March 21, 2023
Regular Meeting Agenda: 6:00 pm Regular Meeting
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Fremont County School District Number One
Board of Trustees
863 Sweetwater Street
Board Meeting -Disclaimer- Notes from the board meeting are intended to highlight the major events/decisions/tone of the meeting as determined by the Lander Education Association 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. General Business
A. Call to Order 6:00 pm
B. Pledge of Allegiance
C. Additional Agenda Items
Agenda changes
Pull stipulated agreements as action item A
Move school improvement piece as action item B
KH - move Item T to next month
SJ - IJLA can we take a more in depth look at the policy? TJ agreed. - moved off agenda
D. Adoption of the Agenda * Approval of agenda simultaneously approves Consent Items.
Motion to adopt the agenda
Motion by Mike McConnell, second by Scott Jensen.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell
E. Approve Minutes - February 21, 2023
F. Approve Minutes - February 28, 2023
G. Recognitions
H. Public Comment
Athletics Director commenting first - about letters he received regarding a coach
Comment about policy from a community member - A problem with the process about addressing issues regarding a child in the school system in athletics. A letter was sent to the board members. Asking to review the process for the student athletes when they have a concern, especially if the issue is in regards to the coach. Have some other option for concerns, going to the coach with issues about that coach is not a viable option. Community member’s daughter followed the process as it was understood. It wasn’t easy for her. The parent went to the admin when she thought the issue could get out of control. The year was damaging to the female young athletes. What is the process? So it can be addressed appropriately the next time.
JK - Any public comment for items not on agenda?
Community member raised a concern.
Documents were given to board members.
Community member approached the board in 2017 and brought the same documents he handed out this time. His property is adjacent to school property. Flooding issues on properties that were built on the swamp land that became district land. The school system is responsible for the waste water from their property. He has water flow directly onto his property. The community member has been in contact with Travis and his lawyer. The lawyer has also spoken to Travis regarding this issue.
JK - the best thing we can do as a board is ask you to continue to talk it out with Travis
It is the school districts responsibility to take care of this
Travis - We did exactly what was asked of us. I will contact the lawyer and the engineer to see what we can come up with.
This has been going on for 60 years. This has got to stop.
JJK - Any public comment for items on agenda?
Drug policy
Community member - want to discuss the coaching situation on policy not personnel - concern with basketball team and how to go about addressing problems. Where are the policies, what is the chain of command? How do we find that? Her sister was on the team and received treatment that was not okay. She addressed the coach. The treatment got worse. How do we address it?
JK - policies are on the website on boarddocs. It is searchable by keywords. The board can consider how to make it more accessible.
SJ - Concerned parents can address the coach about the policy, or the superior - Mr. Stauffenberg.
JK - call for any other comments for items on agenda?
None
JK - Just to be clear, nothing that was said here tonight is an indication of the boards perception of FCSD#1 personnel.
2. 6:15 Programs-Reports-Presentations
A. Board Member Reports
KH - Wellness committee meeting
Considering wellness WEO’s quarterly
MM - BOCES meeting - nothing eventful to report
Liaison at high school
AB - 7th of March the Lander District Board met to approve grants. Awardees will be announced at the end of April.
Successful fundraiser at the Middle School for the cornhole tournament and the silent auction
TJ - announced she was chosen to serve on the Wyoming Board of Education as a Board representative for 4 years
B. Superintendent's Report
C. Lights On Report - Ceatriss Wall
Annual update for where we are with the lights on program.
D. Curriculum Director Report
Moved to April
Move into executive session 6:55
Motion by Scott Jensen, second by Karen Harms.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell
Resumed at 7:15
Action item to approve stipulated agreements
Motion by Taylor Jacobs, second by Scott Jensen.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell
3. *Consent Agenda
*Our adopted rules of Parliamentary Procedure, Robert's Rules, provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the Board by a single motion. Most of the items listed under the consent agenda have gone through Board subcommittee review and recommendation. Documentation concerning these items has been provided to all Board members and the public in advance to assure an extensive and thorough review. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member.
A. Approve expenditures and pre-approve utilities and financial report
File Attachments
Financial report 032123.pdf (218 KB)
B. Reporting of Home School Students & Curriculum
C. School Improvement Plans
1) Lander Valley High School
2) Pathfinder High School
3) Lander Middle School
File Attachments
LVHS school improv pl sp 2023.pdf (236 KB)
PHS school impr pl spring 2023.pdf (201 KB)
LMS school improv pl spring 2023.pdf (209 KB)
School improvement TJ and SJ - don't remember where this comes from. DM - 3 schools up for school improvement from accountability results - through WADEA - schools are ranked and evaluated. On federal side also evaluated. GPE & BCE - those plans start next month for review. They are meeting or exceeding the state and federal. LMS - identified for low performing on WYTOP. Scores growing but are below average. Federal - LMS is meeting or exceeding in the way that they score. LVHS - state side - they are 2 10ths of a point away from average. Meeting and exceeding graduate rate on federal side. WYTOP data is issue. WAEA PHS cut score for above average 2.3 For state made 2.1. only as the plan is at a 3 year lag - she is considered a comprehensive school improvement.
favor - unanimous
D. Stipulated Expulsion Agreements
4. Executive Session - done earlier in agenda
A. Executive Session 16-4-405(a)(xi) - to consider suspension, expulsion, or other discipline action in connection with any student as provided by law.
5. 6:45 Action Items
A. Personnel Actions
File Attachments
23-24 certified renewals.pdf (261 KB)
renewals - TJ Kathy unanimous
PA - KHitt SJ Unanimous
addendum - SJ MM unanimous K Harms abstain
B. 23-24 Salary & Benefits Package
File Attachments
23-24 salary discussions final.pdf (290 KB)
TJ - Scott
Kathy - took notes and followed up
staff happy with increase to base and pick up insurance pay 2% insurance
Unanimous
C. Accept LVHS furniture bid
File Attachments
Furniture bid
Mr. Neuendorf - basically covers most of the furniture but not all. Art and science, have upgraded tables. Student desks will be replaced to facilitate more cooperative learning. SPED classrooms being upgraded.
TS - in the memo this will be depreciation reserve expenses - No GF expense. Old furniture - will work with facility managers to find a home for this in the near future.
Motion by Mike McConnell, second by Karen Harms.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell
D. Policy (2nd and final reading)
Recommended for removal:
JE-R K-8 Student Absences and Excuses - redundant
JECA Enrollment Policy - LVHS - redundant
JED-R2 Lander Valley High School Attendance Regulations - redundant
KMJ - Impact Aid Policy - We do not receive Impact Aid
2nd readings
pulled out IJLA
JER
JECA
KMJ
removals -
Motion by Kathy Hitt, second by Taylor Jacobs.
Motion Carries
Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell
Recommended for changes:
JED - STUDENT ABSENCES AND EXCUSES - unanimous
JED -
DB no changes from first reading - statute requires us to put in willful absenteeism. Struck attendance requirements - make it consistent across the district. Moved pieces from one we eliminated. Students can attend a partial day - approval for students. If there are reasons for it - it allows the attendance on a partial basis.
Motion by Kathy Hitt, second by Taylor Jacobs.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell
JHB - TRUANCY -
Statutory piece to put in place - directly targeted truancy - take in allow that language
Motion by Kathy Hitt, second by Scott Jensen.
EBAB-R - New regulation to accompany policy EBAB Hazardous Material Communications
EBAB-R
DB - EBAB addresses regulation - regulation that discusses the process with the different pieces that need to be a part of it. where things are located.
Motion by Kathy Hitt, second by Aileen Brew.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yes: Aileen Brew, Karen Harms, Kathy Hitt, Taylor Jacobs, Scott Jensen, Jared Kail, Mike McConnell
IJLA - PUBLIC COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE CURRICULUM OR INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
6. 7:15 Discussion Items
A. Policy (1st reading)
IDA - Temporary Virtual Instruction
Public comment about mandatory drug testing -
Questions from community member:
Do we have evidence that shows drug testing directly decreases drug use? Is that what the goal is?
Do we have any policy in place or plan to have in place to discontinue the extracurricular activities if substance abuse is bad (e.g. the dance team that was eliminated), are we protecting the extracurricular?
Is it going to be in place to preserve the standards throughout the district through all sports and activities?
Are we going to also include the adult coaches and mentors to be tested to lead as an example?
Discussion
AB - I feel like I'm still missing a few pieces of the puzzle here. What are the educational and informational projects in place? I would like to have the perspective and knowledge of our professional staff. Feel like this is missing. I'm not finding clear data showing the levels of use and abuse within our district. To have an idea of the level of the problem. To address the community question, I haven’t found reliable data about how effective drug testing is, only anecdotal data about how other districts FEEL that it has been effective.
KH - categories - what is the cost? Want to know the cost/benefit, would it be more beneficial to have a substance abuse counselor? Who would monitor and document the testing information as this is a privacy issue. There is a percentage of false positives, what would we have in place if that occurred. It's a reputation thing. False Negatives are even higher. Particular use of decongestants, codeine, and poppy seeds can impact the results of the test. Synthetics are hard to test for. Students can get online to find out how to pass drug tests. Accountability - how are we going to monitor if it is working. What percentage of our students that we have given consequences for using drugs have been in activities? Are we testing the right students?
SJ - I don't have the stats. Some of those are valid concerns. By law we are not allowed to test kids across the board, it has to be activities. It’s hard to prove something that doesn’t happen. Anecdotally, I feel drug use has been going up year after year. Kids are more willing to take substances that aren’t illegal. A policy like this shows that we are serious about wanting to reduce substance abuse. I'm inclined to think this would be a positive thing for us to do
KH - follow up, we know that the drug use is going up, how would we know the drug use is going down as a cause of this policy?
SJ - it would be a good idea to have something in place
KH - it may be a good idea to talk to kids about this
SJ - vaping is a delivery system for those toxic substances
TJ - data is very important and input from administrators. We had a student from our community die from substance abuse. I often hear us talk about funding issues and that things are beyond us and the community. This is one way we have to show that we are taking substance abuse seriously. We care about our students. We want to think that it isn’t students who participate in activities, but it is not necessarily true. It's everywhere. There are systemic issues, and addiction. But a student doesn’t wake up addicted. If we can offer opportunities for students to stay away from substance use. This is a part that we have authority over to show that we can take action on this issue.
MM - college and career readiness, kids in activities. Wouldn’t it be nice if they were able to participate and we provide some of those kids that are on the line a reason to say no. “I don’t want to get drug tested and fail”. Career readiness - there are fields of employment that test for substance abuse. We have a responsibility to give our students a reason to avoid these substances and more support, and a good opportunity to say no. I dont have the answer but I know that we have to address it and do everything we can. We need to figure this thing out and give our kids a reason, an opportunity to say no.
SJ - it's anecdotal but it speaks to their experiences. Regarding personal experience - a child is not academically motivated at all, when it came to a particular sport they were involved in, they did what they needed to do because they wanted to be involved. I can only assume that for others when the activity is on the line, they are going to say no because they don’t want to sacrifice that activity. I want to know as a parent if they are involved in substance abuse.
KH - I'm not talking about cost as a detriment. For anything that comes across the board, I want to know where the money is going to come from.
MM - Reached out to one district that has had a drug program in place for a long time, and asked is it effective? Response from admin - “We catch a few kids every year”
KHa - We need to be intentional with it. My concern is that our school policy regarding students not being drug tested in activieis, is that they are suspended and given a citation, whereas we are letting those in activities have 3 chances and an intervention. Is this holding non activity students to a higher standard. We need to have consistency across the board for substance violations. Consistency and prevention is really my concern. Let's be intentional with our choices. If UA’s aren’t supervised, you might as well not even pay for them, they will find a way around it.
SJ - I'm under the assumption that this is our starting point. A person who shows up to school intoxicated is different from an athlete who shows up with residual amounts in their system.
KHa - what's our intent? Is it to help these families and students?
SJ - I guess I don't know. Asking Dr. Barker - If there are students in an extracurricular activity they are under the same restrictions - if they came to school intoxicated vs. testing positive. They would have the same consequences as any other student if they showed up intoxicated.
JK - I would like to see a couple of changes in the policy. You can apply for a false positive appeal or have a second chance. What does that mean? If it comes back negative, it overrides the first test and we accept the new test. We need to add a percentage to the pool that we would test every year. (10% every year). We need to think of prevention and testing. It’s not an either or, we need to do both. The board agreed that the single most important thing that we need to address as a district is the drug use. Admin and the board agreed. I have not found good research that says it is effective or that it is not. I read on the internet that up to 38% districts across the country currently test the athletes in their districts. Superintendent in Gillete that went to school with me has a policy. Dr. Barker has anecdotes he could share. I agree that we are probably not going to catch all the things. Because we can’t catch some things doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look for others. This gives kids a reason to say no. There are going to be kids that circumvent it, but we are looking at catching kids that might fall through the cracks and at giving kids a reason to say no. We have students that have major drug issues. Do you really want your kid playing on another field with a kid that’s high? There could be some moral liability if we don’t do everything we can to mitigate this. If we lose someone on my watch I’m going to feel terrible. I think we have an obligation.
Dr Barker - couple of things. We can get more data. One of the questions about structure. Generally in my conversations the cost has been 50-60 dollars per test, doing 10%. Depends on how many you want to test. Some districts are doing their own testing with a nurse supervising it - $10 per test. Talking just high school costs 2400-3000 dollars. About the rest of the costs will be reimbursed, we can definitely clarify. Cost is going to vary depending on test and % tested. Some districts tested all activities at the beginning of the season, some only did 3 times per season. Other districts it was a number, like 3 or 4 a week. It is really going to be dependent on what the board decides. Some tried to get larger percentages.
Percentage of students with stipulated agreements, expulsions last 3 years 56 stipulated at high school, 4 of them were activities. Prevention needs assessment is something the state does, I will ask for specific data, what I have access to through a state report, wasn’t as specific. Some of it showed Fremont county 2022 (trying to get longitudinal data to see if things could change). It’s been pretty consistent with kids self-reporting, in the past 30 days 21.5% reported vaping, 15.5% alcohol, 15% Marijuana. Alcohol, there were 2 I looked at. How many glasses of beer or wine in the last 30 days, the trend is downward and 82% had 0 in 2022. I looked at marijuana from a heavy use perspective for 2022, it was 4%, it has gone up, around the same as 2004. Alcohol, one of the self report questions was how difficult was it to get? Kids are reporting it is getting more difficult to get both marijuana and alcohol. As far as what we are doing, we can certainly do more. We do have a therapeutic counselor, she has 37 individual sessions per week. Also has group sessions primarily for alcohol.
Question to the board - What other data would you like to see?
KHa - I have a question; out of the 56 kids on stipulated agreements - how many of those that return were successful?
Dr. Barker - that is a point to be made, the number of stipulated agreements have been increasing over the past 3 years. Use of safe-to-tell has definitely increased those numbers.
SJ - Kids in those activities are aware of what they need to not do to lose their activities.
KHa - We need to use whatever resources we have and it should be different and individualized for kids depending on what is motivating for kids. Anything we need to do. We really need to spend more time with this policy and to meet with the admin team. And maybe invite the county attorney, how can we support them? We are currently charging kids, but not really asking who can we help them? We need to have those conversations.
SJ - I like the idea of a stand alone meeting just to discuss this.
KHa - We can look around at what districts are successful
JK - We are certainly not ready to vote. Do we want to have a special meeting, would everyone be in favor of that?
KH - Could I suggest something that could Dr. Barker be good for this to guide our discussion
JK - Dr. Barker, could you lead that discussion. We can leave it up to Dr.Barker.
KH - Who all would be part of the discussion?
JK - Let’s plan on using the first main meeting for this discussion
Barker - a group of Admin team, coaches, and some parents would be good for the discussion.
JICHA - MANDATORY DRUG TESTING FOR STUDENTS INVOLVED IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
JICHA-E - MANDATORY DRUG TESTING FOR STUDENTS INVOLVED IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES GENERAL AUTHORIZATION AND CERTIFICATION OF UNDERSTANDING
JICHA-E1 - REMOVAL FROM EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES TESTING POOL REQUEST FORM
B. Standards-based learning/reporting/grading - moved to a later time
C. Cell phone usage discussion - moved to a later time
D. Superintendent Evaluation Tool - moved to a later time
File Attachments
Chapter-29-Rules.pdf (238 KB)
WSBA-Superintendent-Evaluation-2018.pdf (165 KB)
Wyoming-Standards-and-Benchmarks.pdf (133 KB)
Sources-of-Evidence.pdf (127 KB)
E. National Boards Certification Staff Stipend -
KH asked for it to be put on the agenda. It's in our budget for certified teachers. I have gotten a lot of emails for those that are board certified for things that the state doesn’t give the district money for. Those also ask for a stipend from the district. We should discuss it as a board. At what point do we say what the qualifications for the stipend are? The question is forwarded to the board because it is a budgetary issue.
7. 8:00 Administrative Details/Reminders/Future Plans
A. March 31-April 1, COSSBA National Conference @ Tampa
B. April 1, Park #6 NSBA conference presentation @ Cody
C. April 1-3, NSBA conference
D. April 6-7, Board of Trustees PLC Training @ Thermopolis
E. April 18, Board meeting @ 6:00 pm
8. Adjournment: 8:50