Call to Order

B. Pledge of Allegiance

C. Additional Agenda Items

D. Adoption of the Agenda

E. Approve Minutes - December 12, 2023

Correction - said that Karen made a suggestion, but she wasn’t at the meeting. Her suggestion/comment needs to be taken out.

F. Recognitions

Staff - Megan Park Wyoming Assistants Principal of the Year

Toni Hudson Wyoming Teacher of the Year

LVHS Students all state for Dance

WDE positive feedback and praise for the LMS Improvement Plan! Exemplary plan!

G. Public Comment

For items not on agenda - None

For items on the agenda - yes. Amendment to City Lease agreement

2. 6:15 Programs-Reports-Presentations

A. Board Member Reports

KH Wellness meeting - wellness and fitness

Feb 14 WEO Wellness activities at LVHS and LMS for staff

MM BOCES - went through finances, the district is sitting in a good spot. Jan 30 PTSB class offered.

TJ Market Day in December - praise

State Board - Diedre is giving consultation and data on that

AB LGBTQ+ legal rights in Education - really excellent content and grateful to those organizations for putting that out there. Opportunity to attend a grant project directed by Melinda Cox, Stronger Connections Grant, community members and school leaders to brainstorm community goals for students in the district.

JK Tiger joint powers board - offer on a parcel, the board rejected the offer. If the district has other ideas for that parcel, the offer was not strong enough to give up opportunities.

B. Student Representative Report

New semester - first day today. Auditions were last week. Lots of sports going on right now. Next Monday morning is a celebration for the students at LVHS. 

C. Superintendent's Report

December events - crisis events - haven’t been forgotten. Next plan of action is to review the crisis response plans with an external consultant and debrief - focus on communication both internal and external. Communications with groups that use the facilities.

JK - communications came rapidly and as a board member I appreciate that. Appreciate the sincerity that the administration showed toward those events.

TJ - as a parent I thought it was enough information to understand that it was a safety element. Well done and executed.

JK - asked about the student side, the student rep didn’t know there was an incident.

Contacted by some members of the community on the federal diesel emissions reduction act - to trade in diesel buses for electronic or low emission - met with parents and got information about advantages for programs specific to Wyoming. Exchanged emails with DEQ staff as well as transportations and Travis Sweeeney. Long story short - not going to pursue at this time. End of month rebate program closes - none of our machines need to be replaced. Other issues about training, storing, and other issues brought up by transportation professionals. Preliminary call, not final call, is to not make changes at this time.

3. *Consent Agenda

A. Approve Expenditures/Pre-Approve Utilities and Financial Rpt

B. Reporting of Home School Students & Curriculum

C. Approval of Surplus/Disposable Property

4. 7:00 Action Items

A. Personnel Actions

No discussion

Motion by Mike McConnell, second by Kathy Hitt.

Final Resolution: Motion Carries

Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell

B. Use of Depreciation Account Funds to Update LVHS Library Technology Equipment

This is a request form the library for $6,000+ printers, podcast starter kit,

Motion by Mike McConnell, second by Taylor Jacobs.

Final Resolution: Motion Carries

Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell

C. Amendment to City Lease Agreement to Allow Senior Banners on Main Street

Community Member - parent of a senior, parent liaison for 2024 banners on main street celebration; seasonal display of banners of seniors on main street. Here in hope that the school board will agree to the amendment. This amendment is to have something in place going forward that is consistent and clear expectations for the city and the district. Set up as a donation - would like to keep that as part of the future of the banner project going forward so that no one is left out for not being able to afford it.

Senior at LVHS - speak on behalf of the graduating class who are also passionate about and pushing for the senior banners. The tradition started in 2020 is one that should be continued for future classes to celebrate the graduating seniors. Having the banners on the fences around the high school wasn’t as impactful for that graduating class.

KH question on the time displayed - seasonally used - will it need to be renewed every year for the lease? 

Liaison - every March 1 it needs to be resubmitted. We don’t need to do a lease for WYDOTT. Only the city needs to approve in the future.

JK - district personnel need to put up the banners. There will need to be district resources allocated for the hanging of the banners.

Liaison - the museum board would like to keep 36 poles - that leaves 39 poles - 78 students can be displayed. More than 100 students are currently graduating - so currently there isn’t enough space. Light poles are being replaced so the city didn’t want to add another post to hang another pair of banners.

Motion by Mike McConnell, second by Kathy Hitt.

Final Resolution: Motion Carries

Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell

5. 8:00 Discussion Items

A. Policy (1st reading)

policies for first reading:

• EFAB-E (procurement)

Travis presented the results of the audit. Need to clean up the statement for getting bids - certificate for contractors required language for federal grantees from audit

No discussion.

• GCC (certified leave)

Language clean up. Increase pay out for certified non admin unused sick leave for 10 years or more - to the range that other districts are paying. JK - when are those paid? MH - paid when an employee resigns after finishing the contract. 

Exceptions for leave Request - added that no more than one exception per staff per year except in emergency situations. 

Sick leave bank minor word change

Doc leave - has been misused in the past. Changed to a similar process to the leave request - approval from superintendent. Undesignated leave needs to be utilized prior to using doc leave. 

TJ Is there an order for leave? Undesignated needs to be depleted first, then sick leave. Use all of those first before doc leave. 

Defines what undesignated leave is used for.

Leave of absence on page 2 - parameters on leave of absence, timelines, etc. including notifying on intent of return. Clarifies approval process.

Professional leave parameters that raise the bar for why being out for professional leave - to prioritize being in class when students are in class. Out of state events have unintended consequences - limit out of state trips to one every two years.

Coordinate among superintendents in Fremont County to bring in speakers to share with other school districts to avoid hassles of travel

Community service leave - get a description 

Clarification of wording for bereavement leave

Academic leave - need evidence of accredited institution

Leave for travel for studies/exchanges - expenses related are borne by the employee.

Witness and jury duty minor wording changes

WEA leave minor wording changes

Military leave in compliance with federal directives - untouched.

TJ - add definition about undesignated leave to the beginning of the document

AB - how does this work with the family and medical leave act.

MH - FMLA is a different animal. We do comply with this as a federal employee benefit.

FMLA and leave run parallel - leave is being used at the same time

JK - should we reference FMLA leave in this document?

MM - it's cleaned up nicely. Question about academic leave - people pursuing a masters in admin or something for an internship would they qualify under that?

MH - that falls under a separate policy.

• JJAB - new (limited open forum / closed forum)

MH - new policy for clarification that doesn’t exist in other policies. Current policy doesn’t provide any parameters for handling student groups and organizations. Every student is valuable, we are not attempting to limit any students right to speak their mind or what they believe. No intent to silence any particular student. All students should feel welcome. Intended to give parameters and how to handle groups to bring in alignment with other policies. Like the controversial topics policy and others. This draft came from the Wyoming School Boards Association model school policies library. Draft very much open for input and feedback. Every voice is welcome to comment.

Different for high school and middle and elementary. High school has more allowance for voice as they are more mature. Organize during an open forum. Non instructional time, students organize and promote, etc. Keep internal to our students and what they want to do. School authorities don't promote, lead, etc - they do supervise only - attend as non participatory. Activities can’t interrupt instruction. No restrictions on the content for the open forum without promotion or endorsement from staff.

MIddle school and elementary students - closed forum - any student group has to be on a topic that directly relates to the curriculum. 

Idea is to give some order and decision rules to the administration.

Discussion

KH - question about middle school being categorized as secondary. Under legal guidelines - allow non curricular activities.

MH - equal access act - potential change made to policy to make middle school a limited open forum. History of students at LMS wanting to organize politically. Up for discussion can be changed.

TJ - have we gotten feedback from the admin?. 

MH - yes. Didn’t reach Mrs. Wall. Admin is here if they want to speak on it.

Neundorf - I met with MH this morning. I like setting parameters and making things clear. This will allow kids to have those conversations and protect our staff. Clear distinction to protect staff.

Morton - I want to make sure we are fair and equitable across the district. 

JK does this do that

M yes. I feel good about the sponsored activities in our school. I would want to go to the neutrality and equity of our groups. As they are advisors for certain groups it can go against certain policies.

JK - does this impact existing groups?

MH - the closed group is the possible hiccup. All the groups in place at LMS can be tied to the curriculum. Student council would be hardest to tie. The other groups have a clear connection to the curriculum. As far as I can gather - no groups would need to be canceled.

KH - do we have requests for groups that would fall under this

MH - we have one that hasn’t been acted upon because of lack of parameters

SJ - review of other policies - that one seems inadequate. Policy as proposed is clear guidelines, I think this is a positive move forward

KH - I would like to advocate that closed forums are not adequate for Middle school. Activities are important to their growth. Closed forums are too stringent.

TJ - no opinion about that. But are kids participating in these groups getting permission from parents? 

SJ - disagree with Kathy. Middle school kids are less mature than High school students. I can’t think of an open forum club that needs to be created that would be appropriate for middle school.

MH - respond to TJ - the other policy does talk about approval from the board. No public discussion was removed for the formation of a club.

AB - I think that a limited open forum would be more appropriate for middle school. Foster creativity, exploration and learning, we need to expand beyond curricular clubs. Chess, gardening, knitting. There's value in a whole variety of activities. I would like to change it to a limited open forum for our middle schoolers. SO kids feel comfortable bringing things forward that are not tied to the curriculum.

SJ - chess and knitting could be tied to the curriculum

TJ - would parents be informed about the clubs the students are joining during the school day. When would middle school have these groups?

MH - mostly after school groups, no time during the day. I couldn’t find a listing of clubs that are offered. We need that so parents know what is available. Information not available publicly.

SJ - is there a difference between school sponsored and student sponsored. It wouldn't have anything to do with school sponsored  - like sports.

Community comment

Community Member:

Middle school is an incredibly difficult time for everyone. Considering that there are countless articles and research studies that clearly support the benefits of extracurricular activities for all ages, particularly for secondary students. Even more specifically, the transition from elementary school to middle school is an incredibly stressful one, and one of the ways to mitigate this major change in a child's life is with extracurricular activities.The US Department of Education Legal Guidelines Regarding the Equal Access Act and the Recognition of Student-Led Non Curricular groups under the bullet “Banning all non curricular groups'', states … In an Equal Access Act challenge, a written policy banning non curricular clubs is insufficient and a court will scrutinize a school’s actual practices to ensure each remaining club is genuinely curricular. If FCSD#1 is now going to make the middle school a closed forum, only allowing student groups and organizations to be directly related to curriculum; what is the practice to ensure that those groups (like yearbook, athletics, chess club, FBLA, student council) will pass scrutiny to demonstrate that they are indeed genuinely curricular? 

Community Member:

Students who are actively engaged in a club or organization in school are more likely to have good grades, complete their secondary education, and go onto college or technical schools. In this post-pandemic world of education, we are faced with lower student achievement and worsening mental health. With rising suicide rates, the exceptional rates of student absenteeism, and the uncertainty many students feel, keeping clubs and organizations available to all secondary students is essential. Defining curricular and non-curricular as the two categories of clubs or organizations seems to limit even further than the student council, anime club, chess club, and frisbee golf that all count as non-curricular. Athletics are non-curricular. Would they be eliminated at the middle school level also? Would football coaches be restricted from commenting on the training of their football players because this policy requires staff participants to be silent observers? What about the drama club? While that might loosely be connected to the curriculum, it could also be viewed as non-curricular because it does not tie directly to ELA standards as clearly. Would their director be expected to hand over the script and then remain silent while the students figure out how to perform the work themselves? There are far more questions than answers in this policy. Student-led organizations are a well-loved tradition. From key clubs and student councils to service organizations and social programs like Friends of Rachel, created after the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School to combat bullying in schools, these are an essential part of student life. The skills of leadership, organization, public speaking, critical thinking, time management, and more make these clubs so important for our students. They cover many of the life skills that there just isn’t time to teach in the classroom. Please reconsider this policy and remember that IDGA is sufficient. Trust your staff to lead our students and allow student organizations to exist in all secondary schools.

Community Member from Fremont Counseling:

Middle school is hard for kids to feel good about what they are good at unless they get to try it. The motivation for kids is really difficult to, I try to make tertiary connections to the academics - challenging oneself. There is a connection between kids who have a sense of agency with a reduction in self harm. Kids need the opportunity to talk about what is important to them and have a sense of agency about what they can learn and what they can do.

Jk - questions - this is a model policy. Do other districts use this policy?

MH - I'm sure they do, I’m not sure which ones.

JK - could you explain the difference of how it applies to school sponsored vs student led/student created activity - student directed activity under this policy could be anything under the sun. District sponsored needs to be really clear that it doesn’t run afoul of the religious, political sensitivities of the community. Staff have some restrictions that students don't have. Staff organized ones need to be in alignment with district policies. 

MH - staff groups would fall outside of this. Like chess club as a school sponsored activity - would be under the same standards. We don’t have a policy that clarifies that difference.

JK might be good to look at clarifying that.

TJ I appreciate getting this model policy. This is a good policy, they looked into this and know the legal implications. I would like to see clearly that this is different from a school sanctioned club. These clubs are going to change throughout the year - we should have them listed publicly for what is school sponsored and what is not. It doesn’t look like the policy is inhibiting students from gathering together.

Student - are there clubs like this at LVHS?

MH - I don’t know if there are, they are operating without the guidance of the policy.

SJ - under this policy if a high school wants to establish the fellowship of Christian athletes - sponsors could attend meetings but not participate in religious discussions. 

MH - yes, it will clarify that it is not staff led. 

SJ - if a student wanted to start a resume club - could the staff participate in helping the students write the resumes.

MH staff sponsored would still need to be approved by the board

B. Request from Habitat for Humanity

per December meeting, consider whether to co-sign letter from Laramie Habitat for Humanity asking state legislature to reduce housing regulations for municipalities (increase density & improve affordable housing) 

Finalization has not been sent to JK. Until the letter comes to review, we can move on.

C. Policy JICHA Implementation

Last board meeting in December - implementation of policy. Discussion as admin team - wait until beginning of 2024/2025 school year.

KH - pleased that the admin was involved in the discussion.

JK - where we are at right now, this makes a lot of sense. 

D. Substance Use - Community Outreach & Partnerships

Moved from last meeting. 

AB - several times over the past year in different ways we have tossed out ideas for meeting with different leaders in our community to talk about substance use. Is there interest in engaging with law enforcement, city council, mental health professionals, etc to get a date on the calendar where we could talk about this.

MH - there has been discussion. Melinda has been a big part of that building partnerships. No real organization yet. Consider a topic for the Feb 6 board retreat and invite partners to that as an option.

JK - it might be something we can bring up. ONe of the worst things I think we can do is get people together without some kind of a plan. If we are going to do that, we need to have a goal. Certainly in favor of it.

E. Recruitment & Retention

KH - follow-up valuable to our committee that meets with staff. 

MH - we have put a lot of effort into this. We are only as good as our staff. We need to have the best possible staff. Get aggressive with recruiting. 7 job fairs on the calendar. Targeting certified at these job fairs. Going to have virtual interviews. Having set times during the job fair to have a zoom interview. Have a preliminary contract to offer great potential candidates. Every administrator is signed up to go to a job fair.

We have a lot of great people here and we want to keep them here. Challenges with health coverage. The premiums for the family plan is the biggest concern. The disparity between single and the family plan is pretty big. Those with the lowest plan might have to start contributing something to have equitable distribution of the cost of insurance.

KH - insurance always comes up. That definitely needs to be addressed. As well as housing.

TJ - during those discussions we just use the same provider network. There are times of the year that this needs to be discussed. Can we look at the other network?

KH - we need to have that discussion in november not in march

JK - in terms of transparent - Mike asked me if I thought it would be okay to sign a preliminary employment contract. All we do as a board is approve or deny. As long as the contract is contingent on board approval, does anyone see a problem there?

MH - local gyms and fitness centers and some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement. As a way to say thank you to staff, other entities that value you as well. Thinking about other business. Housing is something that is on the agenda. What is the board's vision of that? The devil is in the details. Becoming a landlord in addition to everything we are doing.

District day care? Not a preschool - but some place where district employees can have their children at low cost. Move into a certain space and meet all the codes. Would love to hear from the board about ideas on retention and recruitment

Jk climate survey where have we done with them

Mh - each school added them into action plans - that staff are valued and that high quality work is valued. Beyone that is more on the district admin team about how we are hiring. Getting the best for the positions that we are hiring for. Timing for exit survey. Launch April 1 -30? Climate survey and exit survey will be worked into how we are improving

External cost adjustment on table at legislature. Hopefully that will pass the legislature. 

F. Student Board Representative

JK - Anne Butler has been here since August. We have been very happy to have you, you have had fantastic input. We were going to have an appointment of new students for the board. We won't do it this meeting. We will do it in February. 

G. February 6 retreat

Jk - items. DO we want to have it or do we want to skip it? If we want to have it, what agenda items do we want?

TJ i like the idea of the community partnership, can we organize and collaborate in 6 weeks? Recruitment and retention is another topic, but our admin is doing great things with that and maybe it's a sit and wait.

KH - I would like to seconded to do the substance abuse and mental health, maybe we all get on the same page and then introduced to the community - as a planning session.

KH - I think that makes perfect sense. We need a plan. A mission statement and what we want to achieve with this. And hopefully coordinate with what Melinda is working on.

AB - KH you have attended some conferences and gotten information and tools for that

KH - yes, they could help facilitate an action plan

Jk - would anyone have a problem if we sent a formal invite to Melinda Cox to join us.

Feb 6 will be a Substance abuse and student mental health

6. 8:45 Executive Session 7:49

Motion by Taylor Jacobs, second by Kathy Hitt.

Final Resolution: Motion Carries

Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell

A. Executive Session - 16-4-405(a)(ii) - matters related to employment of personnel

7. 9:00 Administrative Details/Reminders/Future Plans

A. January 26, Legislative Preview Luncheon

B. February 6, Board Retreat @ 6:00 pm

C. February 20, Board meeting @ 6:00 pm

D. February 18-19, WSBA Legislative Forum (Cheyenne)

8. Adjournment

A. *Consent Items Disclaimer

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